Tales from Duty Finder: Some make you laugh, some make you cry. Let's vent.

[TetsuyaHikari]

I found a WHM during a Mentor roulette about a week or two ago that kept spamming Medica II when I was hurt. I finally had to tell him what he was doing was a bad idea, especially since nobody else in the party was damaged, lol. He said he liked the regen effects of it. So, he kept doing it.

A few pulls later, I finally stopped and told him "you need to stop doing this before you develop a bad habit, otherwise it's going to hurt you in actual tough content later" and his response?

"I know it's a bad habit. I'll deal with it later."

I mean, fortunately we got through the dungeon without much of an issue anyway, but I just couldn't believe this guy actually acknowledged what he was doing was wrong, but had no intention of changing it, lol. I swear, you only meet these kinds of people through DF.

EDIT: Oh, I actually remembered another story from a couple of nights ago. I forget the name of the dungeon, but uhhh... There's a bee boss? Saint something or another, I think. The bee is the next to last boss. I remember that much.

Anyway, so this was another Mentor roulette run and I was tanking, as usual. We start out and the healer says "wy?" in the beginning. I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, so I ignore it and just run ahead. So, the group follows and we begin pulling like usual, no real problems. Finally, the healer speaks up because god forbid, I pulled 5 enemies at once (oh no!). She then tried to give me "tips" on how to pull and suggested that I warn her before big pulls. I just kind of laughed it off since there's only one big pull in that entire dungeon and it's the bees (which you can skip if you manage to break through the wall fast enough and slide to the boss).

Like I told her though, I usually don't like doing that pull simply because I know how difficult it is to heal through and if you're not careful, Unfinal Sting will drop your tank (think it does 15k to me or so?) and with that many bees surrounding me, I never know when to pop Hallowed Ground, lol. Anyway, so I informed her that she didn't need to worry and if I did actually do a big pull, it's common courtesy for me to let my healer know in advance (I play SCH as well, so I appreciate this sort of thing so I can prepare). Well, we keep going through the dungeon and she starts giving me grief, asking if I'm new.

Now, bear in mind, whenever someone is new in a later dungeon, you see a tome bonus message. If it's an earlier dungeon, you still see a bonus message, but it's in regards to gaining additional exp upon completion. This message did not pop up when we started, so I told her that it's easy to know if someone is new (especially if everyone is ready, but the 4th/8th player is viewing the cutscene, then you get the bonus message, heh) and explained how. She then tells me "well I'm a mentor, so I had to ask", then I laughed and was like "so now you're assuming I'm not a mentor then" and followed up with "maybe I should be asking if you're new". I generally don't appreciate people assuming such things about me, especially if I haven't given them a reason to. I've been pulling and holding hate, directing enemies away from the party as I should, etc., so please don't give me grief.

Anyway, we reach the first boss (finally) and just when I think she's finished her little "lecture", she starts up again.

"Look, I'm just trying to explain mechanics to you. No need to get defensive."

And in an ironic fashion, she dies while attempting to explain mechanics to me, lol. So, the boss has a little over 40% HP left at this point and she just lays there dead. I go through the rest of the fight popping Clemency on myself (this particular boss isn't very aggressive) and building my MP back up when he's spinning around spewing out bad breath since he's pretty slow during this time. I continue to rinse and repeat this process until the end where I pop Convalescence and heal myself for over 10k, lol. We bring the boss down and she gets all upset and says "well I guess I'll just sit this one out then" and I tell her "yep", and we carry on. We finally reach the bees and I pull one small group after another, taking them down one by one like I usually do and here it comes...

"I don't know what your problem is blah blah blah blah blah"

I honestly forget the rest. I was basically ignoring her at this point. Finally, we reach the boss though and I pop my CDs, and start to pull. She begins giving me grief again and you'll never guess why.

"Wow. No ready check? Really, tank?"

At this point, I was like "You really need a ready check in a trash dungeon...? We save those for raids and EX primals." and she said "Alright. I'm done with this tank. I just can't do this any more. Have fun dying." and disconnected during the boss fight, which we cleared without her. I apologized to the two DPS for having to put up with all of that shit since it was completely unnecessary. We tried to recruit a new healer and fortunately found a new one to replace her in less than 5 minutes (kind of surprising). We went on to finish the dungeon and this healer didn't give me shit, and actually let me do my job, and that was pretty much the rest of the experience.

