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

[Littlegreen]

Days like this make me wonder if I'm a decent enough player or if I'm just being carried all the time.

Everyone was new at some point and dying to Shinryu is extremely common. You should have been here when SB first launched. The menagerie was more like a graveyard with all the dead bodies (including many veteran players), not to mention how not BLM friendly that fight is. Don't sell yourself short, but if you do think you have room for improvement ask your friends for advice or look up some tips and tricks to be a bit more mobile while still doing good damage. This thread aside, my experience with the community is mostly positive and helpful. Heck, sometimes just a shout in Rhalgr's Reach may yield some unexpected help. After all that you'll wonder why Shinryu gave you so much trouble before.

[Kakiko]

*snip*

Thanks. I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past 24 hours. I spend a majority of my time online either playing the game or reading/watching about playing the game. I try to read/watch as much as I can about the classes I play the most (BLM and AST); which rotations to use; what is the best way to go through this particular trial/dungeon/solo duty, etc. I think the room for improvement I have is just knowing the content and learning to time things. I've found that in these later areas (Castrum Abania, Ala Mhigo, and Shinryu), it's coming down to timing; when do I lay down leylines safely, when should I make sure I can cast enough Fire 4 before I have to sacrifice enochian by moving, can I safely stay here, use triple cast and fire out enough F4s plus a convert and another F4 and a Bliz 3 before I have to move, etc. I'm not very good with timing, which I think is my issue. I just get into the rotation that I found on Reddit for 4.0 and that I've worked at trying to memorize, but then I have to move, I lose Enochian because when I did move I was close to needing to recharge it, and now that it's gone I have to wait for it to come off cool down and so I'm spitting out Fire 3 like a newbie.


Which segways into the other thing: I am a newbie. Not just in terms of how long I've been playing this game (just since July), but in terms of how long I've been playing MMOs entirely. I may be 32 and I may have been a gamer since I first saw Mario on the NES way back in the 80s, but this is the first MMO I have played for longer than a couple of hours. Up until mid-July, I had no idea what "dps", "aoe", "cool down", "pull", "aggro", etc meant. The more I thought about that last night, and after talking with some friends (including Kacho! ♥), I really have been hard on myself. I'm the type of person who, when she gives it her all (as I feel like I have been) and still comes up short (or feels like she's coming up short) turns into her own worst critic. So, I'm going to try to improve on the areas I think I can, timing and my rotation, and remind myself that a) this is my first MMO and I'm still on the learning curve, and b) I picked one of the hardest classes to master in this game because it is, for all intents and purposes, a glass cannon.

And yes, this community has been IMMEASURABLY helpful. One of the nicest communities I've ever been part of online, hands down.

Thank you for the words of encouragement. They definitely, definitely help

[KaivaC]

I have a story I've been hesitating to share, because I'm sure I'm being my usual petty stuff, but why not? I have nothing to lose. I started up a duty finder over the weekend solely for teaching players O2S. I like to be nice from time to time, and my server really needs to have more players in endgame - these days, it's mostly Balmung, Coeurl, Gilgamesh, and Mateus that I see. Plus, I was initially teaching some others that I knew.

It was a learning party, but naturally, we wiped over and wiped again. That's to be expected.

This is where my problem was. My PF explictly said 'Kaiva's Learning Party', and it was my discord hosting the voice chat. So why in the blue hell would people with around as much clearing experience as me come in, and then talk over me? We are not a raid, we are not a static - we are just a few members of an FC and a couple of folks I have gotten really acquainted with whom I teach in a way that they understand. Instead, I get talked over, again and again and again. Was some of it helpful advice? It was. But the rest? Speaking in raider language that I understand is one thing, but these are new players entering FFXIV endgame for the first time, so it ended up sucking all the enthusiasm out of my learning party. Pretty sure some folks threw the final pull.

