Just to add/amplify a few things:
It's a VERY good idea to ask the defenders and controllers coming on your team if they have an abilities that need to be explained to the group. Sometimes it's surprising what other players don't know.
Designate someone to call "Run" and someone else to pick initial targets. Three Blasters sniping three different Tsoo Sorcerors aren't doing your group any favors. Along those lines, make sure your teammates know how to assist others (target a teammate and your powers hit his/her target). I'm regularly shocked when I do a TF and find blasters and support types who don't know about that.
Sometimes a leader is a leader in and out of combat. Sometimes the leader is out-of-combat only. In any case, it's a good idea to have someone calling tactics. Tactics are frequently the difference between a very easy and a very, very hard mission.
Ideas for Discussion:
Use cover for most of your team while pulling vs. general participation in the initial moments of a fight
Lead with Pull vs. Rush vs. AoE Blast/Mez
Having Blasters hold back AoEs, or having blasters lead with them (usually that's dumb but it makes clumps for greens die quickly).
Getting everyone to follow a melee-type (if a tank or scrapper accidently wanders into a fight, he's more likely to survive it)
Staying close for buffs/heals vs. spreading out to protect from AoEs and being surrounded
Combat rezzing or not?
Recall friend when teammates are badly hurt or not?
Are there going to be an (de)buff/heal priorities?
Obviously not all of those things will come up.
It's also important to establish some kind of order WRT to training/selling/visiting contacts. I try to set break times and make them clear: Every second or third mission I give my teammates 10 minutes to do those things. I hate being in a group with a 10 minute break between EACH mission because one guy needs to sell now and another guy needs to train later and someone else...
As a combat leader it's also your responsibility to notice when endurance breaks are needed. This especially important for leaders with END efficient builds! Nothing worse than having the guy in charge dart ahead while the rest of the team staggers behind, running on fumes. Happens WAY too often.
Things I hate: Anime. PvP. Lying MMO Developers. Outleveling content. Manga. ED. Comic Store Employees. Anime.
Awesome guiide with some great info! Thanks. 
I wonder if it would be worthwhile to write up the:
"HeroCorps standardized Playbook"
It would be a list of all the "calls" to issue standard "orders"
eg:
"Alpha Strike " = tank rush in and grab aggro. Everyone else follow in.
"Ambush" = everyone get behind a corner or hide while the blaster pulls with a single target attack. Blaster then hides as well.
"Echelon formation" = everyone stay very close to the defender to get those good buffs and heals in combat. No running forward.
"7/10 split" = Two controllers in group. "Left" designated controller mezzes or holds the left side, "Right" controller messes of holds the right side (so they're not wasting effort on same targets). Melees and blasters concentrate on middle targets first.
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Be cool to have a standardized playbook, then email it (ingame) to everyone I team with.
Hopefully a good playbook would catch on and get wide distribution.
Excellent basic MMO team guide and a great customized guide for CoH. My only addition to the leader part of the guide would be:
Recognize when someone isn't a team player and needs to be kicked from the group, regardless of his level or abilities. You can usually tell this on a few conversation lines or the first couple of battles. Scrappers who constantly ignore orders and charge head into battle, Blasters who use AOEs without regard for the group, or Healers who are lagged out or can't follow with the group fast enough are all group members which should be politely avoided and/or discarded. Having a half-***** team member - for whatever reason - will usually bring the whole group down and should be replaced as soon as possible. Fight some greens and blues, and then issue a few private polls using /tell to make sure everyone thinks roughly the same way before you have a mass group exodus.
Do not be discouraged if you have to lay down the hammer and your SC TF group dissolves early or your newbie Perez group never takes off. It's always better to wait 5 or 10 minutes and reform with potentially better recruits than die a few times and spend hours re-earning debt. If you sense a teammate or two not working out in the first couple of battles, ask him to shape up or boot him manually. If it's a key member such as a tank or a healer then you're better off without him and better off waiting for a better replacement.
