Team AFK

In my guild on combine, there are several players who have discovered a
peculiar affinity; there are times when we like to play but have to
spend an inordinate amount of time AFK or semi AFI (on the phone or
otherwise distracted)

I'm among those people; there are times when I'll log on but do the
dishes or other household chores, take business calls, help the kids
with their homework, and what have you.

In the past, I've always made a point of soloing or duoing with a good
and understanding friend when doing this.

Now, though, a group of like minded people has gradually formed, where
we all know that any of us might have to go AFK on short notice, and
might not be fully on the ball at other times.

Any one of us can, after all, solo the mobs we're killing, for the most
part, or at least park them while waiting for help. But while that was
crucial when duoing, its not really necessary when you've got a group of
five or six; its rare that more than one or two people are
simultaneously gone.

We've been fighting in SF for quite some time now; its arguably the best
exp available on the combine server, since its a Hot Zone, and we're
farming spells for the guild. This means lots of slogging, and
occaisionally we spawn a Guardian Wurm and have to actually pay
attention; knowing that folks might be ninja afk we make a big deal of
the Mana/Readiness check when we spot one.

There's a guild shaman who is part of our circle of friends who is NOT a
fan of the "Team AFK" approach, he doesn't log on unless he's ready to
give it his full attention, he tries to avoid being AFK at all while we
are playing, or tries to get us all to stop for a med break if he needs
a bio or to grab soda or a snack or something; he logs out if something
comes up that he needs to take care of, or at least leaves the group and
moves over to one side.

We're tolerant of his foibles, generally he plays in the evening when we
are more able to devote full time and attention to play, and I'll admit
that during this time we're certainly more efficient and more effective.

But we lapped him; he started out a couple levels higher than us, and
the core trio from Team AFK just hit 60 when he barely made 59.

Why? Because spending 8 hours making 1/2ths the exp you would if you
are really paying attention is like spending 4 hours... while remaining
logged off during that 8 hours is like spending 0 hours!

But more than that, the shaman and cleric stack their buffs onto us, so
even when they aren't there, they are still having an effect; I'm a much
better tank even if there's nobody actually at the keyboard but me when
I'm buffed to the gills than I would be genuinely soloing. And even
that doesn't happen so often; usually people are "semi afk" which means
the shaman will slow the mob and sic his pet, the cleric will send in
her hammer and occaisionally CHeal me, if its me who's afk I'll probably
engage the mob, just not slap on full debuffs or work real hard at
keeping aggro. If I'm really afk, the group often pulls chromodracs and
has the pets chew them down; this increases the number of regular spawns
in the area.

Consider too the mana cycle; we generally run at about 50% mana on
everyone's bar. If you're about to go afk, you use your mana even
heavier than usual. When you come back, you're at or near full mana,
and again use it heavier than usual for a while. For relatively short
afk's, this means you've really contributed the same amount as if you'd
been there nuking more slowly the whole time.

Taking everything into consideration, I'd say Team AFK isn't doing 1/2
as well as Team Attentive; its doing around 3/4ths as well.

Team AFK is so flexible on this, though, that we take it to extremes;
I've literally had to go away for an hour. I moved over away from AOE
range, FD'd, and went. If someone else showed up LFG, the team would
boot me and replace me with someone who'd contribute, but in the
meantime, sixth man doesn't actually cost you any exp, so they just
leave me in... knowing that I would and in fact have done the same for
any of them. About half the time when this has happened, I've come back
and found myself still in the group.

This is very disconcerting to guild mates who aren't regular members of
the Team AFK core; they have to run to the store and want to leave
group, we encourage them to remain grouped. What the heck, we're PLing
them a little bit, they're part of the guild and if they are higher
level we all benefit!

Berg, 60 SK, Combine