Never do BA again on NA servers

In my honest opinion, Baldesion Arsenal was a mistake to add to a game if you understand the NA community of Final Fantasy XIV.

Our community is deathly afraid of failure. So the idea of failing in BA and wasting all that time is something they fight against religiously. These premade groups that have sprung up requiring discord to enter and having to put up with toxic attitudes/people and elitist "this is OUR baldesion arsenal" mindsets is not only the reason I now hate Baldesion Arsenal but also the reason I am dreading having to do any other content like it in the future.

Hello. Hi. How are ya? I'm Zolvolt. I have 10 BA clears now and getting here was awful.
I've been kicked from two BA discord servers, one was for telling my group I was disappointed in how they griefed another group by letting the support NM fail on purpose and then telling them how hateful they've been towards other players was disgusting. The other one I entered Hydatos on my own right after work entered a party to do support NM, was told there was no support group and then went into a portal. Got a DM on discord right away saying I was kicked for sniping portals.

Its obnoxious and unnecessary. One of my clears of BA's was all pugs with no discord at all. Its just a group of people who think they need to maximize BA or they will fail. They're afraid of running the risk of accel bombs blowing up or meteors being misplaced so much so that they will ostracize any player that is not a part of their clique even if there is no malicious intention behind it.

Putting up with all of these players toxicity, bad attitudes, elitist us vs. them attitudes is why I hate BA after 10 runs. I simply wanted 10 clears for the achievement and getting it was a huge hurtle because the players who you have to engage with to get there are awful to work with a majority of the time. That being said I met quite a number of nice people who I look forward to seeing again in the future. But for now I'm not asking, I'm begging. Do not put the community through this again, please keep in mind how awful NA will act when it comes to public content with a high risk. The high risk is 100% why players act this way. Please convey this. I don't wanna deal with this ever again I am actually sick of the horrible attitudes that people here have.

Also if anyone wants advice on how to get BA done without the toxicity.
Get a small group of friends together with stabilizers. maybe 4-8 max. Use stabilizers when other groups are going in. The only caviot is that your group needs to understands the ins and outs of every boss because premades aren't going to help you out if one of you makes a mistake. Also, its public content, if people give you shit for it tell them to get over themselves, they don't own the BA instance or the portals in there. If you want to do it. Just go in and do it. People have the option here of being welcoming to randoms, helping them out and gaining benefit by doing so but its clear after my 10 runs thats the NA community are never going to accept that path and are going to stick to being hateful, and ostracizing. The game needs to be designed in a way that avoids putting players in a position where they can act like this. Its gross.

It sounds like the main problem is the NA players.

Maybe this will provide some incentive for the players to cooperate more.

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Originally Posted by Avenger

It sounds like the main problem is the NA players.

Maybe this will provide some incentive for the players to cooperate more.

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To be honest OP, I don't know your experiences very well, and am sorry if you had to deal with such things. The BA Discords already put a heavy check on toxicity and the like, plus I think that SE needs to rethink this design for BA regarding portal sniping. Right now, it's TOO EASY to get into BA because you wait the 5 minutes Earth Time. If they really wanted to gate it, they should consider the Stabilizers instead of having them only give you priority access. HAVE THEM GIVE YOU ACCESS ONLY, Nothing Else. Make BA require Stabilizers so people have to put in work to get that privilege to go into BA.

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Originally Posted by Avenger

It sounds like the main problem is the NA players.

Maybe this will provide some incentive for the players to cooperate more.

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Yes, and I doubt it would. (at least for EU)

If it does, it would be great, but I don't see it happening soon over at the EU servers.

Language barriers (multiple), Discord groups practically ignoring anyone that doesn't play ball and the fact that you can get killed by other players (meteors/cleave (Meteors will most likely lead into you being thrown into hyda, but it's still a death you probably don't have any control over), which will set you back in experience, requiring you to level back up (which isn't hard or slow, but you still have to do it).
Makes for content most people either join with a Discord group or accidentally stumble into, just not knowing what awaits them on the other side of the portal.

