Raising the 90 minute cap (Duty finder story)

My duty finder experience today

I always check the 'join party in progress' box when using duty finder.
It always ends up landing me in volatile situations. Some are more friendly than others, but they're interesting in one way or another. Despite the fact it takes a big chunk out of my exp/progress per hour, i keep clicking that box. It's just the way i play the game i guess...

So today i got thrown into Brayflox with about 85 minutes on the clock. This was a party just starting on the first regular mobs in the place. It became quickly apparent when we wiped against a colibri that this was the worst tank i had ever seen in this game.

Well, the Bard and I (BLM) kind of just hung back being cool about it, but the Healer was not so kind. He started ripping into the tank pretty hard as we struggled our way through to the first boss and died brutally again and again. The two of them started arguing with each other and i knew that one or both of them was going to end up leaving.

By about the 70 minute mark, the Healer started swearing at the Tank, and getting pretty brutal about it. So i made a decision. Despite the fact that the tank was completely bad at tanking, and the healer was actually pretty good, i cast a vote dismiss on the HEALER for Harassment. The vote passed. After only a couple minutes, we got a new Healer, and he was very friendly. The bard in particular was completely patient and willing to help the tank, as she was herself an experienced PLD.

So we banded together and helped him out. At first it was still pretty rough, but we worked through it and finally by about the 50 minute mark we did it. We beat the first Brayflox boss and it felt good. We had come together as a party.

Unlike the deaths we had against that first Colibri, our journey to the 2nd boss was much smoother. It's not a hugely long way either, so we got there with a little over 40 minutes to spare. It was a clunky fight as the add spawn with the gobbie being chased caused problems. We ended up sleeping the boss at this point to focus properly on the add, but it took us 3 tries to beat the boss. Finally, we did, and i have to say that tank who was so completely bad at the start of the dungeon was making swift progress.

By this point though the clock was ticking, and being down to 25 minutes, there was a sense we didn't have enough time. We considered for a moment abandoning the duty due to the clock, but pressed onward. Heading to the final section we skipped all the side paths, but it was seamless as the tank was now every bit as good as any decent tank you might come across. Not all-star, but everything you could need in the basics. When we reached the 3rd boss, he tanked it like a pro and though that fight tends to cause chaos at times to the inexperienced, we knocked it down quickly and easily.

But the clock was still ticking...
4minutes, 30 seconds remaining.

We said our proper goodbyes on a high note and thanked each other.
It had been a fun 90 minutes, and certainly far more memorable than your standard silent party speed run where no one is really paying too much attention. With about 90 seconds left to go the tank rushed in on the final boss room and we took it on. It was a smooth 90 seconds and i knew we had this win in the bag ... but for the clock...

DUTY FAILED

I get that this 90 minute cap is in place because of server stress, but i do hope that sooner than later, or sometime ever, it can be raised to a point where this sort of party is allowed to finish what we start. When you get a party like this ... the kind where people really tough it out and teach each other and work together and communicate and make something memorable, 90 minutes is never enough.

Any way, that's my duty finder story.
Thanks for reading. :)

If a tank is that bad initially but improved so rapidly when you told him what to do it really sounds like that person probably
Bought their account. Or were just trolling.

I don't see why there's a timer in dungeons at all

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Originally Posted by Titor

If a tank is that bad initially but improved so rapidly when you told him what to do it really sounds like that person probably
Bought their account. Or were just trolling.

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Well, being trashed on probably didn't help any, but Braylox is also the first harder dungeon... besides Haukke sort of. More to do with adds control and flash usage. I did a second duty finder more recently today where it was Halatali and we finished the whole thing without a tank as a party of 3.

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Originally Posted by Lumidus

I don't see why there's a timer in dungeons at all

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So people don't choke up instance servers by taking forever or afking in them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lumidus

I don't see why there's a timer in dungeons at all

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Because trolls will be trolls.

A troll would think hogging an instance while they sleep is fun.

There's only so many instance servers, so if you never got booted you'd be taking up one of them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Titor

If a tank is that bad initially but improved so rapidly when you told him what to do it really sounds like that person probably
Bought their account. Or were just trolling.

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Or they were new and struggling but they're a competent person and understood advice/instructions unlike many many people you'd see in roulette.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lumidus

I don't see why there's a timer in dungeons at all

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Instances are created when you enter the dungeon and they take up server resources, for the sake of server stability they have to ensure they are deleted at some point and they decided that point would be 90 minutes.

