Does anyone enjoy duties where ...

you're forced to fight as an NPC using a ridiculously simplified set of skills ?

I loathe these duties. Not just because they're immersion-breaking, but because they just are not fun IMO.

The Thancred-vs-Ranjit one is particularly bad.

Yep, they're awful. You spend all this time building up muscle memory to play whichever job you wanted to play and now you have to play some simplified version of some job you were never interested in the first place, using whatever awful pet bar keybinds (which are awful because they are out of the way in order not to interfer with your normal keybinds), and you have to go through this to be able to go back to your own character.

They should have done those as cinematics.

Fun enough, and you only do them once. Only issue is that they can drag on for too long

Looking at you Ran'jit

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Originally Posted by Gullis

Fun enough, and you only do them once.

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Unless, like me, you're an alt-aholic whose already pushed 6 characters to End-of-Content.
But even just once, they're a PITA and not part of our hero's journey.
Even if they were tolerable, I don't see that they serve any purpose but to waste our time.

Absolutely not, with the already mentioned Thancred Vs Kung-fu Grandpa being a particularly obnoxious experience.

The only one I'll say I didn't completely hate was playing as Hien Vs not-quite-Zenos.

Mao agrees. Mao is BLMs. If Mao wanted to nots be BLMs, Mao would have nots been BLMs. Mao does NOTS like these kind of duties.

I've done that duty in question yesterday on an alt, just as I have done the role quests for physical DPS on an alt for ShB today, and both are miserable, and I think they should be shorter for what they offer -- But I can also accept that many players also don't really have that level of comfort of familiarity to essentially go into a duty with a foreign job kit.

IMO, I would say either the following needs to happen:
- The kit offered by the duty should have some basic proc system embedded in it, so it at least breaks up that monotony. I don't think going from 1-1-1-1 to 1-2-3-1 necessarily solves much.

- The duties need to be shorter to compensate for the lack of flushed out actions.

- They need to be changed from actual duties to being something that is a cinematic.

Personally, I would go with either 2 or 3 from this list, rather than the first.

I am admittedly pretty fond of them, but they also bug me in that...daaammit why don't I get some of these cool skills that these scions have lol, some of them like Alisae and Estinien just straight up have stuff I don't have as those respective classes and it makes me kind of envious

I somewhat enjoyed some of them. The ShB Black Mage role quest was pretty OK, so was playing as Alphinaud. The Thancred-Ranjit fight though? It was way too long and tedious.

I like them as a mould breaking changeup.
They're all super easy as the simplified movesets are overpowered by at elast 10x the amount they normally would be.

And it's nice to kinda feel how the other characters are doing in the story from their perspective. Something a cutscene just won't always be able to do.

It's also nice because too many people never play outside a single role. Back in the day we at least had cross-class skills to get people out of their comfort zone for a little bit. Now we have no motivation for this. It ends up with people not knowing what to expect out of other role types. And while playing an NPC isn't exactly a facsimile for that, it might at least get people to try after thinking it was something fun or cool to do.

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Originally Posted by Bun_Vivant

Unless, like me, you're an alt-aholic whose already pushed 6 characters to End-of-Content.
But even just once, they're a PITA and not part of our hero's journey.
Even if they were tolerable, I don't see that they serve any purpose but to waste our time.

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everything in the game is a waste of time

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Originally Posted by Canadane

It's also nice because too many people never play outside a single role.

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Yep, and there's a reason for that. If you hope that playing a alphinaud or thancred gave me any interest in healers & tanks, just lol.

only solo duty I enjoyed was in from the cold.
the actual combat ones are awful

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Originally Posted by Avoidy

only solo duty I enjoyed was in from the cold.
the actual combat ones are awful

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I wish we had more of those moments, just to show the WoL isn't immortal and has weaknesses like everybody else. Best duty in the entire game.

I dont have a problem with the concept. However their skillset is always lacking and animations are very poor.

Most of their skills have cooldowns that are too long which you end up either spamming one button like current healers or doing a very simple 123 combo over and over again.

Im all for seeing the concept outside of your current role, but at least give them interesting abilites to make the fights seem more impactful and fun.

I like them very much, although I'd be okay if some of them wouldn't take as much time. I don't mind the game giving other characters some spotlight for ten minutes, we're having plenty of other moments to shine, figuratively and literally. :)
(And I'm saying this as a person who also has six characters. They're not all at endgame yet, but I fully intend to get them there and am looking forward to them.)