A good group leader will scold but not bully, he'll nudge but not mock, and he'll kick instead of wasting time with some big argument. This leader will desingate a Main Assist when possible, instruct support troops such as healers and blasters what do target, and make sure nobody attacks whatever is rooted.
This leader will also figure out the map, know where to hunt, and know the skills of a certain type of Boss, and know whether the CC'er is too low of a level to be of use.
I have only a few peevs when teaming.
1) people who don't understand end:
If everyone but that player is on low end and he runs off to draw some aggro... *argh
2) the horny blaster:
thinks, "well i've got a big gun and lots of end, I'm just going to run off and pull some reds.." also, see above
3) the thinker:
spends minutes before realising that the whole team have got into a fight, spends another minute deciding what to attack.. spends a few minutes waiting for everyone to run back from the hospital.
4) the "you're not the boss of me!":
takes no orders/recommendations, often gets killed. Leaves team soon afterwards. I'm not sure why but blasters seem to fall into this category a lot....
Hon
Thanks for the comments. I like your idea Fjorn, that could be a big help if you can get people to pay attention to it. It might be a bit more than most pickup teams would put up with. For an organized group or a task force, that would be nice though.
As for kicking people, I really try to avoid that. As long as things are running smoothly, its probably better to let it slide, just to keep everyone happy. Only if its causing problems do I kick someone. I had one guy, a blaster, in a group in Faultline. The rest of the group would take on some clockworks. He would run behind us and aggro a separate group and pull them to us. He would (of course) die, wasting much of my healing end, and we'd be stuck fighting 2 groups. After 3 times doing this (and warnings not to), the team leader kicked him.
I realized I left one thing out. What do I mean by a successful group. It does not necessarily mean that its the optimum for fastest xp (I have little experience with that), but rather the optimum for having noone die while moving along at a nice pace and everyone having fun. If people die a lot, the team generally gets frustrated (for obvious reasons). With teams following the guidelines I have up there, everyone has ended with no, or at least less, debt.
This was very helpful, before reading this I thought I was helping when I used my most powerful AOE as the first attack to weaken the entire mob. Heh!
All of the ideas above are great. One thing that I would like to add is some advise for those that are NOT the leader, but are merely members.
Please peeps, if you happen to get into a team where success isn't instant, or you whipe on the first pull....don't just quit the team imediately after death. The least you could do is say something before leaving, and preferably something more than "I gotta go" and quit within seconds. It's a bit frustrating when you finally get a team together and one bad pull causes a breakup. Try to give it another shot cause maybe it was just a mistake or the team just pulled mobs a bit too powerful for them. Instead of just quitting on the team, suggest what you think could avoid the whipe, or at least why you think it happened. Communicate and try to give the team at least a second chance.
I find that usually those that quit in these situations are either the person that is a novice and is scared away at the red/purple mobs.....or it is the one who is 2 levels above everyone else and thinks he/she is too good for the rest of the team.
But just leaving the Team without even explaining why is just immature! 
I'm not saying you don't have a right to leave a group if you feel it isn't great...or even if you feel it sux. But give the rest the common courtesy of explaining what you are doing and why. Who knows? Maybe you were the cause of the bad pull, or maybe it was me. But whatever it is, working it out can benefit alot more than just ducking out!
---------------------------
I may be a newb at CoH, but I have been playing MMORPG's for years!
Savyor - 14 Fire/Dev Blaster
Intel Inside - 11 Kinetics/Energy Defender
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This was very helpful, before reading this I thought I was helping when I used my most powerful AOE as the first attack to weaken the entire mob. Heh!
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I love my blasters, but your most powerful AoE isn't going to drop big groups of even-con mobs fast enough for all of them NOT to at least get a shot or two off at you before a Tank gets into position to draw their aggro.
