First time experience soured

I just did my first run of the Praetorium, and speedrunners and tomestone farmers soured the experience for me. Speedrunning tanks made the entire first floor a joke, bosses melted, and they didn't revive me when I died, which caused me to be confused after I took the shortcut back. This confusion caused me to miss the entire magitek armor segment (technically I didn't, there just wasn't anything to fight with it by the time I got there) and have to teleport in halfway through the Nero fight, who the rest of them melted.
I'm going to use party finder to get the real first time experience of the Praetorium tomorrow, but I feel that duty finder has too many speedrunners and item farmers for high level dungeons, which makes for very bad first time experiences. Also, I feel like I should mention that I'm not turning in the MSQ for finishing the Praetorium until I get that first time feeling.

Players should be spending pretty much the same amount of time in cutscenes and combat as you, if the group is pulling mob to mob then that's normal in any dungeon type situation. If you are still in a scene and bosses have already been killed, then possibly some players are exploiting and logging out/in to skip the cutscenes which is reportable anyway.

These duties however are a face roll because of how it syncs so unless you purposely advertise in the PF to run them at minimum ilvl (which is unlikely to attract much attention anyway) then unfortunately it's something you'll have to get used to. Players just want their bonus from the Roulettes because after running these duties over 100+ times, people just want to get in and out asap.

Unfortunately, the only way to get that "first time feeling" is to have played it during ARR pre-expansions, as most players just vastly overgear both Prae and Castrum now, so things tend to die very quickly regardless. It was even worse before S.E. made the cutscenes unskippable in those dungeons... As the previous poster mentioned, there are people that use the "fake disconnection" exploit to skip cutscenes and kill the bosses while others are still watching. It's rather obvious someone has done this, as the usual "______ will be sealed off in 15 seconds" message when engaging a boss will play while other players are still in a cutscene. Did this happen to you? If so, for future reference, keep in mind that this is a reportable offense (S.E. REALLY doesn't like people using that exploit). If you're sure of who is responsible for it, you can report that player via the in-game report function, but only if you're certain, otherwise you may get in trouble for filing a false report.

Really though, did no one point out they should wait for the sprout? At all? Actually, never mind... I've seen that happen plenty, so it's not really surprising. Sorry it was a mediocre experience for you. :/

Run it through duty finder, but dont attack enemies at the beginning or after the first boss. Everyone always lets a tank grab those enemies so the others can make it through.

Unfortunately, you aren't likely to get a party together of randoms for a "proper" prae run. Nobody really likes running Prae due to all the cutscenes. And since you've already gotten a clear, you can't entice people in with first clear bonus (for a thing that you can unlock at the end of Heavensward).

That's not to say don't try, all the best luck to you, but I wouldn't get your hopes up too much about that. Prae isn't that great of a dungeon anyway. I'd recommend you just push on with MSQ and get to Heavensward as soon as you can, that's where the game really starts getting good. (I'll also say don't burn yourself out on the patch quests between where you are and Heavensward, there's like 100 of them and a lot of them are boring. It's universally considered the worst segment of the game, but you gotta push through to get to the good stuff. Best of luck!)

What happened was I died right before you register for the magitek armor, had ro respawn at the entrance, took the shortcut, didn't realize where the lift to the computer was, and as a result everyone else got the cutscenes a good minute before me, including the one for the Nero fight. I heard the magitek armor segment was a highlight of the dungeon which is why I want a 'proper' run this time, and I plan on forming a party with people who haven't cleared the dungeon yet. I'm also going to make it clear that melting bosses will get the offending dps kicked.

Also, before the first teleporter, tanks just ran through mobs and nobody fought anything.

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Originally Posted by celesBranford

Also, before the first teleporter, tanks just ran through mobs and nobody fought anything.

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That's always what happens in Praetorium. People don't bother with those mobs because they can be skipped easily.

Saddly, Prae is an "old content", and people rush throught it because they end up here thanks to their roulette. It gives a lot of exp mais its really time consuming. I understand your frustration, but all we can promise, is that you'll get a better experience with higher-leveled dungeons and raids (MSQ-wise, not meaning endgame contents).

