Party

(taken from the helpfile)

Parties are a way for up to six players to work together and share the experience they earn. To create a party, type 'party <name>'. You can then recruit up to five other members for your party.

Parties must consist of players that are roughly equal in level. The highest level member of a party cannot be more than five levels above the lowest level member of the party, unless all members are level 19 or higher.

Being in a party gives you and your partymates access to a chatline for ease of communication at no sp cost, and the ability monitor the health of your partymakes via the 'paware' command. You can also use 'pshare' to easily divide the money you have earned from selling loot.

Types of Parties

There are a number of goals a party may have. The main goal of most parties is to gain experience as fast as possible. But beyond this, there are a number of different parties. There are parties who aim mostly for skills, parties who aim for money, parties who aim just to kill a specific mob (generally big, like Valdrath).

Another use for parties is for lower levels to get in with a bigger, more experienced person to aid in quicker leveling and/or skilling, this is generally known as powerleveling. The act of doing this without actually being _in_ a party is called tagging. Tagging does not have a level requirement, but while tagging someone the experience from each kill is based solely on the amount of damage each person has done rather than a percent split based on level.

Players in a party can use the 'paware' command to toggle notifications of any changes to the hit points and spell points of party members. Some NPCs will switch which player they are attacking, or new NPCs may enter the fight and attack a basher instead of the tank. Paware makes it much easier for the tank to notice a basher is in need of rescuing. Taggers cannot be monitored in this way by a tank, making tagging somewhat risky. (It is advisable to set an alias for something highly visible like 'say RESCUE RESCUE RESCUE' when tagging so you can notify your tank if you are in danger.)

Tanks

The party generally follows someone called the tank. This person leads the party from kill to kill and is usually the person who takes the damage and keeps the bashers(see below) alive.

Classes best suited for tanking include those who are best at mitigating damage. Most classes have some abilities that make them proficient at tanking, and I will gloss over them a bit below.

Artificers are composed of two different specializations, smithcrafters and spellcrafters. Both smithcrafters and spellcrafters can make a large array of things to assist in tanking, they include constructed pets to take damage, wands for healing, scrolls for healing, forged armour, rings and amulets for protection, and a number of other things. See the artificer page for more in depth info on the two specializations.

Clerics have a number of good tanking abilities, including one of the best heals in game, the ability to block with shields, the ability to bless armour to make it better, and the ability to remove poison from yourself and others.

Fighters unfortunately do not make very good tanks. They have access to all defenses, but little else to absorb damage and no way to heal. They do, however, have the ability to disarm some weaker opponents.

Mages do not make for the best tanks, either. They only have access to dodge, a few defensive spells, and a single weak healing spell.

Necromancers have potential to be good tanks, as they have a few pets that are very good at defending, they can heal the said pets, and can heal themselves if need be.

Paladins make good tanks as they have the ability to block, the access to turtle, which greatly increases their block ability, and an aura that grants extra defense. The downside to paladin is that they may not attack things that are of good alignment, so it restricts their kills.

Rangers can potentially be good tanks as they have block, they have large canid pets that can dodge well and take hits, and can be fed. The term "two stomachs" has been used to describe rangers as you can heal both yourself and your pet both with food.

Rogues can arguably be considered the most tank oriented class in game. Their main ability is to parry enemy weapons and so have great damage mitigation. They also can trip enemies.

Shapeshifters vary in their ability to tank depending on the form. Drakons, Treants, and Mimeons have strong natural armour, and both Mimeon and Fluon can absorb things to heal. See the shapeshifters page for more info.

Bashers

Bashers are the people that follow around the tank. They can have multiple purposes. Generally, the basher is supposed to do more damage than the tank. However, there are a few other things that bashers may be useful for. Some bashers are for carrying heals, so that the tank can worry more about carrying armour, some are meant to carry loot, and some classes are useful for their healing abilities.

Artificers have a large amount of potential damage output through their pets, scrolls, and wands, have the ability to carry a lot of loot with their pets, have the ability to enscribe runes around the tank to help mitigate damage against specific kills, and have the ability to heal with wands.

Clerics have decent damage ouput with their big clubs, as well as some offensive prayers. Their sps, however, is more suited to healing the tank with their powerful fix prayer.

Fighters make for the easiest bashers to play. Get a big weapon or two and either berserk or fury, and they have fairly good damage output. In addition to this, they can carry a decent amount due to their strength.

Mages have a large amount of spells at their disposal for damage output. See their page for more info.

Necromancers can do a large amount of damage via their pet and the rot ritual. They also can use their pets to carry loot.

Paladins wield big weapons and can do large amounts of damage to undead and evil things with their harm and smite abilities. They also have a heal ability that they can use on the tank.

Rangers can do lots of damage both with their weapons and with their pet. They have the ability to "strike" which grants them an extra chance at a hit every other round.

Rogues can do decent damage with their alert combat ability. They also have the ability to trip enemies.

Shapeshifters vary on the amount of damage they can do depending on the form. See the shapeshifter page for more info.