Tales from Duty Finder: Some make you laugh, some make you cry. Let's vent.

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

- Mentor AST, in Noct, in A9, who casts nothing but single-target Balances... and then uses Celestial Opposition... Why? Just... why?

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I do this myself quite alot. The reason why is simple. I astro-babysit my friends. Each week for weeping city I pick someone from my group who I then give all my balances/arrows (and enhanced spear at battle start) to. That also includes CO and Time Dilation and even overhealing so all adds stack and my group can pad off of them :^). I could imagine he was doing the same. I could also imagine him just being bad tho lol.

The usual story: I queue for Expert as SMN, get Library (yay!). Other party members are tank, melee DD and WHM. Things are going smooth, tank is pulling well and using cooldowns, not taking much damage at all. I'm doing pretty good DPS. Another DD is alright. The WHM is....mostly just standing still doing nothing.

After a couple of pulls I ask "Hey [WHM], could you please use some Holys? Would make this go faster. ^^" The answer is silence. After a while, I ask again the same way. After the first boss, I say "[WHM], please do some DPS, you're being completely useless 90% of the time" (it was true, tank was well geared, in tank stance and using cooldowns, and us DDs weren't eating any AoEs).

The WHM didn't even bother to reply (was probably afk not even watching the screen or something). I ended up just leaving, apologising to the rest of the group but said I don't play with leeches and just couldn't keep watching to WHM "participate" like that. Ate the penalty, then queued as WHM and got an awesome party that made me feel much better! :)

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Originally Posted by Taika

I ended up just leaving, apologising to the rest of the group but said I don't play with leeches and just couldn't keep watching to WHM "participate" like that. Ate the penalty, then queued as WHM and got an awesome party that made me feel much better! :)

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I mean I can understand why, I would feel the same way (and probably would try to kick after seeing if I could find a replacement) but as a DPS leaving you were probably replaced almost instantly, I can't imagine that was really sticking it to the WHM or anything. =/

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Originally Posted by Cherub

I could imagine he was doing the same. I could also imagine him just being bad tho lol.

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They were giving those single-target Balances to different people each time, I never heard the sound effect for Time Dilation, though I could be wrong, and lastly, I was the other AST in that party, and I had a lot of AoE Balances for that party, which I had to deliberately delay casting just so their single-target cards wouldn't get overwritten.

Also, they were giving Spires to the MT, instead of Royal Roading them, or to the NIN, who needed TP just as bad.

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Originally Posted by AlphaFox

I mean I can understand why, I would feel the same way (and probably would try to kick after seeing if I could find a replacement) but as a DPS leaving you were probably replaced almost instantly, I can't imagine that was really sticking it to the WHM or anything. =/

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Well I just did it for myself, I noticed I was getting annoyed watching the WHM just stand there while the rest of us were actually doing things for the group, and decided I'm allowed to spend my time doing something more enjoyable instead. But I did want to tell them why I leave to show at least I find leeching in group duties unacceptable. Maybe I should have initiated a vote kick but I just didn't want to bother with that. Hopefully enough people will mention about it to the WHM to make them realise they're not carrying their weight playing like that.

Today I ran a10 with a fellow AST.

Things were fine...except I ended up being That Guy.

You other ASTs know the one. That Guy who always overwrites your card buffs with their own?

I wasn't doing it on purpose, I would delay a bit to see if he would use his or not, then I'd end up tossing my buff out a second after him every time, even with varying lengths of wait. I was an even mix of frustrated and embarrassed with myself.

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Originally Posted by Taika

Well I just did it for myself, I noticed I was getting annoyed watching the WHM just stand there while the rest of us were actually doing things for the group, and decided I'm allowed to spend my time doing something more enjoyable instead. But I did want to tell them why I leave to show at least I find leeching in group duties unacceptable. Maybe I should have initiated a vote kick but I just didn't want to bother with that. Hopefully enough people will mention about it to the WHM to make them realise they're not carrying their weight playing like that.

