Advice for memorizing openers

Heya, long time player that is tired of being a trash bag. Here is the thing. In other games I am typically a decent dps player, but in FFXIV I struggle. I think it is because your dps on most melee jobs is so focused on your opener and then just maintaining the DPS.

Does anyone have any advice as to how I can train myself to never mess up an opener? Or maybe some tools that help memorization?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Izanagi_Fiaresu

Heya, long time player that is tired of being a trash bag. Here is the thing. In other games I am typically a decent dps player, but in FFXIV I struggle. I think it is because your dps on most melee jobs is so focused on your opener and then just maintaining the DPS.

Does anyone have any advice as to how I can train myself to never mess up an opener? Or maybe some tools that help memorization?

---

SSS dummy. No seriously, put some practice in on that dummy. Practice it every day until you can memorize, at a minimum, your opener without having to look down at your hotbars. Once you get that down, you'll have a good baseline to start with. Out of curiosity, what job and level? And are you using K+B, or controller?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KaivaC

SSS dummy. No seriously, put some practice in on that dummy. Practice it every day until you can memorize, at a minimum, your opener without having to look down at your hotbars. Once you get that down, you'll have a good baseline to start with. Out of curiosity, what job and level? And are you using K+B, or controller?

---

I am using M/KB well a naga mmo mouse.

Oh and I am a sam main, until I can ginally get my MNK up through HOH.

FFXIV is the only game ive ever had trouble learning rotations and stuff

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Izanagi_Fiaresu

Heya, long time player that is tired of being a trash bag. Here is the thing. In other games I am typically a decent dps player, but in FFXIV I struggle. I think it is because your dps on most melee jobs is so focused on your opener and then just maintaining the DPS.

Does anyone have any advice as to how I can train myself to never mess up an opener? Or maybe some tools that help memorization?

---

The only way to do so is to do it so often that you can use it without thinking. The best way to do so is using a dummy.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Izanagi_Fiaresu

I am using M/KB well a naga mmo mouse.

Oh and I am a sam main, until I can ginally get my MNK up through HOH.

FFXIV is the only game ive ever had trouble learning rotations and stuff

---

I haven't touched SAM on a serious level since Deltascape, but the little bit I do remember does require you to be aware of your positionals, though they aren't nearly as important as, say, a Monk or a Ninja. Whichever one you decide to main, there are some guides posted up online - I can hunt them down if you'd like when I get home - and start practicing with those openers. SAM has a pretty static opener, and I know Monk's opener recently changed because Tornado Kick is actually not a DPS loss as it was towards the beginning of SB.

But first things first, get familiar with your job. Aside from the advice I told you earlier, know what each of your skills do. You'd be surprised at how many players think that Third Eye is just for reducing damage for a few seconds and nothing else.

I am not familiar with using the KB+M, only controller, but get your hotbar keyed to to something that will become familiar and easy to access.

Best way IMO and how I learned other job's openers and rotation is have the opener opened up on a second screen (phone, secind monitor, overlay program etc). Try out the opener until you get a feel of it against a dummy. You don't even have to follow the opener exactly and reset everytime you screw up just keep at it until you get the feel of the job's opener and rotation execution, then adjust accordingly to the correct opener once you know where your buttons are.

Once you get the basics, every content you queue up for (except savage unless you are very confident) go in as that job you are learning. This will help you immensly learning the job overall than just smacking a dummy over and over with the same opener. As in actual content fights are way longer as knowing your opener is not the same as knowing your job very well. Because fights are longer you can put in practice pseudo openers while dealing mechanics and learning uptime and at the same time getting better at not tunnel visioning.

You are already doing a very good job by asking and wanting advice. Be sure to check out resources like The Balance to improve even more. Keep at it!

