Gnorbert
01-18-2010, 12:43 PM
Hi All,
Just wanted to compile a grouping of common LFM terms used and a longer explanation about the full meaning to avoid confusion when joining a group. Reply with others that you use and I'll add them to the main post. I'm sure this has been done many times but I was annoyed this weekend so here's a refresher.
P2P/VIP/F2P - seeing one of these denotes that the quest is either a "Pay to Play" (P2P or VIP) quest or available for free (F2P). If you have not bought the adventure package for the quest and are not a paying subscriber then an LFM with P2P/VIP is not for you.
Zerg - Zerging is a playstyle aimed at doing the quest as fast as possible. Usually some monsters will not be killed along the way meaning that the corridors will not be safe behind the group if you fall behind. Most optionals are skipped in favor of speed but some may be convenient or valuable enough to justify the extra time to complete them (such as delera's part 2). If you want to play a bit slower, work on teamwork or are experiencing the quest for the first time.... then a zerg group may not be the best fit for you.
Crawl / Slow - The opposite of Zerg, This group wants to embrace the true spirit of a classic "Dungeon crawl". They want to explore each room, find the optionals, search for treasure and generally see all there is to see. They will stop and allow the rogue to do his thing, they will use classic party roles like having a stealthy character scouting ahead to see if it's safe. This is often in conjunction with the "Teamwork" / "Group play" key words.
n/h/e - stands for Normal/Hard/Elite The group plans to do all difficulty settings of the quests. This can be for one of two reasons...
1. we are doing each difficulty to get the exp bonus for first time completion at each setting.
2. We are going through norm and hard to get to elite for favor.
...or a combination of both. If it's purely the second case then it will be beneficial to the group that you announce that you can open the quest on elite. Either way, the leader will see the available settings when they open the quest so just leave the choosing to the leader. Unless instructed, you should let the group leader open the quest to the difficulty they planned to do.
"Know the Way" - or some variation of the phrase. This means that the group leader expects everyone to know how to get to the quest and, usually, the layout of the quest itself. Jumping into this group and asking "share please, where is the quest?" will be frowned upon and possibly get you booted from the group.
IP - "In Progress" - The group has started the quest already. If you are worried about late entry penalty for a high exp quest then you better ask how far along they are before joining. You also better know how to get to the quest because the group will not be able to "show" you the way. In most cases the group does not NEED you to complete the quest, or else they would have waited before starting.
"be experienced" / "Know what you are doing" - You are expected to have done the quest before and be aware of the role you need to play in the group. Some people consider "experienced" to mean more than simply having run the quest before so look out for that. If having run the quest before is not good enough for the group leader, if they want you to have been in game for more than a certain amount of time, then it may be best for you to avoid this group.
"Be flagged" - raid quests typically have a set of requirements that you must satisfy in order to zone into the quest. Usually this consists of a set of preliminary quests that you have to run first in order to "flag" yourself for the raid. If you see one of these and have not run the flagging quests.... or don't know what the quests are... then this is not a group for you. Send a polite message to the raid leader to confirm the flagging requirements if you think you meet them but just want to double check. Most people don't mind confirming in general terms what you need to have completed in order to join. DO NOT ask for a detailed explanation about how to flag... this person is trying to put together a raid group and possibly has up to 10 other people waiting for him. If you need more information than a simple confirmation of a required quest name or something... then take your question to the forums (do a search first, I guarantee the question has already been answered on the forums somewhere)
"Flagging for <raid>" / "Flagging run" - This group is running quests in order to flag for a raid. Typically they say which raid they are flagging for but if you think you need the flagging and aren't sure... ask first. Asking up front will let you know if there are any parts that were already done that you need to have completed first. These flagging runs are typically done on Normal difficulty as the group is only looking for a quick completion, not specifically loot, Exp or favor.
"Team work"/"Group play" - This means the group is looking to play together. If you are a lone wolf style player who runs off on their own to try and solo the quest or get the most kills then you are not what this group is looking for. These groups typically move a little slower than a Zerg group but don't confuse "teamwork" with "slow play". People playing well as a team might still move quite quickly. These groups will however be much more patient and often are a good place for people newer to the quest to learn in a friendly atmosphere.
