What I learned from MSQ The Preatorium

2/8 players were new (me as one) I died at first teleport due to train. Had no idea to pick up a key. Backtrack then only us two left no idea which way to go. Locked out of TWO of three boss fights.

So what was the point? If the point is to continuously expose you to different skills and mechanics as building blocks for future dungeons/trials/etc, I learned nothing. Got to see nothing, now as tank I will be expected to know where and how to go next time. And don't even bother to comment to go watch u tube for directions.

The forced cutscenes are a failure. I didn't even watch them due to being so pissed by the second teleport. If your going to force the cutscenes then EVERYONE NEEDS TO WATCH THEM OR BE FROZEN IN PLACE FOR DURATION of cutscene.

Lessons learned:
1) How to use a shortcut teleport (9x times)
2) listen to complaints about cutscenes. (lost count)
3) how to make a cup of coffee (2x)
4) Totally ruined a major milestone (what to look forward too in future?)

This how it was inteded, deal with it.:cool:

So im trying to think back to the last time i ran Prae. Its been awhile, since i will not under any circumstances que for MSQ roulette. I used to join newer players with PF requests from time to time and help them clear, but this option is no longer viable to me. So, apologies for anything i mis-remember.

You werent supposed to learn anything in this dungeon. The bosses dont really do any new mechanics that you needed to learn. You wont run any more 8 man dungeons, as they realized it was a mistake(yes on more 8 man trials and raids, but those are much more focused content). And you dont ever have to run it again if you dont want to, so not knowing where to go doesnt have to be a hindrance(over the years i did it maybe a dozen times, and i still dont remember where you go - id either follow someone else or fake it if you made me go again today). A lot of people(i was among them) were predicting that forced cutscenes would be a failure back when it was just a rumor rather then an actual plan(though im not sure the devs figured that logging out and back in would result in the "unskippable" cutscene being skipped), though being right about this gives me no pleasure. There was 1 good(rework into a solo instance with NPCs) and 1 ok(remove from duty finder, scrap roulette, this is where you teach new players to use the party finder and provide a sufficient warning about the number and length of cutscenes - maybe up the reward to make sure PFs fill reasonable quick) solution to the old problem, they chose a bad one.

So solutions for you. Once youve cooled down, you can get friends/FC members/LS associates/NN people/whoever and get a party finder group up. The idea would be either that you get a full group to go again as intended with no one messing it up, or that you get one or two higher level people to join in unsync'd and just sit back and let you do it the easy way(a level 70 healer would have no problem keeping you up as long as it took to finish all the fights even without any DPS to speed things up). Otherwise, you can put the dungeon behind you. You cleared one major milestone, but the next couple are more satisfying(my opinion, but shared by many). Of the 5 bosses, 3 of them appear elsewhere in the game for you to get another shot at(so theres potential for redemption). And finally, there are 3 endings to ARR. Ultimate Weapon is the worst of them. The better one comes in the last set of quests before you start the heavensward content. The best one comes from beating the ARR raid series(the alliance raid line answer some what happened next kinda questions, the normal raid line wraps up the loose ends of the story in a very satisfying way). So you could always go earn your other 2 endings, which are much less likely to be screwed up by other players.

Venting is fine too. This sucks. But its not new.

You could have used the CS to ask people things. You can chat during CS after all.

Personally if I see a new player bonus I make the effort to mention things like "pick up key","use teleporter", "click on magitek armor"

And by the way everyone during the custcenes is forced to watch them and frozen in place. Some people do come out 1-2 seconds earlier just because this game is terrible at applying things at exactly the same time for everyone so it's pretty common for people to be off by a few seconds, but it's just a few seconds.

So for them to get so far ahead in those few possible seconds (if they were among the early chosen people) to the point that you had to use a return teleporter 9 times makes me wonder exactly what went on. Usually new people only have to use it 1-3 times even if a group is speedrunning because they just play follow-the-leader.

If you're expecting an answer from a dev, that is extremely unlikely. The best you'll get are answers from other players.

Devs pretty much only answer the Japanese forums (which then if it's worthwhile gets translated to us).

Community managers for the forums (who are not devs, but are SE staff and have people for each forum language) do answer sometimes, but it's usually for threads where lots and lots of people replied. So even then you still need us non-SE-staff to bump your thread up if you're expecting any kind of real reply from SE.

I have copied below straight from the "User Agreement" (which you agreed to by playing) which sums up why I am still pissed about this.


3.2 Disruption. You may not in any way disrupt or interfere with the Game experience of other players, including the disruption of Square Enix's computers and servers.

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Originally Posted by Kn5dx

I have copied below straight from the "User Agreement" (which you agreed to by playing) which sums up why I am still pissed about this.


3.2 Disruption. You may not in any way disrupt or interfere with the Game experience of other players, including the disruption of Square Enix's computers and servers.

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Except you're interfering with other players and their run, you might need the dungeon to get past the MSQ, but the majority of the players are there to cap tomes or level. If you don't like the way it's run start your own party in PF with the intent to go through it as it's meant to do, there are plenty of people that don't mind doing it that way. DF in most cases are going to be a zerg, been this way since 2.0 .

This is mostly due to it having 30 minutes of cutscenes and the only way to attract players to repeat was through roulette rewards and an automatic cutscene skip feature. Seriously, it used to take several days at most to just to get enough people to join a clear party for it, so a lot of people ended up being stuck and locked out of content. BTW, on my first time clearing Prae: I missed like half or more of the boss fights, so that is what you will have to put up with if you want to clear the praetorium, shout or que.

P.S. Thank you so much to everyone who helped me with my first clear back then, and the developers for helping so many players finally clear the MSQ.

I find the guy with the overweight Roe avatar who stands on top of the summoning bell disruptive. And dont get me started about all the people crafting right in front of the market board. And the ones who do 2 or 3 pages of emotes when they run into a friend - theyre the worst. Disrupting my whole chat log. But my solution is to move on rather then freak out. I use a different summoning bell or market board(or the hide PC names keybind so i can see what i need to click on), and i can get away from those emote spammers(or blacklist them if theyre REALLY bad).

Gotta agree, if you run into a group who just want rewards and dont give a boogey to new players this is likely to happen. Thankfully the fights themselves are a snoozefest, and the way to go is mostly linear. Worst case scenario, your co-tank or a healer or even a dps will charge twoards where to go. To be honest they could trim these dungeons down and make them 4 man and nothing of value would be lost other than how fast they go. If you want to know what to do in case you end up there again, dungeon guides are all over the place . After a bad experience with extreme garuda I dont go into new content without watching one. (Went in as tank, got yelled at by a dps, turns out it was their fault we kept wiping not mine, they kept hitting garuda during the add phase and the raid wide damage was too much)

I have run that dungeons multiple times...but somehow always forget about the key. XD

What I learned from MSQ The Preatorium - I learned that Gaius talks ... a lot.

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Originally Posted by MuseTraveller

What I learned from MSQ The Preatorium - I learned that Gaius talks ... a lot.

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And that while he's in his rant we should have just stabbed him and been done with it.

honestly it's a cinematic masterpeice.. that should be enjoyed in ones inn room. the people that get so far ahead have cutscenes turned off.

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Originally Posted by kidalutz

honestly it's a cinematic masterpeice.. that should be enjoyed in ones inn room. the people that get so far ahead have cutscenes turned off.

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Not possible to do that anymore. They changed it so all scenes in those two(Paetorium and Castrum) are unskippable by ALL.