I am the friend in question here. And this run was indeed horrible. And I had a difficult time recovering from how disastrous it all started out. The rest of the run I just couldn't focus no matter how hard I tried.
I don't understand why everyone thinks that everyone wants to/enjoys learning things blind (something one person in the alliance said). Some people may, but it's exactly that. SOME PEOPLE. Not everyone. Like Forte said, not everyone learns from watching videos. I am an example of this. I could watch videos all day, but until I experience a fight and the mechanics involved, I won't know what to do. I appreciate it when people explain fights. I don't like going in blind. And I genuinely believe that our new SCH wanted our help. Why should I be kicked for wanting to help people?
How would explaining the ENTIRE RAID in a short, 1-2 minute period be efficient? How can you expect anyone to retain such an overload of information? Snippets, while they may take more time, are better in the long run because it's easier to process smaller chunks of information rather than one large one. And yeah, some people may be able to remember an entire run-down of a dungeon or raid, but you don't want to assume that EVERYONE can. Remember what happens when you ASS-U-ME.
This is extremely discouraging, especially since I just became a mentor (read: just now got my crown, and decided not to hide it, as I initially wanted to do). I don't see why I should be kicked from a raid for wanting to do my job as a mentor and help someone. I also don't understand why people act like this. This week in particular has been full of bad people in DF. Rude people. People rushing ahead. Tanks that look like they picked their gear blindly from a hat. It's making playing FFXIV exhausting, and I really don't want it to be that way. It's supposed to be something fun for me to do after work to unwind. Instead, it feels more like a chore.
Worst part, my healing boots STILL didn't drop, which means I need to go back in AGAIN. And I'm honestly scared to because of the way the last few runs have been.
Btw, they eventually did wait a *little* bit longer as the raid progressed for us to explain. And each time they held on and didn't pull too early, we didn't wipe. Every time they pulled early--WIPE. So tell me again how explaining mechanics at the beginning of the fight is useless and a waste of time?
