1 Forming a Group
1.1 Group Merging
2 Leaving and Removing Players From a Group
3 Group Roles
3.1 Setting Group Roles
A group (also know as a party) can consist of up to six players, and includes Mercenaries. To invite another player to a group, you can either target the player and click the 'Invite' button on the Main Page tab of the Actions Window - or on the Group Window, press your designated 'Invite/follow' key (Commands category) with the player you want to invite targeted, or use the /invite command. You can either type /invite Playername or just /invite with the player you want to invite targeted. The /invite command works across zones.
If you summon your mercenary, you will automatically form a group with your mercenary. Furthermore, when you invite another player to a group who has their mercenary active, the mercenary will automatically join the group.
Two groups can be merged. The leader of group A must invite the leader of group B. If they accept, the two groups will be merged, including any mercenaries. If the resulting group would consist of more than six players, the inviter will get an error message.
To leave a group, either click the 'Disband' button on the Main Page tab of the Actions Window, press your designated 'Disband' key (Commands category), or use the /disband command.
As the group leader, you can remove players from your group. First, target the player you wish to remove. Next, either click the 'Disband' button on the Main Page tab of the Actions Window - or on the Group Window, press your designated 'Disband' key (Commands category), or use the /disband command.
Group roles are helpful indicators set on players so that other players can see who has which role. The possible roles are:
- Leader - The player who can invite, remove players and set roles in the first place.
- Main Tank
- Main Assist
- Puller
For real players, the roles are merely a reminder about who do what in the group. Mercenaries on the other hand, change their behavior substantially based on group roles.
- Main Tank - When set on a tank mercenary, the mercenary puts great effort into getting hate (threat) on all monsters in the camp. When set on a player, a healer mercenary will prioritize healing the main tank.
- Main Assist - When set on a tank or damage dealer mercenary, other damage dealer mercenaries in the group (if any) will assist it. When set on a player, tank and damage dealer mercenaries in the group will assist the player, i.e. attack what they are attacking.
- Puller - Has no effect when set on a mercenary. When set on a player, other mercenaries will not follow the Puller around, and will only begin attacking or healing when the Puller has returned to the camp (within a rather small radius) with monsters. This is probably the most important role if you're attempting to pull to a camp with a tank and healer mercenary.
Beware: Occasionally, a healer mercenary will stay in place when you move your camp, when a person with the Puller role is in the group. This can result in a nasty surprise when you engage monsters and did not notice that your healer is far away. To fix this, simply remove the Puller role from the Puller and the mercenary should warp right to you. You can then set the Puller role again and continue.
Group roles can be set in two ways: Via the user interface or via command line.
To set roles via the user interface, right-click a group member and a menu pops up. When setting roles on yourself, you can also right-click the Player Window (the one with your hitpoints and mana).
Click a role to set it, and click it again to remove it.
Setting roles via the command line is done with the /grouproles command. To view the syntax for the command, type /grouproles without parameters:
/grouproles list -- Lists all the roles in the current group.
/grouproles set Name RoleID -- Sets the group member's role.
/grouproles unset Name RoleID -- Unsets the group member's role.
/grouproles roleset -- Lists the available role sets.
/grouproles roleset save Name -- Saves the current group's role set.
/grouproles roleset load Name -- Loads a previously saved group role set.
/grouproles roleset delete Name -- Deletes a previously saved group role set.
RoleID is an integer, and can be either 1 (Main Tank), 2 (Main Assist) or 3 (Puller). For example, to set the group member Zliz as Puller, use the following command:
/grouproles set Zliz 3
When using the command line to set roles on mercenaries, you can't use their displayed name. All mercenaries have a unique name in the game world (most likely per-server), which consists of their displayed name plus a random number. To figure out this number, first set a random role on your mercenary using the UI. Next, type /grouproles list and you will get an output like this:
Hirdolar189991 roles: (1) Main Tank
In this case, the mercenary is named Hirdolar, and his actual, unique name is Hirdolar189991. Use this name when setting roles with the /grouproles command.
If you regularly use mercenaries and/or play multiple characters at once, it's a good idea to create a macro (social) that sets all the grouproles for your group.