They also made me realize how absurdly overpowered us Warriors of Lights are compared to the average Eorzean Joe, or even above average Scion, when even someone like Y'shtola has only 4 skills, not several hotbars full of stuff. :O (Yes, something something gameplay reasons, still funny. And I wouldn't mind having more than 4 skills for these fights, just no 20 or so, maybe 8.)

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Originally Posted by Avoidy

only solo duty I enjoyed was in from the cold.
the actual combat ones are awful

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I didn't enjoy that one either - but that was mostly down to the stupid countdown.

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Originally Posted by Rehayem

I wish we had more of those moments, just to show the WoL isn't immortal and has weaknesses like everybody else. Best duty in the entire game.

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I had the opposite takeaway from that quest. I think the purpose of that was to show how strong and nearly unkillable the WOL actually is.
The situation we were in was showcasing how fragile everyone else is by putting you in their shoes.

Either way, yes I'd welcome more of it.

I like them for the storytelling change of perspective. It adds a lot to the RPG story when it shifts between characters points of views.

The Ranjiit one was too long, but more than too long, it was just the same thing for the whole duration besides a change in the middle.

I think they make a lot more sense when they actually come with actually different gameplay, like the This Is Thancred run playing Metal Gear and infiltration, or the best one, In From The Cold. This truly serves the story well, and puts you into different situations where it's not just "let's shift characters for the sake of doing a solo instance". Also, bonus points for the G-Savior instance vs the Sapphire Weapon: it was a great way to reward the player with something where you can just blast your way through, in a similar fashion than when you get given control of various magitek implements (this is why In From The Cold is so great, it takes from all those elements at once).

I do not agree with giving out more abilities, not because it would make things more intricate (I'm always for more intricacies, believe me), but because it already takes a bit of time when the instance starts to read every tooltip and figure out what you're dealing with.
- I don't think they are the important part of those instances at all, but the narrative is.
- They're supposed to be a small showcase sample of different roles or jobs to players that could get interested in trying them out.
- Having to read a dozen of abilities and figure out a rotation is the stuff from hitting dummies, not something the average player will want to deal with: it's essentially dumping half a job onto their face and telling them "go fight now, no preparation, no nothing".
- Having to read a dozen of abilities and figure out a rotation when you're in a hype story moment and spending ten minutes trying to figure out what to do with it is the best way to kill the hype and turn you off from the story.

I like them. The only one I didn't enjoy and that was due to how not like the job is played was when you had to play as Hien. As even as a non Samurai main I could tell how much they butchered the role.

I like the idea of them. It's a way to show that other characters can actually handle themselves without the WoL having to hold their hands all the time, or to show off their specialties, like Thancred's stealth mission on the journey to Garlemald. The problem is that some of them drag on way too long. Thancred vs Ran'jit is the biggest offender, as Ran'jit's massive HP pool turns what should be a tense showdown into a total slog, but it's hardly alone.

They're ok, I guess.

They occur with a frequency that doesn't bother me.

Eh... I don't really like them. Mostly because they give you ZERO time to review the abilities before you have to start using them. Maybe if they fixed that, they'd be better. Like, give us a "Start Duty" button or something. But honestly, you're right. I find them strange. I want to play MY character, not an NPC.

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Originally Posted by Valence

I like them for the storytelling change of perspective. It adds a lot to the RPG story when it shifts between characters points of views.

The Ranjiit one was too long, but more than too long, it was just the same thing for the whole duration besides a change in the middle.

I think they make a lot more sense when they actually come with actually different gameplay, like the This Is Thancred run playing Metal Gear and infiltration, or the best one, In From The Cold. This truly serves the story well, and puts you into different situations where it's not just "let's shift characters for the sake of doing a solo instance". Also, bonus points for the G-Savior instance vs the Sapphire Weapon: it was a great way to reward the player with something where you can just blast your way through, in a similar fashion than when you get given control of various magitek implements (this is why In From The Cold is so great, it takes from all those elements at once).

I do not agree with giving out more abilities, not because it would make things more intricate (I'm always for more intricacies, believe me), but because it already takes a bit of time when the instance starts to read every tooltip and figure out what you're dealing with.
- I don't think they are the important part of those instances at all, but the narrative is.
- They're supposed to be a small showcase sample of different roles or jobs to players that could get interested in trying them out.
- Having to read a dozen of abilities and figure out a rotation is the stuff from hitting dummies, not something the average player will want to deal with: it's essentially dumping half a job onto their face and telling them "go fight now, no preparation, no nothing".
- Having to read a dozen of abilities and figure out a rotation when you're in a hype story moment and spending ten minutes trying to figure out what to do with it is the best way to kill the hype and turn you off from the story.

