Newbie to MMOs first two dungeon runs (DPS). One was heaven. The other a nightmare...

Okay I had two very interesting runs in the Duty Roulette today.

First run

I'm doing my very first run ever in a low level dungeon as a level 17 Thaumaturge. I'm leveling this class to level 26 for the Swiftcast spell that I really really want for my level 30 White Mage.
I've only been playing this game for two weeks and so far I didn't like this Thaumaturge damage dealing class because it didn't seem as fun as the old FF games.
I should also mention here that this is my first ever MMO game aswell and I'm on the PS4.

Anyway, so things were going along as they do when suddenly the Tank said in the chatbox, 'Ah! Blizzard II. So thats why...'
I apologised and said, 'Sorry, did I take away the agro?' (because I read on these forums that AOE spells take aggro from the tank).

He then went on to explain that I was supposed to use ice spells to regen my MP and that fire spells do the real damage. I thanked him for the tip. I didn't know that this game isn't about enemies being weak to fire or ice and that there are different properties. The description of the spell doesn't mention that it gives you back your MP and I didn't notice since everything is new to me and this class is not my focus.
So I was glad to learn this new thing that makes the class more interesting. Also the tank was really nice and he asked if everyone wanted all the chests or if we wanted to speed run. I noticed he had really cool weapons aswell which were glowing or something. When I examined him he had a purple coloured sword in the slot and I complimented him and he said that I would one day get a cool item like that aswell. I really liked how nice and friendly he and the rest of the party were about the whole run.
At one point I got kicked out of the game somehow. First time I've ever seen it. After about 3 mins I finally got back onto the server. To my surprise I was still in the same dungeon with the same party and at the same spot. i could not believe that they waited for me! I was so humbled and I thanked all of them and bowed to them all. I'm still getting that warm fuzzy feeling thinking about it. I wish I could have added those guys to my friend list but I hear those duty finders just take anybody from any server.
I've heard that Tanks get the most problems in this game and that some of them are really nasty. But this person was like a guardian angel.


Second Run
I queued up again for a second run and did a Grand Company quest while I waited. It seemed to take my white mage 10 mins to kill this level 28 dragon type creature in Southern Thanalan. Hardest fight I've fought on my brand new White Mage that I've grinded two weeks to get to this point.
Finally the duty starts and things are going well until we get to the last boss. He was some sort of wizard looking guy.

The first indicator that there was a problem was when the tank said that the imps are making the boss invulnerable. I've only done that dungeon as a healer and tank before (my gladiator is level 21) and I've never been the one going after the mobs on the boss fights. So I forgot that now I'm a damage dealer I need to clear those away. So I started going for them.
The real drama for me began when the boss got to about 15% health. I saw that we had two bars of Limit Break unused and I have never once used it. I always see damage dealers using it and I remembered one argument between a tank and a damage dealer when somebody used it before the last boss (can you believe the tank on that run said to kick the damage dealer or he would leave?).

So anyway, I really wanted to use the Limit Break because I had never used it and I watched a video on youtube yesterday to see what they all look like. I asked in the chatbox, 'Can I use limit break?'
The other damage dealer who was a lancer or dragoon says, 'No. I do the most single point damage.'
Then I persisted by saying, 'Please, I've never used it before. I am a damage dealer.'
Then he said, 'Okay yes you can use it.'

So I went to find it on my hotbar. Its not there. Of course, I'm not using my conjurer or White mage or even my gladiator. And my cross bar only has things like targets and potions...

So I open up my menu and go to Actions and Traits.
I finally locate the limit break.
I click on it and then a big circle shows up and its saying to use the right stick + R1 to position.
Before I get to position it the boss dies.

The guys in the chatbox all laugh at me and say I took too long to do it.
I explained to them what happened and they said its my fault for not having it on my hotbar etc.
How can people be so horrible? Why couldn't they just stop attacking the boss when he was at 15%?
They could see I was new. I didn't have the special symbol that shows I am high ranked for that dungeon. I had the symbol that shows a green shoot indicating that I am a newbie. And they couldn't just let me experiment with the skill.

I could have just used it without asking but I didn't want there to be an argument. But I lost out anyway in the end because they were impatient with me.

