How to avoid bad parties

I would appreciate some advice from more experienced players regarding finding good parties, avoiding bad parties, and the correct etiquette when the party turns out to be totally opposite to my style of play.

Guild Wars is my first on-line gaming experience, and am enjoying it immensely, either alone or teaming up with my wife. We have had several good experiences in forming smaller groups with one to two other players rather than using the AI henchmen.

Unfortunately, the number of bad experiences seem to be greater than the number of good. We like teamwork and tactical play, with a bit of humorous chat along the way while doing a mission or quest. But we have been in many parties where at least one or two of the party members took little regard for teamwork and just ran off from one group of enemies to the next, leaving little time for energy recharge or collecting creature drops. These same party members also seem the ones who complain the most when the monks in the group did not keep them alive or resurrect them quickly enough.

We like to play with a certain sense for etiquette, and therefore, so far, have tried to stick it out with such a party as long as possible. But this is really a waste of our playing time and little enjoyment, so I think in the future we will simply just hit that "leave" button and disappear from the group in such cases.

But what do the rest of you do? I notice that when a group is formed, there is very little chat before starting the mission/quest to make sure the playing style of all the party members is about the same. It seems that the group is just formed, someone says ok, ready, and out they go. Is this normally the case?

hmmmm yust take henchies they dont complain and dont start when your not ready

Hi Undead,

yes, I am playing quite a lot with just henchies. But, hey, when it clicks, it is extreme fun to play in a (partly) human party. So comment concerning what other people do in finding/forming parties is welcome.

I dont find many bad groups at all. Sure, its pretty average for one person to leave, but that doesnt make a group bad. If you are suck with morons who do things like draw penises on the map, then what I would do is: Say once, stop it or I (we) will leave. If they dont stop, follow through. That is just one type of bad group, maybe if you told me what exactly the problem is I could offer more.

Yes, its normal to form and go with little conversation. Most people play to play, and play to advance rather than play to socalize. Finding players to chat with is difficult, personally, I chat with my guild and not much with groups. Groups get me further in the game, but you are able to form relationships with guildies.

As to your ettiquette, this is online gaming. Be selfish, everyone else is. Im not saying be an ass, but if someone is making the game not fun, leave. If people get mad at you for it, screw em. Its a game, its about fun and to have fun the most important thing to consider is yourself.

On a side note: If you state your reason for leaving, then leave, your party wont blame you, they will blame the idiot. "Sorry guys, I cant handle any more of Random Named Dork's idiocy, Im out." They will proceed to flame Random Named Dork and most likely all leave (like they were probably thinking of doing anyhow) and just find another group.

you can't avoid them, they're everywhere
best thing to do is find a guild with the "spirit" you are hoping for and make the quests/missions with guildmates

I always run the group. Within a few minutes you can normaly weed them out. Hit the eject button, find another.

We sisters just took henchies from Doknors to Lomar, that was a fun trek.
Still havnt found the boss Im looking for.

If you're going to kick someone just because their a ranger, I think you're probably not the best person to be taking advice from.

Paine, im not going to flame your idiotic ranger comments here, please list your name and guild abbriviation, so I can ignore you.

my ranger could prolly kill u 1:1 while running

I think that the suggestions you're getting, Coolsti, are good ones (except for Paine's, though I'm sure you already knew that). The best things to do:

1. Try to get your group to talk before the mission begins. You can tell a lot about the mentality of the party's players if they talk a bit beforehand. If you don't like what you're hearing, hit the 'leave' button.

You might ask questions such as: Has anyone done this mission/quest before? Will we be running or fighting? Who is the leader? Who will call targets?

You might also tell them what is on your 'skill' belt and ask for suggestions or requests for skills they'd like you to carry. Take those suggestions/requests with a grain of salt, however, as you must play your character to your best advantage.

2. Try, as someone else said, to find a guild (probably a large-ish) one that shares your ideas on gaming, fun, PvP/PvE, etc. You might look in the guild hall part of these forums for ideas and/or ask posters on the forums about their guilds.

3. Build a list of players that you HAVE liked playing with. I usually ask first if I can include them on my friends list and have yet to have anyone turn me down.