"Be self sufficient" / "Heal yourself" / BYOH - Simply, Bring Your Own Healing. These are generally groups that are running multiple quests and have people coming in and out of the group. Since they don't know what the make up of the party is at any given time they ask for anyone joining to be able to take care of themselves. If you join this party and have no potions/wands and can't heal yourself from spells then you will quickly find yourself left for dead halfway through a dungeon somewhere. If you hover over the LFM to see the people in the group currently and see a cleric/FvS/Bard DO NOT assume that the "heal yourself" condition is lifted. Having a class that can heal in the group does not absolve you of any responsibility for taking care of yourself.
"Favor Only" / "Favor Run" - This group is generally not concerned with experience, they will often be running quests far below their level in order to get the favor that they missed along the way while leveling. Sometimes they are running at appropriate levels but that is rare and you should make sure that you are ok with not getting exp before you join these groups. These groups will often be looking for an "opener", someone that can open the quest on elite (or at least hard) so that they can get the favor in the most efficient way. The goal of this group is to complete the chosen quest(s) on Elite difficulty.
"Farming" - This group is focused on obtaining something specific whether it be Experience, Loot, collectibles or ingredients, they will be optimizing their play towards that goal of obtaining those things. A common example would be "Taps farming" where the group runs around the Orchard of the Macabre explorer area in Necropolis in order to find the rare encounters, whose chests contain "Shred of Tapestry" (20 of which gets you a nice piece of headgear). These groups are after one thing, so if you too are trying to get what they want... then join up. If they are running in an area that you also wish to run but you have different goals, then make sure that your goals are not counter productive to the group goals.
RP - This group wants to Role Play their characters. If you are not into role playing then don't join this group. They are after a specific gaming experience so make sure that's what you are also after before hitting Join. These groups have rules about communication and staying in character. Make sure you understand how the group is flagging their OOC (out of character) chat and whether voice chat is in or out of character.
"No completion" / "DD" / "DDoor" - Used when farming chests for trash loot or named items or whatever but without finishing the quest. To let people know that they don't have to worry about having a 0 xp quest completion because there is a lvl 20 in a group for a lvl 8 quest. This is most often done when the run is for a quest which is late in a series of quests that must be run in order or if there is a lock out timer that would prevent running the quest again, such as a raid. Running the quest without completing it means that you can exit, reform and re-enter the quest again without having to do the preceding parts in the chain or wait three days. The "DDoor" notation is added to specify that a Dimension Door will be provided prior to finishing the quest to accommodate those that want to leave before completion in case of a mixed group of people wanting and not wanting completion. Common examples include Shroud ingredient farming and Ring of feathers in the last part of STK.
S/R/E - Slayers/Rares/Explorers, used when running wilderness areas.
"YLYC" / "Leader Loot" - and other variations about loot. "YLYC" = "Your Loot, Your Choice". These are about the distribution of loot in raids. Raid end chests have a chance to drop special named loot which is bound to character once looted. While it is intuitive to think that if it appears for you then it is your loot to take... some raids have rules around this loot. YLYC describes that if the loot shows up for you it's your choice what to do with it... either you loot it yourself, give it to someone else or put it up for random roll to see who gets it. Leader loot would require all named loot to be assigned over to the raid leader who will then handle it's distribution. Any loot system is an honor system as it requires the individual player to abide by the rule that was set by the leader. If you don't like the rule about loot distribution then you have the choice to simply not go on the raid.
"audio on" / "Use voice" - The group is using voice chat and wants you to also use voice chat OR to, at the very least, have your sound turned up so you can hear the others when they speak. If you don't have a mic, that's fine, but you should at least be able to listen to instructions given by the group leader. If the group is also an RP group they will typically have rules about whether voice chat needs to stay in character or not.
"Funny hats only" - your hat better be funny.... srsly.
Common Loot run abbreviations
Ingredients - The chests in the first 4 parts of the Shroud are farmed for greensteel crafting ingredients. Often these are "no completion" runs so that the group can do it several times in a row and not have to wait the 2day18hour timer after completion.
Icy runs - Runs through the Subterrane to get the "Icy Raiments"
Taps farming - Farming Shred of Tapestry from the Orchard of the Macabre wilderness zone
FF ring runs - Runs through Shan-to-Kor part 3 for the Ring of Feathers from the end chest. Usually this is a "no completion" type farming so you don't have to rerun parts 1 and 2 each time.