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I've seen healers like this countless times, but not worth it for me to drop out of spite. No one in the group ever says anything to them either when they see someone playing like that. /shrug

I had a scholar like that in EX before the most recent patch, when Sohr Kai was still in the current EX. The scholar only kept me topped off, physick, adlo, even fairy regen.

So I started spending more and more time in dps stance. After I secured a good lead in hate I would just switch to Deliverance and dps a lot more. It was slow overall but better than me being in Defiance the whole time.

Just now, i was doing 60 roulette and got Antitower, it was me as Blm (i'm still trying to get used to 60 rotation), Pld(who was newbie to dungeon, although he didnt show it), Mch, and Whm. We were doing well, got through first boss and adds up to 2nd boss pretty easily, even with me being a bit slow on the DPS.
But at the entrance to the 2nd boss, the tank stood there for about 10-15 seconds. I figured he was just preparing, but then the Whm just pulled, not doing a ready check, asking if the tank was going to pull, anything, just pulled. Well, i got kinda annoyed, as did the tank, because he called the healer out. The healer got PO'ed for having to wait 15 seconds. He wouldnt stop being a jerk about it, and the Mch even said something too, so after the boss fight we kicked him.
New Whm came in, we cleared with little problem (except me getting hit by confuse twice by final boss...when i know better), and we were all friendly and cheered and left.

I dont see why some people have to be so impatient. If you cant handle being in a DF group, then dont queue alone.

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Originally Posted by Taika

The WHM didn't even bother to reply (was probably afk not even watching the screen or something). I ended up just leaving, apologising to the rest of the group but said I don't play with leeches and just couldn't keep watching to WHM "participate" like that. Ate the penalty, then queued as WHM and got an awesome party that made me feel much better! :)

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Unfortunately a lot of WHM have this idea that they don't have to DPS ever even though in dungeon settings on AOE pulls they can actually do more dps then any almost any dps class due to their crazy high burst damage.

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Originally Posted by Taika

The usual story: I queue for Expert as SMN, get Library (yay!). Other party members are tank, melee DD and WHM. Things are going smooth, tank is pulling well and using cooldowns, not taking much damage at all. I'm doing pretty good DPS. Another DD is alright. The WHM is....mostly just standing still doing nothing.After a couple of pulls I ask "Hey [WHM], could you please use some Holys? Would make this go faster. ^^" The answer is silence. After a while, I ask again the same way. After the first boss, I say "[WHM], please do some DPS, you're being completely useless 90% of the time" (it was true, tank was well geared, in tank stance and using cooldowns, and us DDs weren't eating any AoEs).

The WHM didn't even bother to reply (was probably afk not even watching the screen or something). I ended up just leaving, apologising to the rest of the group but said I don't play with leeches and just couldn't keep watching to WHM "participate" like that. Ate the penalty, then queued as WHM and got an awesome party that made me feel much better! :)

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Honestly, next time this happens, you should issue a vote kick first. Like Alpha said, you were almost inevitably replaced immediately. Had the vote kick gone through, the WHM would be stuck with a 30 minute penalty-- essentially being paid back for wasting your party's time.

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Originally Posted by bounddreamer

I had a scholar like that in EX before the most recent patch, when Sohr Kai was still in the current EX. The scholar only kept me topped off, physick, adlo, even fairy regen.

So I started spending more and more time in dps stance. After I secured a good lead in hate I would just switch to Deliverance and dps a lot more. It was slow overall but better than me being in Defiance the whole time.

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I have a set rule with healers who refuse to DPS. I'll stand in every single aoe I know won't kill me. On tank, I'll severely limit by cooldown usage and even occasionally allow myself to lose aggro if the DPS are properly geared and the straggler mob doesn't hit too hard. I'll just provoke it back. Basically, I will make that healer work. After all, why should I use my full toolkit if you aren't? :p

The only exception is if they're clearly learning or I'm in leveling. Those cases I am far more patience, especially if the healer is attempting to DPS but just jumps out of Cleric fast because they're nervous. At least they're trying to learn. I won't make it harder on them.

