Fellowships

Fellowships were introduced in The Buried Sea expansion and are an interesting feature to help a group of friends explore and experience together more easily.

I'm currently stulggring to work out when I need to schedule my post  on the 31st I'll be in Denver, so an hour offset from PST, but I live in London, and my server is based in the UK, and we change our clocks to British Summer Time (our equivalent of DST) this weekend, so who knows. But whether I hit 12 PST or not, I've already written my piece, and I'll be joining in for the first time this month

Creating a Fellowship
To create a fellowship visit Randall of the Fellowship in the Plane of Knowledge. He is found in the building next to the Nexus stone (can also find him using the "Find" window under Fellowship Registrar).


 * You say 'Hail'
 * Randall of the Fellows' Randall of the Fellows says 'Greetings,adventurer! Are you interested in how to [set up] a fellowship or are you looking for more [information] on fellowships?'
 * You say, 'set up'
 * Randall of the Fellows says 'The first step in setting up a fellowship requires that you register one with me. Once we have completed the registration process you will then be able to extend fellowship status to any acquaintances and friends you wish to spend time with, however.... You will want to take special care to invite only those close to you, those whom you can truly trust, as a fellowship can consist of no more than nine people. Any more than that and I will need to recommend registering a guild as that may suit your needs a bit better.'
 * You say, 'information'
 * Randall of the Fellows says 'Excellent, it is always good to find someone who is new to the realm of the fellowship! Worry not, friend! I shall explain to you [what] a fellowship is explain the process of how to [set up] a fellowship, and give you some information on [when] and [how] to [create] a fellowship campsite.'
 * You say, 'what'
 * Randall of the Fellows says 'A fellowship is simply a gathering of friends who enjoy each others' company. A fellowship campsite is a method of gathering your friends together, enabling you to prepare for your upcoming battles in a hasty manner. Some campsites will provide additional benefits to the members of your fellowship you are near the campsite, oftentimes granting them wonderful effects!'
 * You say, 'how'
 * Randall of the Fellows says 'The first step in using a campsite requires that you open your fellowship log book and look for the campsite that you wish to set up. Once you've decided which one you would like to set up, verify that you have all the items necessary to create the campsite. Then, convince a couple of your friends to help your set it up. Take your log book and the items to the area you've chosen for your campsite and then simply set it up using the instructions in the log book. I will also give you this Fellowship Registration Insignia. This insignia is linked to your fellowship and using it will bring you to the current location of the fellowship's campsite.'
 * You say, 'when'
 * Randall of the Fellows says 'A campsite generally requires a moderate amount of effort to create, so it is recommended that you bring at least two friends with you when scouting for a campsite location. Once you've found a suitable location for your campsite, you and your friends will be able to create the campsite, as long as you have all the appropriate items.'

To open your fellowship window (log book) right-click on Randall, use Ctrl+Shift+F, or find it under EQ Button--Players--Fellowship. Note that while you can open this window from anywhere, certain features (Create, Make Leader, and Invite( will be disabled unless you are standing beside Randall. Click the Create button in the lower left of the fellowship window to create a new fellowship and be its leader.

Fellowship Window
The fellowship window, called the log book by Randall, can be accessed one of three ways:
 * 1) Right-click Randall in PoK
 * 2) The default keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+F
 * 3) EQ Button--Players--Fellowship

Adding Members
To add members to the fellowship the leader must be in the Plane of Knowledge beside Randall and the members to be added must be in PoK (they do not have to be near Randall). Target the member to add and press the Invite button in the fellowship window (Ctrl+Shift+F). The member will receive a popup window asking if they wish to join your fellowship. If the targeted member is already in a fellowship they will not receive the invite (have them leave their current fellowship before the invite). Assuming they accept, and the fellowship has less than 9 members, they will be added.

Removing Members
Anyone can leave a fellowship at any time by accessing the fellowship window and pressing the Leave button. The leader may also kick someone out of the fellowship by targeting them and pressing the Remove button.

Creating a Campfire
A campfire can be created in most places whenever three or more members of the same fellowship are present close to each other (less than typical spell range). To create a campfire:
 * 1) Open the fellowship window and go to the second tab Camp.
 * 2) Select the type of campfire to create from the dropdown list. The None - show all type will show all campfires you are able to currently create.
 * 3) The default campfire, Fellowship of Honor, can always be created and requires no components. Other campfires require components as detailed below.
 * 4) Refresh the list to display the available campfires.
 * 5) Select the campfire to create. If you already have a campfire you must destroy it first.

If you receive the message "You do not have enough fellowship members in the zone to create a campfire" you either have less than 3 members in the zone or the members are not close enough together.

