First raid

A few weeks ago, me and i friend did our first raid (8 players) in a mmo. We have no experience in mmo. I dont remember the name of the raid, but it was the end of 2.0.

I cant say that i really liked my experience. Everyone was rushing and were playing while we were in the cutscenes. So we didnt fight any boss. While we were watching the cutscenes, other players were killing the bosses. For us, it was not a good experience to finish 2.0

My first reflex was asking to myself why the game didnt hold them while we were in cutscene. This is what he do in 4 players dungeons. I understand that since the cutscenes are long, maybe people would not want to do it a second time, so it would make the wait time worse since there would be less players in queue...

My question is...was this situation well handle (not sure if right word) by the game?

Does this kind of situation happen again later in 2.1-2.5 and heavensward? What do experience players think about this?

This is probably Castrum/Praetorium you are talking about correct? No other dungeon has as many/as long cutscenes during the dungeon itself because of the problems with those two dungeons, so the situation shouldn't happen to you again later on.

As well, more just a technicality, but those two dungeons aren't raids. Binding Coils of Bahamut are the 8-man raids for the 2.0 series, while Crystal Tower are the 24-man ones.

This is exactly what i am talking about. My game is not in english, so i didnt know the name. Glad to hear that this situation will not happen again.

I have another question. I did crystal tower yesterday. It was fun, but not great because of lack of interaction between players. What i mean is players rush to end it quickly. So before boos fight, new players have no clue to what will happen. This situation is problematic, because during boos fight, you often dont know what is going on. Any tips on how to improve that?

Well for that people tend to just rush things, more so since most people have done the fights enough to know it by heart, as well as ilvl sync being high enough for them to ignore certain mechanics. Or believe they can. There are some video guides online if you wish to view them, though the only one you should really need to know is for the first 24-man raid, and maybe for the third one. The second one is easy enough even for newbies to not need a guide.

I would suggest asking in Alliance chat as well, you'll probably get atleast one new person who can help you out there, sometimes just a small spark can get that interaction going.

Also, if you DO intend to do the 8-man raids I would suggest looking at the guides as even with echo most of them are much harder then the 24-man raids. More so the final part of each Coil IE T5, T9 (moreso this one), and T13.

That make a lot of sense. I was just wondering if there was a etiquette that you could say in the chat, at the begining of the raid, to let peoples know that this is you first time.

Ex: when you say 'noob here' everyone will not rush and provide tips during gameplay.

Btw: i have no idea what coil ie-t5......mean!

Thanks for the help

I don't think there's any particular etiquette when introducing yourself to the party as a new comer. I usually just say "hello, first timer here." That's it. I use that for every dungeon/raid/trial I go into and usually I'll get people who'll say "Oh, it's pretty easy" or "This is gonna be fun". Like Dualblade said, spark the conversation and you may get someone to help you.

Binding Coil of Bahamut is the 8-man raid of ARR/2.0.

The first five turns are part of Binding Coil. When I said T5, that is Turn 5 AKA the final portion of Binding Coil.

T9 is Turn 9, which is the final portion of the Second Coil of Bahamut. T13 is likewise for the Final Coil.

Generally speaking, if it is your first time in an instance (or you are playing a new role you are uncertain with), say so. While there is a newbie system message, if you don't speak up people will assume a) you've already looked up the fights b) your an alt c) in the case of a 24-man your in another party. If you say you are new most of the time people will give a quick rundown of fights and important mechanics.

Condolences on the rough experience with Castrum Meridianum. The Praetorium dungeon you'll soon also encounter has a very similar format. You will probably find it most enjoyable to do it only with people that you already know are happy with actually watching the cutscenes in proper context. There's even a Party Finder checkbox just for "no cutscene skipping." If you can't get the full eight people that are happy doing it this way, you can also use the option that removes level sync and allows a smaller number of higher-level people to help in exchange for the fights in the dungeon not giving any EXP.

As for rushing - in these two eight-person dungeons or anywhere else, while it is common, it is still not okay. No one has the right to bully you into a speed run. If you speak up and ask them to be patient but they're rude or mean or anything, you can report them to GMs and it's actionable. But, like I said, easier to just avoid the situation in the first place.

And yes, it's just these two dungeons that are like this with lots of story in the middle of the dungeon. =)

Sadly it is how it is with some players. They just quickly pull stuff (they dont care if you are watching a cs) and can be rude. I normally speak out if i see there is new players involved. No reason for a player not to enjoy the experience because of select few

A lot of players have done these dungeons for months if not years.

