Suggestions to improve Ambuscade

[Rooj]

Yeah, it's definitely the easiest. It's a shame that it's anti mage considering the reward though......

[detlef]

Just did my first ambuscade runs of the month. 3 blu just CDC spamming, a PLD, a GEO and a WHM... average kill under 1:40 on VD. This months is too easy, lol.

You don't even need the PLD. And IIRC skillchains do crap damage so you don't even need to worry about that either. This month really is that easy. Group up people, you won't have it any better than this month.

[Castanica]

Just did my first ambuscade runs of the month. 3 blu just CDC spamming, a PLD, a GEO and a WHM... average kill under 1:40 on VD. This months is too easy, lol.

Considering how many times we have to do it, that's not a bad thing. If you want difficulty (which i doubt), the intense ambuscade awaits you.

[Fae]

I was, yeah. The guy was an elitist jerk and got under my skin.

You lashed out because someone told you they and other people they knew won and gave you some tips and stated their own view and are still lashing out. I'm seeing why you don't get invites to do intense there'd be no way to cooperate with you, your attitude is awful. It's actually trolling if you didn't mean it. This too is why we can't have nice things. Attacking people who are doing better than you is typical self destructive behavior. Maybe if you fixed that intense wouldn't seem so bad to you.

I've seen your attitude before both in and out of game, it never prospers, and is the sort of thing that leads to drama in end game ls which leads to kicks, followed by bad reputation and inability to join other endgame ls. What I'm saying is, you're the reason you're not doing intense, not the game and not "elitists" or "cheesy moves", you. Because you'd be antifun, defensive and threatened constantly by those around you. Which make things like fun, teamwork, and cooperation impossible. The people that give up congratulations easily but don't intensely seek them for themselves and have a helpful cooperative mindset are the ones who tend to do best. You used praise mockingly, when praise wasn't a purpose sought by the post. Basically a shining example of how not to be, in game or otherwise.

So take this advice or don't, but the fights can be farmed at a better rate per hour than normal as is and don't need to be made easier, given the player has the right temperament for difficult content in the first place. Skill and gear is even secondary to a good temperament, which you lack. You're being a intentionally hurtful and offensive on purpose and impossible to even have a real conversation with, my response was in no way deserving of yours as mine had no ill intent and yours are full of it. "Elitist" is usually thrown around by people like you to just insult people that make them feel bad about themselves, for the crime of someone else being successful and will find slight and cause drama simply because those other people make them feel inadequate about themselves not because those people are malicious or attack said people, but because they can do or have things they haven't or had trouble doing or don't have, in short jealousy. Not being able to be happy for others, or learn from others who have succeeded at something is the sort of attitude which is toxic to success. It is one reason I enjoy difficult content it lets me examine myself and free myself from things that would limit myself, things like your terrible attitude and hyper sensitivity and feeling threatened by others doing well. You're simply trolling, and namecalling, which is against site rules.

[Olor]

You don't even need the PLD. And IIRC skillchains do crap damage so you don't even need to worry about that either. This month really is that easy. Group up people, you won't have it any better than this month.

Thanks, this makes me willing to give it a try.

[Stompa]

You all need to come to terms with the fact that not playing with PUGs is a mistake. A big one. The positives far outweigh the negatives. I don't mean choosing PUGs over your friends. Basically any normal person is going to ask their LS for members first before shouting. Yes, you need to occasionally deal with either a rude player or a bad player. It's really not that big of a deal though. It's pretty simple to ignore someone and not say anything at all when someone's being a doofus in chat. A bad player is harder to deal with. I recently had to politely kick a THF from my VD Ambu group that was in sparks gear. There were no tears or drama. I simply stated that their gear/damage wasn't up to par and I was going to find a replacement. Nothing wrong with that and I don't think the THF thought so either (though they never said a word). You're only screwing yourself by being so sensitive and over exaggerative - no one actually believes that "every time" you join a group with PUGs, that it performs badly or there is some poophole in it that ruins the game for you.

Next, this "my gear isn't good enough" crap in regards to content with F I V E different difficulty levels. Lol. Having returned to the game a few months ago and having to walk up the gear treadmill myself, I had no problem getting i119 before attempting Ambuscade. However as a RDM, who needs more equipment sets than any other job in the game, I didn't yet feel comfortable doing the highest tiers of Ambuscade. So I shouted for Normal Ambuscade. And guess what? People were interested. The whole benefit of content like Ambuscade is that you can go for what ever difficulty you THINK you can beat, and then adjust accordingly. If your group seems weak, lower it. If it seems strong, raise it.

There are other people, who are also uncomfortable for any number of reasons of doing VD or even D Ambuscade. Some people are just naturally uncomfortable when performing in front of others. Some people want the best possible gear they can get before attempting content (I've made this POINTLESS mistake so many times in the last 18 years), and some people just want to do content that is a little easier. If you don't even attempt to reach out to these people, that's no one's fault but your own.

Oh and one last thing, @ "most people only play with their friends." Wrong. A lot, sure, but not most. Then again, I don't play on Zzzombie servers.

You say a lot of things that I agree with, about being tolerant and open-minded and things like that.

But you talk about kicking a sparks THF politely, and he was okay with it, he just shuffled away. That's fair enough. But that isn't what we mean by "bad PUGs."

The problem with PUGs is that we will be philosophical and cheerful about them until we come across a nightmare PUG group, which will leave us shaken so badly that we never want to PUG again. It has happened to me several times, and it has made me want to only party with people I know and trust.

