The Duty finder is a mess for a new player as are Duties.

Hey, folks.

I'm just about to wrap up Heavensward and I wanted to share some feedback about something that's incredibly frustrating while questing in the main story, the duty finder.

I'm often entering duties solely to progress the story, with the occasional roulette thrown in when I'm bored. I'm trying to do The Singularity Reactor and it keeps putting me in the dungeon I did before this one. I assume another box is checked somewhere, but it's not obvious where, as there are, like, a dozen friggen menus for things to queue for.

So now I'm locked out of the story for 30m... First time I did the dungeon, I clicked on the little portal, it popped up the option and I hit join. The second time I did the dungeon, I did not intentionally queue for it but I assumed I made some sort of error and just finished it. Maybe I'm a little dumb or the coffee hasn't set in, but after getting this same last dungeon for a third time queueing for The Singularity Reactor it dawned on me that there's probably a box checked somewhere that keeps putting this as an option. I didn't want to run this dungeon a third time, lol.

IDK how hard it would be to change, but if we're questing and we try to enter a duty through the portal in front of us, can it maybe uncheck the other boxes that aren't that portal? I'll know better going forward, I'll make sure I explore all of the menus to make sure nothing else is checked, but this is incredibly frustrating as a new player. It should've defaulted to the dungeon/duty related to the portal I clicked on to continue the story.

I understand that some things will be learned the hard way, but this feels like a system that shouldn't be one of them, because this issue really has no reason to exist other than oversight.

Additionally, would there be a way to implement some sort of dungeon journal that gives basic information about boss mechanics? I'm new to this game and I don't even know where to go to find this information other than a google search, and that's not something I can comfortably do as a healer in a duty I randomly got into through roulette, and I've experienced many groups where nobody knew the mechanics.

It caused a few wipes and we had to google after the wipes, but I feel like this should be something baked in, rather than something to go hunt.

Otherwise, I'm really enjoying the game. But for a game that revolves around so many mandatory dungeons while leveling, the dungeon system itself feels incredibly unpolished.

Cheers!

Anytime this happened to me, I hadn't hit "clear selection" from the previous duty I ran.

I just opened the menu and noticed this button. I'll be using it going forward, thanks.

I still feel like it should do so by default. Maybe it's not an enormous extra step, but it's an unnecessary one.

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Originally Posted by Shieldbaby

I just opened the menu and noticed this button. I'll be using it going forward, thanks.

I still feel like it should do so by default. Maybe it's not an enormous extra step, but it's an unnecessary one.

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Sometimes you will want to queue for a selection of things multiple times.

Especially for relics, raids, etc.

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

Sometimes you will want to queue for a selection of things multiple times.

Especially for relics, raids, etc.

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At end game? I'm not suggesting to clear it every time you open the duty finder. I'm just suggesting that if you click on the blue swirly portal while leveling to maybe have it autoclear and only put you in for that duty that's tied to the portal. As a new player, this was a pretty frustrating experience to land in the same dungeon multiple times and discover it wasn't the one I intended to queue for.

Of course, it was on me for not reading everything before I hit accept, but I assumed the one that popped up was the one I queued for. I won't make this mistake again (hopefully) but I can see this frustrating others as they join up.

Also, is there a good resource for duty mechanics? The game I'm coming from had one built into the dungeon map, with an interface that explained the basics of a boss fight. IDK where to go for this game and doing a bunch of reading mid dungeon probably isn't something that'll earn accommodations. :P

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Originally Posted by Shieldbaby

At end game? I'm not suggesting to clear it every time you open the duty finder. I'm just suggesting that if you click on the blue swirly portal while leveling to maybe have it autoclear and only put you in for that duty that's tied to the portal. As a new player, this was a pretty frustrating experience to land in the same dungeon multiple times and discover it wasn't the one I intended to queue for.

Of course, it was on me for not reading everything before I hit accept, but I assumed the one that popped up was the one I queued for. I won't make this mistake again (hopefully) but I can see this frustrating others as they join up.

Also, is there a good resource for duty mechanics? The game I'm coming from had one built into the dungeon map, with an interface that explained the basics of a boss fight. IDK where to go for this game and doing a bunch of reading mid dungeon probably isn't something that'll earn accommodations. :P

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I mean there are video guides, but I don't recommend. Dungeons are easy enough that you should pick up mechanics after seeing them once.

And honestly, this is the first time I've ever heard this complaint about the duty finder, and I've been playing for over a decade.

Oh boy, to many times I hit that find duty group just to realize to late I didnt uncheck previous dungeon just to be thrown into the one I did earlier.

But now I check if anything is checked even if I havent done a single duty at all yet.

The only problem I have with it is that it is not told to new players, I literally had to have my friend point out you have to uncheck them yourself.

