Dear Ninjas

[Elazu]

Also, you have a Skill alled 'Goad'. It recovers one party member's TP.

[Lexxuk]

Also, you have a Skill alled 'Goad'. It recovers one party member's TP.

Yeah, we use it on the other NIN.

[Faelandaea]

Also, you have a Skill alled 'Goad'. It recovers one party member's TP.

Sure . . . IF someone specifically asks me to use it.

See, Bards have an advantage - we can see mana pools in the party window, so as a Bard I can activate mana song if I feel it is needed. And, yes, I will be the one to judge that so don;t go panicking and yelling for mana song when your mana pool is 3/4 full - I will ignore you. Really, with the BLM's ability to restore mana as part of their rotation and SMN/SCH is literally IMPOSSIBLE to make a dent in mana, the only ones I have to watch out for are tanks and WHM, so I'll toss it on if one of them is down to 25% mana. I main as a SCH, and I actually facepalm and chuckle when we do not have a WHM and the tanks are FM and a Bard starts popping off mana song (nothing like wasting 25% DPS to try and look cool playing a tune, eh?)

However, SE apparently does not consider Bard TP song to be important or Goad, apparently, or they'd slap in a UI to monitor the party's TP. So o9nly the party can determine how important it is. Therefore, when on NIN, if you do not ask me for Goad directly, I won't even use it. If no one asks then the PROPER and CORRECT assumption is that you are doing fine and actually know how to manage your TP (managing TP is like managing mana - it CAN be done, but no one bothers to try because they like to use Bards and NINs like crutches).

[Luvbunny]

Sure . . . IF someone specifically asks me to use it.

Yeah I can see the difference playing in US server and Japan server. The Ninjas over there give it to the tanks (if the other DPS is BLM) without you have to even ask for it. They say hello nice to meet you at the beginning of each dungeons, and pretty much aware of what their roles are (which is NOT about "I am the King of the Universe - it's all about me - I am the best - me, me, me, me, I want, want, want, everyone else can you pass lot please). Most run are pretty smooth, unless you have first timer, and if that you only need to tell them once. Granted this is not 100% all of them are perfect master race, but in general I met a higher rate of competent players in Japan servers VS US servers.

[Faelandaea]

Yeah I can see the difference playing in US server and Japan server. The Ninjas over there give it to the tanks (if the other DPS is BLM) without you have to even ask for it. They say hello nice to meet you at the beginning of each dungeons, and pretty much aware of what their roles are (which is NOT about "I am the King of the Universe - it's all about me - I am the best - me, me, me, me, I want, want, want, everyone else can you pass lot please). Most run are pretty smooth, unless you have first timer, and if that you only need to tell them once. Granted this is not 100% all of them are perfect master race, but in general I met a higher rate of competent players in Japan servers VS US servers.

Well I don't play on either of those. I play on Eu servers. US servers are . . . well I won;t start a flame war here but you can guess how I feel there. Japan servers . . . OH how I WISH I could play there. I have a lot of Japanese friends, and I can even speak Japanese enough to hold a basic conversation, and I am still learning. But I cannot read Kanji, so it would be too hard for me to play on one of those servers.

I would have no problem tossing a buff to a tank if I know when to do it. The skill has a bit of a cool down to it, so it is wisest to wait until it is needed before injecting them with TP. It's the same concept as a healer spamming you with Lustrate when you are full health, then you take a HUGE hit and they can;t cast Lustrate because Aether is on CD. Fortunately, most tanks on my server have macros they click when they get low on TP. The most common is along the lines of "I'm low on TP. Can I get a Bard Song/Ninja Buff to compensate please?" Not worded like that, but the basic structure is there. And I appreciate macros that communicate.