Also if people managed to attack the boss a few seconds (up to ~5) before you're out of a cutscene, it can be because of lags. Not everyone in the instance gets out of cutscenes at the same time. I know if I alt-tab while the cutscene is on, I get a little lag that eats up to a few seconds, so people get out of the cutscene before I do.
If it happens up to a minute before that, that's just a guy exploiting a bug and he should be kicked and reported, simple as that.

I hope you'll find a group for your first time experience. :) Setting up a party finder can help to find a group. Also a reddit post sometimes helps you fill in the slots. If you'd were on Chaos Datacenter I could have take you for a stroll with my FC but sadly you aren't. Good luck. Don't let anyone let your experience spoil by speedrunning.

Same goes for other dungeons and trials. If I get the message that someone is new to the duty I take my time to let them see everything. I appreciated it when people let me explore the dungeon when I did it the first time.

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Originally Posted by celesBranford

What happened was I died right before you register for the magitek armor, had ro respawn at the entrance, took the shortcut, didn't realize where the lift to the computer was, and as a result everyone else got the cutscenes a good minute before me, including the one for the Nero fight. I heard the magitek armor segment was a highlight of the dungeon which is why I want a 'proper' run this time, and I plan on forming a party with people who haven't cleared the dungeon yet. I'm also going to make it clear that melting bosses will get the offending dps kicked.

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Just going to put out a few things here..the whole magitek part is alright..it may be up to the person though. It certainly didn't feel like a highlight for me. Also..kicking people who "melt" the boss sounds a bit..absurd. I understand you want a "proper" run. But let's not go off the deep end here.

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Originally Posted by Seoulstar

Just going to put out a few things here..the whole magitek part is alright..it may be up to the person though. It certainly didn't feel like a highlight for me. Also..kicking people who "melt" the boss sounds a bit..absurd. I understand you want a "proper" run. But let's not go off the deep end here.

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Agreed with this. There's little to no way to prevent things from melting in Praetorium due to how overgeared most players are now. I believe the minimum item level for the place is around i45 or i50. Your level 50 job quest gives you free i90 gear now, meaning that it will be easy to overpower bosses and melt them down.

I joined the game in early HW and things already melted in there. Unfortunately, the dungeon is tuned so low you can't get a proper experience short of minimum item level party finders. Which, that in and of itself will pose a challenge when it comes to finding players for it.

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Originally Posted by celesBranford

I'm also going to make it clear that melting bosses will get the offending dps kicked.

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LMAO.

Imagine kicking DPS for DPSing.

My first time through CM and Praetorium was before the cutscenes became unskippable. I skipped the cutscenes in order to not get left behind but somehow died and got lost and left behind regardless. It’s a slightly better experience now, but it’s nowhere near fixed. They should just make them solo instances. I like the idea of an 8 man dungeon, but the ilvl scaling and number of cutscenes make these two good examples of what not to do to make them engaging.

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Originally Posted by celesBranford

I'm also going to make it clear that melting bosses will get the offending dps kicked.

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You are looking at this the wrong way. By virtue of overgearing, the bosses are going to melt no matter what.

And F14 is a game where killing fast is encouraged. The endgame EX and Savage bosses have time limits where if you don't kill them in time wipes the party. Nobody wants to be told to dps slower

Also I will add that most of the Prae bosses really aren't that exciting. Ultima is fun, but they are all pretty basic. You seriously would be better off moving to bigger and better things. Like all the hard mode trials, those are much more interesting

I'm one of those tanks who pulls the entire dungeon in Praetorium, and sprints to that teleport button. Because there is nothing to be gained by fighting those mobs. Those Garleans have families who they need to support, let them go about their day.

Not like it matters when they get hit with SUCH DEVASTATION afterwards.

Trust me you'll be the one who run throught and melt things later... i mean with proper gear theres no reason one can't melt the boss...

My suggestion is to find an FC that is casual and promotes story or RP runs. outside of that, you may be short of luck. I do apologize...I enjoy sightseeing my first time in a run, and I really love the new trust system they developed in ShB to assist with that. too bad we can't use it on content like that. Yet.

Honestly to me, this is like getting mad at someone for telling you Luke's father is Darth Vader in 2019. You are seriously years behind. I mean, you can even buy your way past this content. And besides, the magitek part you missed is just people running down a hallway using 1 of 2 abilities that one shots about everything. You are not missing much and a year from now you'll be complaining about this dungeons cutscenes too!