Commendations?

I'm not really digging the commendation system. It seems like everyone I speak to (not in my party) is tossing the commendation to the healers and tanks. I had one person I spoke to blatantly say he will not commend a dps - and he was a dps... The system should be more of a "you get a commendation regardless on completion unless player votes a no to you then you don't get one from that person".

This would still hand out commendations to all when people leave without voting, and is more fair over time. Basically it's reverse of what it is now. If your mean or w/e players vote "no". You get a "no" then no medal from that person.

Everyone gets rewarded for doing their job and being nice. The better you do you job the more you get because you won't get a "no". The cap per dungeon stays the same. Win win.

As whm I received 7 in just a few runs.

One run I recieved 3!!! The tank was bad, so I ended up tanking quite a bit, and sort of "ran the group" knowing I couldn't fix the tank.
The next run I received none. The group was totally smooth, everyone knew what to do without talking. It was one of those totally silent yet completely effortless groups. I'm guessing everyone awarded the tank.
The next four groups I was more vocal and proactive, typing in the strategy very briefly, and being friendly, and each group gave me one ;)

Anytime the tank kept things moving switly without chaos I awarded him. I awarded the DPS who had the sense to heal me when the tank couldn't hold aggro. I also awarded a dps who somehow was always second on the threat list, and also killing the adds, flipping the switch, grabbing the items, staying out of trouble, etc.


A good tank seems like a shoe in. If the tank is bad, someone else usually steps up. I haven't seen many bad healers, but the ones who CC, DPS, and manage the group are amazing. I simply haven't had as many groups where a DPS really makes the difference (2 out of 6 so far).

If you're a healer and tank you naturally can distinguish yourselves. For DPS', I would say start telling jokes or sth haha.

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Originally Posted by Pinworms

I'm not really digging the commendation system. It seems like everyone I speak to (not in my party) is tossing the commendation to the healers and tanks. I had one person I spoke to blatantly say he will not commend a dps - and he was a dps... The system should be more of a "you get a commendation regardless on completion unless player votes a no to you then you don't get one from that person".

This would still hand out commendations to all when people leave without voting, and is more fair over time. Basically it's reverse of what it is now. If your mean or w/e players vote "no". You get a "no" then no medal from that person.

Everyone gets rewarded for doing their job and being nice. The better you do you job the more you get because you won't get a "no". The cap per dungeon stays the same. Win win.

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As things currently stand, commendations are meaningful only in that they're a limited resource (people get to allocate one per run).

Each "nice" person tends to hand out their commendation every dungeon run (unless they forget), even if the party as a whole didn't do anything exceptional. If we could hand them out to everyone, then very likely most people would do so [there's already forum posts asking for the ability to commend more than one person]. Like it or not, the ability to choose just only one player forces even the most kind-hearted person to pick someone on a criteria (rather than everyone, even if their criteria is just 'random').

--While it may seem disappointing that you don't receive a commendation, I don't think the purpose of the system was for you to receive one without performing your role exceptionally well. If everyone gets a medal, every run, then commendations are no different a resource than tomes.


Far as "doing your job", this is pretty much the reason why Tanks and Healers get commendations easier.

-A tank's PRIMARY (note emphasis) role is to keep threat glued to them.
-A healer's is to keep everyone alive.
-A DPS's is to do as much damage as humanly possible.

From the above assumption, it's actually very understandable that a tank or healer receives the commendation over a DPS .. as over-tanking or over-healing doesn't NECESSARILY (note emphasis) result in a *better* performance (as long as nobody dies). On the otherhand .... There is no damage cap to where doing more damage doesn't speed up completion time.


I give DPS's a commendation all the time, but only if they're pushing 95%+ DPS potential [have a near perfect rotation / use their skills extremely well for their gear level] -- or if they show signs of improvement during the run. (or .. say, they do very well for someone new to their job, or the first time playing that instance)

If you want commendations, you need to liquify the enemies. DPS's, especially those having played multiple jobs, know whether or not the other DPS is playing up to par.

If you want to farm Commendations just have 8 people click the guildhest Duty Roulette. Chances are you'll get 4 people together who can commend each other, since they didn't queue together.

As a DPS I find I don't get many commendations, even when I am clearly carrying a bad DPS or casting sleeps to help out with low gear tanks / healers. When I am giving mine out I tend to favor the other DPS in group just because I know they probably don't get any either, if they were bad and I carried them I just give it to tank / healer.

The commendations I do have came from groups where we agreed to circle vote so everybody gets one.

I always queue as scholar when queuing alone for the reduced queue times. I generally get commendations when my group is not so good and I have to do a lot more obvious work to keep everyone alive. When the group is all very well geared and knows the fights cold, I find that I get the commendations less often, which makes sense.