Ok, that's what I have off the top of my head. This started from people ignoring a few of these when joining groups I was in this weekend and I figured I should add some more to make it more useful (and not so much a rant :) )
Just wanted to compile a grouping of common LFM terms used and a longer explanation about the full meaning to avoid confusion when joining a group. Reply with others that you use and I'll add them to the main post. I'm sure this has been done many times but I was annoyed this weekend so here's a refresher.
P2P/VIP/F2P - seeing one of these denotes that the quest is either a "Pay to Play" (P2P or VIP) quest or available for free (F2P). If you have not bought the adventure package for the quest and are not a paying subscriber then an LFM with P2P/VIP is not for you.
Zerg - Zerging is a playstyle aimed at doing the quest as fast as possible. Usually some monsters will not be killed along the way meaning that the corridors will not be safe behind the group if you fall behind. Most optionals are skipped in favor of speed but some may be convenient or valuable enough to justify the extra time to complete them (such as delera's part 2). If you want to play a bit slower, work on teamwork or are experiencing the quest for the first time.... then a zerg group may not be the best fit for you.
Crawl / Slow - The opposite of Zerg, This group wants to embrace the true spirit of a classic "Dungeon crawl". They want to explore each room, find the optionals, search for treasure and generally see all there is to see. They will stop and allow the rogue to do his thing, they will use classic party roles like having a stealthy character scouting ahead to see if it's safe. This is often in conjunction with the "Teamwork" / "Group play" key words.
n/h/e - stands for Normal/Hard/Elite The group plans to do all difficulty settings of the quests. This can be for one of two reasons...
1. we are doing each difficulty to get the exp bonus for first time completion at each setting.
2. We are going through norm and hard to get to elite for favor.
...or a combination of both. If it's purely the second case then it will be beneficial to the group that you announce that you can open the quest on elite. Either way, the leader will see the available settings when they open the quest so just leave the choosing to the leader. Unless instructed, you should let the group leader open the quest to the difficulty they planned to do.
"Know the Way" - or some variation of the phrase. This means that the group leader expects everyone to know how to get to the quest and, usually, the layout of the quest itself. Jumping into this group and asking "share please, where is the quest?" will be frowned upon and possibly get you booted from the group.
IP - "In Progress" - The group has started the quest already. If you are worried about late entry penalty for a high exp quest then you better ask how far along they are before joining. You also better know how to get to the quest because the group will not be able to "show" you the way. In most cases the group does not NEED you to complete the quest, or else they would have waited before starting.
"be experienced" / "Know what you are doing" - You are expected to have done the quest before and be aware of the role you need to play in the group. Some people consider "experienced" to mean more than simply having run the quest before so look out for that. If having run the quest before is not good enough for the group leader, if they want you to have been in game for more than a certain amount of time, then it may be best for you to avoid this group.
"Be flagged" - raid quests typically have a set of requirements that you must satisfy in order to zone into the quest. Usually this consists of a set of preliminary quests that you have to run first in order to "flag" yourself for the raid. If you see one of these and have not run the flagging quests.... or don't know what the quests are... then this is not a group for you. Send a polite message to the raid leader to confirm the flagging requirements if you think you meet them but just want to double check. Most people don't mind confirming in general terms what you need to have completed in order to join. DO NOT ask for a detailed explanation about how to flag... this person is trying to put together a raid group and possibly has up to 10 other people waiting for him. If you need more information than a simple confirmation of a required quest name or something... then take your question to the forums (do a search first, I guarantee the question has already been answered on the forums somewhere)
"Flagging for <raid>" / "Flagging run" - This group is running quests in order to flag for a raid. Typically they say which raid they are flagging for but if you think you need the flagging and aren't sure... ask first. Asking up front will let you know if there are any parts that were already done that you need to have completed first. These flagging runs are typically done on Normal difficulty as the group is only looking for a quick completion, not specifically loot, Exp or favor.
"Team work"/"Group play" - This means the group is looking to play together. If you are a lone wolf style player who runs off on their own to try and solo the quest or get the most kills then you are not what this group is looking for. These groups typically move a little slower than a Zerg group but don't confuse "teamwork" with "slow play". People playing well as a team might still move quite quickly. These groups will however be much more patient and often are a good place for people newer to the quest to learn in a friendly atmosphere.