I walked away from that pretty heated. I don't mind the occasional advice, but ...this is MY learning party. Not to sound selfish...but I know how to explain things to players who are just now getting into endgame. I walked away with a bad taste in my mouth. Hm...I suppose that would be petty. I don't like being talked over in my own learning party that I am hosting.

[Avatre]

*snicker*
So true. Now, I've seen some amazing kiting done by archers, bards, and dragoons when the tank has dropped and no rez is available; but, that's a different situation.

I've had to do some amazing kiting. Aurum Vale, Coin Counter boss, 50% HP remaining. Don't know exactly HOW I survived soloing that, but it gave me 3 comms(this was back before Heavensward, and my BRD wasn't even 50 yet).

Then another one, not quite kiting...but lots of soloing of Chimera in Cutter's Cry. Almost every time I went in there as WAR(had it for most of my WARs leveling from when I could enter it until 60). Usually only 30-40%, but still more than I liked having to do since it still took some time to down him.

[Aniise]

Ooookay, so this just happened..

I queued as WHM in 50/60 roulett to get some fast and nice exp. Since the friend I usually do my runs with was not online at the time I thought, okay, just go alone..
I get Stone Vigil HM...easy stuff, right? I have healed this more than enough times by now, this being old content and all. So what could go wrong?

...a lot apparantly.

I get paired up with two SAMs and a DRK. i barely said hello and the Tank runs off. Mhkay...I follow. And it begins.

The tank pulls up to the first wall, the room with the big dragon. A pretty normal pull for me which I have healed more that enough times without any problems...but no no no no no...NOT this time! Because the tank does not know what cooldowns are D:
He was already half dead when he finished the pull...well 'pull'...he just ran through the mobs, only getting aggro of some, which made healing as good as impossible. In desperation I had to use Benediction when we arrived in the last room to safe his life though...which got me the aggro of some of the mobs roaming around, and I kissed the floor.
Okay...maybe that was my mistake. Maybe I could have waited a second (even though there was no time...). But I say sorry...and the tank starts spamming the crying emote. I sigh to myself and we try again.
Again...without cooldowns. Again without aggro. Though this time it's the SAMs who get attacked first.
This leaving me no other choice but to heal again and I get attacked too...we wipe for a second time.

Now I just have to ask the tank to pleeease use cooldowns. He replies with "It was impossible."

WHAT?! HOW?! Q____Q

Well...long stroy short, this run was an absolute mess which not only made me question my own sanity but also the sanity of my team members.
We had no wipes after this, but two more deaths because they wouldn't do mechanics, get debuffs and then die, while I dodged, attacked and healed while doing mechanics.
Ah, and during the first boss, I suddenly was told to use Regen from one of the SAMS as a comeback to me asking the tank to use cooldowns. But the thing is...I was using regen...

*breathes in, breathes out*

One of the deaths happened at the last boss, or bosses. One of the two SAM died due to being too cool to evade attacks. He then refused to accept my rez until the boss was frickin' dead, while the tank and SAM number two BOTH decided to play dead on the floor, leaving me to finish off the boss on my own.

Yes...happy, happy times...

[MoroMurasaki]

More of a "tales from multiple DFs lately" but...

I fully understand that there are players out there who want to sit at max health all the time, I get it. These are very often the people playing "forum princess healers" and to that end I am generally unaffected by them (or have been) since I've done most of my playing as a healer.

There is one subset of these people that irk me to no end though and that's the famous self (or even party) healing PLD and RDM. I am aware that your health is not full. I know. I also know that there is little to no incoming damage and the boss is almost dead. I know that Largresse is up in six seconds and I plan to throw up a Medica II and let the ticks do the work.

I don't know if this has always been as prevalent as I've found it to be lately but when we are running literally any 4 man dungeon as a PUG I don't trust you any more than you trust me. That means I am not relying on someone's self heals to keep them off the floor because frankly most of the people I've seen in DF don't seem to have the sense of self preservation to use these skills in a pinch plus I am still the healer and (to an extent) your health is my job to maintain.

