Creating fellowships and raids offer many advantages while incurring a few disadvantages. Many creeps are 'force multipliers', meaning that they help make a team working together far more power than if they were all solo'ing. Primarily in this catagory are weavers who have the best crowd control on the creep side and warleaders and defilers, the buffers and healers. These classes greatly enable DPS classes to destroy their enemies and to have much greater survivability. Additionally it becomes much easier to focus fire with the use of raid targetting assists. The disadvantages to grouping is the reduction of infamy to all parties.
This section is a basic introduction into raid level dynamics, much of this applies to the smaller fellowship groups also. Encompassed are articles addressing the reasons for creating a raid, the dynamics of leading a raid, and general strategies that a raid can accomplish, specific strategies are covered later. Do note that you do not necessary require a raid for these tactics. Working with the creep population over /ooc or an overall voice server such as Ventrilo can effectively accomplish hese strategies just as well as a raid.
Advantages of a Raid
In general the raid leader should have the following characteristics
Target Mark yourself with an icon so all of the creeps can see you. It's far easier for everyone to keep up with you and not range ahead if it's obvious where you are.
There are several thoughts to raid organization and here's a few combinations
The Raid Leader or an experianced Warleader should be the one in charge of calling out which Warleader is rezzing and when. Maximize the AoE rez by waiting for at least 4 creeps to be dead before having someone fire it off. Carefully rotate the rezzes fired so you have one available at all times.
Target Assist is both a boon and a curse. Versus freeps and FM/CG's, it'll be extremely helpful in focus firing. So for these situations first, tell everyone how turn on raid assist targetting. Put experianced creeps on your raid assist targets (right click on their name, Raid, Add Raid Assistant Target). There are two schools of thought on raid assists, either single or multiple assists
Finally, unless you are a master multitasker, never set yourself as a raid targetter. You must be able to tab through targets and examine what is going on without people shooting through you. Leave that job to someone else, you have enough on your plate.
There will be many times in keeps where you are fighting both NPCs and Freeps where the Freeps can't just overwhelm you but rather pester. In general, they are rather timid when outnumbered significantly and will hold their distance behind NPCs. One useful strategy here which is made upfront whenever expecting freep resistance is that melee keep killing NPCs by the raid, all ranged creeps will shoot at freeps focus firing through the ranged target assists to keep them off of the raid, they are NOT cleared to run forward and chase as this will inevitably bring more NPCs to the raid. This generally is good enough to force the Freeps to keep their distance, take a few potshots and duck behind a wall to recover.
Have everyone turn on voice if it is being used, otherwise have them unclick Standard on the filter of their main chat screen so that loot rolls don't scroll off important commands.
The best way to communicate is via /raidshout. /ra is typically jammed up on a screen with a bunch of items being rolled on and many people don't even watch it during a fight. Roll spam can be eliminated by right clicking on the chat tab and unchecking Standard under filters. It's still best though to pass messages right in front of their faces with /raidshout. Voice chat in game is useful in many situations with the limitation being lag. Reports of lagging up to 30 minutes between transmission and reciept of the message are not uncommon. Using a Ventrilo or Teamspeak server is a viable and encouraged alternative but it requires members to download the client. This has the additional advantage of voice communication outside of the raid which can be invaluable in coordinating many small groups or multiple raids.
Keep a tight leash on your bloodthirsty creeps, if you don't, they WILL run off and aggro everything in their bloodlust. No need to yell and berate them, but maintain positive (in both meanings of the word) control over your raid. Designate where we move when we pull, who is pulling what, and where are the boundaries of the raid (ie, stay in the main room! or Move up to the BOTTOM of the stairs but not above!)
