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RuneScoop.com  >  The RuneScoop Ultimate Skill Guide for RuneScape       >  The RuneScoop Ultimate Skill Guide - Dungeoneering            >  The RuneScoop Ultimate Skill Guide - Dungeoneering - Raid Mechanics

Preparing for Dungeoneering Starting the Dungeon, Floor Preparation and Determining Roles

If you plan to play solo, then forming a party is trivially simple: open the Dungeoneering interface, click “Form Party”, and you’re done. But if you want to play in a team, things are considerably more complicated. You need find from one to four additional players, who want to play the same floor as you, with the same basic game parameters, and who are all available at the same time. Sometimes this is easier than it sounds, and sometimes, well, it is exactly as hard as it sounds. :)

I’ll now discuss some of the methods commonly used by players to create teams for Dungeoneering. Note that the matter of whether or not you should play in a party is a separate discussion entirely... Other strategic decisions, such as what floor levels to do with teams, which size maps and complexity levels to use and so forth, are also strategy issues not discussed here.

The best way to form a team is to join up with one or more friends who are interested in playing. This has several obvious advantages, the most notable being that it is more fun to play with friends, and you all but eliminate the risk of getting a “dud” teammate who slows everyone down. You also can decide collectively the playing style you all want to use, to avoid conflicts between casual players and “rushers”.

The only real issues here are timing and scheduling. Some players only have limited amounts of time to get online, and it can be hard to get everyone on the same page. Usually, though, it is possible to arrange something, and even if you only do some of your Dungeoneering floors with friends, it is better than doing none at all.

Jagex created an automated system for grouping players together into teams. If you look around the perimeter of the large room north of the Fremennik banker, you’ll notice several barriers: one is called “free for all”, while the others are labeled with the names of the four Daemonheim zones.

In theory, you can pass through one of these barriers and the game will match you up with other players for floors in the appropriate areas. In practice, this feature is utterly useless. If you look at these rooms on even busy worlds, you’ll find that they are always empty, because most players don’t want to be randomly matched up with people they don’t know, and because a critical mass of players is needed for these features to be of any value.

Instead of the automatic system that Jagex implemented, players have set up their own informal system for creating teams. If you go to one of the popular Dungeoneering worlds, you’ll see players standing around near the dungeon entrances, calling out information. Some are team leaders looking for teammates, and others are players calling out looking for parties to join. This is a good way of getting a team together quickly under most circumstances, because everyone is already on the same server in the right place; as soon as the team is ready, play can begin right away.

To join an existing team, figure out what floor you want to do and under what parameters, and look for someone calling out the right information. Usually abbreviations are used to indicate the floor number being done, the size of the floor and the difficulty they plan to use. For example, someone announcing “f33 large 5:5 2 to go trade me” means they are leading a group to do floor #33, intending on a difficulty of 5:5 (5 players, maximum difficulty) and two more team members are needed. You announce your intention to join the party by trading the person; he or she will then invite you to the party if he or she decides you are a good match for the team.

Be sure to check what the team leader is saying carefully, to ensure you don’t end up doing a floor you’ve already completed on your current run, or doing a large when you’d like to do a small or vice-versa. Note that some team members may specify that they want to do multiple floors, using a term like “f21-25”; if you don’t have time to do all of those floors, don’t ask to join. Also, watch out for the use of the word “rush”—this means the leader is planning to do the floor quickly, skipping some elements of the dungeon in the name of speed. However, the word “rush” means different things to different people.

Forming your own team is done in pretty much the same way, except that you are the leader. You get to decide what floor you’ll do, the difficulty, map size etc. You can also choose who joins the party. Being the leader gives you more control, but bear in mind that you also have more responsibility: your party members will look to you to ensure that the floor is completed in an efficient and enjoyable way. Be sure that you clearly specify how you’re going to do the floor, to avoid potential problems.

World 2 and World 117 are good choices for finding parties on-server. World 117 seems to be mainly for higher-level players (mainly combat level 120+) while World 2 has a wider array of player levels. I’ve heard that World 1 is a decent choice for free players.

Another option for creating a team is to use the RuneScape official forums. There’s a board called “Adventuring Parties” in the “Dungeons of Daemonheim” section, where players post looking for teammates.

The process here is pretty much the same as finding a party on a server. If seeking a party to join, review existing threads looking for someone starting a party with the parameters and conditions you desire (floor number, difficulty, etc.) If starting your own party, post a thread specifying what you want to do.

There are a few advantages to using the forums. You can potentially reach more suitable teammates, since many more people read the forums than will usually be on your local server. You can also more clearly specify the conditions under which you want to run a team. Finally, you and your party can agree to play on a quieter server that causes less lag than the busy servers where teams are usually constructed.

The main disadvantage of the forums is that it is often slow. There still aren’t that many people using the forums for this purpose, and sometimes you have to wait a while to get a team of five assembled. This is not that suitable an option, then, for people who just want to do a floor or two quickly. But it is often a good way to go for those who are more particular about what they want to do and are willing to wait to find like-minded teammates.

Preparing for Dungeoneering Starting the Dungeon, Floor Preparation and Determining Roles