Silkroad Online Grouping Tips

The author Nikole Hines writes this look at grouping in the game and gives some advice on how to make your group work .

In light of Silk road Online's upcoming update, I'd like to talk about effective European partying in Silk Road Gold. It seems to be a major issue in all party based games; How do you party efficiently with a less than perfect party?

This seems to be the number one stumbling block in Silk Road Gold European partying. Questions I hear a lot are; Why aren't there any parties at low levels?...Your basic party consists of 8 members. Probably the most intuitive party build is 2 wizards, 2 tanks, 2 bards, 1 cleric and 1 warlock. Why is this the most basic party?

Think of your party like links in chain mail, interlocking and becoming greater than the sum of their parts. The wizards have low defense but high attack. Use your tanks to boost their defenses with buffs. 'Protect' transfers aggro from the target to the tank, 'Fences' reduce damage in general and 'Quota' gives the target's damage to the tank. These are the buffs that keep you alive.

Tanks are another class that are effective at pulling mobs to the group using their built in aggro and shouts. The cleric keeps everyone buffed and healed, but heals cause a lot of aggro so they also need tank buffs and 'Protect'. Warlocks also cause a lot of aggro because of the nature of their attacks so buffs and 'Protect' go on him. Your two bards should have 'Noise' which nulls aggro. They don't usually need any buffs and together, the dance of magic can really increase the two wizard damage. See how they interlock? Even with that, a cleric and a tank are the absolute core of the party. If these two are solid, you can fill in any other imperfections with any number of classes.

So what if you don't have a wizard? There are several ways you can compensate. Try straight substituting a wizard with a warlock or a chinese nuker. Neither do as much damage but both benefit from the dance of magic because they are intelligence based builds. Another great compensation is to find a "battle bard". That means your bard has bard attacks and not just buffs. Bards have the fastest attack of any European class and are rather effective offensive builds, especially in group PvP. You can straight replace that missing wizard with a third bard (gains you an extra dance) or promote one of the ones you have and not lose the dance. If you had to, you could also replace with a rogue. They can do as much for the party as a whole but damage is damage if you need it. The greater the total damage, the more experience you gain per minute in Silk Road Gold.