Playing FFXIV as a Au Ra. ( playing as if I was a new player) ( A little bit annoyed)

[Kuzonoha]

Actually just finished these two dungeons earlier today.

From talking with buddies I knew from the get go that these endgame dungeons would be cutscene heavy and that I should not to pug for these. So with the help of my FC and friends, we assembled a five man undersized party just so that I can watch and experience the end of the 2.0 storyline the way it was intended.

I feel personally that manually organizing a party or using party finder and specifically stating you want to watch cutscenes and take it slow would be the best way to find success. It doesn't help the underlying problem though, and I think Square could at least provide a warning here so the players can take more precautionary measures on how they want to approach these dungeons.

[TruebladeNuke]

It's just unfortunate that they thought a cutscene focused dungeon would mesh well with the modern MMO mentality of Gotta Go Fast.

I have to agree with this part, which is also why I blame both sides of the table here too in terms of the Main Scenario dungeon cutscenes. On one hand, I praise SE on the idea of throwing out additional story into the dungeons themselves (what I've loved about Final Fantasy in general) even though I thought some of the scenes weren't needed. (The first dungeon of the two in particular) They even went the extra distance and even throw in the whole party you're traveling with into the cutscenes as well when you enter Prae. Sadly, the modern MMO mentality of "Gotta Go Fast!" is always likely to win out on every run. (Wither it's because they don't care about story, saw them already, or just only care about the lootz and big numbers, etc) Thus often leaving newcomers behind if they ever try to enter these dungeons via Duty Finder. In this regard, SE technically did mess up, thinking that the community would have the patience for newcomers to one of these dungeons.

At the same time though, this is exactly why I blame the community itself too. All because of that impatience they put out. This quite frankly wouldn't even be a problem if the community just actually had patience and was willing to actually help newcomers get into the game further and wait for them to experience the story. But years of gaming have already told me that this is never going to happen. (One look at the constant conflict on this forum should be enough to tell anyone that IMO) Most people just want to run in and get it done in as much of a record time as possible. I can't entirely blame them though, since those dungeons are run frequently for EXP, tomes, etc, and I do that too when leveling an alt and such.

As someone else said, the result is that these two dungeons are in a "lose-lose" situation. No matter which side you lean towards, it's considered selfish by the other side. Every time. So sadly, the best advice anyone can give to someone about these 2 dungeons is to yes... use the PF. My thoughts go out to the newcomers to the game who don't know this off bat and were fine on using DF to get by everything at first, only to suddenly run into these two dungeons where patience is usually thrown out the window. Since no one ever told ME about that my first time through, I had to learn it the hard way from the first dungeon myself. (Thankfully, I was a Tank and the other Tank was new too, so the party was forced to wait... with VERY impatient tones I might add) I almost wanted to quit with how hostile that party was at the end. I absolutely refused to use DF for Prae after that, and used PF. To no surprise, it took over an hour or so to finally get a full party that was willing to deal with the fact that there were 3 newcomers trying to get through the story and wanted to watch the cutscenes. As someone who actually enjoys the story of FFXIV though (best story telling I've EVER seen in any MMO period IMO), the wait was well worth it to me. I got to experience the story of the dungeon without angry people yelling at me left and right.

So again, PF is sadly the best option you can take for these two dungeons. It may seem like everyone is an impatient prick who only cares about the lootz and EXP, but the ones willing to help newcomers are actually out there. You just got to fish them up with the PF... and hope you land several of them.

tl;dr: I hate both SE and the community for what happened in with the Main Scenario dungeons. More so the gaming community, but SE should have known better than to trust the community to be patient with newcomers.

[Rinzy]

I'm still curious whether Yugiri's dialog changes at all when you meet her as an Au Ra...

I seriously doubt it. She doesn't acknowledge when you're a ninja, and that everyone around you has known about ninjas since you hit level 30, and when she meets Jacke, he doesn't acknowledge that he even knows you, even though you helped him in the rogue quests.

[Ashkendor]

Serious question. I run with a 4 player static of real life friends/family. Everyone is kinda stressed out doing content with other people as we all are really not good. Like at all. We have fun though, and have conquered every dungeon this game has thrown at us so far. We are starting the first 8 player trial now, and going to the two 8 player dungeons soon. Is it really possible to 4 man this content with the i90 gear and the i115 expansion weapons on the AH? Or are we going to have problems?