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Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor

Honestly, next time this happens, you should issue a vote kick first. Like Alpha said, you were almost inevitably replaced immediately. Had the vote kick gone through, the WHM would be stuck with a 30 minute penalty-- essentially being paid back for wasting your party's time....

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Is that something new, since when do you get a penalty from being kicked out duty?

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Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor

Honestly, next time this happens, you should issue a vote kick first. Like Alpha said, you were almost inevitably replaced immediately. Had the vote kick gone through, the WHM would be stuck with a 30 minute penalty-- essentially being paid back for wasting your party's time.

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You don't get a penalty for being kicked though afaik, just for leaving.

Got Halatali normal while running leveling roulette on Scholar. The party was a sprout gladiator, a sprout THM, and a Monk with a mentor crown. Monk repeatedly starting running ahead of the group and pulling things before the tank could. Tank's in blue, I'm in pink, and the Monk is in yellow
http://i.imgur.com/Qz7MpmD.png
I got distracted for a bit there because of my pet birds and we wiped so that was on me.

Later on I got locked out of the last boss because it was pulled, I assume by the Monk, while I was being attacked by a mob. They didn't wipe but I'm just amazed someone would act like that while trying to mentor.

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Originally Posted by Chocolys

Is that something new, since when do you get a penalty from being kicked out duty?

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Hmm, thought it worked the same as leaving? My bad then lol

Oh boy, time for another story.

Main Scenario Roulette... Me as DRG, my in-game wife-to-be as DRK, my friend as WHM. All other people in the group are French (I queued E only game, what the hell?). 4 of those 5 don't speak a word of English. They do their own thing, constantly overpulling, locking people out, etc. I ended up dying 11 times that dungeon, and we had at least 3 wipes. I raged at first, but it got to a point where I was just so gobsmacked I couldn't be angry. The person who did speak English that was also French, did try to work with us to make progress, which enabled us to move forward. But I... I had nightmares from that.

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Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor

I have a set rule with healers who refuse to DPS. I'll stand in every single aoe I know won't kill me. On tank, I'll severely limit by cooldown usage and even occasionally allow myself to lose aggro if the DPS are properly geared and the straggler mob doesn't hit too hard. I'll just provoke it back. Basically, I will make that healer work. After all, why should I use my full toolkit if you aren't? :p

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I might start using that rule myself, except I'll also stand in AoE I know WILL kill me. You won't do DPS, well your mana usage will go through the roof ressing people. But I'd have to be in a particularly vindictive mood to do that.

I was running Brayflox normal mode as AST to level it with a friend. I get in there and notice the party consists of AST <- Me, MNK, BRD, and DRK.

The first thing I notice is that the bard had Mages Ballad immediately at the start of the dungeon. I asked him to turn it off since I didn't and wouldn't ever need it since I know how to manage mana and he would only be gimping himself damage wise. He does not listen and continues to keep it on until his own mana runs out. Once his mana refilled, he put it right back on. This went on throughout the entire dungeon. Every time I drew a Ewer card I thought to myself, "As if I needed any more mana.....".

I'm sure you can guess who got all the Balance cards.

So apparently, having to AFK for a few minutes to help someone with an insulin shot, means I should be reported for homophobia, because witnessing two party members spam the chatbox with erotic roleplay jokes and constant insults towards sproutling party members who die, should always take priority over helping with an important medical issue. I wanted to say lots of things, lots and lots of things, but I refrained from doing so, through an immense exertion of willpower I didn't know I had.

And to think, I was hoping to get Main Scenario roulette done in 20 minutes. Although that hope died when I landed in Castrum.

But after saving an AoE Balance for 5 minutes straight through the first half of Livia's fight, casting it immediately at the start of the second half, only to have the other AST immediately overwrite it with an AoE Bole... I am not responsible for the way I snapped.