[Supersun]

"Wow. No ready check? Really, tank?"

At this point, I was like "You really need a ready check in a trash dungeon...? We save those for raids and EX primals." and she said "Alright. I'm done with this tank. I just can't do this any more. Have fun dying."

Not exonerating the healer if the healer is as bad as you make the healer out to be, but you aren't exactly innocent here either. Saint Mocianne's Arboretum is probably the second hardest dungeon to heal in the game only proceeded by the vault, and the Bee boss is especially bad.

ESPECIALLY if you did the strategy like most people where if you break the wall before the second boss, big pull or no, and run through it before killing all the adds then the healer would be getting no out of combat MP regen. Done that dungeon plenty of times where the tank immediately engages the tank and I'm sitting at 0 MP, and if your healer was a non-Sch they aren't exactly getting it back. The only reason I've been fine with 0 MP was my fairy stalling until Aetherflow, but for Whm or Ast...well...glancing at the healer's MP and popping a ready check before the Bee boss specifically isn't a horrible idea. I mean you should at least give the healer a chance to cast Stoneskin on the party because the party WILL take damage.

Not saying the healer is perfect in the slightest, I mean if someone dies on the first boss...they just goofed. I've done that first boss without even deactivating Clerics Stance once, but that dungeon in general can be a pretty stressful one to heal especially if you are lower item level, and snapping at the healer because they wanted a ready check on a pretty healing intensive boss they may have been out of MP on because of being stuck in combat from skipping adds is unnecessary.

[TetsuyaHikari]

The second hardest dungeon to heal in the game...? Really? I've healed it a few times as my SCH and even through the big pull of bees as well (it required dissipation because of an Unfinal Sting at an unprepared time). The dungeon itself is a joke at best, even as a healer, honestly. The bee boss is especially simple because a majority of the attacks from the adds around the outside ring are telegraphed AoEs which can easily be dodged. There's a couple of moments where I have to use my party heal because of the boss, but overall, it was a cakewalk the first time and it's a cakewalk now.

As for the MP comment... Any WHM/AST I've run with in there usually has 3,000+ MP left during that point, give or take. Whenever I'm about to pull a boss, I only wait because of one of the following conditions:

A. Our healer's MP is below half
B. Our DPS is AFK (or any member, really)
C. Our healer is buffing

None of these occurred, so I pulled just as I always did. Trust me, as a tank, you're not the only one keeping an eye on your MP. I am too. Just because Scholars don't have to deal with MP loss as much as AST or WHM doesn't mean I don't know when the other two healer jobs are being pressured. If you're having difficulty healing in that dungeon and you honestly think it's "probably the second hardest dungeon to heal" in the game, that says more about you than it does the tank. I don't consider any of the dungeons difficult to heal, honestly.

The only times you should have difficulties healing is in EX or Savage content, but having difficulty healing in trash dungeons? That just makes me want to tell the healer "git gud" since none of the dungeons are really pressuring on any job.

[alimdia]

Relating to the bees Final Sting, theres one bee that spawns at the start. Focus target it.
The second bee spawns when the wall is about 50%. This is also when the first bee final stings. Stun it (because you have it focus targetted)
You can try stunning the second bee too if wall doesnt die fast enough

[Selli]

especially if everyone is ready, but the 4th/8th player is viewing the cutscene, then you get the bonus message

The cutscene isn't actually a very accurate way of telling who is and isn't new. I know quite a few people who don't have their "skip viewed cutscenes" checked because they like the little cutscene at the start/end of dungeons. And as someone who has bad net (I pay for 25MBps but I'm lucky to get 1-2MBps at any point in the day), so I can get stuck in the loading screen (which will say "viewing cutscene" to the party) for several minutes. The new person bonus is a good indicator, but it's not always accurate in cases like that. I get mistaken for the new person a lot and I actually got yelled at once for "faking being new to get extra commendations" when someone else got the mapping achievement. ^.^"

And sorry about the healers. D: The second one sounded like quite a handful.