Sorry for the wall of text. I just wanted to share my positive and negative experience today. And I was wondering if any other new players have experienced things like this and what the veterans think of this sort of stuff. And should I expect more drama to come in the future?

Now I still haven't gotten to use this ability.

Limit breaks in low lvl dungeons are near irrelevant tbh. Just use caster lb as soon as it charges on a trash pile. It does more damage and saves more time than a crappy melee lb1 or 2 any day.

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Originally Posted by DarkChild

How can people be so horrible?

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Whelp...welcome to mmos \o/ Great times...amirite??

I kid I kid. Being new to an mmo and making that known automatically puts a target on your back. Mmo players are some of the most entitled, elitist, entitled......elitist kinds of people you will ever meet.

With that said, some mmo players a not only a pleasure to speak and converse with but to play with as well. Unfortunately social courtesy is largely forgone thanks to anonymity the internet provides.

So, take the lashings like a man (which it sounds like you did) and you'll find your crew eventually. There's plenty of players out there that will take the time to explain, give you a full slower paced clear, and joke with you about mistakes. Unfortunately, we are becoming the minority.

Good luck in the future. And remember when you say things like, "I'm sorry" "Please explain" or "I'm trying hard I'm just new" and someone is still trying to have you kicked or harassing you, they are a miserable person in real life to with nowhere to exert their emotions. In a way, you can be the sounding board they need to not slit their wrists. I take solace in that.

Good luck out there!!

Well yeah, like they already said. There are many who just won't explain anything how the run works. I'm always happy if they at least mention that they are all new on that run and if it doesn't work at the first time, you just do what you can. Best is you search for a social FC don't bother much if they are smal or so, better smal and helpful as a bunch of strangers that won't answer anything.

And never forget.. those who only can blame weren't a bit better than you at their begining. (Maybe they suck realy bad and only want someone to blame on.. DD did too much damage haha.. or healer took aggro.. well if it was too safe your ass it wasn't his intention) :rolleyes:

I once had a nice situation.. 3/4 of group died on second boss, only heal was alive and that guy took it down with his doot's 'cause he was running from the adds in the same time. Everyone in the group had cheered him on, haha that was awesome. ^^

Well if you found some nice players, better don't let them get off without adding them on your friendlist, you will never know how it will turn out. (Maybe they are very helpful, if you go into another instance maybe just try to say you're new after the greetin', but you will have to take some critic sometimes and if someone has a tipp for you just listen, what they have to say. If you wanna do the Tresures 'cause you need that loot always just ask the others if they would do it too.)

In short just try to talk, as newbie you have the right to do so and the group won't be all that angry at you if things won't get all that smoothly done. As long as you aren't a "Noob" you never have to bother realy. I have a difference between Noob and Newbie.. how the others look at it I dunno.
_____________________________
I explain my view of it in short:
"The noob is already lost, newbie will learn it, the pro will just do what he can"~Rine Sanguin.

Mm, the second group wasn't too bad. I mean it was sort of uncalled for to laugh at you, yes, but there's no way I'm waiting for an LB... bosses hurt a lot and I'd rather they die right away.
Though it's better than when I first used LB. I main bard, which almost never calls for our LB since it's shared by healers. When I started leveling rogue, someone told me to LB in the chat during a dungeon and I actually didn't figure out they were talking to me until after the dungeon ended, haha.

I usually try to help people if they mention they're new. Just say you're new at the beginning of a dungeon, and one of two things will happen. "Oh okay, let's help you." or "Okay, bye," and a person will leave. Rarely do I find people outright ignoring newcomers. Don't be sad if people leave just because you're new; it's not worth it. Honestly when I started leveling healer, I would tell groups "first time healing this dungeon" which would, I'd hope, let people know I knew the dungeon, but not necessarily from that point of view.

Also definitely see if nice people you meet are on your server, if they are you can contact each other after the dungeon is over and maybe do more dungeons together.

Good luck :)

Go find some FC.... Just like me, I'm also new here going first time to dungeon I always go with my FC or friends first.
They will explain all the mechanic while I'm tanking (all of them are lvl 50 :p)
If they busy I will wait until they available and in that time I will do exploring, levequest, digging or just making an emote with other Lalafel.