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Originally Posted by NintenPyjak64

Or they were new and struggling but they're a competent person and understood advice/instructions unlike many many people you'd see in roulette.

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Honestly... I learned to hate brayflox due to the high amount of bad tanks you end up getting there, and not bad because they don't keep hate on them, bad because when you try to explain them all you receive is a dead silence and more loss of hate.

I like the timer, gives another form of difficulty to the dungeons. Nothing wrong with failing if the party was learning, failing needs to be more accepted as long as progress is being made.

I don't blame the Healer. I've been in duties where I've waited as long as I could to heal the tank to allow the tank to but up sufficient enmity and then I cast one cure one and rip hate straight off him. It's not fun having every mob turn in your direction. I've cure tanked Tam-Tara with just cure and medica spam as a WHM but it's not possible in the later dungeons where one cure doesn't heal you close to full. I levelled my first char/spec as a gld/pld and it was hell trying to keep aoe enmity even with flash in the beginning before the enmity boost. I'm in the process of levelling up a warrior and I'm only 40k away from 35 and it's so much easier using overpower - and flash - to save on TP.

The main issue is I have with gladiators and paladins. It's a simple class but if you don't do the combo you can't keep hate from a cure. For AoE it's mainly the lack of flash at all and I've noticed a growing trend of people to sue riot blade, yes riot blade instead of savage blade. Sure mana stays full but you get no additional enmity. Funny thing is they are usually the same tanks who don't even use flash! I got sick of teaching almost every tank how to play so now I just kick. If you're not smart enough to read the tooltips you have no business tanking.

I have to say an odd thing happened once. It was Stone Vigil and this paladin was terrible with enmity, yip no flash and riot blade. I was felling generous and told him what to do. he kept hate perfectly, single target and AoE. he even positioned things, pulled out of the way. he was close to the perfect tank in a few minutes of explanation. he even got a complement from me and that's rare. Sadly he's been the only one.

Don't get me started on the ilevel 90 monk who didn't position or know what their dots where. Yip we wiped due to enrage at last boss until the duty timer expired in Haukke heroic. Me a ilevel 50 something bard did more damage than them.

So you had 4 minutes and 30 seconds left when you got to boss, but chose to spend 3 minutes of that time talking before charging in...

And because of that you think 90 minutes is too little?

If the tank don't know what he's supposed to do by the time he gets to Brayflox Hard, there's no way that he actually levelled there on his own.
At best I would have told him to start with Sastasha Seagrot and learn to tank, and left, rather than stick around and help someone that likely paid RMT to get where he was.

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Originally Posted by Nekodar

Snip

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He's talking a about normal brayflox...

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Originally Posted by Nekodar

If the tank don't know what he's supposed to do by the time he gets to Brayflox Hard, {...}

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Brayflox normal. Early 30's.

I was thinking maybe there's a way to manage the timer like old racing games (Rad Racer) or Arcade etc,
Could it work if beating a boss gives you an extra 10 minutes?
It would avoid the AFK issue, while allowing a party that works their way through a dungeon, slowly, but successfully, a little more time.

Short of making the time unlimited, there is probably no point to which it will ever be "enough"

90 minutes is already frankly way too much time.

I've been in the same situation as the OP countless times. I'm a healer, and usually I'm patient and help them learn. But at some point it does wear on you having to teach 3/4 tanks how to tank, all the way at like level 46 (it was Stone Vigil, I remember teaching so many tanks how to do their combos there). Its the same issue I have trying to down Ex Primals. I have no problem teaching newbies, but when I need to down it for my weekly, or when I join a group that claims its a farming group and everyone has beaten it before, we shouldn't have 4+ deaths to dashes in Levi Ex before the second phase.

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Originally Posted by Fynlar

90 minutes is already frankly way too much time.

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Not if your entire group is learning an encounter. The first dungeon I hit the timer was Sunken Temple. If you loose a player you can also hit the timer while waiting. Maybe ok for tank/healer but not so good for damage dealers. A timer on level, therefore levelling, dungeons is unrealistic for some of the harder ones. Not every new player is an MMO veteran.

The time limit is a condition for failure. Did you really expect to play a game where you can't lose? My god must your life be boring.