Be aware of what is out there against you. Use raid target markers liberally to mark LM's, MIN's, and other major threats. Steer your raid assist targeters as necessary to take out suddenly vulnerable targets or to shift to more dangerous ones. When facing down freeps, it becomes important to break their minstrels especially on Tyrant defense. Often if even the whole raid focusses on a minstrel, if there's 3+ others, they'll be able to keep the main target alive while your raid is destroyed. One way that works pretty well is to split up everyone on their minstrels. Set one targetter (usually weaver) in each raid group as a targetter and have all of your targetters grab a different minstrel for their group. When the time is right, call for the attack and each group now goes after a different minstrel, preventing them from supporting each other.
With multiple targeters there are usually one of three mechanisms working
Keep a trusted creep watching your back from freeps. You can't see 360 while doing everything that you should be doing as a raid leader. You have 24 pairs of eyes in the raid, you can spare a couple to watch your back (BA's do well at this as they're in the back already and can shoot while looking around). When preparing for a raid, wargs are excellent in finding freeps and scouting. Intel is important! GOOD intel is even more vital! Get a headcount on the freeps and the LM's and MIN's identified!
Have a general outline that you present to your raid early on of what you're doing and generally how you're going to do it. Have everyone on the same page. Rebrief the next portion of the plan when you get to that stage. When you get ready to engage the CGs and FM's, make sure everyone knows who is getting attacked and who is getting kited. Designate a lead weaver to coordinate between the webs on nasty NPcs.
Every plan will fail at some point, but it's important to change the plan to adjust. Don't follow a plan till everyone is dead. Voice is key here in talking to the creeps who can hear you (without too much lag), do not get caught up in fighting/healing, make sure your priority is formulating and reformulating plans on the fly to deal with whatever is happening. For the plans that you select, get them out on /raidshout quickly and concisely. Do not be wordy.
Conversely there are those times that you can't execute any plan because of freep resistance or just plain old creep incompetance. There are times to fight.. and there are times to avoid the fight. Don't get stressed over running a bad PuG or fighting an impossible situation. Back off, breath, and say 'Good try all! But they got us on this one!' and pull out. And if there were a couple really bad creeps.. make yourself a note somewhere of their names and make sure they don't get in the raid again. There is being a newbie to the PvMP zone, and there's stupidity. The first you can deal with and make a good creep out of, the second is hopeless.
The number one killer of a raid isn't freeps, it's boredom. If you don't need the raid soon, get rid of it and make it later when you do need it. Don't hang around the outside of Goldie waiting for that last person coming from Grams.. you got 23 people waiting on one... big whooopee, the quest resets in an hour. Go do Goldie and keep the tempo up. I will avoid raid leaders who like to sit around and wait on their friends.
About the only way to become a persistant raid leader that people follow is through respect. If you rag on others in /ooc, you'll get a lot fewer people following you. If you yell at people in your raid too much, they won't follow you.
Support other raids and do a good job, advise when needed, and help keep morale up and be encouraging to all (at least to those who deserve it). If you are getting stressed out (which will happen at times due to many factors.. stupidity and when the freeps are equal to or outnumber the creeps tends to do this), remember that it's a game and its for enjoyment. Winning isn't everything, having a good time while getting defeated is better than having a horrible raid experiance while winning. Last ditch heroic stands ARE fun even when you do get rolled in the end. There is always another battle in the future, the war isn't over yet!
If you help others have fun, a) you'll have a lot more fun yourself b) they'll be more willing to follow you, in or outside of a raid (/ooc is actually a good place to lead for those situations that don't require a raid). c) Freeps will die
When the map is held by creeps it is important to report keep statuses when possible and to monitor for freep groups forming. Typically the major gathering points are EC, Goldie, HH, and Ost.
There are largely two types of battles that form on a blue map, the mobile raid and the Gramsfoot mass.
The Gramsfoot mass uses sheer numbers and a 'close' rez point in Gramsfoot to zerg towards Lugazag to overwhelm it. Tactics are completely dependent on numbers of both freeps and creeps.
