Put Instance allies in a party list.

I don't know why this hasn't been fixed, but the instanced quests are obsolete. Having to click around without a list is not how the game works for normal content, so I don't see what it's purpose is. All allies in instance quests should be in your party, even as npcs. When facing the last Aery boss, Estien should be in your party as well. The removal of stoneskin has made this even worse. Fates that have an ally to protect should also be fixed, but I'm not sure how that would work. It's got to the point where I dread instances most of the time. They should be fun, but they're terrible, and even worse on PS4.

Content groups aren't parties though. Parties in this game incur bonuses and are restricted to playable classes/jobs. NPCs typically aren't part of that at all. Or in the case of some of the other instances battles, there are more than 7 and there isn't an interface for this. If a DPS dropped in the Aery and Estinien joined, you'd get your limit break and light party bonus back, which could cause unforseen balance issues in other content instances. That's not to mention other battle data that would need to be sent to each involved player like the party members HP, MP, and TP. Sending this data, even just to update the UI on the client screen takes data. If the instance servers already get stressed out when too many players are active, would we relly want MORE things to have to broadcast. (See: the developer reasons why status effects aren't split between positive/negative.) The same type of underlying system is also what binds your levequest mobs/NPCs to your player. You can still focus-target individual NPCs of importance, which makes them plenty targetable with typed commands and/or macros.

Then just remove the limit break function in instances, and make it so that NPCS do NOT count. Clicking between people on PS4 is a miserable experience, and should be altered. They don't even have to have job symbols, they could be yellow like pets, with a human silhouette for its symbol, or a new color altogether to identify that they are npcs. There are so many ways that instanced content could be made more manageable, and fun for everyone.

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Originally Posted by DamianFatale

I don't know why this hasn't been fixed, but the instanced quests are obsolete. Having to click around without a list is not how the game works for normal content, so I don't see what it's purpose is. All allies in instance quests should be in your party, even as npcs. When facing the last Aery boss, Estien should be in your party as well. The removal of stoneskin has made this even worse. Fates that have an ally to protect should also be fixed, but I'm not sure how that would work. It's got to the point where I dread instances most of the time. They should be fun, but they're terrible, and even worse on PS4.

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Can't agree with this more, it makes some quests as a healer a total pain in the ass (looking at you level 60 scholar quest)

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Originally Posted by Sylvina

Can't agree with this more, it makes some quests as a healer a total pain in the ass (looking at you level 60 scholar quest)

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This is EXACTLY what made me complain. That level 60 quest is dreadful. It's so easy to mess up, because the nymian plague isn't displayed all at once. I had to do it four times in a row.

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Originally Posted by DamianFatale

This is EXACTLY what made me complain. That level 60 quest is dreadful. It's so easy to mess up, because the nymian plague isn't displayed all at once. I had to do it four times in a row.

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I only had to re do it once but I read a guide after the first failure, so I knew to constantly rotate between targets and just heal and remove debuffs, letting the NPCs do the dps.

The increase in party-only spells does make this increasingly annoying over time. For targeting, how about using the alliance frames which are worthless in most content anyway? Have friendly NPCs in virtual alliances for solo/light party/full party content. The party-only stuff is annoying in general though. Makes me feel so powerless when I pass newbies and can't perform the traditional MMO buffs on them to make their soloing easier. Or when I'm in PVP and half my abilities are worthless to help members of other parties.

Edit: Oh, the SCH60 quest. Given the timing of this thread, I was thinking of the SCH70 quest. In the SCH70 quest, the NPCs are treated as party members, even though they're not in the party list, so both you and your fairy can AoE them as such, or use party-only abilities like Excogitation on them. It would be great if this were the norm. I don't even need to see most NPCs in the party list; just flag them as valid party targets for abilities so I can use my whole action list in the fight.