The script goes something like this:
1. Blaster lets off a fireball to start a fight. Maybe six mobs get wounded.
2. Six mobs return fire at the blaster as Tanks and Scraps run in front of him.
3. Blaster goes yellow (or worse) more or less immediately, and spends the rest of the fight getting attacked by every unengaged mob damaged by even a sliver of his fireball.
4. As a result, healer spends the whole fight using single target heals on a blaster, rather than the tanks and scraps who really need them.
If it makes you feel any better, Controllers with AoE mezzes and roots have the same problem.
Things I hate: Anime. PvP. Lying MMO Developers. Outleveling content. Manga. ED. Comic Store Employees. Anime.
Yes, and defender AoEs can do the same thing. Early with my storm defender I used snowstorm on a group of yellows. I was on the ground before the healer could throw out a single power.
The super hero rule books is a capital idea. We have been working (not too diligently) on team tactics lately (G.A.I.A on Infinity). The most effective is to let someone with a taunt power pull one baddie at a time to where the team is hiding. (A tanker, scrapper and Blaster handled a few missions this way with no healer). As a blaster, I have learned that whenever I try to Pull the entire mob charges in. This is never a good thing.
This may go without saying, but whatever the leader's tactics are, I reccomend Binding the commands. Saves typing time.
Maybe soon we can impliment the fastball special. Tanker throughs scrapper into the fight. could be fun.
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The super hero rule books is a capital idea. We have been working (not too diligently) on team tactics lately (G.A.I.A on Infinity).
[/ QUOTE ]
So where do we find your playbook?
I think the AoEs have been underrated here: Generally speaking, it's a quick trip to the hospital for blasters who recklessly open fights with AoEs. But know who your teammates are and what their abilities bring to the table, and your AoEs will be pain free and really mop up foes quickly.
Starting at the mid-levels (22+) Controllers can routinely lock down entire mobs at a time (hold), and in those teamups, your purpose of existence is to hose down mobs with AoEs. Likewise if you're paired up with a good FF defender, 95% of any retaliation will miss, so AoEs to open a fight can be a thing of beauty. Paired up with Dark and Radiation defenders also provide ample opportunities for wholesale AoE slaughter. Of course, there's the standard provoke tanker/scrapper as well, who clumps all the foes nicely for you and preemps the aggro. AoE away!
So rather than say, don't open fights with AoEs, it's best to say: Learn under which circumstances your teammates will worship you for melting mobs away with AoEs; and know when to wait and pick your opportunities for AoEs, and thus avoid hospital tabs.
Sorry for the digression, I guess I've sidetracked this towards "how to be a smart AoE blaster" rather than leading teams.
----
To bring this back to topic, moving a team along is absolutely key as a team leader, as mentioned above. The surest sign to me that a pickup team is going to be lame and not worth my time, is when I join up and the response to "so what's the plan?" is either "I have a lot of debt" or "what do you guys want to do?" These teams have no leadership, and everyone will invariably end up standing around, attack different mobs at the same time, run off in separate directions, etc. or -- and this is what you should do too -- break up because everyone is bored.
If you're running missions for the xp, select the missions of the highest level teammates. Unless they've got outdated missions (defenders and controllers tend to have old ones), you'll get the highest level foes and thus most xp from those missions. But if you really wanna make a defender or controller's day, select their missions to knock em off their list. Also look for teammates with multiple hunt missions. If 3 different teammates all have the same "hunt X", it's really efficient to do them at once and make everyone happy.
My rule of thumb is this: If someone is significantly higher in level than the others, always run their missions first. If there are multiple missions in the same zone, do those to minimalize travel/down time. If people are within reasonable level of one another, cycle through each teammate's missions; i.e. spread the love. The exception for me is if someone's mission turns into a story arc -- it's fun to follow those to the end, and they'll appreciate the help.
If your team is going well and everyone is having fun and enjoying teaming with one another, knock off the lower level players' missions, even if they're not worth much xp. If the team is vibing well, no one will mind doing this, and makes the mission "owner" ecstatic, especially if it's a defender or controller mission.