One of the most special PUGs in my memory was a YOYD, it was /random my Orb first, and we entered the BC and this guy pressed auto-run on his keyboard and ran into the main room with all the mobs, he died and the mobs party-hate charged the rest of us, before we could buff and even finish entering the zone properly. His explanation was that he didn't know about auto-run, he didn't know how to cancel it. These are things we should learn in Dunes at level thirteen, not at end-game when somebody else's hard-earned seals are on the line.

And the guy was like "lol oops." He did not say "omg I'm so sorry, I owe you a huge apology, I will make it up to you." So now I refer to these PUGs as "lol oops" groups.

None of my friends ever say "lol oops" they turn up for events all ship-shape and smart, and they play their jobs with professionalism like its their last day on God's clean Earth. Which is what I expect of them, and what they expect of me. "Lol oops" doesn't figure into our plans. If anyone is feeling tired or poorly, we cancel the run, and wait until everyone is on-form.

So it isn't snobbery or anything, I hope everyone has fun in the game and makes progress. But I don't want to waste my time with "lol oops" and infact I would rather solo. Or in the case of Ambuscade, just not bother doing it anymore since it makes me feel so old inside.

[Ketaru]

I'm not entirely convinced people want to party even though there are the Gallantry benefits. Either that, or I'm the most horribly unlucky person alive LFG for multiple hours straight over the past few days with only one real good party to show for it. And just to head off the "Make your own!" counter, that included routine searches and keeping an eye on what shouts I could understand. People are still coming and going, though, as evidenced by the tome flares.

Still say they should just put a solo only version in Selbina or something. If it turns out you see enough people going at that, they could possibly unite and head over to Mhaura. If not, well, they're not holding up the other groups.

No. That's my experience. Doing /sea Legion, the majority of people are soloing it this month.

It's craziness considering the benefits of doing it together and at higher difficulty levels. But unfortunately, I have gear to get. If nobody invites me by the time my turn comes up, I'm going in solo whether I take up the arena or not. It's a shame.

EDIT: I understand they probably do this to maintain the mystery and thus keep people playing. But it would be kind of nice to know what plan they have for the cycle of Ambuscade gear. Is it only going to be updated Salvage gear? If they simply put the Ares set back up again for September, Ambuscade's popularity will plummet.

On the other hand, if they keep on creating new gear, there will be longer and longer stretches of time where people who missed the gear the first time around will not be able to acquire it again until the distant future.

[Castanica]

To do ambuscade in a group you have to be well geared, very good at your job (especially for a tank or healer), spend time building the party, give 100% attention to what you're doing and worst of all, be locked into putting at least 30-60 mins uninterupted in or be denied a group next time. -This is stressfull.-

To do ambuscade solo you don't have to impress anyone, you can do as few or as many runs as you want, you can decide to do it in a moments notice and have nothing else to organize and most importantly you can watch a movie while you're doing it or even go afk for an hour after 1 run and take a nap. -This is comfy.-

My biggest gripe outside of the extremely elitist community is that I don't want to be locked into something, I don't want to have to give 100%. This is the same reason I don't like grouping for XP when someone asks, if I group and then decide to go afk after 10 mins to walk my dog they will get annoyed because they think I'm leeching. So it's better to not group at all, you feel forced to perform and give 100% when you group. It's exhausting and not fun unless that's the experience you want from the game.

[Catmato]

My biggest gripe outside of the extremely elitist community is that I don't want to be locked into something, I don't want to have to give 100%. This is the same reason I don't like grouping for XP when someone asks, if I group and then decide to go afk after 10 mins to walk my dog they will get annoyed because they think I'm leeching. So it's better to not group at all, you feel forced to perform and give 100% when you group. It's exhausting and not fun unless that's the experience you want from the game.

This is probably the one of the biggest and best excuse against partying. I have a similar issue personally. I don't have the will to sit down and play for many hours straight like I used to. I just get burned out doing the same thing over and over. Just yesterday, I did dynamis for the first time in a long time and got bored before the two hours were up.

[Seriha]

While perhaps related the elitist angle, PUGs also tend to suffer from the Catch 22 of demanding the gear to get the gear. Ambuscade stuff is decent, but not best of the best. During my earlier mentioned LFG time, I did have people examine me now and then, but I suspect that because I was melee whose ACC hovered around 1000 before food and job traits, I looked rather unappealing for VD fights. Could I get better augments on my Taeon and sword? Sure, but that gets difficult when the stones aren't even on the AH and the only Skirmish people even tend to consider is Yorcia, and that one doesn't drop the stones I need. This problem only gets worse when you step up the content latter.

As for the current set, the only piece that would actually be better for me to wear during the TP phase would be the +1 body, and I'm not quite there yet. Even then, it'd be a gain of maybe 15 ACC or so. To consider other pieces, I'd have to look into making the JSE cape with Haste to offset other losses, or somehow hope I could pay the excruciatingly high sum for that +1 haste belt they added with Ambuscade's launch. Neither of which seem particularly appealing since it means either spamming Dynamis for currency to sell or doing even more Ambuscades I'm already having issue getting groups for already.

I doubt I'm alone in this scenario, which is largely why I feel the alternative zone should be a thing. I don't mind putting effort forward, but it needs to be both within reason and at a reliable pacing. Barring weather shenanigans, making Magian weapons was probably one of my favorite times within XI as it satisfied this criteria. Be it killing 50 and taking a break or going full ham to knock out like 500 in a session, a few thousand kills later and I had something to show for it. There's not really a Plan B to Ambuscade at the moment, and Ambuscade itself is more like a Plan E relative to the gearing tier.