Honestly the second group wasn't bad at all lol

They waited for you to chat, actually listened, and i'm sure quite a bit of time was ticking by as you were:

"So I went to find it on my hotbar. Its not there. Of course, I'm not using my conjurer or White mage or even my gladiator. And my cross bar only has things like targets and potions...

So I open up my menu and go to Actions and Traits.
I finally locate the limit break.
I click on it and then a big circle shows up and its saying to use the right stick + R1 to position. "

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Originally Posted by Limelol

Honestly, the second group doesn't seem that bad, most certainly not "nightmare" status, unless you're leaving out something.

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Thanks for pointing that out. I reread it and realized I thought they were talking about kicking the op. Seems light compared to some of the crap I dealt with today, came through in my post too.

Ya, I agree with Limelol.

First group what I'd love to see more. Second group more the average party you might get.

Yeah I guess it wasn't that bad. They didn't just ignore me after all. It felt really bad as I was writing that as it was fresh and the first time I've been made fun of in the game.
All of the chat was happening during the boss fight though. I have a keyboard hooked up to my PS4 to type with but I use the game pad to play. I don't even know what the chatbox etiquette is. Do people generally only talk at the start or end of the dungeon? I've often seen messages in the middle of fights so I just followed suit.

It depends... I usually greet my party at the beginning. I don't like starting conversations much, though I'll speak with others if they talk to me.
Sometimes it's silent throughout the whole run, lots of times people are talking to their FC/LS friends. I do often. Sometimes, the party talks to each other and it's a nice time.

I'm glad you got that really good first run :)

But when it comes to the "horrible" one: They told you when you needed to focus on the imps (and even the reason why). When you asked about the limit break, they pointed out that the single-target one of melee damage dealers is the more effective there, but were still willing to let you do it instead just because you wanted to. It seems like they were pretty accommodating. That it didn't work was (even by your own description) based on all the time it took you to find it. There isn't really much your teammates could have done about that.

It sounds like you got two good groups in a row. It's simply that the first was fantastic and the second was perhaps slightly less fantastic, but still willing to help out a newbie and give you the chance to do what you wanted to.

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Originally Posted by DarkChild

I don't even know what the chatbox etiquette is. Do people generally only talk at the start or end of the dungeon? I've often seen messages in the middle of fights so I just followed suit.

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It really depends on the parties. Some won't even say a single word. I do know that a lot of us tend to atleast say hi and bye at start and end. Sometimes a mt(miss tell/tab) might spark some nice banter as well. But most DF groups will usuaully be hi and bye and other than maybe something mechanic wise will remain silent.

PS4 have mic with them, use it with your FC or friends while doing PVE, Dungeons or anything, it will be more fun.

I play at JAP server, so mostly we are just use translate or emote, like I get a slap emote if I made a mistake or get a pat emote if I'm done great. It happens few time already with my experience.

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Originally Posted by DarkChild

snip.

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Sorry for your bittersweet experiences but overall, it didn't sound too bad.
The second group didn't set out to be malicious they just assumed that you knew how to use it or at least had it on your hotbar.
When I first did caster LB, I didn't know what to do either because I wasn't expecting the drop down target so I clicked prematurely and it went off in the middle of the room instead of the boss lol!!XD

As for speaking in dungeons...well, it depends on several factors I find.
Usually I go as a tank and I don't have the chance to type mid combat but if it is a fairly laid back run then I may even get to converse a bit!
I find that casters have a bit more leeway when it comes to typing during combat.
Overall, this game isn't very friendly toward talking while in dungeons- at least while using a keyboard. So usually people will at least greet each other at the start and say goodbye at the end.
As a result a lot of people end up using a voice chat of some sort.

That being said, I strongly encourage you to keep up the positive attitude you seem to have. If you are new or are uncertain, feel free to ask- most people will be willing to explain things and help out. ^_^

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Originally Posted by DarkChild

Do people generally only talk at the start or end of the dungeon? I've often seen messages in the middle of fights so I just followed suit.

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I also play on PS4 (and had been on PS3 before that), so I move and fight with the controller but chat with a keyboard. I'm willing to discuss stuff between mob pulls, but it's rather awkward to keep switching back and forth between the two input devices at the speed I'd need to to chat mid-combat. I'll still say something if it really seems necessary, but expect in-combat chat to be a lot more terse than out-of-combat chat. Even PC players who aren't alternating devices can still find it awkward to switch to the chat box long enough to type something out. Of course some players are a lot better at that than others (and it depends a lot on how fast or slow of a typist you are).