Fluid battles across a map with keeps falling requires creeps to keep up overall communication of information. Watch TR/Lug/TA constantly for freep groups moving towards them. As keeps fall, hold in to the last minute (typically Tyrant under 30k for TA or flag flipping is done at TR and Lug) then fall back to another called keep. If the freeps are weak after killing the Tyrant, consider continuing the fight all the way to the flag room and AoE as much as possible on the flag to prevent them from taking the flag. Lug and TR are the most valuable keeps due to the rez circles, these get priority in defense. Keep counting minstrels and freeps constantly, when there are several missing freeps, start checking keeps for splinter groups. Maintain information superiority if at all possible with scouts.
In general, Stand and Hold is used when territory cannot be given up or it is undesirable to fall further backwards. This is done when friendly forces are approximately equivalent to enemy forces. Melee tend to spend time behind the formation of ranged creeps and identify targets for execution, running in, killing, and getting out. Webs and hinders are frequently targetted onto any freep who moves away from their group. Freeps on the flanks of the raid may be out of support range and frquently can be taken down by a quick web/hinder and a melee strike. The counters to the Stand and Hold rely either on numbers or psychological effects. A mass overwhelming of the defense will crush it generally if seriously outnumbered. Surprise flanks can also be effective in making defending forces run.
The Elastic Defense looks to exploit communication/coordination breakdowns. By giving up ground and gradually falling back, enemy forces who leap at the opportunity become separated from their support and can be quickly targetted for destruction if they range too far forward in the pursuit of the creep forces. This requires a called fall back and then a subsequent call for a hold and a target, creating a local massed firebase against spread out enemy forces. The counter to the Elastic Defense is to keep the chasing group tight and not letting elements be spread out.
One of the most diffcult defensive maneuvers is a retreat in good order. A retreat has a few pre-stages
Lay every BA trap you can and position weavers in the likely path of the freeps. When the retreat is called, everyone needs to move back immediately to the rally point with weaver Web the Earths slowing the pursuing forces. Those who get snared should be bubbled and left to delay the enemy advance while the rest move off. Having people stay back to defend while the majority move off to the rally point leaves the remaining defenders to be overrun.
Frontal assault is the simplest offensive tactic. This tactic is simply sending every creep possible into the freeps as fast as possible. There is a very large psychological shock that comes with this maneuver as the sight of massed creeps closing fast will make less experianced freep groups run away, allowing those who stand be crushed. Targets should be called and valuable freeps such as LM's and Minstrels be taken out first, allowing an effective mop-up of remaining freeps who now have no support. Counters to the Frontal Assault are mitigating the psychological effect by not breaking and setting many traps and use CC to reduce the local firepower in contact with the defending force. In the post-MoM world, frontal attacks should not be done unless the creeps have significant strength over the freeps.
A flank is a maneuver by a force to strike at the defenders from some unexpected angle, either its rear or side. In general a flank is done in coordination with a deception operation. With the majority of pressure from one side (generally the front), take another force and make a wide circle undetected then make a coordinated push from both angles. This is again a largely psychological maneuver as it makes the attacking force appear far larger than it really is. Additionally, the flanking group can usually take out valuable targets hiding in the rear, such as minstrels and LM's. Taking these down or otherwise occupying them while the main force makes a frontal assault can lead to many casualties among the defenders.
The counter to a flank is intelligence. Keeping eyes out to the sides and be ready for a flanking maneuver to be done on your formation. There are several possibilities once the flank is detected.
Move back to a more defensible area if possible.
An ambush deals completely with deception, this is hiding strong forces in an unobserved area and then striking the enemy when they least expect it. As with many other maneuvers, this is a very psychological attack and much of it counts on routing the enemy before they can assemble. Typically this is done as a hit and run operation, to kill a few elements then to retreat to safety.
The counter to an ambush is intelligence. Be aware of possible ambush points ahead and keep the formation close and tight. On an ambush situation, gauge the situation and respond quickly and decisively.