Wiki / Guide / Groups and dungeons
Parties and roles
A party holds up to five players. Invite someone by right-clicking them and choosing invite, by pressing the Invite button on the target frame, or by typing /invite name. They answer with /accept or a click on the popup. The party frame shows everyone's health, level and role.
Roles are tank, healer and damage. You can only take a role your class can play: tanks are Warriors, healers are Priests and Monks, and everyone can do damage. Pick yours with /role or the role buttons on the party frame. /ready asks everyone if they are ready.
The leader can pass leadership with /lead name. Players leave with /leave. Three or more members can vote to remove someone with /votekick name. If you lose connection, your seat is kept for ten minutes.
In a fight, everyone who is actively fighting gets the full XP and loot of a kill. Loot is always personal: you each roll for your own drops, so nobody can take yours.
Keys: G /invite /p
Group Finder
Press G to open the Group Finder. List yourself, or your whole party, for an activity such as the open world, an Expedition or a dungeon at a difficulty. Say which roles you can take, or which roles you are looking for.
Other players' listings appear in the same window. Use "Ask to join" and the lister gets your request and can invite you. A listing lasts 30 minutes or until the lister goes offline.
The Finder only lists. It never matches people automatically, and it never shows any score for gear or players. You can also look for a group in the /lfg channel.
Keys: G /lfg
Journey Together and Mentor Sync
Journey Together lets a high-level friend play alongside a lower-level one. The party leader types /jt (or /anchor name to choose who sets the level) and everyone above that level is brought down to it, but only while out of combat. Your level, XP and quests stay your own. Nobody is ever lifted up.
A synced character fights with the strength a character of that level would have, with their gear scaled to match. They still earn good XP, and they keep all the abilities they know. You can step out of it any time with /sync off, and play at full strength, or end it with /jt off.
Dungeons do something similar on their own. Each has a band of levels, and anyone above it is brought down to the top of the band while inside. Some starter areas are protected the same way: a high-level player there deals reduced damage to the creatures so that new players still have something to fight.
Keys: /jt /sync
Expeditions and dungeons
An Expedition is a place for one to three players. The Under-Ring, below the Standing Stones in the Heatherway, is the first. A dungeon is for a party of five; the Old Barrow is the first. Walk to the entrance (a stair, a stone door or a gate), click it, and the entry window opens. You must be out of combat and above the level it asks for.
Expeditions get harder or easier by themselves: they adapt to whether one, two or three players are inside when a group of creatures is pulled. Dungeons offer three difficulties. Story is forgiving and takes any group. Veteran is standard, and Master is the hardest; both need a full party of five with a tank and a healer, all online. Later, Veteran and Master runs can be opened at higher levels, up to level 100.
Each run belongs to your party, and a dungeon is opened by the party leader. Walking near a checkpoint saves it, and if you Release inside, you return there at full health. When you arrive, or come back at a checkpoint, creatures leave you be for a few seconds until you move, attack or cast. Cache chests and lore stones are yours alone to open. An empty run closes after five minutes, so you can come back briefly after a break. Once every boss has fallen the run is cleared: going back in finds it empty, so the party leader resets it (Reset run on the entrance panel, with everyone outside) for a fresh one.
The first time each boss falls each week on each difficulty, you get one guaranteed roll of gear from that boss. You can help as often as you like.
Keys: G
Boss fights and the Codex
Bosses use a clear set of moves. You see them coming: cones, circles on players, rings, heavy blows on the tank, spells you can interrupt, adds to defeat, and "Break Cast" channels you must stop by dealing control or heavy damage before they end.
The warning time depends on the difficulty. A boss that you cannot stun just fills a Break Meter; when full, it is stunned and takes extra damage for a few seconds.
In a boss fight, one fallen ally may be raised for each pull. Helping a Downed friend up is always free. If everyone falls, the boss resets, any Scars and Echo from that pull are undone, and a short summary tells you what hit hardest, without blaming anyone.
Each boss move you see is written into your Journal's Codex with a tip for it. It gives no combat bonus; it is there to help you learn.
Keys: J
Raids, Heartstone Marks and the Reliquary
A raid is for eight to ten players at level 100. The first is the Heartstone Vault, entered by a stair at the Heartstone Edge at the top of the Wending Marches. Form a party, then type /raid to turn it into a raid group of up to ten, and use /raid for raid chat.
Story admits any raid group. Normal and Master need 8 or more players, with two tanks and two healers. Watch for gold "Stack here" circles: stand inside together to share the damage. Some bosses use heavy "Sundering" blows that grow worse each time, so the two tanks should swap the boss between them.
Each boss gives its loot once a week per difficulty, as a chance of gear. If you miss, you get Heartstone Marks, and each weekly boss kill gives a mark as well. Marks can be traded in at the Reliquary on the entry panel for an item from that boss's pool, for a boss you have cleared there. Every kill also drops Heartstone Cores for top-tier crafting.
Keys: G /raid