As a healer I usually give my commendations based on what happened in the run. If the tank never let any trash beat on me and kept aggro really well I'll give it to them. If one of the DPS manages to avoid all or most of the avoidable AE damage in a fight (while still doing lots of damage) I'll commend them.

I try and pay attention to what goes down and do it as fairly as possible to the "Best" Player on that run....I have given many to healers and tanks...it is hard to stand out as a DPS unless you are doing something or doing a particular fight that takes a "special" ability or something. I have only gotten 4 so far and appreciate them but it is all very subjective in the end.

I have given commendations to dps, healers, and tanks.
For me, it really all depends on how each person in the party does their job and whether they perform well in the dungeon.
If everyone performs exceptionally, at that point it goes to who was the most polite or was the most useful in party chat by providing strats or stuff like that.

My biggest problem is that people tend to just leave immediately and not even stick around long enough to receive commendations, let alone give them.
It has been so bad that I have gotten in the habit of reminding people to please do commendations before leaving.

I go in as DPS. I hand them out as

Tank gets it if he/she is willing to listen to suggestions when needed and actually tank the boss away from the healer/dps.
Healer get's it if things were a little crazy and he/she kept his/her cool and kept everyone alive.
DPS gets it if the tank/healer don't do anything to me that warrants it.

I also though will give it to someone who actually admits this is their first time in the dungeon, or they don't know the fight and ask for tips. If someone is willing to do that, to me they deserve it because they are trying their best to make sure they don't fail for the group.

Well, Patch has been out for a week, and while I haven't been actively seeking them, I have acquired a few.

Multiple times I've received all 3 from other plays, and always hand one out. I try to commend a DPS unless I've been given a stellar healer or a tank, but even the small things matter to me, like using limit breaks when needed without being prompted, etc.

I like the system, not looking forward to getting 469 more for the mount, but I'll get there eventually.

~K

If someone wants to farm commendations, I imagine the fastest and easiest route would be just joining a behest over and over as a tank or healer with a macro explaining the behest.

Tanks are easy evaluate: Did they hold threat, and know the fight are the obvious points. Personally, I also look at the pace they run the instance, and effective communication. Sorry tanks, but if you're pulling slow, or if you're pulling fast, but not marking, and making it sloppy you're not getting my commendation.

Healers are a little tougher to evaluate: Did they keep everyone alive... that didn't take unneccessary damage? Did they keep themseleves alive? Did they do DPS or CC as appropriate. How did they handle oh S___ moments? If they're always second on the threat meter, and not just spamming overhealing, it seems to me that they're contributing a lot.

DPS... well I usually think about which DPS I'm NOT voting for. The dps that's always 4th on the meter, and just stands around is not getting my vote. Neither is the one who can't get out of the red circle, or push the lever, or kill the add. The DPS that will steal my vote from the tank and healer is the one who's always second on the meter, and killing the adds, CCing, dropping in heals as needed, marking, explaining th fight, etc.



I actually make a point NOT to give commendations to mediocore tanks or healers. If the whole party is just mediocore, I won't give the commendation at all.

I've actually gotten a lot on my archer now, I'm just leveling it and running into a lot of new people so I'm explaining things, and making sure I nab/bind things away from healers when the tank's not as good or inexperienced. I even got 3 commendations one run where I ran down every fight because someone was new, and I ran it down before we reached the boss in between dpsing trash so it didn't slow us down.

So people do notice dps, tanks will not give you commendations if you don't either follow their target or at least use target's target (had a dps definitly get denied commendation from me because he insisted on attacking the same target as the other dps (both monks)) otherwise healers can more easily notice when a tank's doing a good job. I pick up really quickly on the strong and weak links as heals, as the tank all I know is if the healer can handle healing, or if the dps are following my numbers/taking my target, hard to tell if anyone's being stellar.

Commendations are funny sometimes.
Some instances will be a cakewalk and I'll hardly have to heal anyone. My 2 year old brother could have healed that group and I still get multiple commendations.
Then there are instances where it's a total hate management nightmare but I still manage to keep everyone alive with well timed heals and cc. I feel like I should have been given the academy award for best healer ever but I get zero commendations. Go figure.

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Originally Posted by Nova_Dresden

If two people are grouped together and queue for a dungeon, they can't commend anyone. Commendations are only provided for people to give if they queued solo. It prevents 2 people from grouping and just commending each other.

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Which is understandable but they should be still able to commend anyone else OUTSIDE of the premade group otherwise system put in the "dissadvantage" those being paired with partially pre-made parties. On other hand though, if that would be allowed it would actually increase their chance to recieve the commendation comparing to full party of "single" players so it's somehow hard to say which one is better / worse.

I like and dislike them. I feel that everyone who was active in the party and tried their best deserves one. That's why I often attempt to have the party trade comms equally.

It annoys me when I say "Let's trade comms equally" and am accused of trying to gain commendations. I just feel everyone should get one. I also feel that those who've joined in groups should at least be able to give commendations to those that AREN'T in their group.