4. If someone's being a real jerk on a mission/quest, tell them you're annoyed and why and ask them to stop. Give the warning that you will leave (along with your wife) if they persist. If they do keep going or if they flame you, leave. Plain and simple. You're in the game to have fun and when it stops being fun because of some immature idiot, then it's time to go.

Just like some of the others said.

1) Use guild mates when possible

2) Find a good leader

3) Or use the henchies.



Sorena Mascar

Do not know if this is a valid point for you to consider but usually when I join a group or gather a group, I ensure that everyone in the group is communicating. If one doesnt respond at all, then its best to kick that person out and get someone else.

Of course, a window of time is allowed.

I disagree with leaving because someone is being immature (ie drawing penises or cursing at someone for a perceived mistake). Remember, you aren't punishing only the idiot, you're punishing everyone else in the group. Frankly, if the mission has been going on for a while and someone abandons it because of being offended by an idiot's behavior, they aren't being a much better of a group member than the idiot himself. It's better etiquette to tough it out and suffer through a little childishness and get the mission done, IMO.

The foolproof solution to the problem is joining a good guild.

A key thing I've noticed is not to go with a group with a leader who click enter mission as soon as enter the group and people who say GO GO GO right when u enter. Experienced players give people a bit of room to adjust skills and other things.

Being clicked-on without asking for an invite for whatever (mission, bonus, both, etc) is a red flag as well.

I see a lot of good suggestions, yet unfortunately there's never a guarantee for a nice or successfull party. There are missions that can be skipped and missions needed to complete to get to another map. Especially that kind of missions are continually causing pain in the @$$. Because there are allways people who allready tried them a few times and failed. For them its no longer fun. Understand those players wont like a cozy chat or hanging around for someone who tells the telephone is ringing. They spent enough time allready on the mission and they will leave as soon as they get the impression that its going to be a waste of time... again (I think that if there was a 'after 3 tries restart the mission at the latest point with henchmen only'-button they would never cause trouble again ).

For the rest, there are players who are not so fast. They simply dont respond in the middle of action because they cant. Just accept that. Being the first person to leave a party is never a good idea. I would not recommend that since it makes the good partymembers feel bad.

Joining a guild is a good option. Problem is getting information about the guild. And I myself find it hard to find one I really like (no obligations, friendly responses on questions, allowing everyone to play his/her own game).

A conversation and/or a teamleader who asks questions and tells what to do before the game starts is no guarantee for success either. I played the game with such a teamleader (and he guided well), but after a few deaths and a discussion about healing he considered this team would not make it (after half the mission was done) and left himself.

Probably its simply the nature of those missions 'that cannot be skipped' that makes it impossible to just start and have fun. Most players in those missions have NO fun! They are allready stressed at the start and hope to pass the mission as fast as possible...

Lots of replies, and thanks for all of them.

I think it would be great if the online gaming community would invent some informative acronyms for the type of group being looked for. I mean, now there is the acronym LFG for "looking for group". Would be nice if there would be something like LFG/HS for looking for a "hack slash" only group, or LFG/RP for looking for a group with a relaxed pace.

Emphasis on this point.

You'll soon find out if they're likely to act up in the middle of a mission.

I've also learnt to be wary of those who don't say anything at all. Sure, they could be afk, but a lot of people who do not speak before the mission starts often pay no attention to tactics that have been discussed before hand. (Likely due to being afk). Or, enjoy leading every mob on the map back to your monk..

- V

If you accept an invitation and see lots of names of people waiting to be accepted, leave. This means the leader is probably just clicking at random.

If you accept an invitation and there are 6 of one class and 2 monks, leave. Balance is the key to a sucessful trip.

Let me stress the communication thing. As soon as I get in a group, I say "hi", if I get no response for several minutes, I leave. I refuse to play this game without any skill, speed, or mission talk.

If you ever need help running missions or quests, look me up. I'd be happy to help. I'm usually on with Alora Chimera. I know the issues with finding a good group to run with. I am also with a good, mature guild. So if you see me online, whisper me and I'll help you out.