As long as the team COMMUNICATES and talks to each other, I am all over that. And like you mentioned, teams on my server often start with at least a hello and some communication when we start. unfortunately, though, I also get plenty of the silent parties and, one VERY big challenge to an EU server are communication barriers. People are in such a huge rush to queue up that they will queue even into languages they have no clue how to speak. When I queue up, I make sure the only language checked is English . . . last night I ended up in a party where 3 of us started having a conversation while we ran the dungeon. The 4th guy started spamming the chat with the auto-translate "Please use the auto translate function", and there was no way we could tell him that we weren't talking to him or relaying instructions, but just having a friendly conversation in general. If I ever get to a point in my Japanese that I can actually read Kanji, I definitely plan to move to a JP server, because universal communication is a must on any team.

Annnnd i got way off topic there, but yeah back ON topic . . . ALL classes need to do their jobs and help out where they can. I do wish this game had more diversity in skill trees though. The way this game is designed, everyone plays precisely the same way and absolutely has to use the exact same skills in the exact same order. This is the ONLY MMO that I have ever played that does this. Other MMO games - you can have your own skill set, rotation and such, make yourself unique but still get the job done. This is not enough to make me stop playing FFXIV, as I love the game and plan to continue playing, but threads like this are definitely a consequence of just such a limitation. People will monitor you in their parsers and such, and pull logs if they are static group commanders, and if you aren't following the published rotations precisely, you WILL get kicked from the team. That's expected. And if you slip up and not follow the published rotation and do not get kicked, you will end up causing threads like this. Your best bet is to try your best to get the rotation right and the timing right.

But in defense of the other side, if you need a buiff and it hasn't been cast on you, ask for it. If you are a WHM and need mana often, make a macro for the Bards (as a Bard I try to watch your mana, but sometimes a macro with a sound effect can definitely get my attention if I end up losing focus of the party bars to dodge mechanics, switch targets, kill adds, etc.) SCH - well you literally can;t run out of mana ever so no worries there. Tank and DPS - don;t be afraid to have a macro that asks for TP. Asking is part of communication, because, again, Bards or Nins may be distracted at the moment with mechanics, adds, etc. Depending on the fight, priorities sometimes are different Talk. Ask. And you shall certainly receive.

The ability to see TP is actually one of the most requested features that the developers are working on implementing, and Tank and Spank fights like Five-headed Dragon will cause Paladin MTs to run out of TP if the fight drags out for longer than 3 minutes 45 seconds unless the RNG favors them with Shield Swipe procs (and those will only extend TP by 2.5 seconds per proc).

I am frankly surprised it's not already in there. The coding is there - all they have to do is code in UI coordinates for a new set of bars duplicating the mana bars, but just tell the script to display TP instead of MP. If they ever do ad this, I think a LOT of these issues such as where this thread started from would actually disappear.

EDIT: Okay maybe not. After I posted I remembered that even though we can see MP, there's still a ton of "Dear Bard, use Ballad" threads. So more realistically, seeing TP bars will help those of us that actually care about seeing them XD There, fixed.

And why the hell do signatures always disappear when you edit a post? :P

[Ultimatecalibur]

However, SE apparently does not consider Bard TP song to be important or Goad, apparently, or they'd slap in a UI to monitor the party's TP. So o9nly the party can determine how important it is. Therefore, when on NIN, if you do not ask me for Goad directly, I won't even use it. If no one asks then the PROPER and CORRECT assumption is that you are doing fine and actually know how to manage your TP (managing TP is like managing mana - it CAN be done, but no one bothers to try because they like to use Bards and NINs like crutches).

The ability to see TP is actually one of the most requested features that the developers are working on implementing, and Tank and Spank fights like Five-headed Dragon will cause Paladin MTs to run out of TP if the fight drags out for longer than 3 minutes 45 seconds unless the RNG favors them with Shield Swipe procs (and those will only extend TP by 2.5 seconds per proc).

[Krr]

Oh, is this one of those threads?

Dear Paladins:

75% of your skill bar is defensive cooldowns. Please start using them instead of telling healers to 'heal harder' during tankbuster attacks.

[RyuDragnier]

Oh, is this one of those threads?

Dear Paladins:

75% of your skill bar is defensive cooldowns. Please start using them instead of telling healers to 'heal harder' during tankbuster attacks.

It's not one of those threads, but I gave the post a Like, simply because I DO see a lot of tanks who need to understand this fact.