Curse

Phantom Force · Jun 01, 2005, 01:40 PM // 13:40

I decided to start this thread because lately, myself included in making some, I've seen a lot of posts about NPC parties or using certain NPC's. Here I will give a short list of some things and ideas I've noticed and tested while playing to make my NPC parties work 10x better.

1) Order of Hire: I've done this several times to find out if order does matter. When I hire my henchies I always hire my tanks first, second it is ranged attackers, third is my healing/protection casters.

Example: when I do it my way
Me (leader)
Devona - Little Thorn
Aidan - Cynn - Eve/Dunham
Mhelno - Lina

Now when I go out and fight my formation looks like an upside down V. This puts the melees out front instead of in the back. It gives you a little more distance between casters and mobs. If you did it in reverse order your casters are right on your tail end and usually gives mobs a chance to get close to them faster and destroy them.

Note: I just tried this again hiring casters first and melees were out in front as well. My intial thinking of order may not matter. I will continue to test this further.

2) Call your target: I've found that by calling my target even with NPC groups your tanks run out ahead of you, especially if you call it before you aggro and mobs. Both tanks usually use Sprint on top of calling this gives you some extra distance to keep casters safe.

3) Patience: Be very patient when using NPC groups. You can't predict their movement and need to use more caution than when you're playing with RL people.

4) If you have healing: If you have healing spells (ie. your a monk, or have monk as a sub) and you're relying on Alesia/Mhelno to heal your party don't be afraid to help them. NPC's react to what is going on, they do not predict what will happen.

5) Don't be afraid to restart/reset: Many times I entered missions and found mobs basically on top of each other having an orgy of fun. Well In cases like this or in the even you get a DP over 15% I would suggest starting over. Monster placement is somewhat random as with their movement. I found this especially useful for the last couple missions.

6) Switch your party config: When I first started using NPC's I always took the same people (even at the end of game when there are more to choose from). During Hell's Precipace I ended up saying ah what the heck, and ditched a couple NPC's I took all the time and took a different party. Wow what a difference it made for me. Don't be afraid to reconfigure your party if it seems like your not staying alive or your not doing enough damage. Small things make a difference.

Notes
**Remember NPC's are your friends, even better than your best friend. They are always there when you need them and they will never drop. (LMAO they may get stuck once in awhile though

).

**NPC parties are fun when you want to try and do things w/o getting a party together, but they aren't usually as effective as a party with RL players and it usually takes you longer to do a quest or mission when you're level 20 fighting 20+ mobs.

**I can't remember if that's all the things I thought of while playing, if I remember I left something out I will be sure to add it.

Arrow Whisper · Jun 01, 2005, 01:47 PM // 13:47

I never knew the order you invited them in determined where they stood in the group. I'll have to try this tonight.