A team slows down when people are leaving in the middle to go train/sell. (Btw, a sure sign someone is a newbie, is when they have to go train immediately on a level up, and can't wait for a break or for the rest of the team to ding.) For those kinds of players, when they cannot resist the urge to train/sell, I politely let them know, Ok, I'll look for a replacement, page me when you're ready to rejoin. (Good players know they can hold before training/selling, and the ones who can't hold typically aren't good players, so they are worth replacing. But having said that, just because I say that, doesn't mean I will necessarily kick/replace them. But it's good to put on the table so they know it's a possibility.)
What I like to do is let people know ahead of time, don't train/sell, we'll do it as a team. I guess a way to describe this is, manage and designate downtime for people to hit contacts, sell enhancements, train, etc. It's better for the entire team to break at once, rather than individuals randomly leaving in between fights to take care of personal business.
Anyways, yeah, just to restate what someone else already posted, keep a team moving. Or put most succinctly: LEAD! If someone on your team shows more experience towards the game, don't be afraid to allow them to lead. But make it clear to the team, "Ok, we're going to follow player X."
Some more notes:
There's different types of leaders too. There's the "keep things together" leader (i.e. the game-designated leader) who recruits and selects missions.
There are "follow me" leaders, that the teammates follow. This should be the person with the most experience in a given zone, or the "first into battle" teammate for door missions, or perhaps someone with invisibility/stealth/SS.
There is the "tactical leader" who designates what mob is being engaged, which foes need to be eliminated/neutralized first, etc. Often that person will also be the "combat leader" who initiates fights, but not always so. (E.g. the tactical leader says, this mob and take out X. But it may be the cloaked blaster who leads off with a time bomb, or a lockdown controller who AoE holds the entire mob, or the provoke tanker, etc.)
All these different lead roles may or may not be the same person, but make it clear to the team who is leading under those kinds of circumstances.
It really throws a team into disarray if four different players are all shouting "here", or people are randomly blasting to start a fight or conversely, people are standing around waiting for someone to start a fight.
Good guide. One thing to note though is that there are exceptions to just about every rule. One notable one that annoys me sometimes is when a person continually plays what they consider their "role" (and it usually is their role) even when a certain situation would be better tackled another way. A classic example from my experiences is the tanker who will constantly draw initial agro even when it might be better using non-traditional tactics. For example, my blaster is certainly a lot better off waiting for a tank to agro in most circumstances, but there is the occasion where we'll encounter a very tightly-packed group of low-cons that I could take down in 1 or 2 fast AoE shots (especially if I'm willing to eat some damage inspirations), saving us a potentially messy fight. But, I've encountered a few tanks who just won't allow this. "Hey, wait, let me flame this group first", "I'm tank, I lead", etc. Sometimes even after demonstrating that this tactic does work when I "call" it (i.e. find a group of mobs it'll work on and say so), some tankers will just flat out ignore it, since they see leading into all fights as "their job" and something they won't let another AT do.
Of course this can go for a lot of other situations too, like controllers leading with AoE holds, defenders leading with debuffs, etc. Maybe in the vast majority of cases it's better to do things a certain way and to follow your AT's most effective "role", but I also think it's important for groups to be willing to adopt atypical tactics, especially if they've already been demonstrated to be effective. Of course, you don't want to risk your whole group's life because your defender thinks he can melee a purple boss, but if it looks like a person knows what theyre doing and attempting it would be relatively safe, it's a good idea to keep an open mind when it comes to adopting different tactics.
Good work here.
A pet peeve of mine is the "gotta train now" players.
I still abide by 3 strikes and your out, but leaving a group to train is 2 strikes on its own. Really.
I really hope this stops once I hit the 30's.
Also, it is up to the defenders and controllers to speak up about special powers.
A good leader *should* ask, but letting people know about special holds or auras (targeted heals, etc.) is up to the player.