So, another fun story! Lvling my WAR and for the last time, I venture into the vault. My SO was my WHM (Romantic I know! o3o) and we had a NIN who was a little...gun jumpy, and a pretty laid back BLM who knew what they were doing. The NIN was fine for the first few pulls but soon they started running ahead, pulling mobs and causing things to get messy. (Come on lady, I just want my last run here as WAR to go smooth...) buuuuut, then came the commmon trend with them, I was always the first up to the boss areas and I would wait for everyone to gather, let my WHM re-stoneskin everyone and then away we go! Nope not for this NIN, she ran right past me and started attacking the first boss. I had a "Crap, WE'RE DOIN' IT LIVE!" moment and went to work pulling all that hate off her. Once the fight was finished, WHM said don't do that again and NIN didn't reply.


Ok, so on we go to the next area, killin' and maiming away, the NIN is behaving. Neat-o. Then we get to Axe boss and she just runs in again and the missus messages me on steam goin' "If she does this for Charibert, let her die." and I agree. So after a rather fast paced, I didn't quite give a TP or MP break for anyone cause I got into my WAR zone. We stop at Charibert's door cause WHM needs to let MP restore and wouldn't you know it...the NIN goes running in, and we stop our BLM saying "Let her die. She needs to learn." and he just nodded and we watched the sickness be purged. NIN came back up, huffed a bit but said sorry and we proceeded in. Then came the chains...she would get tied to the BLM often and just refused to move, which wouldn't be much since BLM set up on the farthest edge. But yeah, NIN died during the Charibert fight cause of the chains and my honey did not res her cause she was just not bringing good teamwork to the table. Eventually we cleared, good times all around except for the NIN. We bowed to the BLM and left. Never to see the NIN again.

Long story short, derp NIN was derp.

Ex roulette, Gubal HM. Went in as BRD.

You know what's aggravating as a Ninja main?
Seeing someone constantly wasting their ninjutsus.
The other DPS was a male cat ninja (oh, what a surprise!) and he would use Doton on EVERYTHING. Trash pulls okay, but not on bosses. I told him that Doton on single targets is a DPS loss (especially when the boss isn't stationary), but he was French so he probably didn't get it. Or he couldn't be bothered.
I didn't even see a single Trick Attack throughout the whole run.

It really baffled me. Aside from the Ninjutu fails, his DPS was alright. How can you learn one part of your job while completely failing at the other?

Here, a screenshot that I took shortly before the boss died. Just for the lulz
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...016_175123.png

I got to help a sproutling BLM the other day in Sastasha hard mode. He didn't really seem to have a rotation, it was all kind of random jumbling and he had less enmity than my wife who was the WHM. I told the tank, an FC mate, to give me a minute as I taught this newbie BLM what he should be doing. Rest of the run was smoother, and we hung around and waited for him to reconnect when he d/c'd.

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Originally Posted by SilkaN

You know what's aggravating as a Ninja main?
Seeing someone constantly wasting their ninjutsus.
The other DPS was a male cat ninja (oh, what a surprise!) and he would use Doton on EVERYTHING.

It really baffled me. Aside from the Ninjutu fails, his DPS was alright. How can you learn one part of your job while completely failing at the other?

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Tbh, as someone who enjoys NIN but plays it rarely enough to not have a perfect rotation down or anything,
I sometimes start off with the wrong Mudras (because of wrong finger memory or not thinking ahead) and then midway realize:
"There is no way to turn this into Suiton/Raiton anymore x.x" so I get either Hyoton or Doton, and I always assumed Doton was less of a loss than Hyoton :0

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Originally Posted by StarRosie

Then came the chains...she would get tied to the BLM often and just refused to move, which wouldn't be much since BLM set up on the farthest edge. But yeah, NIN died during the Charibert fight cause of the chains and my honey did not res her cause she was just not bringing good teamwork to the table

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Don't dispute the ninja being an idiot but the blm shouldn't have set up on the edge because the chains can be a pain when that happens. If party is to far apart when chains are up they can be impossible to break even if you run to diagonal corners (the furthest distance you can be) it's one of the most common causes for problems I see in the vault.