Ffs let me do that job.

I think at this point if I see a PLD or RDM healing themselves while they're above 70% I'm just going to stop healing them. Clearly they want something to do and I'd rather at least one of us prioritize actually killing the enemies.

To make my point exceedingly clear I am not talking about a RDM using Vercure to proc Dualcast or even to spotheal themselves when they mess up a mechanic. I'm also not talking about a PLD healing themselves to throw up their shield (Divine Veil? I think) or even during a megapull to allow me to DPS for longer. This is aimed at the players who use these moves in excess and ultimately to the detriment of their personal DPS.

[Avatre]

Snip.

I tend to ignore my health unless I see it below 25%, then I start to self heal. Or if the enemy/boss just died, and I have dualcast ready, and nothing close enough to cast on, then I throw that heal at whoever(sometimes even just myself though I'm at 100%). I do tend to trust healers more often than not...I don't get into parties that end up being the horror stories that people keep talking about here very often.

[Lilseph]

More of a "tales from multiple DFs lately" but...

Eh, to be honest, I heal myself on PLD because if I see the healer DPSing, I want to give him more time to do so. I know they have offcds but I don't know if they have them ready. So, I'm totally sure than a SCH/AST/WHM DPSing will do more damage than my Total Eclipse spam, speciallly when I'm running out of TP. And yes, sometimes I start my cast at 60% or so, because by the time the cast is done, I probably took more damage. The moment I don't do that, is when I get a full-time healer that removed their DPS skills from their hotbars.

The same way, when I play SCH, I got PLDs that heal themselves and I'm like "k, let's use that extra time and MP for some extra deeps". So it's a good thing from my perspective.

[Awha]

Been leveling up Mch, and got a wander's palace, tank asked the healer if they were okay with large pulls healer agreed. So the tank pulls to the first door, tank is rotating his CD's however we notice that the healer is not healing. Tanks dies after miss timing the heal. Healer then apologizes telling the tank that they are practicing clutch heals, poor tin can was kicked around many times that run. Never wiped so the idea of kicking the the healer never crossed our minds. Overall was a quick run though.

I do not heal, so I do not know if clutch heals is something one practices but geez I would think that is something you do with someone you know, not a random tank in the DF.

[MoroMurasaki]

Eh, to be honest, I heal myself on PLD because if I see the healer DPSing, I want to give him more time to do so. I know they have offcds but I don't know if they have them ready. So, I'm totally sure than a SCH/AST/WHM DPSing will do more damage than my Total Eclipse spam, speciallly when I'm running out of TP. And yes, sometimes I start my cast at 60% or so, because by the time the cast is done, I probably took more damage. The moment I don't do that, is when I get a full-time healer that removed their DPS skills from their hotbars.


The same way, when I play SCH, I got PLDs that heal themselves and I'm like "k, let's use that extra time and MP for some extra deeps". So it's a good thing from my perspective.

I specifically stated that my issue with this practice did not lie with a PLD using clemency to heal themself during a large pull as I have superior AoE on any of the 3 healers. If we are talking about single target though there is no way for a healer to outdps a tank if both are playing at a similar skill level with a similar focus on DPS, short of the burst a WHM can put out with a PoM+Cleric combo which doesn't last forever.

Basically it might be intended as a nice gesture by that tank but I think we're all trying to get through the majority of our roulettes as quickly as possible it is definitively inefficent for a PLD (much less a RDM) to stop damage on a boss to top themselves off.

I do not heal, so I do not know if clutch heals is something one practices but geez I would think that is something you do with someone you know, not a random tank in the DF.

It certainly isn't a 'clutch heal' if you're simply leaving someone not topped off when there is no incoming damage. Hell, in my example I stated this happening at 70% - if you consider that a clutch heal then I'm not trying to be rude but you are the kind of player I'm complaining about.