Team

A team is a temporary group of players formed for the purpose of fighting together, completing missions, sharing experience and items, autolooting,or for social purposes when soloing. A team is required for some missions, as well as for creating a guild. Also, the more members you have in a team, the more EXP you can obtain.

Figure 1: Player Interaction Menu

Figure 2: Guild Information Window

Figure 3: Team Member Recruitment Window

Creation

A team can be created in several ways.

• Right-click on a character, and select "Join the team" from the Player Interaction Menu (fig. 1). This can also be performed by right clicking a friend's name in the friend's list window.
• In the Guild Information Window, select the guild member you wish to add to the team, and click the "Form a team" button. If the guild member is already in a team, this button will be greyed out (fig. 2).
• Team Member Recruitment Window (fig. 3)

1. Click the Member Recruitment button located to the right of the channel selection list, on the bottom of the chat window (fig. 4).
2. If you wish to join an existing team, enable the "I want to team up." checkbox. Click "Click here to edit P.S." to indicate what sort of team you're looking for, and what your capabilities are.
3. If you wish to start a new team, or add a member to an existing team, click the "Search for others who want to start a team." button, enter the level range, jobs, or other requirements for your team, and click "Confirm". Then right-click on one of the characters in the list of results, and select "Join the team" from the menu. Selecting "P.S." from the drop-down list on the right will show a message beside each character, if they choose to enter one, indicating the type of team they want, and what functions they can perform within a team.

Figure 4: Member Recruitment Button

Composition

A team consists of 2 to 6 members, with the creator of the team automatically appointed as leader. A team will automatically disband if less than 2 members remain. Note that you will be automatically removed from a team if you log out or disconnect. A player whose client or system has crashed, though, will sometimes remain in the team, but unresponsive, for several minutes until the game registers their disconnection or until they log in again.

Configuration

Any member of a team can invite another player into the team, but only the team leader can expel a current team member.

Team members can access the team configuration menu (fig. 5) by right-clicking on their character. For members, the only option provided is to resign from the team. For the team leader, 3 additional options are provided, which determine how items are distributed in the team. The text is truncated in the menu.

1. Team members get i: Team members interested in an item roll a dice. The highest roll wins the item. This setting is most appropriate for bosses with the potential to drop a rare item.
2. Team members take: Items are distributed to each team member in order. This is the most effective random distribution setting.
3. Team members get t: Items are not distributed automatically, but must be picked up manually.

Figure 5: Team Configuration Menu

Interface

Team Member List

When you join a team, a list of team members will appear on the left side of your screen, with the team leader's name appearing in yellow. If no members' names appear in yellow, you are the team leader. The list shows an icon of each team member, as well as displaying their HP, MP, buffs and status effects (fig. 6).

Figure 6: Team

When it is difficult to target a team member who is surrounded by other players, monsters, or a cluttered environment, a team member can also be targeted for healing and buffs by clicking on their icon.

An icon may display a red or orange exclamation point (!) (fig. 7), to indicate that experience sharing is not possible between 2 or more members of the team, either due to the distance between them (orange exclamation point), or due to the difference in levels between team members (red exclamation point). Experience cannot be shared between team members who are 10 or more levels apart, though item sharing will not be affected. If experience cannot be shared due to distance, drops will also not be shared between members who are out of range of one another.

Figure 7: Experience Sharing Warning

Team In Close Vicinity

The names of team members will appear in green, as shown in figure 6. Note that your own character name remains white. Team members in the vicinity will also appear as blue arrows in your mini-map, with your own character showing as a blue arrow outlined in white.

Team Strategies

The three most common team structures are the autoloot team, the duo, and the mobbing team.

The Autoloot Team

The autoloot team can have any number of members within the possible range, and consists of members hunting on their own, far enough apart that items and experience are not shared, with Item Distribution set to automatic distribution in order. This allows players to hunt without spending time picking up items. It also provides players with someone to talk to while soloing.

The Duo

The duo team consists of two members, one an effective soloist, the other a support job, musician and/or doctor usually. Item distribution is usually set to automatic distribution by order, and the support character heals and buffs while the other character kills either individual monsters or mobs.

The Mobbing Team

The mobbing team is designed for fast training and/or item hunting by killing large numbers of monsters, usually in a dungeon area. The ideal team composition for a mobbing team consists of:

• A tank, whose job is to hold the aggro of all the monsters, taking the damage and protecting all the other team members. A tank is usually a high-defence class such as a mercenary, but many jobs are capable of tanking in some situations, depending on build and subs. When the tank is a mercenary, they are primarily dependent on 3 skills: Circle Formation for defense, and Wicked Windmill and Mock Monsters to hold aggro. If the AoEs are magic, as is most common, Crane Formation is also useful to increase their damage output.
• A doctor, to heal and buff all members, but especially the tank and puller.
• A musician, to maintain the MP of the doctor and tank primarily, and to a certain extent the AoEs.
• A puller, whose job is to collect monsters and draw them to the group. A puller is most effective with a bow, but any job can use a Beginner's Bow for pulling. Pulling is most frequently performed by jobs that cannot effectively tank, heal, or AoE, such as blademasters, martial artists, and merchants, but the most effective pullers tend to be thieves and hunters, whose stats, skills, and equipment are often of benefit for pulling. Sometimes the puller is also an AoE, allowing for faster killing, especially in areas with a limited spawn.
• AoEs, area-of-effect damage dealers. This role is primarily filled by Wizards, Shamans, Fencers, and Dancers. Every job has at least one AoE skill (though in the case of the doctor, it is an AoE heal), but not all of them can be used effectively in a mobbing team, due to long cool times, high MP cost or low MP pool, low damage, or high cost (the merchant's AoE skill, Money Rain, consumes 200 gold per cast at the max level; the blademaster's AoE skill, Double-Edged Sword, consumes 20 weapon durability per cast (in addition to having a 100 second cool time); the hunter's Dart Deluge and Dark Deluge consume 5 arrows per cast). AoEs usually deal magic damage, and must have a significant MP pool which they are able to effectively manage independently. The most useful sub skills for an AoE tend to be those that aid in MP recovery, such as Inner Magic (doctor), Spring Cleaning (shaman), Cataclysmic Converter (wizard), Meditation (martial artist), and Control Breathing (thief).

When one team member leaves, the leader can seek a replacement ("rep") member of the same type to maintain the team's composition.

EXP in Teams

Since the May 24th, 2016 patch, Since May 6^th, 2021 patch, players in teams can gain more bonus EXP when having more members in your party, in order to encourage more parties. The bonuses are changed as follows:

• 2 people: +40% EXP -> +60% EXP
• 3 people: +55% EXP -> +120% EXP
• 4 people: +70% EXP -> +180% EXP
• 5 people: +85% EXP -> +240% EXP
• 6 people: +100% EXP -> +300% EXP

External links

• AoE Party Etiquette by cygnus94 (archive)