One thing is also to make sure you're using the right visuals, for example: http://ffxivrotations.com/1g8x

that's just 1 rotation from the SAM guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...h.cm1ldc5e2rit

When Im learning new rotations, I practice the skills very slowly (because im on a dummy, who cares) and make sure I hit the right things in the right orders so my hands get used to the movement. I also benefit from 2 monitors and it speeds up my learning immensely by having the rotation on the 2nd screen.

This is sort of a technique I picked up from learning music. "The slower you go, the faster you learn". I think it applies to learning FRESH new rotations as well.

Then the rest is just what everyone else is saying: practice. take 10-15 minutes just practicing openers until you dont need to look at the visual anymore.

Pretty much Stone Sea Sky. It’s 10/10 best way of practicing rotations since it resets cooldowns. Only other thing: don’t be afraid to mess up. Mess up then say “next time I’ll do that.”


Another thing that I feel helps is understanding why people put them in that order. IE: I know that dragoon’s opener Is the way it is to put jump on cooldown faster than Spineshatter Dive to get into Life of the Dragon faster and all that.

Pretty much what everyone has been saying: just keep practicing and don't put down yourself when you slip up once in a while in your opener. Hell, even I still do it sometimes in Black Mage and forget to pop Sharpcast when everyone around me is acting like a chicken with its head cut off.

Practice everyday until it's pretty much muscle memory nothing else special to it

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Izanagi_Fiaresu

Heya, long time player that is tired of being a trash bag. Here is the thing. In other games I am typically a decent dps player, but in FFXIV I struggle. I think it is because your dps on most melee jobs is so focused on your opener and then just maintaining the DPS.

Does anyone have any advice as to how I can train myself to never mess up an opener? Or maybe some tools that help memorization?

---

Its an issue of practice. It's what it boils down to. For me personally, I actually turn on 2 extra hot bars and stick my opener in the exact order skill for skill on it. I dont play from those hotbars, but I have it so I can look at my opener as I do it until I memorized it. Works for me, but its a bit unconventional.

But in any case, the main take away is practice on dummies.

Repetition repetition repetition. When I practice rotations I I try to practice in segments. Ill practice the first 1/4 of the rotation until I feel that I'm comfortable with it then add more to it until the end. After I've practiced until I'm tired of it I'll leave it alone for the rest of the day, sleep on it, try it again the next day. I know people operate differently but I feel like I really retain it better when I practice for a bit, sleep on it and practice again as much as possible until its ingrained in my brain. Maybe that'll do it for you.

As people have said, repetition helps. Something else that has helped me before is trying to understand why you open your rotation in that specific order. This makes it less about memorizing a set of button presses and more about prioritizing the most powerful actions you have available.

You guys are awesome thank you!

I put my opener in my 4th and 5th hot bar in order with change to hotbar 1 macro in the last slot...
At first it was for learning and memorizing but now i have no reason to memorize it...
some may say i'm lazy but its seriously effective

NIN is my only DPS job and I'm not max level, so I'm probably not the best person to give advice, but I figured I'd chime in a few things from my limited experience.

The repetition everyone has mentioned is very important. You definitely want to get your opener into muscle memory. Dummies are great for when you are still getting things locked in, and then head over the Stone, Sky, Sea when you want to quickly reset your timers and/or figure out your DPS (it's what I have to do as a PS4 player).

This part of memorizing your opener I consider to be like learning how to play a song on the piano with your right hand; the other part of the song you learn with your left hand would be the mechanics of a fight. With knowledge in each hand, it's another learning process to combine the two. This is where 8-man comes in and practice, practice, practice.

The last thing I will suggest is a nice, friendly UI. While my healers, DRK, crafters and gatherers all share the same UI; my UI for my NIN is totally custom. I see a lot of UIs while watching videos that are just horrendous to look at. They might work for that player, but in order for me to perform efficiently and optimally, I want only the information I need on my screen. I don't know if KB+M players set up their hotbars in a manner that allows their skills to 'flow' in a sense, but it is definitely that way on a controller. If this is the case for KB+M, I highly recommend this as well. It's a lot of trial and error.