A Guide to Blackheart's Mass Combat Events

[Blackheart]

Hey everyone,

With the next round of Storyteller events quickly approaching, I wanted to take a moment to give some quick tips on things that I would suggest doing before and during these events so that you and your fellow players may get the most out of them.

1. Stock up on healing supplies. It'll likely surprise you just how many healing supplies one of these mass combat events can run you. From healing potions to kits to scrolls, you're going to want to be well prepared so that you're able to stay in the fight during the event. There will be a lot of enemies, and damage can rack up on you really fast. PC healers will only be able to do so much for you, and it's always good to ensure that you can heal yourself, just in case. Heal potions are probably your best bet.

2. Don't use summons/familiars. Having so many people in a single area can be a bit of a strain on the server. As such, the use of summons/familiars is prohibited, since they can have a moderate effect on lag. 

3. Coordinate wards as best you can. With 50+ players in an event, there will be a period where everyone is allowed to ward together. Understand that mages will throw out group wards for everyone to benefit from, and try your best not to overlap. It'll help to hold such spells for later on, when you have chances to "regroup" and those that have lost their wards will need new ones. Warding scrolls should almost certainly not be necessary.

4. The chat will be chaotic, so understand that roleplay may be difficult at times. Roleplay is great and I encourage you to try it, but know that due to the limitations of attention span and how fast we can all read as walls of text are shooting by, it may be difficult to engage in intensive roleplay during these sort of events. I've found that usually quick, concise emotes and phrases work best, as long paragraphs will get lost in the void. 

5. Consider your setting and audience as you're roleplaying. This is mostly for the Storyteller events, but this can apply to other mass events, too: even though chat will be chaotic, that doesn't mean people won't listen/watch to what you're saying/doing. That means that you should be as wary of drawing unwanted attention to yourself by saying/doing things as you would be during normal server times. For example, a drow character yelling "I love bathing in the blood of hated elves aaaaaahhhhhh!" in the middle of a party that will include elves/other goodly people likely isn't going to fly. There are already many OOC considerations made so that as many people as possible can participate in these events, so aggravating the issue will result in IC consequences, removal from the party, or other such penalties.

6. Enemies are color coded by difficulty. Green is meant for PCs under level 16, and these enemies will have no additional immunities/resistances that the base monster wouldn't have. Red is for 17-23, and monsters of this category usually also don't feature additional immunities or resistances. Purple is for 24-30, and may be given immunities/resistances to some things, but have weaknesses still that can be exploited. Gold is a boss monster, meant to be taken on by the whole party and will prove dangerous to everyone. Gold monsters will almost always be immune to most, if not all, status conditions and CC effects. Sticking within the level range of your character is not necessary, and I couldn't enforce it even if I wanted to. But, it makes for the best experience in my opinion, as it keeps lower levels from getting crushed, and keeps higher levels from running over challenges meant for lower levels.

7. Turn off the combat log. There is going to be so much going on, it's not going to help you in the moment. If you want to keep it open for logging purposes, then I'd just minimize it and save your sanity. Things will be going so fast that you'll be unable to make use of it otherwise.

8. Keep calm and wait for a revive. Getting downed isn't the end of the world. It's pretty common to get knocked down at least once during the course of these events, but there are opportunities to get picked up by allies and rewarded/healed before you rush back into danger. Don't sweat it!

9. If you are trying to do something that requires DM approval/work to accomplish, send a tell. With everything going on topside, I may miss it if it's in normal chat. A tell will stand out to me much better than a normal chat message!

10. Have fun! At the end of the day, this is meant to be a ball of chaotic/epic fun, so let loose with it!