I know I don't always explain what "the juice" is ahead of time. And I really feel bad for mind controllers.
I try to give the team a choice : this mission or that mission, this mission or hunting. Always "A or B" not multiple choice.
Usually it's either tackling the highest level mission that the controllers can reasonably handle or hunt hazard zones.
I don't have to be pushy. 
It would be great to come up with a glossary (lingo guide).
My MMOG experience is limited to the first month of Ultima Online, so the "leet"Q'ers leave me dazed and confused at times.
Nice guide, but since you pointed it out...
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-The ability to type well. This can be underrated, but its really needed.
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"it's" in that context 
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4) the "you're not the boss of me!":
takes no orders/recommendations, often gets killed. Leaves team soon afterwards. I'm not sure why but blasters seem to fall into this category a lot....
[/ QUOTE ]
this is great! I've found a few scrappers that fall into this catagory and last night a healer [censored] that left when she led the attack to KS 2 people duoing when i said NOT to attack cuz it was another groups.
Grouping basics:
When u see another group killing mobs in your path...just go past them. They don't want your help unless they ask for it. Why be a stupid newb asswipe KS'er? ...and i mean that in a good way. All u do is steal some of their experience and people hate that. 
I make groups of the same lvl most of the time. sometimes one lvl lower or higher but exp gets low when u do it. TF are a bit different. When u need people u have a limited choice and u have to go with whoever is out there.
Other good grouping basics are for people to stay close together while fighting. I hate when everyone gets all spread out. Group heals and other buffs mainly from kinetics, are lost when people don't fight in a tight group.
here are a few group commands i always use.
1. Everyone has to know what to attack and who to assist on bosses. I'd like everyone to assist me on all mobs when i play a tank but it never works out 100%. Different tactics and AE strats, means that different combos work not just the assist the tank always EQ strat....however it is nice when i play with people who do it when not AEing. I love it when scrappers assist me when i play a tank cuz i hold agro with taunt and they just open a can of whoop azz on whatever we are fighting. Mobs die so fast and i take little damage and the scrapper doesn't get a scratch while DPSing the shizzle out of things! So i don't know why people get confused with a scrapper's role in a group. They are great damage dealers and they don't always HAVE TO TAKE ON their own mobs separate from the tank. However if they are pulling mobs off of the weak members it's all good. A good tank will hold agro for the scrapper though. As in my case I provoke to pull mobs off of anyone that gets agro...be it blasters or healers. Provoke is awesome and not just to save newbie a$$es....wow, big sidetrack! -Anyways back to commands!
Attack > $target < (target me and assist)
2. Everyone needs to know when to hold up and recover end.
> END Break < (yes even u!)
3. Everyone needs to know when the group is moving.
MOVING >> follow me plz <<
4. for pulling a good message is.
HOLD HERE >> Pulling a $target << to us!
Those are just some basic messages a leader should have. I normally bind them to the numpad but u can use whatever trigger that suits u.
here's a basic bind and macro command format.
/bind numpad1 "team <color tags> <message>"
/macro <name of macro> "team <color tags> <message>"
check out the bind threads for all the bind and macro info.
later,
~viseo
I just wish they would add a command to pass leadership to someone else. I know you can just quit and join again, but in pickup groups... well... sometimes I just don't trust the guy next in line. 
Still... this guide will help a lot.
I think one thing should be added to the list of leading a team. If someone does not have their "Seek Team" toggled, DO NOT invite them to be on a team without asking. Nothing aggro's me more than to be bombarded with invites when i was trying to solo. Not everyone wants to be on a team all the time.
Just my $.02
Great guide. I wish all players would read this. I've been the victim of bad leadership on too many ocassions.
You can't beat an overwhelming number of higher level enemies with a low level team.
I should macro that phrase because I've had to type it all too often the past few days.