"Be self sufficient" / "Heal yourself" / BYOH - Simply, Bring Your Own Healing. These are generally groups that are running multiple quests and have people coming in and out of the group. Since they don't know what the make up of the party is at any given time they ask for anyone joining to be able to take care of themselves. If you join this party and have no potions/wands and can't heal yourself from spells then you will quickly find yourself left for dead halfway through a dungeon somewhere. If you hover over the LFM to see the people in the group currently and see a cleric/FvS/Bard DO NOT assume that the "heal yourself" condition is lifted. Having a class that can heal in the group does not absolve you of any responsibility for taking care of yourself.
"Favor Only" / "Favor Run" - This group is generally not concerned with experience, they will often be running quests far below their level in order to get the favor that they missed along the way while leveling. Sometimes they are running at appropriate levels but that is rare and you should make sure that you are ok with not getting exp before you join these groups. These groups will often be looking for an "opener", someone that can open the quest on elite (or at least hard) so that they can get the favor in the most efficient way. The goal of this group is to complete the chosen quest(s) on Elite difficulty.
"Farming" - This group is focused on obtaining something specific whether it be Experience, Loot, collectibles or ingredients, they will be optimizing their play towards that goal of obtaining those things. A common example would be "Taps farming" where the group runs around the Orchard of the Macabre explorer area in Necropolis in order to find the rare encounters, whose chests contain "Shred of Tapestry" (20 of which gets you a nice piece of headgear). These groups are after one thing, so if you too are trying to get what they want... then join up. If they are running in an area that you also wish to run but you have different goals, then make sure that your goals are not counter productive to the group goals.
RP - This group wants to Role Play their characters. If you are not into role playing then don't join this group. They are after a specific gaming experience so make sure that's what you are also after before hitting Join. These groups have rules about communication and staying in character. Make sure you understand how the group is flagging their OOC (out of character) chat and whether voice chat is in or out of character.
"No completion" / "DD" / "DDoor" - Used when farming chests for trash loot or named items or whatever but without finishing the quest. To let people know that they don't have to worry about having a 0 xp quest completion because there is a lvl 20 in a group for a lvl 8 quest. This is most often done when the run is for a quest which is late in a series of quests that must be run in order or if there is a lock out timer that would prevent running the quest again, such as a raid. Running the quest without completing it means that you can exit, reform and re-enter the quest again without having to do the preceding parts in the chain or wait three days. The "DDoor" notation is added to specify that a Dimension Door will be provided prior to finishing the quest to accommodate those that want to leave before completion in case of a mixed group of people wanting and not wanting completion. Common examples include Shroud ingredient farming and Ring of feathers in the last part of STK.
S/R/E - Slayers/Rares/Explorers, used when running wilderness areas.
"YLYC" / "Leader Loot" - and other variations about loot. "YLYC" = "Your Loot, Your Choice". These are about the distribution of loot in raids. Raid end chests have a chance to drop special named loot which is bound to character once looted. While it is intuitive to think that if it appears for you then it is your loot to take... some raids have rules around this loot. YLYC describes that if the loot shows up for you it's your choice what to do with it... either you loot it yourself, give it to someone else or put it up for random roll to see who gets it. Leader loot would require all named loot to be assigned over to the raid leader who will then handle it's distribution. Any loot system is an honor system as it requires the individual player to abide by the rule that was set by the leader. If you don't like the rule about loot distribution then you have the choice to simply not go on the raid.
"audio on" / "Use voice" - The group is using voice chat and wants you to also use voice chat OR to, at the very least, have your sound turned up so you can hear the others when they speak. If you don't have a mic, that's fine, but you should at least be able to listen to instructions given by the group leader. If the group is also an RP group they will typically have rules about whether voice chat needs to stay in character or not.
"Funny hats only" - your hat better be funny.... srsly.
Common Loot run abbreviations
Ingredients - The chests in the first 4 parts of the Shroud are farmed for greensteel crafting ingredients. Often these are "no completion" runs so that the group can do it several times in a row and not have to wait the 2day18hour timer after completion.
Icy runs - Runs through the Subterrane to get the "Icy Raiments"
Taps farming - Farming Shred of Tapestry from the Orchard of the Macabre wilderness zone
FF ring runs - Runs through Shan-to-Kor part 3 for the Ring of Feathers from the end chest. Usually this is a "no completion" type farming so you don't have to rerun parts 1 and 2 each time.
Ok, that's what I have off the top of my head. This started from people ignoring a few of these when joining groups I was in this weekend and I figured I should add some more to make it more useful (and not so much a rant :) )