Team Play - Communication - Part 2

In part 2 of Team Play - Communication series, I want to go over the first of 4 rules my groups use in communication.

One person calls the shots. This person is referred to as the Caller. Everyone else follows. That doesn't mean everyone else is quiet though.

Simply put, the caller is the boss. The caller in my groups is usually a melee dps or tank. His primary job is to prioritize targets to be killed while making sure his own group stays alive. The caller is in the thick of the battle and cannot always see everything going on. This is where the rest of the group comes in. The rest of the group needs to keep the caller informed of important events that he likely cannot see.

If you're a healer, and you have someone on you shutting you down so you can't heal worth a crap, the caller needs to know that before pushing forward. The caller may well decide he can push forward without your healing or he may decide to send someone or everyone to clear you of enemies. Or if you are casting a rez, say something so that another healer doesn't try to rez also. If you have enemies chasing you, call it out so we can get a guard on you if possible. (A tank kiting with a healer he's guarding is quite a sight to behold if I say so myself.)

If you're a melee dps and the caller tells you to hit a target by yourself while everyone else hits a second target, but you are coming under focus fire for doing so, speak up. If you are aren't guarded, the group can try to give you a guard, but they have know you're in trouble.

If you have some kind of hard CC placed on you, call it out.

The one thing I hate to hear on vent is silence, especially if I am calling. So speak up. I would rather you communicate and tell you that I didn't need to know than hear nothing and push up and wonder why I have no heals. I needed to know you were staggered right when it happened. The caller needs all relevant information in order to have a chance at making the correct decision.

However, it's very easy for vent to get cluttered. So in the next part, I'll give you my solution for that.