While I will look into doing it the intended way (gathering a single party at most and going in do complete it with other random parties). I don't expect a lot of succes.

Taking responsibility and listening to other players hasn't been the strongest part of the EU community, people that actively communicate with others not in their FC are few and far between. (and honestly the ToS changes don't promote change for the better in that.)

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Originally Posted by Avenger

It sounds like the main problem is the NA players.

Maybe this will provide some incentive for the players to cooperate more.

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I agree and that is the whole idea of Eureka, to be more like an old school MMO or FFXI. Community has been taken out of MMO's, newer players probably don't know anything other than Duty Finder or similar grouping aides. They are trying to bring a little of that back, where people have to work together to solve problems.

Yeah, I just did a BA run as a pugger, then got ridiculed because a premade was in the instance as well. They didn't let me join any parties, and some players I considered a friend have now blacklisted me.

I no longer feel welcome inside Hydatos, just because I wanted to content available to everyone.

If you're wondering, Yes. I made it through Ozma by myself.

Yes, i did get to the portal first.

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Originally Posted by Avenheit

Yeah, I just did a BA run as a pugger, then got ridiculed because a premade was in the instance as well. They didn't let me join any parties, and some players I considered a friend have now blacklisted me.

I no longer feel welcome inside Hydatos, just because I wanted to content available to everyone.

If you're wondering, Yes. I made it through Ozma by myself.

Yes, i did get to the portal first.

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I got to the point where I broke into tears because I somehow convinced myself that I am a garbage person for wanting to do public content. And then continued to hate myself because I cried over people I've never met/over a simple video game

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Originally Posted by Avenheit

I got to the point where I broke into tears because I somehow convinced myself that I am a garbage person for wanting to do public content. And then continued to hate myself because I cried over people I've never met/over a simple video game

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Just remember it's a THEM thing not a YOU thing The current toxic sludge you're dealing with are generally here from other MMO communities and don't have the FF XIV Community mindset that bring you in from the leveling dungeons The helpful polite players that genuinely want to see other people succeed and maybe surpass themselves is tossed to the wayside by those who think they're WINNING a game.

Bear in mind that alot of the problem stems from those people moving in from other MMOs While the one that wont be named that was beyond a disappointment caused yet another loss of subs those subs moved here and before you knew it we had 14 million people subbed (I've played both this was the better investment.) Thats alot of people with vastly different mindsets from what we got used to over the years.

Now I'm rambling I guess what I'm saying is never give up theres kind players out there.

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Originally Posted by kidalutz

Just remember it's a THEM thing not a YOU thing The current toxic sludge you're dealing with are generally here from other MMO communities and don't have the FF XIV Community mindset that bring you in from the leveling dungeons The helpful polite players that genuinely want to see other people succeed and maybe surpass themselves is tossed to the wayside by those who think they're WINNING a game.

Bear in mind that alot of the problem stems from those people moving in from other MMOs While the one that wont be named that was beyond a disappointment caused yet another loss of subs those subs moved here and before you knew it we had 14 million people subbed (I've played both this was the better investment.) Thats alot of people with vastly different mindsets from what we got used to over the years.

Now I'm rambling I guess what I'm saying is never give up theres kind players out there.

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I do agree with you, I started playing back in private beta of ARR and I've had a wonderful time inside FF14 until today. Once I move passed this, I'll get right back into it. I love the game, I enjoy it so much and I was never a MMO player originally.

Given some time, I'll be right back into doing content square has offered EVERYONE to play

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Originally Posted by Avenheit

I got to the point where I broke into tears because I somehow convinced myself that I am a garbage person for wanting to do public content. And then continued to hate myself because I cried over people I've never met/over a simple video game

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Grats on the clear. I rarely even get as far as doing high end content because that community seems like mostly people throwing around insults, memes and heeps of sarcasm which I don't feel comfortable with.

Typical level of conversion is like...
"Good job on fail moron"
"Says the noob. Ohh you hurt my feelings ima kill myself"
"Blah blah insert some current memes. kappa"
"REEEEEEEEEEEE"

It's normal for you to show emotion, just means you are human. Video games and the Internet is still real life and shouldn't be treated like some kind of imaginary space where nothing you say counts. People deserve to be treated with respect online just as much as offline.