May I add one thing. It was mentioned earlier in the guide about controllers & defenders trying to explain their powers. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! I play both a controller and a defender and there are many many times when I have been in a team were everyone got killed simply because I would put a whole group to sleep and then someone would hit the group right after me with an area attack (usually that only drains the whole group for 5 life). And this is after explaining that once you hit the enemy they will wake up. I'm sure a lot of mind controllers are nodding their heads now
Anyway now that I am done with my little rant. Here is a little suggestions to the controllers/defenders out there. Usually it helps to do a /bind command that informs your whole team of your powers (rememeber to do this when everyone is just standing around playing with emotes before they start the mission).
-Here is a quick example /bind p "team Keep in mind that I am a mind-radiation controller and many of my attacks are sleep holds. If you hit an enemy while he is sleeping, he will wake up and go all aggro. This includes area attaks when I stun a group"
Now I just jotted that off the top of my head so I'm sure that someone can come up with something a little better. Having a single key that you can hit upon a team invite should hopefully help with getting a better understanding of everyones powers. There are a lot of diverse characters in this game and the better everyone understands everyone elses powers, the better off the team will be!
-Lost Paladin & XA-3 (Liberty Server)
I play a scrapper, and had the good luck to be invited into a 4 scrapper team once. Everyone had to carry a few awakens, but it changed gameplay completely.
Ever since then whenever I join a team I let the Def/Cons know I fully expect to eat some floor, and will not repay a rez with the gracious refrain "Where the F was my heal !!?"
This usually gets a "lol - I hate that" and a few friendly pointers about whether they have AoE or targeted heals, etc... Much better to find that out before I'm face down.
Point is: you've paid $15 to play with other people. Teams are the most fun if you talk to them.
Bonney lvl 18 Scrapper
This all good info
My first post was about leadership. Sadly it has been deleted. And I agree - too few people read these forums to get the message out there.
The group is the responsibility of all the team members - if your leader is not up to scratch - you have to tell them too.
I've noticed that many team leaders out there seem unaware of how to successfully run a pickup team. Many more seem unaware of what makes up a successful team. Although many of those people probably don't read these forums, I'll post what I've learned as the leader of teams and task forces (up to level 25) from the perspective of someone that's played every archetype (my main is a level 25 storm defender).
Basics:
The commands you need to know as a team leader are:
/invite (name) - this command invites the person with (name). You can also invite people with the find button on the team menu or by right clicking on them.
/sk (name) - invites a person to be a sidekick. You can also right click on them.
/findmember - not as useful for the team leader, but it allows others to access the find menu of the team section. I've found it very useful. Others cannot use the invite button, but they can relate names of people to the leader for inviting.
Leadership:
In most pickup teams I've been in, there has been a real ambivalence on what to do. This doesn't work, the group will waffle, and probably fall apart if noone moves things along. You need to suggest something; people will probably go along with anything, but you have to suggest something to start the conversation. Running missions, hunting, whatever. When you're in the mission, make sure everyone knows who to follow so you don't end up pulling multiple groups. If things are going badly, you need to make sure people understand that they need to assist one another. Whether you like it or not, as the leader, you are usually in charge. On the other hand, I've seen successful teams where someone not the leader is leading the team. That's fine too, as long as everyone knows who's calling the shots. (wouldn't it be nice if we had a change leader command?)
Keeping it moving:
If you want to keep a team going, you need to recruit. Constantly. Between every mission or every few minutes in a hazard zone, check the find menu. This is really the only way to keep the team size up. Otherwise it will attrition away as people leave. Its a constant struggle to keep enough people involved in the group. Try to keep the downtime between missions to a minimum. If you have to go AFK, at least pick the next mission so people can start heading there. A word on starting battles. Never start a battle with an AoE unless you're a tank. You will die. Maybe not the first time, but you will. I see it all the time. No archetype except a tank can survive the counterattack from the enemy (maybe some scrappers could, but their AoEs are generally small). If you have an AoE, wait to use it until after the first volley of single target attacks has gone through or the tank has aggro. If you have controllers/defenders, let them get off a few debuffs/holds before letting all hell break lose with your AoE. This will save you lots of debt.