Being able to slowly work down a list of instances has helped several times in the past with relic weapons, and it's also helpful if I'm tanking or healing for a sprout in the FC and we're working on instance unlocking.

Don't be afraid of making mistakes like this; you are still learning- even the user interfaces take time to learn in this game. :)

Depending on how your HUD is set up there should be a list for what you are qued up for on the right hand side. Also it tells you which dungeon you're going in for unless it's via the roulette when it gives you the option to commence or not. Most dungeons have fairly obvious mechanics that normally show and build on mechanics that you should have seen if you're not skipping the story from an earlier instance. Also don't worry about forgetting to clearing your selection. Even vets tend to forget from time to time.

I don't understand...

Why are you queueing for several dungeon while you need the one to progress msq ?
Only queue for that one and remove the old ones ?

I don't know what's the problem.

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Originally Posted by KDSilver

I don't understand...

Why are you queueing for several dungeon while you need the one to progress msq ?
Only queue for that one and remove the old ones ?

I don't know what's the problem.

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They didn't see the clear selection in the duty finder. I think because they didn't open the duty finder, just clicked on the next instance entrance. It's just oversight is all. I did the same thing on a dungeon didn't realize I had to clear my selection in the duty finder.

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Originally Posted by Snorky

They didn't see the clear selection in the duty finder. I think because they didn't open the duty finder, just clicked on the next instance entrance. It's just oversight is all. I did the same thing on a dungeon didn't realize I had to clear my selection in the duty finder.

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It's something we've all done going through the MSQ, especially if we're doing a catch up and have to go through several dungeons in a session.

Basically "welcome to the club, now stop pointing out your mistake"

As a fellow new player, I've had a similar issue while plowing through the MSQ where I'd queue for a dungeon, then queue for a trial during the same play session, it pops and nope, just kidding, it's that dungeon you already cleared. As a DPS, it's especially frustrating to lose 10-15 mins waiting for the queue to pop and then waste another 15-20 re-clearing the dungeon when all you needed was the trial. Other times I'd realize, halfway through my wait time, that I'm queued for 2 things at once and have to cancel and re-queue, thus wasting the initial wait time.

I think the issue, at least coming from other MMOs, is that FFXIV is the only duty finder system that works the way it does. The multiple tabs make it harder to realize if you're queued for multiple duties from different tabs and beyond actually reading the info given by the queue finder (something most of us wouldn't think of doing as these things are usually conveyed through flashy interfaces and shiny buttons), you wouldn't know you just queued for multiple things at once.

Maybe a pop-up would help when you queue for multiples duties from different tabs, or perhaps a clear indicator of which tabs have a selected duty in them? I don't know what would be the best way to address this honestly, and it's not exactly a huge issue, just an area of the game's interface that could use a little upgrade.

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Originally Posted by Lexis

As a fellow new player, I've had a similar issue while plowing through the MSQ where I'd queue for a dungeon, then queue for a trial during the same play session, it pops and nope, just kidding, it's that dungeon you already cleared. As a DPS, it's especially frustrating to lose 10-15 mins waiting for the queue to pop and then waste another 15-20 re-clearing the dungeon when all you needed was the trial. Other times I'd realize, halfway through my wait time, that I'm queued for 2 things at once and have to cancel and re-queue, thus wasting the initial wait time.

I think the issue, at least coming from other MMOs, is that FFXIV is the only duty finder system that works the way it does. The multiple tabs make it harder to realize if you're queued for multiple duties from different tabs and beyond actually reading the info given by the queue finder (something most of us wouldn't think of doing as these things are usually conveyed through flashy interfaces and shiny buttons), you wouldn't know you just queued for multiple things at once.

Maybe a pop-up would help when you queue for multiples duties from different tabs, or perhaps a clear indicator of which tabs have a selected duty in them? I don't know what would be the best way to address this honestly, and it's not exactly a huge issue, just an area of the game's interface that could use a little upgrade.

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There's a common section at the bottom of the duty finder that shows everything you are queued for. The "problem" here is that FFXIV has found a way to make every single instance relevant at endgame, so our content catalogue is rather huge compared to WoW, which basically only cares about the recent instances, and everything from the rest of the history is largely irrelevant.

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Originally Posted by Snorky

They didn't see the clear selection in the duty finder. I think because they didn't open the duty finder, just clicked on the next instance entrance. It's just oversight is all. I did the same thing on a dungeon didn't realize I had to clear my selection in the duty finder.

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Well just gotta open the duty finder then and problem solved right?
Nothing complicated.