Moving on....
Why in a12 do Tanks always stand North at start of phase 3 when Alex ALWAYS spawns facing south?. Just annoying when I miss trick attack cos Alex turns at that exact millisecond.

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Originally Posted by Atoli

Tbh, as someone who enjoys NIN but plays it rarely enough to not have a perfect rotation down or anything,
I sometimes start off with the wrong Mudras (because of wrong finger memory or not thinking ahead) and then midway realize:
"There is no way to turn this into Suiton/Raiton anymore x.x" so I get either Hyoton or Doton, and I always assumed Doton was less of a loss than Hyoton :0

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Yeah, but all he literally did was Huton between fights and Doton during fights.
I'm all about giving people the benefit of the doubt, but... in this case, no.

An annoying WHM in Snowflake. I was DRG.

Tank pulls the first group after buffs, nothing weird is going on... until I see Medica II pop. Wtf. Why? I remove it from my status bar and we kill the things. WHM casts Medica II again... while the tank is pulling. Tank and I both remove it but the WHM casts it again.

Me: Why are you using Medica II? You don't need to use it for trash, especially not while the tank is pulling.

Nothing from them. So I shrug and we kill the next group. Tank runs toward the polar bear and WHM casts Medica II again. Wtf... this time the tank pipes up after the bear dies.

Tank: Why are you using Medica II when I'm the only one taking damage? It's a waste.
WHM: Because it stacks with regen on you.
Me: I main WHM and I never use Medica II during trash, unless something goes wrong. It's a waste of MP and a GCD.
Tank: You could use that time to throw out a holy...

That's all until we get to the first boss. In which... the WHM only casts Medica II the entire fight. I watched them and they used nothing but Medica II.

After the boss...

Tank: if you are going to keep using Medica II could you at least DPS too?
WHM: let's just ignore the aeros and stones I used
Tank: I saw no aeros on the boss...
Me: I never saw or heard a Stone II.

After that the WHM never stopped using Medica II, probably to spite us. Well... when they almost died because they pulled half the ice elementals and birds after the first set of yeti the tank was fed up. We kicked them.

We didn't get another healer until the dragons right before the final boss. They actually healed properly.

Oh, and the WHM? A mentor.

I will admit I am guilty of stacking the AOE heal and regen but only cus it allows me to DPS a lot more knowing you have 2 HoTs on you vs 1, granted I play AST more than WHM so no stun locking.

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Originally Posted by AlphaFox

I will admit I am guilty of stacking the AOE heal and regen but only cus it allows me to DPS a lot more knowing you have 2 HoTs on you vs 1, granted I play AST more than WHM so no stun locking.

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You can DPS just fine with just Regen on the tank pre-Asylum. After I get Asylum I use that to give me more leeway.

The HoT on Medica II is fairly weak, and it generates a butt ton of hate if it's casted early in a pull. If you want to use it, fine. But don't use it while the tank is pulling or trying to establish hate. That WHM pulled so much unnecessary enmity it was ridiculous.

I was tanking Vault as Paladin. I have 2 newbie DPS who are a NIN and a BLM, and a SCH healer. Anyways, we told the healer that both DPS are new and that it is my first time tanking it as PLD but have tanked it as DRK before. Anyways, the run was NOT okay. The thrash pulls are fine. Then we get to the first boss. One DPS died from the white orb explode-y thing. Healer made a snide comment about the DEEPS being a noob. Then we get to the second boss, but along they way, I noticed her healing becoming more and more scarce to the point that our HPs are falling to less than 500. Then when we were fighting the second boss, one of the DPS died from being shoved into a black orb. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem if the healer at least kept HPs around 50% or higher (I try to keep them over 80% when I heal and try to throw in some DEEPS when I can). Anyways, healer raises the poor NIN right in between two orbs and did not even bother healing her. She died again as soon as she tried to move away.

The BLM died during the second boss as well. I think she was shoved to the black orbs as well, and the healer did not raise her. Okay... fine. The boss only had 20% left but it would have been nice to have the BLM up as well considering that the SCH wasn't even throwing no bio, no miasma, not even ruin or broil.