Team Building:
Although with pickup groups you often can't pick and choose what you want (with tf groups its more important), you can try to aim for a successful group. Be sure to travel to other zones to look for people if you're still short of the number you're aiming for. First off, you don't need a full time healer. No, you don't. Really. Some of my best teams have had no healer and some of the worst have had 3. What you need is diversity. I had a team with 7 blasters and 1 empath once. We were horrible. Absolutely terrible, people died all over the place. Some guiding points for teams with 6+ people.
- You need meleers. Two scrappers work well, or a single tank. If you can't find meleers you'll need 3-4 controllers/defenders to keep the enemies debuffed and held.
- You need one blaster or two scrappers at least. Ever seen a team of 6 without any damage dealers? Too slow, the controllers could probably solo faster.
- Multiples are not good in some cases. Two of the same blaster, scrapper, or tank is ok. Two of the same controller or defender is less so. Having two different controllers or defenders is much more powerful than two of the same kind. Its really a huge difference.
- If someone mentions a friend online, grab them. Why? There are several reasons. The two friends probably will work well together since they know one another's abilities. Also, the person has friends, so the likelyhood they are a well adjusted human is better. And of course, it'll make your teammate happy, which is always good.
- Sidekicks are underrated. You can safely sidekick someone up to 10 levels lower than you. Below that is a bit problematic because it means they have far fewer enhancements and powers. When recruiting a sk, you should tell the person that before inviting them so they don't look around and say, "I think I'm in the wrong group".
- You should sidekick people who take damage first. This means blasters that are aggro-magnets first, then scrappers, then tanks, then whoever else. Its unnecessary to sk people three levels lower (especially with the purple patch fixed) unless the team is having a very hard time.
- A team should probably be all within 4 levels (after sking).
In smaller teams, its easier to make a team. With 4 or less, you can get away with just about any combination and do just fine. Also, if your team is a mismatch and not very effective, you're better going to hazard zones where the number of mobs is limited than trying missions (where the number of mobs scales with team size).
Managing Missions:
As leader, your main job (after recruiting) is managing the missions. First, you select missions from the team mission screen. If you click on the mission, without hitting select task, the mission icon will appear on your nav bar if the mission is in the same zone as you. This will save you having to continually hit select mission while looking for one in the zone you are in. Also, if you select a different mission after you have entered and left a mission, then reselected the current mission, the mission will be reset. It will be readjusted for the current number of people on the team, and all the mobs will be restored (i.e. you will have to restart the mission). This can be useful to lower the difficulty after people quit, or to raise the difficulty after people join. Also, if everyone alive leaves the mission (leaving only dead people), the mission will sometimes reset. I'm not sure about the specifics of this, its been erratic in my experience. Also note, that if you have started an instanced mission, and the person who holds the mission quits, you can complete the mission normally.
The level of a mission will depend on the level the mission holder was when he got the mission and the team size. The enemies in a normal mission will be either the mission level, or if the team has 5+ people, the enemies will be the mission level+1. If the mission is front loaded, the enemies at the front will be 1 level higher than normal, and drop off to up to 8 levels lower than the mission level. Given all this, it seems to be ideal to pick missions of people within 0-2 levels of the highest level person in the group, assuming the whole group fits within a 4 level span after sking. If most of the team is lower or uncoordinated, pick a lower level person's mission. Sidekick's missions will always be too easy for the group.
Are you ready to lead a team?
The things you need to lead a team are:
- A stable connection (an unstable leader is a bad thing).
- A good command of English (or whatever language the team is speaking, I've only been in one non-English team, a group of French people who were very nice to use English for me).
-The ability to type well. This can be underrated, but its really needed.
-Patience.
Good luck out there, hope to join your team some time. Add your comments if you feel something is missing (or plain wrong). Anyone adding high level post-25 content would be appreciated.