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This is my take as well, with the proviso that they truly are driven by the narrative and used judiciously.

I'll do them... but I'd rather not

The only two I've liked was the Y'sthola duty in SB (I don't even remember why I liked it, maybe it was the first "role play" duty that I noticed being different) and the Thancred solo duty in EW. The Thancred duty majorly reminded me of base infiltration/stealth, limited unit missions in old RTSs like C&C and Red Alert. I enjoyed that one a lot, I just wish it was harder/easier to fail.

I generally find them to be a fun, occasional change of pace.

I would like if when doing it you could reorganize the hotbar. I use tab target on my mouse and have tab rebinded to something else, so when I get one of these instances it's annoying trying to target another enemy as I have to try and click on each one specifically.

They are also usually really long and drawn out for no reason so I've started to kill my character off really fast so i can set it to very easy and just skip it.

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Originally Posted by SailorCeti

Eh... I don't really like them. Mostly because they give you ZERO time to review the abilities before you have to start using them. Maybe if they fixed that, they'd be better. Like, give us a "Start Duty" button or something.

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In many of these instances, the enemies actually will politely wait for you to finish reading and reorganising your hotbar.

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Originally Posted by Iscah

In many of these instances, the enemies actually will politely wait for you to finish reading and reorganising your hotbar.

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Cool. I love to have to janitor my hotbars for the sake of some occasional gameplay gimmick.

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Originally Posted by Asako

I would like if when doing it you could reorganize the hotbar.

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You can!

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When playing as a different character in instanced quest battles, actions on the additional hotbar can now be rearranged.

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Yes, I do. Its a change of pace, and gives a different perspective in the story that you may not get outside of cutscenes otherwise.

I generally don't, because I get frustrated and don't understand what's going on. The Ranjit vs Thancred fight was the absolute worst. Oh wait, no, In from the cold was worse. Wait, that first quest as a dancer was worse, even though it was ME!!

I get confused easily

https://media1.tenor.com/m/7QhoA9wcs...onfused-no.gif

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Originally Posted by Taliriah

Cool. I love to have to janitor my hotbars for the sake of some occasional gameplay gimmick.

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It takes like ten seconds, and the alternative is having things on the wrong hotbars.

And it's a duty-specific thing so you don't have to switch them back afterwards.

They're pretty great, outside of the ran'jit one (too long) and the very first alphinaud one (boring). I find them to be a nice change of pace from generic questing and they've done some real fun narrative tricks in them.

Not the ARR ones anymore there all too easy now after all the changes.

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Originally Posted by Bun_Vivant

Does anyone enjoy duties where you're forced to fight as an NPC using a ridiculously simplified set of skills ?

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As you can see, yes. Some people like them. Maybe as a change of pace, maybe as a look into the life of a character they like, maybe as a piece of actual gameplay(however simplified) rather then cutscene #487, or maybe any number of other reasons. As with every other topic, we dont all agree with any one take. Most of us would say that Ranj'it has too much health(drop his health by like 33% and that duty would flow much better IMO). Ive always been amused that In From The Cold is both the best and worst of these, depending on who you ask(im on the best side personally).

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Originally Posted by Bun_Vivant

you're forced to fight as an NPC using a ridiculously simplified set of skills ?

I loathe these duties. Not just because they're immersion-breaking, but because they just are not fun IMO.

The Thancred-vs-Ranjit one is particularly bad.

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Worst required content in the game, particularly when they combine a completely new skillset with in-fight text you have to read to decode what the hell stupid trick it is you need to pull off. And as you say, terrible for immersion.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah

I generally don't, because I get frustrated and don't understand what's going on. The Ranjit vs Thancred fight was the absolute worst. Oh wait, no, In from the cold was worse. Wait, that first quest as a dancer was worse, even though it was ME!!

I get confused easily

https://media1.tenor.com/m/7QhoA9wcs...onfused-no.gif

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Actually wonder how many people dropped dancer immediately because the first job quest is so poorly explained.

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Originally Posted by Frizze

As you can see, yes. Some people like them. Maybe as a change of pace, maybe as a look into the life of a character they like, maybe as a piece of actual gameplay(however simplified)

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Ah yes, the "actual gameplay" where the outcome is usually scripted anyway.