So...what videos should I be watching?

[Estellios]

@ Souljacker: Using Turn 5 as an example a video is useful in that case as most new people have trouble with conflags and divebombs and a good video will show you what the icon looks like and what the sound effect sounds like so it will be easier to pick out. A lot of stuff goes on during that fight so knowing exactly what to look out for can help quite a bit.

Most people that prefer to go in blind tend to stick with like-minded people, I've found. I never look up info on the coil turns past the one we are currently on and when we clear the current one I like to go in blind with the group to see what it's like and get the cutscenes out of the way, then look up information for attempts after that.

[kidvideo]

These are a must

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmXsapO-7WQ

This especially around Christmas time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuHZSbPJhaY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZZ7oFKsKzY

[Mags]

What is with the Mr Happy hate? Is that the new thing to hate on to be cool or something?

[Lyrinn]

What is with the Mr Happy hate? Is that the new thing to hate on to be cool or something?

I'm going to start off by saying that I respect him for taking the time and effort to make his guides to help new players. That said, his videos are excessively long and verbose. Multiple people in this thread mentioned MTQcapture, go watch her videos and compare them to Mr. Happy's and you'll see the exact same information in half the time. On top of that, his tactics for clearing fights is sometimes ... questionable, which is likely due to rushing out the guide as soon as possible before the fight has been fully analyzed from all points. You'll also have the hardcore min-maxers say he's a terrible bard in his videos but I personally don't pay attention to that.

Mr. Happy's guides are the kind that you either hate or you like, there's no in-between.

[Mags]

I don't know.. I watch a video a couple times to get an idea about end game encounters but like someone mentioned, I need hands on experience to eventually accomplish it. I think Mr. Happy himself acknowledges the fact he is rather long winded but for all intent and purposes his video shows exactly what I want, the encounter itself.

[Clavaat]

I don't know.. I watch a video a couple times to get an idea about end game encounters but like someone mentioned, I need hands on experience to eventually accomplish it. I think Mr. Happy himself acknowledges the fact he is rather long winded but for all intent and purposes his video shows exactly what I want, the encounter itself.

His information is often outdated, or only works in very specific scenarios or teams. The long explanations do not do himself any justice, in that regard. He also has a habit of brute-forcing certain methods by simply over-DPSing, which is not always a viable solution. He either doesn't discuss, or glazes over alternative methods.

On topic:

I'd offer a different solution, OP. Read, as opposed to watch, to start. Understand the mechanics inside and out, as opposed to just trusting what someone tells you. Only refer to videos after completely understanding a writeup, in order to get positioning down. Watching videos makes it really easy to forget information or specific issues, because they are fed to you so quickly, so they shouldn't be the only source. Reading allows you to understand at your pace better than someone physically telling you something. This is just like school, where some people learn better through someone telling them, or reading on their own, or taking notes, etc.

As others have said, just practicing is the absolute best, as you will learn what works for you and your team.

[Mishini_Dracoto]

Snip.

I tend to do all of the things!

• I'm a very Active player, so whenever possible I learn fights on my own when they first come out / gossip with other players about how to do things better to get ahead / develop our own stategies.
• After a few weeks I start looking for video's especially if I know it's being cleared faster / more smoothly than I am / my group is.
• If there are parts of the fight I'm not really sure about / especially if a Video mentions a mechanic that I actually don't know about, then I pull up a written guide and give it a read simultaneously. Watch video, see new mechanic, press pause, read, rewind, rewatch, watch what the party is doing. (EG, if BRD pov, I might look at his party list and take note of what CD's a tank pops, and then see how much dmg the tank took)

I've grown away from watching Strat Video's, and more to clear video's, but closely analyzing the fight at the same time.

That being said, this is all coming from he guy whose been clearing T9 for what, 3 months now, and has never survived an entire fight (just as a lowly OT ta boot)

Since the first time we got to DB stage in T9, we cleared it. I get minimal practice time on that phase, that's m excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Last week, I died @2% b/c I assumed that I wanted to run the opposite direction from the first person with DB, I got 2nd DB marker . . . and I was wrong. Since My Group is putting down waypoints for me I have no real excuse, other than I go too comfortable and haven't reall learned the DB positioning properly as I'm trying to DPS as my WAR as much as possible.

[Coatl]

I always watch both MTQCapture and Mr. Happy's visual guides. It's also good to read a written guide, as they break down the mechanics even better sometimes.

Come prepared but be ready to die, as nothing will teach you better than experience.

And some people like to go in and learn the fight without EITHER of us jumping down their throats. Who knew?

It's still highly amusing, nonetheless. The obsession with "Go watch a youtube video" has ushered in an era of elitism that I've never seen before. This is one of the worst playerbases in the history of the FF mmo.

If you don't watch a guide, you're probably going to cause a very early wipe though! And then one of two things can happen.

1. Someone is going to yell at you for not knowing the basic mechanics of an encounter and tell you to read a guide. For good reason, mind you.
2. Someone is going to be nice and patient enough to explain to you something that you could have just googled and found out for yourself.

When you are "going in blind because its fun" you are doing it with seven other people who might not feel the same as you. If you are doing it with friends then its whatever, I've gone in blind to ScoB with friends and it was hilarious. But the information is right at your fingertips! Use it, abuse it!

[Violyre]

Wow! Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. Truth be told, I hate watching the videos for things. My learning style is just to do it, make tweaks as necessary, and hope for occasional advice. I've heard the horror stories about T5, so decided to see if I could pick up even a little bit of info beforehand.

[Souljacker]

Why does everyone keep quoting me as If I advocated for not doing any preparatory research at all? I merely expressed amusement at the need to "see" someone else do something as opposed to reading "When you have a red triangle over your head, run to the soak team".

In fact - I believe that short notes as a reminder of mechanics is far better than trying to memorize a 20 minutes fight through youtube. This generation likes it. I get it.

That doesn't mean you should beat someone over the head with it as if it is guaranteed to prevent a group from wiping or something.