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Originally Posted by Rufalus

Grats on the clear. I rarely even get as far as doing high end content because that community seems like mostly people throwing around insults, memes and heeps of sarcasm which I don't feel comfortable with.

Typical level of conversion is like...
"Good job on fail moron"
"Says the noob. Ohh you hurt my feelings ima kill myself"
"Blah blah insert some current memes. kappa"
"REEEEEEEEEEEE"

It's normal for you to show emotion, just means you are human. Video games and the Internet is still real life and shouldn't be treated like some kind of imaginary space where nothing you say counts. People deserve to be treated with respect online just as much as offline.

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Thank you for the comment :)

And I understand what you mean, For those very reasons I've been to scared to attempt Savage raids, so I thought since BA is open to the public, i'd give it my all instead.

Play on jp server, its calming down and become not bad here
No premade mostly PUG and higly active, the clear rate is also increased day by day
Which make me think they will make more BA like content in the future

Ps. As a healer its easy to stay alive in BA solo, far easier than in a party

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Originally Posted by Miminming

Play on jp server, its calming down and become not bad here
No premade mostly PUG and higly active, the clear rate is also increased day by day
Which make me think they will make more BA like content in the future

Ps. As a healer its easy to stay alive in BA solo, far easier than in a party

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I've been really thinking about it lately, I've done ping tests and Elemental had better ping for me as well (australian) and one streamer I watch is on JP and I've noticed also that they pug almost every onvi spawn which is nice since that'd be really great for fragment farming.

the only problem is i have a mate on my server and I wouldn't wanna force a server swap on them

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Originally Posted by Avenheit

I do agree with you, I started playing back in private beta of ARR and I've had a wonderful time inside FF14 until today. Once I move passed this, I'll get right back into it. I love the game, I enjoy it so much and I was never a MMO player originally.

Given some time, I'll be right back into doing content square has offered EVERYONE to play

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Game on! *fistbump*

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Originally Posted by Avenheit

I got to the point where I broke into tears because I somehow convinced myself that I am a garbage person for wanting to do public content. And then continued to hate myself because I cried over people I've never met/over a simple video game

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/comfort.

Just having to read the massive number of frustration posts like yours and from several other players is saddening in itself. It also amplifies the raw dichotomy between the mindset of the FFXI and FFXIV communities in certain regions.

Sincerely glad you were able to be firmly resilient and got through to achieve the clear. Well done.

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Originally Posted by Ramesses

/comfort.

Just having to read the massive number of frustration posts like yours and from several other players is saddening in itself. It also amplifies the raw dichotomy between the mindset of the FFXI and FFXIV communities in certain regions.

Sincerely glad you were able to be firmly resilient and got through to achieve the clear. Well done.

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It's comments like this that seriously helped me move on from this experience :) Thank you.

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Originally Posted by Avenheit

It's comments like this that seriously helped me move on from this experience :) Thank you.

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You're very welcome.

Some people are... disappointingly... stagnant with their evolution and therefore resort to the displacement of grievances on others because they are actually petty. As I mentioned above, just keep being firmly resilient, keep being happy as you play and be sure to pay that happiness forward to someone.

Weird...Mayhap I joined BA discord too late with like only 2 weeks of experience.

Every run (beside Clear/re-clear because we all know the rules) the lead will let us know "Do not say anything if your portal is taken, it is what it is, don't shout about it." after Ovni NM. Same goes for support NM.

Never did I see anyone raged toward "outsider", maybe I am lucky, maybe the discord I joined is more friendly, I wish you all have the same luck as well.

Well this thread has convinced me just to get the first 405 weapon and then bail. I play FFXIV to avoid super coordinated discord groups, not lookin' to go back to the place I left.

Yeah, Baldesion Arsenal was a really terrible idea.