You should be fine. These dungeons were tuned for 8 level 50's in i45-55 gear so stuff is extremely squishy; people in i90 gear should pretty well destroy them. Just make sure you have at least one tank and one healer and you'll be golden.

BTW, don't buy NQ i115 weapons off the MB. You can buy them from the vendor in Foundation.

[NekoGenesis]

Frankly it's not either player's fault - yes, the newcomers want to watch cutscenes and experience the story as it was meant to be told (and CM and Prae are heavy on cutscenes which do deliver very important tidbits leading up to the conclusion of 2.0). Everyone else who runs Main Story Roulette (usually the last 5-6 members of the group) doesn't want to wait an extra 30 minutes or so doing a dungeon they've spammed for a long time for tomes/daily exp.

It's selfish to not let a new player watch cutcenes and experience the story, its also selfish to hold up the majority of the group who want to just get the dungeon done so they can go do other things in their spare time. Someone always loses.

To make things worse, there's no quick fix - pull it out of roulette and the queue spikes will become absolutely huge for newcomers, as there would be absolutely 0 reason for people to run those two dungeons once they've run it once. HW whites pretty much makes old Poetics gear obsolete (except for i130 which is ok until around level 53/54, but you level so fast you're going to be replacing them nearly every level and/or youre grinding fates wit a party which doesn't even require decent gear).

Furthermore, has anyone actually tried to make a PF and check those boxes for newcomers only, slow paced, no cutscene skipping? Takes about 3 hours+ (being generous) to fill up if you don't have any friends to call upon. This is in Adamantoise, which is a med-pop server as well. So unless you have an FC whose willing to undersize it for you, new players are the ones who usually get completely and utterly shafted.

SE stuffed up real bad. Like really really badly.

[Averax]

People do those daily for main story roulette. I understand you want to watch them but the are very long and lets face it most aren't going to wait. The best way if you want to watch those cutscenes is to do it with a free company group.

People let me watch everything when i first started, and i've continue to pay it forward since. Whenever I run that place for any reason, when anyone makes the request to watch the cutscenes, i immediately give them the go-ahead before anyone can say otherwise. And if people have a problem with it, i tell them where they can shove it.

It's really just a few extra minutes, no huge deal for the rest of the group.

The people who want to watch it are also usually cool with the rest of the group taking on the bosses while they watch.

[Rinzy]

People let me watch everything when i first started, and i've continue to pay it forward since. Whenever I run that place for any reason, when anyone makes the request to watch the cutscenes, i immediately give them the go-ahead before anyone can say otherwise. And if people have a problem with it, i tell them where they can shove it.

It's really just a few extra minutes, no huge deal for the rest of the group.

The people who want to watch it are also usually cool with the rest of the group taking on the bosses while they watch.

Yeah, I'd much rather miss some fights than have the fights potentially spoil the story in the cutscenes.

[Belhaven]

Thank you Ashkendor.

Furthermore, has anyone actually tried to make a PF and check those boxes for newcomers only, slow paced, no cutscene skipping? Takes about 3 hours+ (being generous) to fill up if you don't have any friends to call upon. This is in Adamantoise, which is a med-pop server as well. So unless you have an FC whose willing to undersize it for you, new players are the ones who usually get completely and utterly shafted.

Before we got our fourth for our static, I would put up this in party finder all the time. We already had our tank and healer roles filled, just needed anyone to join and we were set. Not a single time did anyone ever join. I even spent a good hour or two waiting as well. I would even pm someone standing right next to the dungeon entrance, obviously new and going in for the first time like us, and they would ignore me or not know how to reply. I think new players are too scared or just don't know enough to make these tools work for them.

And I can say this with confidence, the attitude of this thread is what makes us (as in my static) not want to play with others, as it is prevalent every time we look into doing this stuff.

[Starlord]

So unless you have an FC whose willing to undersize it for you, new players are the ones who usually get completely and utterly shafted.

This sums up what I am fearing for the newcomers. It's not really about me since I have experienced it ( I was merely testing the waters to see what it's like to be a newcomer being fresh into the final quest. It's about all the new people that will have to suffer the most out of the 2 groups.

[Daralii]

The title of this thread is a bit misleading; I was expecting to see something leading to disappointment specficially because you were Au Ra when, in fact, it had to do only with the fact that you're new. You could have been any race and run into the same issue! I'm still curious whether Yugiri's dialog changes at all when you meet her as an Au Ra...

Didn't do the 2.1 and on story until after I'd race changed to au ra, no difference.