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

[Mysterysword]

I find this a weird question, because there *are* mechanics that require the whole group to be relatively close (Gold orb in Ferdiad Hollow comes to mind).

And I feel like that's how stacking mechanics should work. The whole problem is with the concept of "Stack to not kill the target". If there's not enough people stacking, the few who do stack wind up dead, while the ones who didn't bother are just fine.

As it is, if the stacking mechanic is not done right, only a few people will suffer for it. And that's just not much incentive for people to do it right. Especially in a 24-man, where crowd mentality kicks in hard, and I know I've fallen into the trap of thinking "someone else will do it" more than once. So basically, people don't respond to stacking mechanics, because there's not much of a punishment for missing a stack as long as you're not the one being targeted.

Now, take the typical stacking mechanic, which says "stack so that this one person doesn't die", and maybe reverse it, so that "stack so that WE ALL don't die". The people who do stack don't get hurt, while the ones who don't stack, end up taking damage or dying. The strategy to deal with the mechanic doesn't change - just stack - but the consequences of not doing it correctly are far harsher, and it gives people a lot more incentive to do it right. I know I'm not as good with stacking mechanics as I should be, and I'd probably be much more enthusiastic about learning and sticking to them if I didn't get killed when I actually do it right.

[Ilenya]

And I feel like that's how stacking mechanics should work. The whole problem is with the concept of "Stack to not kill the target". If there's not enough people stacking, the few who do stack wind up dead, while the ones who didn't bother are just fine.

As it is, if the stacking mechanic is not done right, only a few people will suffer for it. And that's just not much incentive for people to do it right. Especially in a 24-man, where crowd mentality kicks in hard, and I know I've fallen into the trap of thinking "someone else will do it" more than once. So basically, people don't respond to stacking mechanics, because there's not much of a punishment for missing a stack as long as you're not the one being targeted.

Now, take the typical stacking mechanic, which says "stack so that this one person doesn't die", and maybe reverse it, so that "stack so that WE ALL don't die". The people who do stack don't get hurt, while the ones who don't stack, end up taking damage or dying. The strategy to deal with the mechanic doesn't change - just stack - but the consequences of not doing it correctly are far harsher, and it gives people a lot more incentive to do it right. I know I'm not as good with stacking mechanics as I should be, and I'd probably be much more enthusiastic about learning and sticking to them if I didn't get killed when I actually do it right.

So what I'm getting at is it's less an issue with the mechanic and more the fact you'd prefer the mechanic to have more of an impact for being ignored. That I can agree on, though I will be honest, more often than not when I am healing in bigger raids (Dun Scaith again) I'll stand away from the stack mechanic because I can pick things up if it fails, and the number of times I've stacked just to be killed are more than I care to admit.

I would have no issue for a mechanic more like you are asking for. It'd actually be pretty fun, I would think. Might need a different marker for it, though.

[Zefiris]

Doing Roulette 60 as Bard. Aetherochemical Research Facility. Tank start first pull and other dps dc. Perhaps fake dc, I think, because tank was a dark knight with low ilevel and not using darkside. Anyway, we continue with only 3 people and finish without kick that player.

Roulette expert, Baelsar's Wall. After second boss, other dps also dc. We continue without kick, but last boss is wipe because I cannot dps alone that Restraint Collar and save healer. So we kick that player by offline and enter a dragoon.

[SilkaN]

PotD, floors 71-80.

2 tanks, 2 healers.

One tank (PLD, me) and one healer (AST) with 99/99, the other two were around 40-60.

The AST and me start clearing rooms, while the other two don't move at all.
The DRK says:

Better wipe, no DPS, Behemoth will take like 15 mins

I respond with:

feel free to take the penalty, we won't be wiping / kicking you

He says "okay" and leaves, shortly followed by the other healer (they were from the same server so I assume they queued up together).
We proceeded to clear the floors with no problems, at floor 78 a Dragoon joined and it got even easier. Behemoth was down shortly after and we laughed at those idiots together.
Welcome to my blacklist!

[aesteval]

Dun Scaith recently. From Scathach and on someone seemed really intent on pulling fights before the raid was ready. Ie: new healer queues in to replenish and they announce they're pulling in 10 seconds whether the healer is in or not. Actually managed to pull the final boss while down a healer. THAT WENT SO WELL.

[Texa]

Dun Scaith recently. From Scathach and on someone seemed really intent on pulling fights before the raid was ready. Ie: new healer queues in to replenish and they announce they're pulling in 10 seconds whether the healer is in or not. Actually managed to pull the final boss while down a healer. THAT WENT SO WELL.

