Vanguard Saga of Heroes
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Vanguard Saga of Heroes

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Overview[]

Grouping is a fundamental and essential part of playing Vanguard. Grouping with other adventurers allows you to take on much tougher enemies at a much faster rate (greatly increasing the rate of experience acquisition), makes it easier to communicate and monitor each other’s status within the group, and equitably divides earned experience between members of the group, so a dedicated healer or buffer can earn just as much experience as the fighters or mages who actually slaughter the enemy. A group can have up to six members.


A well-organized group is far more powerful than the sum of its individual parts. Even two characters who group together can do much more than they can individually. Grouping is absolutely essential to get through many of the tougher quests in the game.


It’s always your choice whether you prefer to solo or group, and every adventurer should try to do at least some of both — but grouping is pretty much always a good idea.


To invite another player to group, target him and right-click on the Defensive Target Menu, then select Invite. Or, if the player isn’t in view at the moment, use the slash command /invite <name>. When another player invites you to group, you are given a choice to accept or decline. It’s perfectly fine to decline an invitation if you prefer to solo for the time being.


When a player accepts an invitation a group is formed. The player who issued the invitation becomes the group leader. Only the group leader can issue further invitations to bring new players into the group. Up to six players may group together at any one time.


Once you’re grouped, you can send chat messages that are visible only to your group by using the /group command. Group chat is visible to everyone in the group, no matter how far they are from one another. Use /say if you want to return to normal speech that’s visible to everybody nearby.


The leader of the group also has the power to disband the group, or to kick a specific player out of the group if that player becomes annoying or goes inactive. If the leader leaves the group, the game will assign the leadership to another party member, going from the first player invited to the last. The group leader may also voluntarily resign, passing leadership to the next player in line without leaving the group.
Groups with a good mix of Healers, Casters and Offensive and Defensive Fighters offer maximum tactical efficiency and versatility and are greatly to be desired, but a more specialized group can also be devastating, particularly when it’s heavy on combat-oriented or hybrid classes.

Finally, the group leader can also "mark" offensive and defensive targets with overhead symbols. This helps focus group efforts on objectives or respond to events as they unfold.

Looking for Group (LFG)[]

In order to make finding a group a lot easier, SOE made a few improvements to the Looking for Group feature.

SOE added a global LFG chat channel for people looking for a group, as well as for groups looking for more members! When you chat in this new channel, it will automatically add you to the listing in the LFG window. The same applies for Looking for More command, /LFM. The /LFM can still only be used by party leaders.

SOE also made a few other changes to /LFG and /LFM: Below are some examples of how to make use of the changes to these commands:

  • "/lfg" - Toggles your LFG status on or off; does not message the channel; “(LFG)” appears on your character’s nameplate.
  • "/lfm" - Toggles your LFM status on or off; does not message the channel
  • "/lfg Text or /lfm Text"- Sets your LFG/LFM status to on and sends the LFG/LFM and your text to the channel. Examples: Entering “/lfg KE 17 Warrior” will send the text "LFG KE 17 Warrior" to the channel. Entering “/lfm for KE. Need DPS” will send the text "LFM KE. Need DPS" to the channel.

You should also note that toggling LFG/LFM are mutually exclusive from /AFK. When you go /afk, it will remove your LFG and LFM status if they are set. The same goes with toggling LFG or LFM on--it will remove your AFK status. To find other players who are currently looking for group in your chunk, go to the Social window and search for “LFG.”


Group Looting[]

The group leader can select one of several options for dividing up loot from fallen enemies among the group.

Free For All[]

Basically no looting priority at all — whoever is fastest to the corpse gets the loot.

Master Looter[]

One person is in charge of removing items from the corpse. However, this character may click a button to allow anyone in the group to pick up items from the corpse (particularly in the case of no-drop items).

Round Robin[]

The group specifies a rarity threshold. The right to any items above that threshold rotates through the group, one character at a time. Any items below that threshold are Free For All.

Random for Magical[]

Rare items are awarded randomly (but characters who meet the item’s race and class requirements have priority). After an opponent dies, any group member may open the corpse — items below the specified threshold are Free For All. If there are rare items, one of the group must press the “Start Item Rolling” button to begin the process. You must specify that you want to be considered — press the “Need” button for a chance at items for which you qualify; press the “Greed” button for a chance at items for which no one presses “Need.” If you don’t want it, press “Pass.” Please make your choice quickly, so it doesn’t hold up the distribution process.
Once everyone has pressed one of the three buttons for the current item, the game makes a percentage roll for each character involved — the highest roll wins, but Need overrides Greed. Items awarded this way go directly into the winner’s Inventory.

Share Loot Rights[]

This is a button available to the Master Looter or the current Round Robin looter. Pressing it allows others in your group to take loot.

Raids[]

Some of the most powerful foes in the game are too powerful to be defeated by a single group. For these major challenges, groups can join together to form a raid. Raids allow several groups to join forces into a single fighting unit.
A group leader can start a raid by inviting another group leader to add his group to the raid.

Mentoring[]

In order to mentor the mentee has to be at least adventuring level 11 and the mentor at least 5 levels higher.

Mentoring relationship is created while in a group and clicking the higher player's portrait. Click 'Request Mentor'. When accepted the mentor's skills and equipment drops to the level of the mentee.

You will also be able to earn experience points while mentoring; however, having mentors in your group will prevent you from receiving Faction coins from Insignia's.


Harvesting[]

In Vanguard, you can harvest in a group. There are several benefits to group while harvesting.

  • The nodes produce more for the group.
  • You can harvest nodes you haven't specialized, if a member of the group is specialized an you have the node specific tool. This other member needs to start the harvesting and your harvesting skill is high enough for the node being harvested.
  • Added group bonuses. From grouping and from tools that have group bonuses.
  • Greater chance of finding rares and ultra rares.

SOURCE: Vanguard Manual.doc

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