[TetsuyaHikari]

Well, I just meant if you're running a light party and 3 of the players have already queued in and it still says "viewing cutscene" for one of them, it's a safe bet they're the new one if a bonus message pops up. The same can be said for a full party with 7 people queued up and the 8th is still viewing the cutscene. Of course, there are extenuating circumstances, but 9 times out of 10, I'd be willing to put my gil down on that player being the one responsible for the bonus since the rest of us were already queued up immediately.

[Aivi_lo]

Went into cutters cry with my Lil tank. Now I am learning and happy for advice and I also am understanding about other people learning their roles. I start quite tentatively pulling smallish groups until I get a feel for what the whm can handle. The overheated monk immediately goes to pull everything I haven't in each room and I have to battle to get aggro. It's not too bad, feel that I have to learn how to handle stuff like this. It then becomes clear the whm just isn't healing much (i was in halitali recently where the healer openly declared he was gonna play a game of how low can he let my health go before he saves me which was surprisingly fun!) I'm surviving by popping every cd I can (again learning curve, I need this) and the smn is healing me. Eventually one group is just too much and we all die. The healer kicks off having a go, but nobody responds to him and we set off again. This time he makes a point of not healing me at all and I die over and over. After the first two bosses he then stands in a room on his own. The monk dashes off to pull everything so I follow to try and help and without a healer at all we just die repeatedly. I then notice on my way past that the healer is not afk as I'd suspected but is healing himself every now and again in order not to time out. I start a vote to kick him, but it's rejected by the test of the party. 10 more minutes of dying until we finally make it to the boss and I finally persuade the party to kick him. I was getting suspicious that they wanted me to leave but I'd invested too much time by this point and was annoyed. So we get a new healer and no more problems. I was enjoying tanking up until then ><

[Supersun]

If you're having difficulty healing in that dungeon and you honestly think it's "probably the second hardest dungeon to heal" in the game, that says more about you than it does the tank. I don't consider any of the dungeons difficult to heal, honestly.

Oh come on now, the underhanded insult isn't necessary. I can heal every dungeon just fine, but whereas nearly every other dungeon I can sit in Clerics stance 99% of the time in the Arboretum I actually can't just rely entirely on my fairy hence why I qualify it as the second hardest. Not that it's some insurmountable challenge, but compared to the rest of the dungeons in the game the Arboretum is a step up. It's still no where near the vault though.

[MeiUshu]

Your attitude isnt the best either though. Not having a crown over you head qualifies you as NON mentor, so there is no assumption there, since I dont think someone is dumb enough not to see that and if you had removed it (maybe there is a way) that means simply you didnt want to be there showing you were one, therefore you were not one. This among other things you said.

Ready check is a curtesy, maybe, just maybe, your healer had a reason NOT to be ready and having some curtesy expectations thought that before pulling you would ask.

[FinnKebra]

Went into cutters cry with my Lil tank. Now I am learning and happy for advice and I also am understanding about other people learning their roles. I start quite tentatively pulling smallish groups until I get a feel for what the whm can handle. The overheated monk immediately goes to pull everything I haven't in each room and I have to battle to get aggro. It's not too bad, feel that I have to learn how to handle stuff like this. It then becomes clear the whm just isn't healing much (i was in halitali recently where the healer openly declared he was gonna play a game of how low can he let my health go before he saves me which was surprisingly fun!) I'm surviving by popping every cd I can (again learning curve, I need this) and the smn is healing me. Eventually one group is just too much and we all die. The healer kicks off having a go, but nobody responds to him and we set off again. This time he makes a point of not healing me at all and I die over and over. After the first two bosses he then stands in a room on his own. The monk dashes off to pull everything so I follow to try and help and without a healer at all we just die repeatedly. I then notice on my way past that the healer is not afk as I'd suspected but is healing himself every now and again in order not to time out. I start a vote to kick him, but it's rejected by the test of the party. 10 more minutes of dying until we finally make it to the boss and I finally persuade the party to kick him. I was getting suspicious that they wanted me to leave but I'd invested too much time by this point and was annoyed. So we get a new healer and no more problems. I was enjoying tanking up until then ><

Don't give up on it. You will always get idiots in parties. But as a tank if this happens again you have an advantage just leave, wait 30 mins(grab a coffee, some grub and a smoke), and go in again.