I feel sad as a DPS though, since I never see any of us get any. Or at least, that's my personal experience.

I usually give to dps unless they really suck. reason is I am dps and know that tanks/healer will always get the majority of them.

I've gotten 13 all from low-level roulette as a BLM in the past 3 days.

I've done every role also... As a BLM. I had one party where our bard and scholar died right at the start of the last boss, and some how we still cleared it. I got 3 coms from that.

I queued a level 10 Guildhest as ACN thinking I was healer (lvl 50 WHM habit) then at the end I revealed and realized I was supposed to DPS. I got 2 Commendations for being an idiot. Great system!

As the healer, I always give commendations to the tank. Unless there was dps who explained the fights to someone new. Then they get them.

Or, if we're running Aurum Vale and repeatedly wiping on the last boss and one of the dps use the limit break to win 2 minutes before the timer runs out. Then he gets it.

Be friendly, helpful and efficient. Follow those criterias and I promise you will get a lot of commendations.

I just hit 100 today, but then since 2.1 came out I've been dungeon ratting it up, leveling 7 classes to 30 so far. However even as tank (no heals yet, whm was already 50) I rarely got more than 1 or 2 commendations unless shit hit the fan and I fixed it. I actually got the most commendations as dps because I 1) explained fights to new people, 2) Tried to help other people, especially tanks, to get better by giving suggestions and 3) most recently on my archer/bard I kited the second boss of Halatali to death because both the healer and tank stood in the water to death(...), and then twice in Haukke normal mode I had terribad tanks who wouldn't listen to thing anyone said and only tanked one target (tanked that one well though) so I was constantly kiting 1-3 mobs keeping em off the healer.

Who do I give it to? Almost never melee dps. Why? Monks attacking from the side and dragoons from the back. You get nothing from me if you are so afraid to pull aggro that you cut your dps in half. Even when healing I'd rather the dps be attacking (the right target) at full strength and pulling aggro from the tank rather than half assing their job. On that note if the melee dps are actually doing their jobs I'll give to them, if not then the healer unless the tank did a spectacular job at something.

(double post due to a weird 1000 character limit error)

A normal and smooth run:

1. Give one for tank as a healer, or healer as a tank.
2. If dps shows smartness by running to tank when they take over enmity and managing their dps cycle, kiting unexpected adds to tank, and never fail, I vote for the dps.

In short, I have a bit high standard for dps.

I never vote on:

1. DPS/Heal who pulls before tank. I regard them trolls, not even human being.
2. Anyone who does not communicate properly.
3. "I know everything and I am better than you." types.
4. Any role: failing their prime duty. i.e. healer fails to keep me up when I saw tons of stones flying into my target. DPS hitting wrong marker and running away from over enmity monsters, yet keep hitting it to end up healer distracted.
5. Not running away from that red circle(mostly DPS) and just waiting to be healed. Collateral situations (lag, oops 2 late, newcomer, that many reds!) excepted.

Off the top of my head I think I have about 35 commendations so far, but I do feel they're ultimately pointless as other people can't even see them... What are they designed for if not to give other players a gauge of how 'worthy' you are to play?

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Originally Posted by Shadowofzara

Who do I give it to? Almost never melee dps. Why? Monks attacking from the side and dragoons from the back. You get nothing from me if you are so afraid to pull aggro that you cut your dps in half. Even when healing I'd rather the dps be attacking (the right target) at full strength and pulling aggro from the tank rather than half assing their job. On that note if the melee dps are actually doing their jobs I'll give to them, if not then the healer unless the tank did a spectacular job at something.

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You do realize those jobs have skills that do MORE damage when used from the flank and back of enemies, right? Those monks and dragoons are actually playing their jobs right.

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Originally Posted by Abraxai

Off the top of my head I think I have about 35 commendations so far, but I do feel they're ultimately pointless as other people can't even see them... What are they designed for if not to give other players a gauge of how 'worthy' you are to play?

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You get rewards from achievements at certain milestones - 50, 100, 300 and 500. You'll get the Princely Hatchling minion and the Golden Magitek mount, among others things, to show off with.

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Originally Posted by Nova_Dresden

If two people are grouped together and queue for a dungeon, they can't commend anyone.

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This was really poorly implemented. While I understand and agree with the idea that you can't just let two people party up, join duties and give commendations to one another, it hamstrings rewarding the random joiners. My wife and I play together as a tank and a healer and on several occasions I have wanted to give commendations to players to DPS who were very helpful explaining things, etc. Instead of just not showing the window to partied players, it should just omit any party members going in from giving commendations to one another.

I can't be the only person who has come up against this limitation of the current implementation of the commendation system. Anyone should be able to give commendations to someone who entered the Duty randomly, and anyone should be able to give a commendation to someone who they did not enter the Duty partied with.