So we beat the second boss and the healer suddenly started healing through the thrash mobs. Then when we get right outside Charibert, I explain to the two DPS about some mechanics. They did watch a vid before hand but I just reminded them of simple mechanics, like the chains, that pyre thing on the floor, and that the horsey adds always come from north so try to keep their camera pointed at that location. Healer then became a massive walking pillar of salt and said that she can't heal stupid and that "you better pray my faerie is on your side. I won't heal you". Um, okay, they're sproutlings. We're both mentors. That kind of broke the straw. While I love running Vault and AV as a healer, I don't like it when people talk to others like that. Specially to spouts who are actually putting efforts in what they were doing. I kicked the healer, although I wished we did sooner. I think that traumatized them, lol. We did get another healer, and we wiped twice, but it was fun. The healer was sport and was patient. Too bad he wasn't a mentor. He would made a good one.

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Originally Posted by Mysterysword

But after saving an AoE Balance for 5 minutes straight through the first half of Livia's fight, casting it immediately at the start of the second half, only to have the other AST immediately overwrite it with an AoE Bole... I am not responsible for the way I snapped.

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if there's another AST i usually "suggest" they use their aoe buff 1st, but honestly it's just so i know they won't override my card at least for a little while. unfortunately it doesn't really do much after that so you kinda gotta watch their draws/RRs/spreads, heal, dps, AND do mechanics just so you don't get overwritten.

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Originally Posted by AlphaFox

I will admit I am guilty of stacking the AOE heal and regen but only cus it allows me to DPS a lot more knowing you have 2 HoTs on you vs 1, granted I play AST more than WHM so no stun locking.

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My gf also uses Medica II during some trash pulls, generally ones where she knows we'll take damage. I know the second pull in Library HM with all those Boogymen mobs that cast their AoEs at the same time, Medica II is really helpful for that. Sohr Khai was another one where she used it, (if we had melee) as those stupid little bird things always managed to cleave the melee. Sometimes I think they ran in front of them on purpose..

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Originally Posted by Kallistra

My gf also uses Medica II during some trash pulls, generally ones where she knows we'll take damage. I know the second pull in Library HM with all those Boogymen mobs that cast their AoEs at the same time, Medica II is really helpful for that. Sohr Khai was another one where she used it, (if we had melee) as those stupid little bird things always managed to cleave the melee. Sometimes I think they ran in front of them on purpose..

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These are all valid reasons to use Med2, but in places and situations like the first area of Snowcloak? Yeah, it's a complete waste.

So I have been noticing a trend in the posts. There seems to be some bad mentors out there and even a stigma about mentors. Is this right?

Okay story, I was in PotD with a friend to level. We got a girl who was like: streaming live check me out. We were like huh okay. She was just talking about random things, responding to followers oh and not attacking. XD Might as well had put us on follow because I had to spam chat to get her to realize we cleared the floor and were waiting on the teleported.

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Originally Posted by MeridaQ

So I have been noticing a trend in the posts. There seems to be some bad mentors out there and even a stigma about mentors. Is this right?

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There are a lot of bad mentors, just like there are a lot of bad non-mentors. I have run into many good and helpful mentors so I don't really have an opinion on mentors as a whole. It's just more jarring when you see mediocre or terrible play coming from a mentor since becoming a mentor takes quite a few hours of playtime.

I've seen some terrible 'mentors' running PotD as well as leveling dungeons. Tanks who didn't use any cooldowns and pull more than the party can handle then berates healers for dying, healers who endlessly medica 2 spam and then stand there, dps who pull for the tank and rage when they die // all from mentors. I really think there needs to be some kind of 'rate the mentor' screen after any duty with a mentor present and negative ratings should either accrue and eventually remove mentor status, or each hit against them is a deduction of 1 or more 'commendations' needed to become a mentor and if they fall below the 300 they are removed. Then again, most of my FC decide against being a mentor just because of the negative stigma associated with many of them now.