We have roulette's at high level which will give us a random dungeon or trial based on category (Main story, level 50, level 60, trial, expert roulette, etc)
When you've done a dungeon atleast 50+ times, you just want it over with.
I understand that it's not nice for new players, but at the same time; would you want to watch the same cutscenes 50x and the dungeon taking 5x as long in a mindless zergfest?
It's possible that in time you will adopt the same mentality. :p

Also don't be afraid to say you're new to something! There are a lot of Mentors out there whom are friendly and walking knowledge bases.
I myself currently have 2-3 new players under my wing and gladly help them with their dungeons, trials or answer any questions they might have. :)
A lot of time Mentors are also in Dungeon runs. You can recognize a mentor by their little crowns next to the name (Be aware there are 3 different types, PvE, PVP, Crafting, some have multiple statuses though)
It is possible for Mentors to hide their crowns so you might even be partied with one, without you even knowing!

Yup, you're talking about the two 8-man dungeon runs at the end of ARR. I just ran these for the first time last night. I went in knowing that these two instances are probably the fastest tomes you'll ever get, and I let everyone know that I was ok with skipping cut scenes as I didn't want to slow anything down, and I was also just wanting to get it over with.

What I did was actually view the cut scenes on youtube before going in as I would rather have dealt with the spoilers than have them be deflated by looking at them after the battles took place. Then I saved the videos of the boss fights. Now I just got to download the content, do a little editing and I should have a full vid :)

I still wish I would have been able to experience the instance and cut scenes all at once though.

It's unfortunate that the dungeons were designed in that manner but rest assured that the devs absolutely learned from their mistakes in Castrum and Praetoreum. No future dungeons have long cutscenese in the middle of them.

As for your Crystal Tower run, you're going to find people rush the content whether you say you're new or not. You're doing things that are several years old but various items which are currently relevant get put in them to keep them alive. As such, a lot of people are running the Crystal Tower series each week again for an Aether Oil which is for the current relic weapon. These people have no desire to slow down because they just want to get it done. Unfortunately, the best thing for you here is to continue to catch up and try to be prepared for the new content when Patch 2.4 comes out. The easiest time to learn all encounters in the first few weeks after a patch when everone else is learning them too.

ah ,the good ol' castrum and prae ^^;
Nothing can really be done here. Both of these dungeons are now at the point where 4 man teams could pass through them. We're overgeared and people now know it by heart. The roulette is why people still do it at all, but the issue is, many have done it 100's maybe 1000's of times now. The dungeons cutscene's are long and numerous, as well as spreading out THROUGH the dungeon as you go. SE learned from this mistake and no longer place long cutscene's inside of the dungeon itself (as you noticed, you were watching 5-10 min cutscenes for those dungeons if you were watching them all the way through. If you rush things, you can get through the dungeon in 20 or so minutes. If you watch the cutscenes... the dungeon quickly becomes an hour long journey, in which most of the party will simply be sitting there.... doing nothing.

By no means is it a good situation and it still causes quite a toxic environment for newcomers who just reached it. I try to be more courteous to the newcomer's whenever I do it, but as I said, it can easily be passed by 4 man teams. So 1 or 2 people will not curb the rest. But I usually try to warn new players to either sit back and enjoy the cutscenes, or to skip them, learn the dungeon by running along with us, and rewatch it later. There's a few things you need to know, but it's mostly just where to go and what to click. You can pretty much just run through everything and beat down anything that comes near you fairly easily.

Funny thing about one of my runs was when I announced it was first time, and mentioned I was cool with skipping CS, I asked to please not leave me in the dust if I fall a little behind.

Didn't work. Found myself sprinting everytime it was available. Luckily Im a mage and don't need the tp. I understand most have run it countless times, but you're getting a bonus with the new player who isn't going to put up a fuss about skipping CS and rather participate in the fighting. At least make sure they're not running around like a blindfolded chicken. :p

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Originally Posted by Gemina

Funny thing about one of my runs was when I announced it was first time, and mentioned I was cool with skipping CS, I asked to please not leave me in the dust if I fall a little behind.

Didn't work. Found myself sprinting everytime it was available. Luckily Im a mage and don't need the tp. I understand most have run it countless times, but you're getting a bonus with the new player who isn't going to put up a fuss about skipping CS and rather participate in the fighting. At least make sure they're not running around like a blindfolded chicken. :p

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Could you imagine what the first time for a new tank must be like? crazy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ADVSS

Could you imagine what the first time for a new tank must be like? crazy

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Why yes, yes I can. Now imagine this lovely scenario! My first time in both Castrum and Prae, I queued with 3 friends. We made up the 2 tanks and the 2 healers :'D

Good news though, we decided the pace!
Bad news, we had a few situations where all 4 DPS left us :'D