Some players at least partially get around this problem by trying to anticipate things they may want to say in advance and putting those messages into macros, so that they can say any of their pre-arranged lines by just activating the macro rather than having to type it all out when needed. Of course, the obvious limitation there is when a question comes up they hadn't anticipated so don't have a macroed answer for.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarkChild

I don't even know what the chatbox etiquette is. Do people generally only talk at the start or end of the dungeon?

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Depends on how fast you can type.

I type slow so I generally only greet at the start or type in between pulls if group has slowed down. As some have mentioned I have some phrases on macro, they're tips for tanks on holding aggro when doing Sastasha or Tam-Tara.

Because I don't want to sound rude when offering tips I feel the need to type longer sentences but that means I fall behind the group if I try to chat while running, specially in new and unfamiliar dungeons.

It gets better as you become familiar with the dungeon since you know when to offer helpful tips.

You are lucky you dont play some other mmos(i dont want to tell names but i know at least 3 where i have max lvl characters) where people in dungeons speak only to insult you or make you feel bad.From what you describe i have one more reason to buy the game when my trial ends.

I opened up the first set of dungeons yesterday and in the third I messed up a little on a fight (who'd have thought I could kill something with 'flash'...) but luckily the party was great and let me know what was going down. I dropped a 'thank you' message for their advice and got two commendations out of it.

Speak to people in a pleasant way and try to play efficiently and you'll have a good time. If you french fry when you should pizza, you're not gonna have a good time.

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Originally Posted by Limelol

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Yah, They sounded more amused/joking than nightmarish by the way they explained it.

I'll call it as I see it here, you're being way too overly sensitive here. Unless you're just explaining it poorly, it doesn't sound that bad at all. I'm not going to be all like "sucks to suck grow a tougher skin!", cause thats not how I mean it, I'm simply saying... I don't see anything wrong with this picture, they both actually seem like pretty decent and understanding groups of people, perhaps you are just taking things way too personally :D

Lighten up... while you can... cause in endgame, you'll experience the joys of being booted from party ^^

You sound smart and probably learning the game faster than I did when I was new to it. Every player has experienced bad groups and harrassment at some point, and it can hurt. Obviously if you stick around long enough to have done everything a hundred times, people will rarely ever have anything negative to say because you will never give them a reason to, and that doesn't excuse their behavior because everyone was new once and you not deserve abuse.

Yes the tooltips for skills can be inadequate for explaining how they work. The umbral ice stacks that blizzard moves generate causes MP to recover faster; fire moves and astral fire stacks deal the highest damage; thunder moves do damage over time, and unlike classic FF games, enemies do not have elemental weaknesses, so rotating between these elements is the design of BLM and applies to all battles.

Hopefully you continue to meet nice people and enjoy the game. It is worth seeing the great content at the end of the road. Just be prepared for more unnecessary abuse all over again upon reaching the level cap, since you will be playing with unsynced veteran players who have more powerful gear than yourself until you catch up, and you may encounter people who are used to speeding through things rather than accomodating weaker players.

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Originally Posted by Stihllodeing

Whelp...welcome to mmos \o/ Great times...amirite??

I kid I kid. Being new to an mmo and making that known automatically puts a target on your back. Mmo players are some of the most entitled, elitist, entitled......elitist kinds of people you will ever meet.

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Sad thing is the elitism of mmo players has only happened within the last 10 years. Before that 90% mmo players were friendly to newbies and helpful. Now its probably 10% or less.

I also interpreted the second group as simply being amused, and not laughing at you in a rude way. Rather they just found the situation a bit entertaining. And judging from bad experiences I had myself when I was new, being found entertaining isn't bad at all. It's a lot worse to be told to 'stop sucking', 'stop being such a noob' and 'OMG' when you're new and uncertain. So unless I misunderstood the situation ( I wasn't there, after all), I think you probably just misunderstood the second group's intentions when they laughed. Cheer up, most people are nice in the lower lvl dungeons. :)

Can I have your nightmares instead of mine?

Yours seem absolutely lovely in comparison.