Groups

The Group Window
Groups in EQ2 contain up to six people. When you're grouped, the Group Window shows you each group member's Health, Power, and afflictions. You can target your group friends by pressing the F-keys, F2 through F6. (F1 targets yourself.) Or you can click their name in the Group Window to target them.

Finding a Group
Open the Looking-For-Group (LFG) Tool by clicking on the "!" icon in your Group Window. In here, you can specify what group roles you're willing to fulfill, and what level of characters you want to group with. You can include a short comment. You can then browse the groups that match you, check out the composition of each one, and communicate with the group's leader.

If you decide to take initiative and create a group yourself, you can advertise for more group members using the same tool. The second tab allows you to specify the group roles that are available to be filled. Then you can retrieve a list of players who are currently LFG, and see which ones match your needs.

Group Roles
The classes of EQ2 have been divided into four archetypes: Warrior, Priest, Mage, and Scout. An effective group is formed by having each of the four archetypes present. There is no single "must-have" archetype like in some other games; any two of them are effective together, and any three of them are effective together.

The most important group roles have been divided between the four archetypes in a balanced manner. Each class has enough essential tools to fulfill its archetype's group role. Furthermore, each class generally has enough tools that they can perform a secondary role, when two end up in the same group.
 * Scouts can evacuate the group to safety, guide the party by tracking or sneaking, and produce the best group Heroic Opportunities.
 * Warriors can taunt their enemies to control who is attacked, and can contribute their defense to others.
 * Mages have the best damage output, provide the greatest utility, and can buff the group's offensive output. Most can provide a pet.
 * Priests can heal and cure group members, revive those who have died, and can buff the group's defenses.

Assisting Your Friends
Assisting is the term that we use when you allow someone else to choose your target for you.
 * In EQ2, you can continuously target one of your friends, and you'll automatically use their target for your attacks. When they change targets, your attacks will follow.
 * Conversely, when you target one of your enemies, your beneficial spells will automatically land on the player that is being attacked. When your enemy changes targets, your beneficial spells will follow.

This is called implied targeting, and it's a valuable tool when you want to work together with your group friends. It's quite common for a group to select a single person to be the "main assist", who selects the target for everyone's attacks. You'll get accustomed to using the Implied Target for most of your activities when you're in a group.

Threat

 * Main Article: Threat

Threat is the method that EQ2 uses to determine which player or pet gets targetted by each enemy. Almost every action in combat, besides running around, builds up threat in your enemies. Attacking, healing, casting buffs or debuffs - all increase threat.

Each enemy has its own threat meter that is tracked separately, so enemies can attack different targets depending on the status of their own threat meters. The player with the highest threat will probably be targeted by that enemy, and will be attacked until someone else passes the threat of that target (or until death).

Some spells and combat arts are specifically designed to raise or lower threat levels. When in a group, you can use these abilities to try to influence the monster's choice of target. Certain types of monsters also have these abilities, and will occasionally force you to change targets to protect their friends from death.

Threat control is the basic method a group uses to control monsters, and is a large advantage of being in a group versus being alone. Managing threat in a group is a good way towards victory, because if monsters attack people who have strong defensive abilities, then all aspects of the fight become simpler.

Heroic Opportunities in Groups
(coming soon)

Dividing the Loot
(info coming soon)
 * Need or Greed
 * Lotto
 * Free for All

Browsing Your Friends' Journals
When you're grouped with others, your Quest Journal has an additional tab, called "Group". In the Group tab, you can view all of your groupmates' in-progress quests. A separate category shows you which quests are in common between the members of the group. You can use this feature when deciding how best to help each other with quests.

Sharing Quests
Quests that have no prerequisites can usually be shared with others. When you share a quest with another person, you're saving that person the trouble of traveling to the NPC who offers the quest. The recipient has to begin the quest from the first step, regardless of how far you've progressed on the quest (and regardless of whether you've completed it or not).

To share a quest, just find the quest in your Quest Journal (in the Quests tab or the Completed tab), highlight it and and click the "Share" button. It'll automatically be offered to every member of your group that doesn't have the quest already.