ARR Extreme Trials, Mentors, and Duty Finder

So, I started playing a few months ago, currently working my way through 2.x content.

One of the most frustrating things I've encountered is how difficult it is to get a group together to run the ARR Extreme trials synced.

Established thought on this subject is that DF should never be used for Extreme Trials and new players should just resign to being carried through the content unsynced through PF, because "no one wants to do it".

Making it worse, is the mentor system. There are actually plenty of newer players who attempt the ARR Extreme Trials through DF. I've even managed to run and complete Garuda EX and Titan EX successfully this way. However, way too often, after 1-2 hours of queuing you end up getting an immediate withdrawal from a so-called "mentor" who joined via roulette and doesn't want to deal with an extreme fight. So, instead of doing their job, they screw over an entire party. To be fair, I've run into a few good mentors that actually are wiling to teach these fights, but they appear to be a rare breed. I actually think that Extreme battles should be removed from the Mentor roulette, they appear to do more harm than good.

This type of experience is incredibly frustrating and disheartening to newer players, and I'm willing to bet is a key reason why so many people give up the game around 2.x.

My next step is to attempt to set up synced trials via PF. My hopes aren't high, though it would be awesome to be proved wrong.

They should just add a separate EX roulette with a big reward for doing it. It is the only way I can see it being somewhat viable.

Removing ARR EX trials (HW and SB never pop as most find out about PF use by then) from the roulette would do more harm than good. Queue times would increase even further and you'd have almost no chance of replacing someone that left or was removed.

While doing the fights synced is better than unsynced, you're still not getting anything close to the original experience or difficulty. Ilvl increases, echo use and combat changes make them much easier.

DF is fine for the ARR EX trials provided the new players check out a guide before queueing and have some familiarity with how basic gameplay works.

Separating them into a roulette would open it up to queue manipulation during low-pop hours by groups only interested in getting the rewards with as little effort as possible.

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Originally Posted by Eldion

My next step is to attempt to set up synced trials via PF. My hopes aren't high, though it would be awesome to be proved wrong.

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There are 2 solutions to this, and this one right here is the easy one to implement. Specify and be clear that youre doing synced runs, you should find some takers given enough time. Some people like the fights, some like helping, and im sure you arent the only person interested in this sort of thing. The other solution is to join or create an active linkshell(or CWLS) dedicated to syncd runs of old content(finding an FC interested in this sort of content would work too i guess). Finding such a shell(they do exist on some servers) wouldnt be the easiest thing, and starting a new one would be a lot of leg work. But if you managed it, youd have a dedicated network of players to help you run these.

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Originally Posted by Vnolan

DF is fine for the ARR EX trials provided the new players check out a guide before queueing and have some familiarity with how basic gameplay works.

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which literally never happens.some of these people cant even bother to read party chat. out of all the times i get an ex primal for mentor roulette, half of them end up being a whole hour of wiping to the exact same mechanic and vote abandoning

if people want to do outdated content synced, they can just make a pf. ive seen several pfs lately for synced arr and hw ex primals and even min iLvl coil

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Originally Posted by Dirwen

They should just add a separate EX roulette with a big reward for doing it. It is the only way I can see it being somewhat viable.

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And that is where another issue will arise should an EX primal roulette should happen. People will fish for Garuda, Bismarck, Ravana, Lakshmi, or Susano EX. If it ain't one of them, chances are that people will leave left and right.

Where do you get your information of "so many people give up the game around 2.x."? Old extremes are old and irrelevant, this isn't a problem that can really be solved nor is it anything new for MMOs. You best bet is going to pf and try getting a party, but if people don't wanna do it then what can you do. There isn't even any reason to really do them other than completion itself, I would advice that you simply skip them for now and go back to them at a later time if you are still interested.

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Originally Posted by Eldion

This type of experience is incredibly frustrating and disheartening to newer players, and I'm willing to bet is a key reason why so many people give up the game around 2.x.

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And I bet you are wrong. Most people don't care much about the Ex trials, so the ease or difficulty of finding groups for them simply don't matter for them - especially not while people are still leveling.

when people rage quit extreme bosses, ask help from novice network, real mentors will help at least on phoenix server.

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Originally Posted by MistakeNot

And I bet you are wrong. Most people don't care much about the Ex trials, so the ease or difficulty of finding groups for them simply don't matter for them - especially not while people are still leveling.

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Honestly the difficulty of finding groups via DF is the reason I’ve decided to let my sub run out after the current period. The whole point of DF is so I don’t have to scour groups or forums to find a party willing to run side quest events. But waiting 2+ hours for the same 2.x events multiple days a week without getting a match just makes it frustrating, especially when I’m given <5 min avg wait times. Then I get to the point where I have to choose to continue waiting for the current DF I’ve invested hours into or withdraw so I can enter an MSQ duty and keep continuing the story. It just ruins the game for me. Why even bother starting side quest lines at that rate if I won’t be able to enjoy them all the way through or have to put the main story on hold?