There will always be bad mentors mixed in with good mentors, it's the nature of the beast that Square created. Make the curve of being a mentor too high and we will have a lot of people complain they can't be one (which still happened when it was released), and make it too lenient and you'll eventually have mediocre mentors. Instead of complaining about it, do any of you have a solid way to fix the problem?

Edit: My personal fix would be to hide the mentor icon in Duty Finder when you're not in Mentor Roulette. The only time the symbol should hold validity is in the roulette or in open world content. Also that way we have less people complaining that the person was a bad mentor, rather than a bad player in general.

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There seems to be some bad mentors out there and even a stigma about mentors.

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Mentors are a mixed bag, just like any other group of players. The reason why their failures come up so much un this thread is because we expect it to be different.
Basically, if you give a burning stick to a child and it accidently burns the house down, that was kind of to be expected. It doesn't know better yet. If you give it to an adult, you expect them to not do anything stupid with it, but when they do it anyway, you remember that just because someone is an adult, does not mean he acts responsible.
But if you give it to a teacher in front of a group of children, you absolutely 100% expect him to be a good example, not do anything bad with it and maybe even teach the children about fire hazards in the process.
So when a Mentor displays horrible behaviour and really bad gameplay, it's the equivalent of the teacher you gave the torch to burning the school down while laughing like a maniac.

On the topic of bad mentors!
Mentor roulette yesterday on my WHM, Halatali normal.
Got 3 sprouts, 2 of which were a couple. They were absolutely dreamy; talkative, friendly, had already looked at a guide but still confirmed the strategy with me, played their roles well (or at least fairly decent) :)
I noticed though that the tank was..not exactly comfortable with how low I let him drop before exiting Cleric Stance; always ready to flee when his HP reached double digits. So I told him something like "Don't worry, I won't let you die ;)" and because I'm a Mentor, he trusted me.

3 pulls later, a friend asked me something about static business in LS chat, so I switched to chat to answer him, while my brain went into healing auto-pilot. As his HP dwindled, the young tank stood there like a wall, fully trusting in my words, and I, without worry, hit Tetra to bring him back up....but nothing happened (duh, it's a lvl 20 dungeon >.>).

So he died.

I couldn't even ress him, because WHM doesn't get that stupid in-battle ress trait until lvl 28, his arcanist girlfriend had to do it. And then he even went on to apologize how he accidently pulled an extra snake and was sorry about making the pull too big. No. NO. I just suck, okay? ○-○'

I've seen bad mentors, ones who offer no help and do nothing but insult and belittle the people they're supposed to be helping.

I've seen good mentors, ones who take the time to offer advice. Some might even go so far as to offer tips on positioning, skill usage, and boss strategies, but that's even rarer.

But far more than these two groups combined, I see mentors who do nothing, who just stay silent and do the bare minimum of their jobs, not knowing or caring that these sproutlings could use some advice.

In my experience, at least, seeing the mentor crown on someone is a safe bet that that player is an arrogant blowhard who thinks they're the gods' gift to the world and is intent on raining hellfire down on anyone who inconveniences them the slightest bit. Sometimes I'm wrong, of course, but it's a safe bet for a reason.

Either way, this whole mentor system feels completely meaningless to me, because I met a lot of people who were nice and willing to explain things to me before the system was ever mentioned in-game. I extend that to others now too. I have never had mentor status, but I am still perfectly willing to stop and explain things to a newbie, on 3 conditions:

1. They admit they are new to the dungeon.
2. They actively ask for help.
3. They actually listen to what I have to explain and take it into consideration.

Fulfill all 3 conditions, and I am perfectly fine with stopping to explain everything I know about the dungeon, down to methods of dealing with bosses. I don't see how speaking up and asking for help is such an impossible task, but apparently for some people, it is.

Take this recent Vault run that I was tanking. Newbie WHM who never once said anything during the whole run, caused a wipe at Grinnaux because they clearly didn't know the mechanics and got kicked into a black hole. It wasn't a language barrier either, because after the wipe, I proceeded to explain it entirely in English and they followed the strategy I outlined. But I would've preferred to just explain the fight before engaging at all, and save ourselves the trouble of a wipe.

