Coil T1 with Duty Finder

[i2agnarok]

The problem has been laughably slow dps. Like when the first dread spawns, we still have one knight and one soldier at half health each.

That's amazing. O_o
Even when I accidentally stumbled into a learning party that had all physical DPS, we never managed to have a knight/soldier at HALF health.
Hell, even having someone die because of a bad pull hasn't put us in THAT bad of a position.
Especially with Echo.
I have no idea what to tell you, my man.

I'm guessing you got people that Fate-leveled, don't know their classes, and are severely gimping their DPS.
And that's the tip of the iceburg.
You're probably going to need to do some party finder hunting and befriend the ones that have an inkling of what they're doing.

Theoretically, even if each DPS all targeted a completely different target, I can't even imagine it being that bad unless everyone's attacking the wrong type of enemy (phys on soldier, mag on knight) with classes with bad burst capability.....

[whiskeybravo]

The problem has been laughably slow dps. Like when the first dread spawns, we still have one knight and one soldier at half health each. Or on Garuda Ex, we get two rounds of plumes before sisters spawn, and most of the time, plumes are exploding. It's been quite unreal. And I check the gear on DPS. i85 at least. And no - no one is dead. Except occasionally when plumes explode.

That's definitely a skill issue.. Proper rotations at i85 should maul everything in first coil and extremes. :/

[Estellios]

T4 was never even that big a deal with all physical DPS in the first place since all that damage can easily break Solider stoneskin and stun them taking a ton of pressure off the tank. In fact my FC preferred having physical DPS attack soldiers because of that.

Now all mages on the other hand... might be a bit rough until that reflect effect completely goes away but I believe it's not as bad as it used to be.

[i2agnarok]

T4 was never even that big a deal with all physical DPS in the first place since all that damage can easily break Solider stoneskin and stun them taking a ton of pressure off the tank.

Well, you have to factor in the people and composition you get from DF.
Factor in randoms with sub-optimal rotations and it slows down DPS significantly.
Especially if they're just meeting the ilvl requirements or inflating them with other equips.

On that note about the Stoneskin, you're right about that, for sure.
I thought it was weird that there just weren't different stoneskins for each type.
But hey, there's like a million BLMs running around now, so I guess it prevents all BLM parties in PF or something.
*shrug*

[Estellios]

Well technically the Knights do have Magic stoneskin, and the Reflect effect isn't a true Reflect but it does deal damage to the caster based on how much damage they did to the Knight. So you can still break their stoneskin and stun them but since I haven't done that for obvious reasons, I don't know if the reflect goes away as well.

[Raminax]

Well technically the Knights do have Magic stoneskin, and the Reflect effect isn't a true Reflect but it does deal damage to the caster based on how much damage they did to the Knight. So you can still break their stoneskin and stun them but since I haven't done that for obvious reasons, I don't know if the reflect goes away as well.

The damage reflection effect will remain even if the Stoneskin is broken, yesh. It's also ~200 damage inflicted on the caster regardless of how hard you hit (even DoTs with no initial damage will reflect the application, but not the individual ticks), and the stupid damage can interrupt your casts too. T_T

And I'll chime in with the fact that Turn 4 groups seem to suck at the moment. Don't know if it's because it's the weekend or the average skill level being unimpressive, but Saturday has so far been a long stretch of disappointment with poor tanks or healers.

[Simaril]

I sympathize with the OP. I really think DF is broken though PF is a decent work around. I don't want them to nerf the encounters, I want them to fix... or at least improve DF so groups have a better chance for success. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a decent FC or friends list

Game designers fail to design progression that actually makes individuals perform well to advance. Instead players get almost the best gear from easy DF and then wonder why they still cant do Titan HM with a echo huge buff. Maybe there could be performance requirements to advance?

[Sessurea]

queue with a bard I guess? Super common class.

[Estellios]

And I'll chime in with the fact that Turn 4 groups seem to suck at the moment. Don't know if it's because it's the weekend or the average skill level being unimpressive, but Saturday has so far been a long stretch of disappointment with poor tanks or healers.

I figured it will be a while for DF tanks and healers to get the hang of it. Positioning and knowing what is coming up is very important in T4 as is pre-loading combos (for tanks) and topping off before the next wave drops (healers). Everyone that is new to it also will need to get used to kill orders and any adjustments based on party setup. T1 and T2 are comparatively tame and can be summarized in a sentence or two.

Speaking of T2, i've had a distressing amount of runs where there is no bard and the healers freak out and we can't clear it. I've done it before just fine with 2 healers and no bard, so I'm guessing people are just really bad at stretching out their MP and using shroud/aetherflow efficiently, or possible DPS is poor.

Anyway, my point is if anyone knows just how far apart ADS's High Voltages are from each other in T2, if they are on a set timer. I think for non-brd parties the best option is going to be pulling much sooner but timing it so that high voltage has a chance to wear off before enrage starts so there's less time healers are going to be spamming AOEs.

[subteraneanbird]

Or just take some personal responsibility, especially as a WAR or melee DPS, and buy some damn silencing potions. I'm a goddamn healer and I carry them in case I get a group with no silences. They're not expensive, you probably have someone in your FC who can make them, they're easy to use and time etc etc. There's no excuse to complain about a silence being missed if you have personally not taken some responsibility, pugging a group without at least ensuring you yourself have a silence in case no one else does.