My instincts tell me progging shouldn't be this horrible

Sounds like a skill issue.

Git gud

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Originally Posted by DiaDeem

You need to keep your expectations in check next time. Ultimate Prog is not meant for everyone. You're gonna be in there for hours upon hours, dying over and over and sometimes not making very much progress at all. Some people love that, fine tuning their gameplay inch by inch, but it's not supposed to be easy and it's supposed to be a niche type of content. You also need to make sure you're even in the right group. Statics and friendship have been destroyed by Ultimate fights, and if your current group isn't working, that usually means you'll have to start progging all the way from the top with a new group, and though this can be mitigated if you're joining an experience group, there will always be a readjusting period.

You know how people say Ultimate is really hard? Yeah, it is. Don't underestimate it by thinking you'll clear after a week or two doing only a couple hours a day.

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never did I say my group isn't working, we have consistently progressed to run dynamis omega, without disbanding or giving up
but it has not been a fun experience
I will probably end up clearing before 6.4 (which is supposed to drop on may 15th) but I will never touch ultimates again

at least I will be able to have a valid opinion on ultimates going forward

I think the thing that makes top feel so painful to prog sometimes is the lack of recoverability. There are only a few times where you can scrape by after a death in this fight, it has a ton of body checks. And as such it punishes inconsistancys in a way other ulti's dont. TEA was pretty similar for the first two phases, but living liquid was fairly static, while program loop is very variable so it requires focus and attention from the word go which can be hard after chains of long pulls. This is a fight where you will feel the weight of the weakest link in your statics chain very heavily. On a more positive note though, I really enjoyed the fight overall. And P6 is probably one of my favorite final ultimate phases out of all of them, toppling even PA in terms of spectical and fun.

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Originally Posted by SeiyaSoiya

i've been progging TOP this patch and this is my semi-first experience doing an on-patch Ultimate.
I've always been told that the only fun part of raiding is the first prog, that after clearing it just becomes boring.

However, I've been having so, so, so much trouble and am struggling so much progging TOP that it has become not fun.

At this point I no longer have a drive to play the game, I just login during static raid hours and immediately log off when it ends, it's the first time in many, many years where I've picked up a new game to play as a full game.

If first prog is supposed to be "the fun part" then why is it so horrible in general?

-I'm locked into one job for the entirety of the prog, and switching jobs requires me to waste time I simply do not have
-speaking of time, I am constantly being rushed and compared with the progress of other people
-I've been required to basically spoil the entire fight by reading guides and watching PoVs of the entire fight
-resolving the mechanics no longer gives me any dopamine, I'm just waiting for 7 other people to get it right and not mess up the mechanic I've already solved 1000 times before.

Comparatively, I've had so much fun raiding abyssos after I cleared it on week 4
I've learned new jobs, I've optimized the fights, I've joined clear pfs and helped tons of friends and random PFers clear, I even joined streamer pfs and made a lot of friends.

Something tells me that this shouldn't be so bad, that I'm doing something wrong.

But then I ask other friends what their experience is... most of them quit and gave up progging due to the same reasons.

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I agree that for any group content the initial prog is more fun than the farm once you've gotten that first clear.

That doesn't mean it will be fun, though. There's no single factor that creates fun.

For me, one of the biggest factors is the party for the prog. The right group of players will help make it fun regardless of the wipes. The wrong group of players will make it miserable.

Is your TOP prog group the same group (or at least mostly the same) as your DSR prog group?

Another thing that can affect it is whether the group has agreed to do it blind or to be using guides created by those who have already cleared. If the entire group is not in agreement on this, you're going to have a miserable time. One know-it-all will spoil things for those who want to do it blind. One person running blind when everyone else has looked at guides is going to ruin it for the rest because they're usually going to make a lot more mistakes.

Is it maybe a little too soon to be trying the TOP prog after the DSR prog? They're extremely demanding fights. Getting some reasonable break time between progs helps.

We can toss out suggestions but only you can decide why this prog has been less enjoyable for you.