Also, that WHM never dealt a single point of damage during that run. Which is reasonable in a large trash pack, and even while the boss is actively throwing a huge chain of mechanics at us all, less so when Charibert has spawned all his fireballs and they're just standing around doing nothing, not even Cleric Stance on.

Which, in turn, leads me to another run I tanked, a Dusk Vigil. The level 52 WHM never once used Asylum, and once again, never dealt a single point of damage. I suggested stacking regens on me, and considering I was deliberately keeping pulls small, they had plenty of room for it. But nope. Not even Divine Seal, Presence of Mind, or Shroud of Saints.

Halfway through the run, they started talking about how fun it is to be a healer. I sincerely thought they were being sarcastic, but apparently not, standing around doing nothing but casting maybe 3-4 spells over and over again is their definition of "fun". That's an insult to literally everyone who's worked on this game, I swear.

Story time!

Tried yet again to get my Ramuh EX clear. Convinced the DRK I was with to let me solo tank it. He said he didn't trust it, but okay. It's all going pretty smooth... except it's pretty clear that only 3 people in the whole instance know what's going on. Me, the DRK, and one SCH. DPS never cleared any orbs, so the damage got out of hand. We told them to clear orbs. No big deal, right? Wrong. Clearly, we needed to be far more specific. On every subsequent attempt, I was not able to actually build up 3 charges and get the shield, because the DPS kept eating all the freaking orbs, even after we told them to let me shield. I watched a Ninja run away from the boss he was hitting to grab the last orb on the field to deny me the shield. I was pretty angry. The DRK and I know that this party is doomed, so he asks someone to leave (abandon time is not even close to happening yet, but we've wiped a good 5 times already). I bite the bullet and leave. But, the story is not over.

As of this moment, I decided that it's not worth trying to get it synced, and it never will be. I've resigned to my fate of getting the clear unsynced via PF, because the people DF gives me will never be good enough to beat it. So, I make a party. It fills up immediately! I go to queue us unsynced... and I still have my penalty from leaving the synced run. For another 22 minutes. I apologize to everyone and leave the party. I'm just so sad right now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dragonseth07

(Ramuh EX story)

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I feel for you. Ramuh EX is one of the hardest fights to do synced (alongside Titan EX and Leviathan EX). It's actually a bit tricky unsynced as well, since you have to make sure you don't push him too far while adds are up (Shiva EX, Ifrit EX, and Levi EX have this problem as well).

As for your leave timer....just wait until it expires and put your PF back up. Unsynced with bonus will fill extremely quickly, and with people who know what they're doing, since for most of the people joining you it's gonna both get them a WT stamp and a Second Chance point. :)

--Erim Nelhah

Had an odd scenario running leveling on Warrior. Now I'm still getting a good feel for it at this point, but end up paired with a Scholar, Monk and Black Mage in Darkhold. Should be fairly straightforward, right? It was until after the first boss. I purposely pull just the toad and puffball because of the potential knock back aoe. Second trash push, I grab everything and settle in to tank it only to notice my HP fast despite popping Bloodbath. Admittedly, I waited just a touch too long on Thrill of Battle. So my mistake there. Still, I've never had that issue, especially with a 250ish Scholar. Anywho, we wipe (it wouldn't be the only time either). I queue a second time just to see if I did muck up somewhere and intentionally recreate the same pull. I had Holmgang and Thrill waiting just in case but only used Bloodbath and... my HP never came close to 1,000. And my new healer managed to toss DPS no problem. I did pop Convalescence a little after since I wasn't going to make her work extra for long, though I wouldn't have needed it. I just wanted to test a theory. She was only in ilvl 135 gear.

Basically, an ilvl 135 healer did better than a ilvl 250 fully melded one. Thinking about it after, I have to imagine that Scholar was watching Netflix or something because I swear I didn't get much healing.