If you receive the message "The ground here is too steep to camp" then you will have to find another, flatter spot to create your campfire. Note that in some areas it seems overly sensitive and you get the message even on very level ground. If this happens just run around the area clicking the create button constantly and you should eventually get a campfire made.

The Fellowship of Honor campfire can be created and destroyed as often as wish. Other campfires can be created/destroyed at will but consume components each time they are created.

Depending on how many members are in the zone and near it, the Fellowship of Honor campfire last many hours (4 hours or so with just 1-2 members near it). Other campfires will only last around 1 hour before expiring.

Teleporting To a Campfire
Once a campfire is setup any member of the fellowship can teleport to it using their Fellowship Registration Insignia obtained from Randall by asking him "how". The insignia has an instant cast time and a 15 minute recast. You must be in a rest state and cannot be invisible when using it.

Warning: Using the insignia when your fellowship doesn't have a campfire setup will result in you having to wait 15 minutes to use it again.

Fellowship Experience Sharing
The June 29th, 2011 patch introduced Fellowship Experience Sharing. This allows experience to be shared between fellowship members, whether or not they are grouped, on line or off line. A full listing of the technical details has not been posted by SOE but this thread on the SOE forums explains:


 * Each player can change only his or her "Shared" or "Not shared" setting in the fellowship window. The fellowship leader can change anyone's setting. Default is "Not shared."
 * Experience is donated by only the people who have "Shared" selected in the XP Sharing column. To keep your experience all for yourself set the XP Sharing column to "Not shared."
 * Everyone in the fellowship receives shared experience. No current toggle changes that.
 * Those with the "Shared" toggle will receive shared experience. Those with "Not shared" will not receive shared experience.*
 * Experience donated is from kills only, not from tasks and such.
 * Shared experience received* is not modified by lessons, potions or group bonuses.
 * Shared experience is distributed at intervals of 15 minutes or so. It isn't granted at the time of each kill.
 * Toons receiving shared experience can be off-line or on-line, on the same account or different account. They can be AFK in the lobby or in another group.
 * Shared experience received can go to level experience, AA or any combination of the two just as it is set in the receiver's AA window.
 * If a toon receiving shared experience is maxed out (100% in 90 or 30 AA banked) the exp then goes to waste.
 * Normal level restrictions apply. The receiver must be within the normal group experience sharing level range. (Receiver must be 2/3 level of the donor.)

In the September 15, 2011 patch, Fellowship Experience Sharing was changed: - The current method of experience sharing has been changed to a vitality system:
 * Fellowships ***

- Experience splitting for fellowship members that have sharing enabled remains the same. However, rather than going directly into the receiving player's experience, the shared experience goes into two vitality pools, one for regular experience and one for AA experience.

- When a player with vitality in their pools plays, they gain regular and AA experience at a significantly increased rate for kills.

- The bonus is up to 5x for regular experience and up to 3x for AA experience. Normal per-kill caps on experience apply.

- The vitality pools have caps: approximately enough for 10 levels of regular experience, and enough to reach your AA cap for AA experience.

- When a receiving player's vitality becomes capped, their experience sharing is automatically disabled (this is displayed in the fellowship window). It automatically re-enables if some of that vitality is used.

- Messages about when you receive, use, and deplete your vitality pools are given in chat. Eventually these will be augmented and/or replaced with visual vitality indicators on your experience bars.

- You may now join a fellowship only once every 20 hours.

In the October 12, 2011 patch, the "vitality bars" were added to the UI: - Added vitality bars to the experience and alternate experience gauges in the inventory window. They appear as a green bar at the bottom of the experience bars. The bars represent the percentage of available vitality compared to the vitality cap. When they are full of vitality, the bar will be full. When they have no vitality (or when the max is 0) they will have an empty bar.

Campfire Effects
The basic campfire, Fellowship of Honor, can be created without any components, all other campfires require certain components. The list of all campfires along with a brief description can be viewed in the fellowship window. Click the Camp tab, choose the None - show all type, and check the Show All Possible button. Hit refresh to show them all and select one to view its description on the right side of the window.

Each campfire requires two separate components, a Fellowship Kit and a Bundle of Wood. The kit determines the type of effect and the bundle determines its strength. There are a large variety of wood bundles priced from and are available from Fellow Bylie in the same room as Randall in the building next to the Nexus Stone.

Stacking
The following information is tentative at best:
 * Campfire effects are spells that appear in the short duration buff window.
 * It is assumed that the stacking rules are the same as any spell stacking.
 * Unsure of exactly how focus stacking with item focuses works (testing with Benefit Conservation effect didn't seem to make any difference).
 * The HP effect is not affected by AAs such as Natural Durability.

Kits
Various kits can be purchased to give your campfire an effect.

A listing of kits and effects is on the Campfires page.