Before you zhen:
It is best to zhen with people you already know are good at it. Otherwise you'll have to teach the noobs if you have any. This may also result in deaths which often lead to the party disbanding.
If you use world chat to start a zhen party or if you join a zhen party advertised on world chat, ask questions first.
Who is new?
Who is experienced?
Will the squad be set to random or free distribution? If it's a good squad it'll be free distribution where the pullers pick up stuff, sell it afterward and split up the money according to standard/acceptable proceedures.
Does anyone have connection issues? Just found out last night that if a party member dc's it'll really mess up your zhen party. Never had one dc on us before. The wizard I was dueling (archers normally duel clerics but can duel wizards too) dc'd therefore not only leaving the party but stopping his aoe attack on the mobs but also my aoe attack on the mobs.
Be sure you have at least 2 hours, because it takes a while to form a party and to scout out suitable locations. A squad willusually zhen for one hour, but it can be extended to two hours if everyone wishes.
Have a mount if you are a puller (barb, veno, sword) and you are not zhenning in Nightscream. Have both a gold mp and a gold mp charm and also 10k-30k ammo if you are an archer. Have gold mp and hp charms if you are a wiz or a cleric. Don't zhen with people who are too high or too low compared to your level. Five levels up or down is normal. Bring 5-10 guardian angels if you are learning how to zhen or if you are zhenning with noobs or if you are the lowest level in the party.
Note on charms: if you have one or two equipped already and will run out during the zhen session, you don't have to "stop pull" to swap out the charms. Simply open your inventory, right click on the charm and select to replace the charm.
Note to pullers in Nightscream: don't pull the ranged mobs. They are called "brigand something" I think.
Have fun zhenning, even if it doesn't work out. Then later on, after you are a pro working with pros, it'll be a blast.
I still like it, even though I've never been in a party that did the minumum one hour of zhen, which is standard.
If you have questions in-game please pm me. If you want me to look at your zhen party and give you my opinion, I'll come to your party or join the squad to assess the situation.
No, you don't have to have a full squad. We had a very successfull zhen party with 5 people. Then I pm'd my friend Blackestfire to have him help pull, because I wanted us to have more mobs pulled in, and because he knows more about zhenning than I do. I invited him to the squad and we started again after he showed up.
After the wiz dc'd and someone died (the cleric) then the squad broke up as she had already died once before (I think). I stayed in Nightscream looking for another cleric when I saw Voble on world chat still wanting to zhen. We joined up and made a new squad. This time we had 2 clerics, 2 archers, 2 pullers. Even though 4 of us had just been zhenning together, we didn't adjust the stratgy at all for the new players/levels. Which we should have done.
Verticoli stops by to scope out the area, he wants to zhen too it seems.
Here is a good example of the clerics, one does "blue bubble" the other does "red ball".
Too many mobs were pulled. We should have stopped and fled. The first cleric dying should have been a sign. . . Romeo and I tried to just kill the mobs instead and then the other cleric died a bit before I died. Notice the mobs in the background that the pullers pulled off of us. They fled into the water where the mobs won't follow you.
We set up a new formation to protect the clerics. Notice that the archers are placed on either side of the clerics. The pullers were supposed to pull mobs only to the archers and not pull too many. It takes a while to learn to zhen. . . . . .
A little while later is when I started running out of bolts for the crossbow. . .
For those interested in how much exp this failed endeavor earned me, here are some pics. First one is before we started zhenning, second one is from the last pic I took during the second party, last one is after zhen when I was in the cube. I zhenned between the last two pics, but don't think I really killed anything after leaving the zhen squad.
Note to Archers: you must see this in order for it to work properly. The archer defeats the other player in the duel, otherwise the charms won't fire for either party. The archer in the first party had trouble killing the wizard, as did I. So, he took off his armor and we adjusted the duel. Kill the other person about half-way with any skill you wish but do not waste sparks yet, you'll need both sparks for the aoe. When the other person is about half-dead, start using the aoe to kill them. You also don't have to keep "spamming aoe" literally, just push it once the first time and it'll keep going. I didn't know this and have never done it this way. I had to do something irl so I couldn't continue with this zhen party even though it was quite fun.
Note to person being killed by archer: don't fight back. . . . . . don't heal yourself . . . . you must die for it to work. . . . . . .it's just a duel you won't really die. . . . .
Lol, guess who just read the link posted earlier from the MY forum, I looked at it earlier but forgot to read it thoroughly. It says alot of the stuff I've written here.