Patchy nuking is one thing, as long as they don't spend ages full mana, but sometimes you have people who say, "afk 1 min" or similar, and don't do anything for ages. I once was in a group that booted a beastlord for this, after 20 minutes or more of AFK, and he was still sitting in the corner by the group 30 minutes later. Some time after that, he must have returned, because he gated out and was next seen in the Nexus LFG again without saying anything to us. Sometimes RL things come up, but then you'd expect an apology, explanation and a polite request to see if we still have a spot in the group! Unfortunately, this type of leeching behaviour is more common than it ought to be!
Nor should they ever be low on mana. Sure, there are exceptions, but a wizard who blows his mana quickly so he can AFK is someone to keep an eye on. I've never understood wizards (or any DPS caster) who is constantly at 20% mana. I'd prefer you to be constantly 60-80% mana so you have emergency mana (evac, burn, whatever).
When I play my Cleric I love being at FM. Rarely happens with a good group though. Long as I'm at 20% and buffs are OK, pull plse. <3
Having played a wiz,mage,necro and cleric through the years,with wiz as my 1st main back in 2000,playing a wiz is a balancing game. Every grp is different so some it's easier to keep mana others your constantly lom. Each wizzy needs to find that sweet spot of how often to nuke. Having said that , unless they announce they need an afk for something if they continue to ninja afk, boot em. Just cause a wizzy or any grp member is lom doesn't mean they shouldn't be at their toon. That is just leaching xp off 5 other ppl and is totally wrong. Plus if your in a really good fast killing grp eventually the cleric is gonna oom or the tank will need a break then the grp will afk while med. What Kyleigh said
It's wasteful to be full mana, that means you're not regenerating mana, you should be nuking or something.
Have you not played in Lower Guk during classic? A lot of the time you are FM (small mana pool +clarity +low mob availability), should you nuke yourself to look busy?
Oh come on. Its obvious in a situation like that someone might be sitting at full mana because there is nothing to do. People are talking about groups that are chain pulling and killing stuff while someone sits with full mana afk.
I think it is important to take breaks and stretch, multiple times during an hour. As nice as constant pulls are, it is very unhealthy to sit at your computer for hours straight. It's even worse without the tiny little breaks that we afford ourselves. But people need to use their words. Tell us when you are going AFK. If you're in my group, and you are silent, you are no better than a merc on a live server (actually, even mercs give lots of important feedback). I'm just as bothered by the lack of incoming messages and mez messages as I am about ninja-afking. It's a social game, so be social. Stop assuming everybody can read your mind and learn to type, or join Discord or such. Too much AFK, full mana, no communication...any of those things will make me leave a group (or boot the offender). Nothing worse in EQ than wasting your time trying to keep a lazy group together.
I hear this. Although as an enchanter player, I have a difficult time chatting. Sure, I have bound socials to alert about mez, charm, etc. But I can't count the number of times I lose precious seconds to something like: "/g Hey, guys, should I be12111222" as a pull comes in and the chat session eats all my attempts to tash, mez, etc. I also appreciate feedback, if civil. I'm not new to everquest, but it's been a LONG time, and I'm new to enchanting. I love it. I constantly find myself trying to adapt.. particularly when there is a long string of single pulls and charm hasn't broken in a while. I end up with that above-mentioned full-bar-o-mana. So clearly, more can be done. Slow? Well, there's a shaman in the party who isn't the main healer, so no. Tank is already hasted, so we're good there. Another haste? maybe. etc, etc. in one group, I ultimately settled on the enchanter DD and single target stun. Was it the right call? I dunno. Nobody complained. But feedback would certainly help my perfomance.
Pull....ur charm pet does it's damage while you're pulling.....no other class can match that. It makes you the ideal puller. If charm breaks while ur out pulling, circle back around to camp and charm it before your pull gets to camp, as it will be agro on you, and thus not a liability to the group.
You are using socials and trying to be social - you're doing everything right in my book As for the chanter question, I'm not the most experienced chanter, but I think your logic seems dead on. If you've got mana after everything else, just nuke! In fact, sometimes I think nuking is a better use of mana than debuffing, if the mobs are dieing fast or you've got an abundance of heals.
Anyway, sorry, i think I got a bit off topic there. I did have my first experience ( this time around ) with an AFKer the other night. He wasn't a Ninja AFKer, though, just an unusually heavy smoker. I swear, every 20 minutes he'd be gone for a 5 minute smoke break.. sometimes in the middle of the fight. He was also.. err.. sluggish, is the best word I can think of. 10 seconds late to most fights. He was probably watching TV or something. The rest of the group was spot on, and the XP was pouring in, so I didn't make a thing of it. But a groupmate did. Man, he was raging about it. It got me thinking on if it was worth it. I can definitely see both sides to it. It's certainly frustrating to be giving 100% to the team and have someone just kind of phone it in. But I have enough drama in my life without getting into it in game. Ultimately, it was the group leader's responsibility. He warned the guy, and I ended up leaving for the night before a suitable replacement was found. ( It was late, I barely managed to find someone to replace myself, and had to go non-crowd control )
Well there is a good reason it makes you uncomfortable. Depending on where you are things could go very wrong very quickly. Things that have happened to me while pulling with a charmed pet: Charm breaks, of course, when leading a couple of pulls back and no way around it, cant stop and get stunned by ex-pet, then the pulls catch up right away and you got a mess. Of course casting was just not happening... doesn't happen a lot but does happen. Guess who was buttmashing not paying attention. Charm pet manages to get agro after a hit too far from camp, busy enough without hitting petback or petstop and well you know how it goes. Adds etc Constantly lom from not medding, my fault of course should have sat down. Yeah you can do it and it can be fun but it aint ideal and just about anyone can do it safer.
When ur bad, ur bad. Every inconvenience u just mentioned is easily navigable by being a good player. I didn't reccomend chanters pull.
How abouot a bard doing AFK ninja! They just need to start their /melody, go get a beer, and get rip-roaring drunk and suck up 20% more experience for doing mostly Nothing! (Not that I would EVER do something like that! I know how to handle my alcohol, and I don't get drunk. Unless, that is, I am close to my bed!) Someone please stop the world from spinning!
If I am leader of the group, I ask the group to announce ALL AFK's. It is healthy for someone taking 5-10 minutes per hour to get up and stretch, go for a smoke, grab a bit to eat, relieve eye strain, etc. It's just the random, unannounced AFK's that I have an issue with. If someone is taking unannounced AFK's, I remove them from group. If they don't respond shortly afterwards, I find a replacement for them.
