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

[Ametrine]

I feel like if they don't trust excog, then they don't understand the point of the skill, lol.

[DacienSanderon]

Going to level Paladin to 70 as soon as I finish up BRD (68). My plan is to spam dungeons/roulettes through Party Finder groups. My invite message is going to be "relearning job, haven't tanked in over a year. In exchange for your patience and putting up with small pulls you get to bypass the 30-40 minute DPS queue "

I figure that way it's a win win, I get small pulls and people know what to expect going in. In return they cut the queue.

Or you can just do leveling roulette where no one will ever complain about small pulls anyway. I have never had that happen in about 100 total tank levels from dungeons.

[Lyrai_Celestine]

I feel like if they don't trust excog, then they don't understand the point of the skill, lol.

My thoughts exactly. Not every casual players know what Excog means. Safe bet is to just not worry too much over it and don't mind if it's wasted; it'll eventually be useful sometime somewhere.


Anyway, here's another little heartwarming story:
Me and my static healer (again) went for Leveling Roullete yesterday. We encountered a new player who plays a GLD in Sastasha. I shook my head for a little bit, and said: "Hey, at least we're helping someone!"

The GLD seems to still haven't got the combos right (still doing uncomboed Savage Blade / Riot Blade), but he knows how to Flash! Big relief. So I focus on teaching him when to Flash, and how to do a combo, such as "Start with Fast Blade!" "Fast Blade + Savage Blade" etc. And then, saying "Good job!" whenever he does it right.

I asked the other DPS (RDM) to use Diversion as I used myself for the final boss. It worked, and so the duty is complete without a problem! I commend the newbie tank for his efforts with a warm smile.

[Mysterysword]

Freaking Clemency trigger happy paladins... "oh my health is dropping, better Clemency back up"... except there's an Excog waiting to fire when you drop below 50%... had so many of them wasted in Sirensong just now because of the triggerhappiness towards Clemency...

You know what's even more infuriating? Having co-healers waste your Excog. I was in a map party a couple of days ago, on SCH with another AST, and I kept seeing all my Excogs tick down to nothing thanks to them. So I switched to BLM, the AST got us wiped in Lost Canals, and the WAR freaked out and kept insisting we needed two healers. Too bad I really don't want to heal when I see 95% of my heals going to waste.

[Luciel-Nyx]

You know what's even more infuriating? Having co-healers waste your Excog. I was in a map party a couple of days ago, on SCH with another AST, and I kept seeing all my Excogs tick down to nothing thanks to them. So I switched to BLM, the AST got us wiped in Lost Canals, and the WAR freaked out and kept insisting we needed two healers. Too bad I really don't want to heal when I see 95% of my heals going to waste.

Truth to be told I had no idea what Excog is until I leveled sch a tiny bit and got it. As a co-healer I would probably waste it as well because I didn't know what it did and usually have no time to read up the icon, since my primary concern is topping the tank at the given moment, especially if he is dropping to 50 % (since I am mostly healing as a whm) >.< So I guess most of the wastings on co-healer' parts are because they don't know about the skill at all. I probably wasted tons of it too when I was paired with scholars (Sorry! I really had no idea.)

[Rasylia]

Not a df story, but a pf one.

Ran O1S 2 days ago with my Sch Friend via PF. Group filled up / people left / filled up [...] the usual.
Once we finally had a full group, we qued in and then called positions.
I kindly asked for MT + N, which resulted in no awnser from our other Tank.
10 seconds after, as one of the last people, he just wrote "N" in chat, started 10 seconds pull countdown, and went in. At this point i was allready mad at him. Communication between tanks is a must, whoever thinks he can just dictate stuff to his co-tank shouldnt be playing group content.
The run is anything else then smooth. Boss doesnt get re-positioned, people get confused, noone gets his position right, stacking marks, deaths, clad goes into the group, chaos. Enrage at 13%...
We kindly asked the tank to reposition the boss after his sideawys jump, which just got the awnser "Sorry i speak little english". Checked his info, he was French, and as always joined an english PF without speaking english.
We told him to be OT that run, he didnt awnser.
Well, i pulled, we killed it, Tank ring dropped, he took it, ran off.

You can't imagine my frustration.

[MoroMurasaki]

Doing 50/60 roulette on WHM because I need Verity mats.

Get into the Antitower and I'm pumped because it's short. SAM and BLM DPS with a DRK tank. On the first pull I notice the tank's health is dropping rapidly then I Cure II him and it fills his bar completely.

I look a bit closer and see he has only slightly over 20k. For contrast the BLM has 21k, I have 22.5k and the SAM has 24k.

I politely ask him to check on his gear and see if it's broken but it isnt, he's wearing a mishmosh of things with the highest ilvl being a 200 helmet. A lot of it is NQ whites. He's a sprout and it was his first time in the dungeon so I know he has better quest loot dropping.

Between pulls I talk to him a bit about Hismena in Iddylshire and tell him about Poetics and he seems pumped. He even let me run ahead to pull things and consolidate them for the DPS to burn.

We had a surprisingly smooth run considering we basically didn't have a tank. He was chill about us having threat and the rest of us outgeared it so much it was still a breeze. I don't think I've ever taken that many tankbusters before without getting mad.

Point is if you have someone underperforming maybe they're super cool like this tank and just need to get pointed in the right direction. I'm sure with some remotely relavent gear he's gonna be great in the future!