I'm not saying that the current servers for Discord are bad, but as a new person running it I am definitely feeling the ostracized language of being new and not good enough by several of the members. I've received some relatively negative feedback on not understanding how 50 separate bot-controlled Discord channels work. I kindly ask a question for sake of being respectful and was reprimanded by a player. We're held to third party programs where a group of community leaders have the responsibility of developing overly complicated Discord bots and processes just to be able to smoothly and effectively finish BA.

You can't even reach out to the leaders without feeling like you're trash. And it's not their fault, they're getting 100 separate questions and even writing in their bios not to ask them questions. How is this fair to them for helping?

This can't be fair to the Discord folks, and it can't be fair to the community.

And don't fool yourself, BA is not public content any more. This isn't to the fault of the Discords, it's the fault of Square-Enix.

BA should be an instanced zone independent from Hydatos.

You should be allowed to use the duty finder in-game to group with parties.

You should be allowed to play with your friends (another issue that Discord can't support)

You should not be required to wait 2-3 days before you can queue up at a very specific time organized by group leaders.

You should not have to sacrifice your own schedule just to be able to try Proto-Ozma.

If you want to make organizing this like the wedding ceremony system, fine, do that. But don't leave it to people to do what a computer should be doing. And don't leave unpaid customer service to answer all the questions.

BA (entry & grouping) design is total crap, .. the emergency fate in Diadem grouping was better lol..

So, I've done this quite a bit now and only lately have had a bad experience with a sniper\troll over on Crystal. The design makes it so that it's a public dungeon, but then does nothing to force players who enter to actually work together and this single person will not join our parties (even though he's been invited), will slot platebearer and wears no elemental gear. He's fishing for a clear off the hard work our discord is doing to get people through the content. That's not a fault on him specifically (aside from his absolute trash personality), but a failure of SE's design.

I like that it's a cross-server experience because it seems that the greater majority of players who liked XI have come together once again. It's complicated and it's like herding cats sometimes but there's a place for everyone.

But entering is a nightmare, and it takes much too much time. SE's vision of players randomly joining a dungeon might have worked if they hadn't also decided to make it the absolute most unforgiving content to date. I'm not saying they should dumb down the content, but we definitely shouldn't have to fight the servers just to get our people in the same instance and then fight other random players who don't even want to contribute just to do it.

As much as I love the concept, and the people I've met while pursuing my own clear, the system is absolute and utter trash and it's clear not one of these designers actually played any XI content, at all, ever.

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Originally Posted by Souljacker

So, I've done this quite a bit now and only lately have had a bad experience with a sniper\troll over on Crystal. The design makes it so that it's a public dungeon, but then does nothing to force players who enter to actually work together and this single person will not join our parties (even though he's been invited), will slot platebearer and wears no elemental gear. He's fishing for a clear off the hard work our discord is doing to get people through the content. That's not a fault on him specifically (aside from his absolute trash personality), but a failure of SE's design.

I like that it's a cross-server experience because it seems that the greater majority of players who liked XI have come together once again. It's complicated and it's like herding cats sometimes but there's a place for everyone.

But entering is a nightmare, and it takes much too much time. SE's vision of players randomly joining a dungeon might have worked if they hadn't also decided to make it the absolute most unforgiving content to date. I'm not saying they should dumb down the content, but we definitely shouldn't have to fight the servers just to get our people in the same instance and then fight other random players who don't even want to contribute just to do it.

As much as I love the concept, and the people I've met while pursuing my own clear, the system is absolute and utter trash and it's clear not one of these designers actually played any XI content, at all, ever.

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In what universe is anything in Eureka (including BA) "the absolute most unforgiving content to date"? lmao

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Originally Posted by Zolvolt

Our community is deathly afraid of failure. So the idea of failing in BA and wasting all that time is something they fight against religiously.

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When I have to grind for hours to get the materials to try and get two rare and borderline essential abilities in one action window (with failure chance) you'd better bet your butt it's not worth my time.
The price of failure is hours of grinding or letting the market board drain me a little more.

What about failing in Savage?
Fail > learn > respawn > try again.
But the prep for the BA is BS.