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Originally Posted by Shieldbaby

Also, is there a good resource for duty mechanics? The game I'm coming from had one built into the dungeon map, with an interface that explained the basics of a boss fight. IDK where to go for this game and doing a bunch of reading mid dungeon probably isn't something that'll earn accommodations. :P

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I recommend MTQ’s YouTube channel for general raid/dungeon overviews. There isn’t in game information mostly because of it being a Japanese game- that is to say (not all, but many) Japanese typically like to go into things blind and figure out what they are supposed to do. Also, a lot of bosses either a) are meant to teach you 1 or 2 basic mechanics that you’re going to see in the future..like Behemoth’ meteors.. or b) work in phases where they kinda teach you the mechanics 1 at a time before throwing them at you one after the other.

All that said, again, if you wanna go into things at least with an idea of what’s up, MTQ will help.

https://www.youtube.com/user/MTQcapture

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Originally Posted by Shieldbaby

Additionally, would there be a way to implement some sort of dungeon journal that gives basic information about boss mechanics? I'm new to this game and I don't even know where to go to find this information other than a google search, and that's not something I can comfortably do as a healer in a duty I randomly got into through roulette, and I've experienced many groups where nobody knew the mechanics.

It caused a few wipes and we had to google after the wipes, but I feel like this should be something baked in, rather than something to go hunt.
Cheers!

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This is by design. We learn by doing and trial and error. Sometimes mechanics can be a bit vague, but you can generally figure out what hit you after a few tries. Otherwise, you can look up guides on older content that people have made. But the game is never going to give you the mechanics. You probably will want to avoid launch week on any new content in the future, since we're all new then and there is a lot of trial and error learning.

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Originally Posted by KDSilver

I don't understand...

Why are you queueing for several dungeon while you need the one to progress msq ?
Only queue for that one and remove the old ones ?

I don't know what's the problem.

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When they finished ARF, they're right in front of the swirly portal for Thordan. They clicked the portal, not realizing they were still checked off for ARF. Honest mistake. And not a bad suggestion that you only queue for that thing if you use the portal instead of the Duty Finder interface, since you're making it clear to the game you want to go there.

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Originally Posted by TaleraRistain

When they finished ARF, they're right in front of the swirly portal for Thordan. They clicked the portal, not realizing they were still checked off for ARF. Honest mistake. And not a bad suggestion that you only queue for that thing if you use the portal instead of the Duty Finder interface, since you're making it clear to the game you want to go there.

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I agree, after reading OP's situation more clearly, this is actually a pretty big oversight. One would assume that clicking the Duty Entrance would queue you only for that specific duty. I had no idea it just used the command/method from DF proper without opening the DF window (and apparently without changing any of the settings from the last time the window was open.)

It's not a mess at all if people understand how it works, and it's really not that complicated. I will admit though that clicking on the portal should in fact just queue you for what you selected, aka the portal entrance.

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

It's not a mess at all if people understand how it works, and it's really not that complicated. I will admit though that clicking on the portal should in fact just queue you for what you selected, aka the portal entrance.

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While I think you are *technically* right, it's just that the game does a really poor job at communicating exactly how it works. I've been playing on and off for a few years now, and there's many features I still don't understand at all. It was pretty intimidating as an ex-wow player, where most of the menus are very very straightforward and easy to operate.

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Originally Posted by DBriggs304

Anytime this happened to me, I hadn't hit "clear selection" from the previous duty I ran.

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Obviously, this is the solution, but to a new player, especially one who's coming from WoW, it's not obvious. Many of us just don't think to look at the fine print at the bottom of the dialog to get a full list of the content that we're currently queueing for. For a new player, the implication is that whatever is checked on the current tab is what you're queueing for. No new player imagines that the trial they queued for and completed 45 minutes ago is still hanging out in the duty finder waiting to be redone.

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Originally Posted by Shieldbaby

I randomly got into through roulette, and I've experienced many groups where nobody knew the mechanics.

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That just seems like really bad luck. I've only seen this a handful of times in the months I've played, and to be honest, those runs were lots of fun.

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Originally Posted by Shieldbaby

It caused a few wipes and we had to google after the wipes

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I know it's hard to imagine, especially coming from WoW, but I think this is working as designed. Wipes are part of the game. If everyone is new to a fight, there will be wipes. Ultimately, I'm sure you were able to clear the content.

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Originally Posted by Catwho

I agree, after reading OP's situation more clearly, this is actually a pretty big oversight. One would assume that clicking the Duty Entrance would queue you only for that specific duty. I had no idea it just used the command/method from DF proper without opening the DF window (and apparently without changing any of the settings from the last time the window was open.)

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Neither did I. I think because whenever I actually use the portal, I'm doing story and haven't queued for anything else at any point. They could also have changed something at some point, since I don't remember having to go clear things out anytime I've gone from ARF to Thordan.