As a new player, running through the Praetorium dungeon was the worst

[Nixxe]

Took your challenge, here ya go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpCoIjPHbO0

Took about an hour and a half, watching every cutscene and taking my time reading them aloud. Though my voice is literal garbage so you're forgiven if you (or your girl or friend don't want to) watch the whole thing. Also take into account most Lv70 DPS do more damage than an entire Lv50 party combined, so I was pushing through those dungeons faster in some cases than rushing 8 mans would.

It was a fun little side trip though. Got to refresh on a lot of plot points I missed out on my first run through. I highly suggest people go through and replay this just for the story.

I went and actually solo cleared an unsynced Praetorium on my 70 PLD. As far as I could tell, I was actually clearing it faster than they do at 50, at least in terms of combat.

[18:09]The Praetorium completion time: 40:46.

I absolutely blitzed the unvoiced cutscenes, and clicked through the text as fast as I could read it, which for one or two lines of text is basically as quickly as the speech bubble comes into my field of vision. I actually cut some of the voiced stuff off because I didn't want to wait for it to sit there for 15 seconds to finish making a dumb noise or something.

[KisaiTenshi]

I went and actually solo cleared an unsynced Praetorium on my 70 PLD. As far as I could tell, I was actually clearing it faster than they do at 50, at least in terms of combat.

[18:09]The Praetorium completion time: 40:46.

I absolutely blitzed the unvoiced cutscenes, and clicked through the text as fast as I could read it, which for one or two lines of text is basically as quickly as the speech bubble comes into my field of vision. I actually cut some of the voiced stuff off because I didn't want to wait for it to sit there for 15 seconds to finish making a dumb noise or something.

23:08, with cutscenes disabled on WHM.

The main thing about doing this solo is you need to be able to kill the adds Nero summons before they get to you, otherwise you get pinned to a corner. The first time I tried this in i180 gear at level 60, I just got stuck in an endless "cast canceled". At level 70, a single Stone IV can take out the adds, so as long as you hit it the second it appears you're fine.

Which means most ranged DPS should be able to clear it. Melee DPS might get stuck at that point.

As for how fast everything was being cleared, I'm absolutely sure everything was cleared about as fast as a full party of 8 except for the Magitek sequence since it does a fixed amount of damage.

[Charlayy]

newsbies should come first, content is old to @ launch ppl. not a newbie.

Not when it comes to DF. They can go with their FC or make a party for it instead.

[Charlayy]

LOL XI was new player friendly for 11 years... Total BS. Plenty of people would player kill on there by training 15 mobs to the zone so they would obliterate all those parties camping for exp, BST dropping their pets on parties like those bats that do jet stream Black mages that would warp 2 a player back to their home point. Theres so much more.. that game is far from a freindly community.

[Altena]

I actually suggest asking novice network for a couple of willing mentors to run you through it unsynced and let you watch the cutscenes as you go.
The fights will seem extremely underwhelming with lvl 70 jobs carrying you through, however the experience is bound to be better than doing those particular two dungeons in DF.

I suppose it's too late to offer this advice though.

[missybee]

23:08, with cutscenes disabled on WHM.

...but I thought the point was that we were trying to determine how long a run with someone watching the cutscenes would take.

[Yshnal]

^^ You just get poetics tomestones doubled, which are only useful if you're working on your relic or gearing an alt. The last two times I ran MSQ roulette I was poetics capped because I have nothing to spend them on.
^^There is no veteran exp bonus for having first timers in your group, just the bonus you get for doing a roulette.

It's been said by a few other people already but I'll add my voice to the pile as well.
When I first did Castrum/Praetorium back in the day, my friend warned me that I would need to skip cutscenes because people would be speedrunning so I did and watched them later. Now that I'm speedrunning, if someone wants to watch the cutscenes instead of skipping to do fights they can, I don't mind. I won't say anything and I won't kick them. But I'm not waiting. If it becomes mandatory, I will never queue for the MSQ roulette ever again. I have limited playtime and I run those duties for the exp and tomestones. And its not because I don't care about the story because I do watch all the MSQ cutscenes. Just not when other people are waiting on me.

I'm sorry, but you should pay more attention. You get an exp bonus for having a new player.

I'm not sure what's so difficult for you to understand, but the queue is not a contract to sit through cutscenes. It's an attempt to motivate self-interested players to fill out parties so new players can at least get through the dungeons. They are living up to their end by completing the dungeon. The two obvious rewards are poetics and the XP bonus at the end.

And why is so difficult for you to understand that maybe the new players don't need you (as in the uncompromising rushers)? And even if they did, it would force SE to fix these dungeons once and for all.

Please, don't try to make it seem as if you care about these new players when you obviously don't.

[18:09]The Praetorium completion time: 40:46.

23:08, with cutscenes disabled on WHM.

^ Which means that I was right when I've been telling you that the rewards are well worth waiting. You get twice as much for it taking almost twice as much time. On top of that you get the same reward that you would get on a second run but without having to wait for the queues.

[Skivvy]

^ Which means that I was right when I've been telling you that the rewards are well worth waiting. You get twice as much for it taking almost twice as much time. On top of that you get the same reward that you would get on a second run but without having to wait for the queues.

You are still missing the point that the bonus is to lure people into the dungeons in the first place. CM and Prae would not be my choice for poetics in the first place. Why on earth would I continue to queue for the MSQ roulette if it now suddenly takes twice as long?

[Yshnal]

You are still missing the point that the bonus is to lure people into the dungeons in the first place. CM and Prae would not be my choice for poetics in the first place. Why on earth would I continue to queue for the MSQ roulette if it now suddenly takes twice as long?

Wrong, that bonus is there as a reward for playing with new players. So, unless you're assuming that you know that you're going to get new players in that run before you're already in, which you don't, you are confusing the roulette bonus with the new player bonus, which are two completely different things.

[CGMidlander]

newsbies should come first, content is old to @ launch ppl. not a newbie.

Knowing that DF brings together a bunch of random people to form a party, one would have to be incredibly naive to expect special treatment.

If a person wants special treatment, they ought to make a PF specifying so, or ask friends/FC.