Rough guide to surviving a Command Mission

With the 4.1 patch, we now have advanced missions available for squads. We have a new option called a Command Mission where you can take 3 squad members into a handful of ARR dungeons with you synchronized to level. In addition to being a new toy, it also can be used to get used to using your abilities in different classes outside of a normal party.

Fortunately their stats are buffed a bit to offset the fact that they get a bit stupid at times.:rolleyes: As they gain levels in the different stances the AI does get better at responding to aoe damage zones and healing. The different stances primarily vary in 3 buffs, increased health, increased damage output or healing, reduces damage taken. Also the mobs also have a higher aggro rate toward you than the squad AI for boss mechanics, such chasing a targeted party member or just attacking you even though you haven't done anything yet while not the closest target.

After doing a search and not coming up with much for threads, I decided to put out a rough post on surviving these runs. I've run as tank, healer, and range dps to get a feel for adjustments needed. I don't claim this to be anything amazing, but I hope it helps some players get a better handle on things.

1) Party configuration: No matter what role you have set for yourself, you should plan your dps roles based on the types of enemies more likely to be encountered. The main thing that differentiates melee vs range is that melee tend to stand in aoe, and range will start attacking early and usually steal aggro from tank. As an example look at Hatali where they won't be hurt by electrified water, but definitely get cooked by the last bosses flame pool. You can't rely on them to break that damn bubble in Brayflox salamander boss if you get hit with it. With this in mind you might go with ranged if there is a good deal of localized aoe, or melee if that isn't much of a concern.

2) Squad behavior: Squad members default to being grouped behind you when inactive, so keep that in mind for your own positioning when using 'disengage' to draw them out of aoe pools. The different types of squad members have their predetermined behaviors for better or worse. Tanks will have a tendency to chase any new target at attempt to get all mobs into a nice little area (sometimes running all the way to were the new mob spawned when engaging before backtracking to where it moved to). Healers seem to have a HP threshold that has to be hit before they feel a need to heal you, or will get preoccupied with dispells or dpsing and potentially let you die as a tank. Dps initially seem to target whatever enemy is the closest to them, but seem to get better in time.

3) Tactics: Keeping in mind the prior information, I've found it's usually best to use the 'engage' command to have the squad start the fights. Make sure that you position yourself to be able to keep an eye on what is going on, and avoid line of sight problems.
3a) If you are the tank, you can steal aggro back from them once the enemies get in range. You can use 'disengage' to get a few moments to build aggro before hitting engage again, but keep in mind that the healer stops too. Also keep in mind that these guys are more buff than you, and can take a few hits. The big issue is how the healer always seems to be taking their sweet time keeping you in health, so learn to use those cool downs.

3b) Going in as a healer is pretty simple, but you will find yourself switching between healing, dps, and target management. For example here the Tonberry King is a difficult fight, because the tank likes to chase the little tons and loses aggro on the king. I got around this by taking the little buggers out myself before the tank got distracted, and releasing a well timed party limit break.
3c) As a dps you are primarily keeping the squad focused on what groups to attack, and paying attention to which mobs they are focused on to make sure you don't steal aggro. While this may seem a safe way to approach this, there are plenty of ways this can go wrong as mentioned above.

Overall you are the Mission Commander, so it's your responsibility to keep these guys focused, and succeed in clearing the dungeon.:cool: Have a wonderful time getting frustrated with these guys, and good luck.

You can bypass the character limit in posts by editing the first post.

Here's my shortened version:

Run Stone Vigil 10 times for the emotes and be done with it.

The end.

Seems like you're over-complicating it. Go in. Micromanage engage/disengage. Win. End.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCZUPLqjNjM

All you need really.

I appreciate the effort you put into writing this though.

Your squad members in general are so overpowered compared to similarly leveled players that the only thing that can really threaten them are persistent ground AoEs from bosses, and only the ones that they don't take reduced damage from. They can sit in Aiatar's poison pools or the electrified water from the biast in Halatali all day, but the AoEs from the final boss of both Halatali and Totorak can definitely KO them if you don't re position them with disengage.

I flew through each of the 5 dungeons without ever using disengage. Full speed ahead!

Mechanics that target a random party member will ignore the NPCs and always go for you. If you're on healer or ranged DPS, you can keep the ground targeted AoEs away from your squadron.

Rough guide to posting on FFXIV Fourms...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alestorm

You can bypass the character limit in posts by editing the first post.

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http://i.imgur.com/sTFCFVT.gif

At least you're trying though, and that is what counts...sometimes. Not all the time but this time!

As of the new patch 4.15 the 'engage' spam cheat to get quick reset of cool downs on the squad members has been fixed. Good fortune dealing with the less that brilliant AI squad, but at least they have good resilience.