[Paladinleeds]

Truth to be told I had no idea what Excog is until I leveled sch a tiny bit and got it. As a co-healer I would probably waste it as well because I didn't know what it did and usually have no time to read up the icon, since my primary concern is topping the tank at the given moment, especially if he is dropping to 50 % (since I am mostly healing as a whm) >.< So I guess most of the wastings on co-healer' parts are because they don't know about the skill at all. I probably wasted tons of it too when I was paired with scholars (Sorry! I really had no idea.)

I explained how Excog worked, I still saw them pumping out Clemencies... So it wasn't that with this tank.

As for yourself, now you know how Excog works and you're taking that into account with your heals, that's fine, I got no issue with you. Sure, they say ignorance isn't an excuse, but I will cover ignorance with explanation so you understand. If that gets you to take it into account, great, no issues. We're all dandy.

EDIT: Megapost time, going to talk about some of the points brought up on the previous page that I missed.

Oh yes, I've had this happen several times now too. Any time a certain type of PLD's hp drops below 80-75% they panic and act like they have to clemency spam. Best advice I got in that situation is to 'fish' for excog heals- don't bother casting it unless they are already below 50%, using it more like an supped-up lustrate instead of as a pre-pull cast. When I run into those type of tanks now I usually just dps until they burn through their mp, then go back to healing.

There's been times where that has happened. But I'd rather use Excog as a safety net. Play it like a true lore-wise Scholar. Set it, go DPS, once I see it go off the tank (I watch that health and buff bar like a hawk), get back to healing. Yes, I try my best to use it whenever it comes off cooldown.

A lot of people don't actually understand how other classes work and just assume from previous PF experience they're about to die. I normally eat a death before I decide to blow the dust off my clemency button but you might wanna reassure trigger happy tanks and RDMs it usually helps.

I tried that! The response I got was "don't trust u". So encouraging! So I stopped healing them period outside of aoes for raidwides, since they were just gonna waste my excog anyway.

Yep, I explained what it did and that they don't need to worry, no response, the Clemency seemed to happen less often but it still happened.

My thoughts exactly. Not every casual players know what Excog means. Safe bet is to just not worry too much over it and don't mind if it's wasted; it'll eventually be useful sometime somewhere.


Anyway, here's another little heartwarming story:
Me and my static healer (again) went for Leveling Roullete yesterday. We encountered a new player who plays a GLD in Sastasha. I shook my head for a little bit, and said: "Hey, at least we're helping someone!"

The GLD seems to still haven't got the combos right (still doing uncomboed Savage Blade / Riot Blade), but he knows how to Flash! Big relief. So I focus on teaching him when to Flash, and how to do a combo, such as "Start with Fast Blade!" "Fast Blade + Savage Blade" etc. And then, saying "Good job!" whenever he does it right.

I asked the other DPS (RDM) to use Diversion as I used myself for the final boss. It worked, and so the duty is complete without a problem! I commend the newbie tank for his efforts with a warm smile.

But, if I explain how the ability works, that excuse no longer flies. I won't get mad at someone for not knowing, but once I explain and you still continue to ignore it, then we have issues, now if you bring up you're not sure after explaining it that's one thing, and I'll continue to support you, or if you're new, I'll be more lenient, but this was not a new player... (their game client was English like mine btw, so the language excuse doesn't fly, since I explained it in simple terms).

As for your story, that's the way I am with new players. For someone new, I will encourage, support, and guide. Plus, they were taking the tips to heart, so I would encourage them further. I'd also check if they were on my server and if they were, friend request going out after the duty. That way I can continue to support and guide them. Help bring out their best. That was definitely a heartwarming story.

[arcaneguilt]

Point is if you have someone underperforming maybe they're super cool like this tank and just need to get pointed in the right direction. I'm sure with some remotely relavent gear he's gonna be great in the future!

Had some tank that yells and berates the DPS because my DPS as a healer is the highest in the party whilst the tank is the second highest...
Both of the DPS are apparently new (complete with the sprouts) and they are apologetic with their performance.
After a few offensive remarks from the tank (like: "Just go uninstall XIV from your ******* PC and go play some Solitaire!"), I reminded the tank to stop harassing the DPS with their parsing number if he don't want to get banned from using the parser to harass people. The tank snapped and I just blocked him, recommended the DPS to block him as well to report him...
The tank refuses to move an inch and after a few minutes chatting with the DPS, we decided to vote drop him and getting a replacement from my FC to help us finish.

The rest of the dungeon is a tad bit slow but it's still a silky smooth run~
(The new tank gave some advice on their DPS rotation and their parse increase quite a bit...)

Having someone underperforming who listens and respond positively outweigh the fact that he's not doing well~ not to mention that if they actually listen to a right advice, they might actually doing much better!
Some people just need time to adjust their pace~

[Luciel-Nyx]

I explained how Excog worked, I still saw them pumping out Clemencies... So it wasn't that with this tank.

As for yourself, now you know how Excog works and you're taking that into account with your heals, that's fine, I got no issue with you. Sure, they say ignorance isn't an excuse, but I will cover ignorance with explanation so you understand. If that gets you to take it into account, great, no issues. We're all dandy.
...snip

Of course. I never had anybody having a problem with it before (as in my co-healer if it was a scholar) since all I did with second healer consisted of Omega or primals where I heal through tankbusters and definitely don't wait for them to be at 50 %. Other than that - if the pld still did that after explaining on your part, I understand your frustration >.< Or as a whole when plds heal themselves with clemencies when they drop to like... 90 %, that's a tiny bit insulting lol. Although you never know with DF healers/tanks in general.