When tanks do stuff like that the best reaction is to sit outside the arena and thank them kindly for the carry they so graciously offered once it's locked off.

[aesteval]

When tanks do stuff like that the best reaction is to sit outside the arena and thank them kindly for the carry they so graciously offered once it's locked off.

At least 3 of us did manage to get locked out and miss that fun (myself included - the entire trying to fumble through menu to vote dismiss offline players while trying to type in chat "not ready, don't pull, need to replenish ranks.") I queued with one tank. They're the only tank that didn't drop to the boss in 5 - 6 hits. I feel bad for the ome healer who may have been trying to solo heal their party at the time because their party was also trying to replenish ranks for an offline healer.

[Sammix87]

Syrcus Tower, possibly one of the easiest raids to do now. I don't main healer but don't mind queuing for content on my WHM if I am confident I can heal it. I’ve done ST as healer loads of times now. I que today as my WHM, enter and everything is fine until I realise that the other healer (also a WHM who has mentor rank) isn’t really doing anything. Isn’t dpsing, isn’t really healing either aside from the odd cure II now and then. That’s fine, party is decent so the fights don’t require much healing. I switch between healing and dpsing as I always do – everything is fine.

On the second trash mob, DRG in our party pulls entire mob and dies before anyone can hope to heal him. I start to raise, area closes off and he returns to starting point instead of accepting the raise. This player then tells the party when questioned that he/she was putting their makeup on and that’s why they failed to res and pulled the mob. Seriously….

At the start of the Amon battle, Tank tells the other WHM they have regen and medica II that they need to cast and help heal. Other WHM does not reply but does seem to start doing more as Amon fight commences. Towards the end of the fight I get turned into the ice rock that everyone needs to hide behind so they don’t get one-shot by curtain call. This always happens to me. At this moment tank HP is about 4000 and falling, he starts requesting a healing, which I cannot help with as I am the rock. Other healer heals him just in time and boss ends.

We proceed to final fight, and while I cast buffs the tank types “Please help heal too”, which is directed at me. It seems I caught the Cleric Stance button on my controller which is easily done sometimes. The fight hasn’t started so it doesn’t matter. I type that “I am healing. I was the only person actually healing at the start of the raid.” I turn off cleric stance and just as I do the tank goes “but you’re constantly in cleric stance.”

This is not true and just shows that he was not paying attention. MCH in party defends me. I do switch between healing and dps, as most WHMs I see do, if someone needs healing I come out of Cleric asap and heal them – interrupting whatever I’m casting at that moment. The annoying part is that It was me who cast all of the buffs, it was me who cast vast majority of the medicas and me who cast regens on him in the previous fights, as well as raising anyone who didn’t follow mechanics in the end fight and died.

We fight the end boss and its smooth sailing pretty much, I get a shed load of commendations from the party……

I’m so sick of accusations like this. The tank never died once and, aside from the fight where I was a block of ice, it never even really got close. It just wasn’t worth him saying anything. I wish people would put their energy in to actually clearing the raid instead of trying to create needless drama.

[AutoWhit]

I’m so sick of accusations like this. The tank never died once and, aside from the fight where I was a block of ice, it never even really got close. It just wasn’t worth him saying anything. I wish people would put their energy in to actually clearing the raid instead of trying to create needless drama.

This is what happens when people worry about the group failing them, rather than worrying about personally failing the group. People need to pay attention to what they themselves are doing and quit worrying about what everyone else is doing.

[lvlagmarink]

When tanks do stuff like that the best reaction is to sit outside the arena and thank them kindly for the carry they so graciously offered once it's locked off.

Idk where to stand on this.
On exact same day, i got healers locked out in dun scaith and void ark..

In dun scaith, i pulled the 2nd set of atomos about as soon as i jumped from the platform, the healer refused to heal me while some other healers from different alliances were kindly enough giving me heals when i was tanking a dragon and the demon thing, to which one of the healer in my alliances complained about early pulling.. in my view, I don't understand what were they doing when they could just jump straight ahead from the 1st add room to the 2ndsince it's not even a long walk.. but i didnt give any responds hoping not to inflict a pointless drama.

In void ark, some dps pulled echidna while both of my healers were watching cutscenes, i took aggro of echidna being a heroic tank i was and noticed that my healers got locked out after echidna's hp was 50% or something, my own buffs kept me alive.