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

[Rikuide]

I have no experience as a healer (haven't even unlocked any of the classes yet...), so it's definitely been an adjustment for me since I got those spells lol...Getting hands-on experience at messing stuff up is probably the best way to learn what your weaknesses are, after all :P

Ignore the folks telling you to dump Swiftcast. It's a valuable skill, a strict DPS increase and gives you that little bit more mobility should a mechanic require without costing you a gcd. It lets you fish for procs when you're running low/out of them. It's also handy for letting you enter your melee phase a gcd early to catch buffs. If your melee window already aligns with buffs then you can use it after Holy/Flare for a nice boost. Improving as a RDM means learning how to manage your procs and Swiftcast helps you do that. Also, don't ever use Swiftcast pre pull; it's such a waste.

[SieyaM]

I feel like I have been in some of these parties, and I may have been your terrible healer. Sometimes I just having a hard time and I know I am doing terribly and just hope everyone can tough it out through the run without calling me every name they can think of.

[HyoMinPark]

I feel like I have been in some of these parties, and I may have been your terrible healer. Sometimes I just having a hard time and I know I am doing terribly and just hope everyone can tough it out through the run without calling me every name they can think of.

We all have those off days; don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’re doing fine. ^^
Can’t be any worse than me on a melee! Leveling up NIN and every time I mean to do “Doton”, I perform “Suiton” instead. I feel like such an idiot like 90% of the time on that job lol.

[ChameleonMS]

Just had a Snowcloak run worthy of this thread. I was RDM and all other players are green leafs (DRK, AST, BRD).
Some basic stats, 12 wipes in total, 1h 18m time to complete. After the first wipe, I put on my mentor hat and start to provide instructions, tips, etc...
And for the first 50 minutes; silence is the only response I get from any comments I make.

AST does not put Protect on us to start. I comment at the start. Protect is finally used after about the 8th wipe.
DRK does not put on Grit stance, I notice after first wipe and comment.
BRD is wearing i133 left side and i5 (yes 5 not a typo) right side. I do not comment on this because there is nothing that can be done about it now.

DRK does not know any basic tanking mechanics - Unmend and Unleash go unused for first 5 wipes or so. 1-2-3 aggro combo goes unused for nearly the first 9 wipes or so.
DRK never pulls more than 1 or 2 mobs at a time. Which in the context of this run was actually a good idea.
Healer does not know fundamentals of getting out of AoEs. But since the tank is never holding aggro, the healer is just constantly trying to survive.

First boss was wasn't terrible we surprisingly do not wipe here.
During the area between the 1st and 2nd boss, tank decides to stand in blowing wind frequently, getting the Frostbite debuff.
At second boss I put up way markers and explain the mechanics. 4 wipes before they were even remotely doing the mechanics correctly.

3 more wipes on the 3 Aevis before Fenrir's room.
BRD actually makes noticeable mechanics learning as the dungeon goes on.
DRK makes a little progress on actually holding aggro.

Fenrir :
Pull 1: none of the newb hide, Fenrir eats DRK and BRD
Pull 2: BRD hides, Fenrir eats DRK and AST
Pull 3: BRD and AST hide, Fenrir eats DRK
AST DC's after the 12th wipe and is kicked.
SCH replacement is an experienced player, Fenrir goes down properly that time. DRK still did not hide and got eaten again. SCH tanks the second half of the fight.

[SenorPatty]

We all have those off days; don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’re doing fine. ^^
Can’t be any worse than me on a melee! Leveling up NIN and every time I mean to do “Doton”, I perform “Suiton” instead. I feel like such an idiot like 90% of the time on that job lol.

I hear you Hyomin. I leveled nin to 60 some months back before SB had started and only as of last week have I started lvling again. I got no problem doing hyoton but I feel like I need a method in remembering how to use doton. Maybe an extra hotbar with the mudras placed in the order needed for it. I'll figure something out.

Anyways, my story--involving my nin--occurred way earlier this week. Queued up an in-prog alliance of 8mins, which could only mean one thing and one thing only: Dun Spoopy.

And I was right.

I queued in mid-fight and all alliances were having a hard time. I just shrug it off. Dun Scaith's one of those raids where it either goes very smoothly or very roughly. Never seems to be an in-between. We wiped, some people left, I stayed and we tried again. We cleared the first fight.

We got to...Ferdiad I believe. We wiped the first time. We cleared it the second. Now this may sound strange to many of you but I was actually kind of happy and I tell you why: You usually have two kind of parties in a difficulty setting as Dun Scaith: the ones who learn and the ones who don't. The ones who don't keep failing. The ones who do succeed. It was very clear to me that the entire alliance was learning after each encounter. Now that doesn't mean I wasn't butt clenching to save my life but at least the alliance was learning.

We get to proto...and to lot of people's surprise, we clear on the first try. But it was clutch. Very very close.

We get to Scathac...and we wipe. Now this is where things get interesting. A lot of people were grumbling about it, some half jokingly, some seriously but it was mostly one-liners and almost all of us stopped bitching about it...except one guy who said something I found very interesting. I wish I had S/S'ed but I do remember the exact words:

"Nobody, and I mean NOBODY should be wiping to a raid that's been out for so long(moar bitching, etc)."

We collectively told him to shut up and move on. Having built the faith that the alliance at the very least was learning and clearing after every fight, I told him "Yeah yeah, we get it, we suck. Can we please learn from it and move on already?". As we were readying up for a second try (people were still coming back from their rez), a vote abandon prompt comes up and its rejected. Idk if it was the same person but I further added "Please bounce on your own".

He did...after we started the fight.

Anywho, we cleared that fight and ironically enough, we cleared both diabolos form without wiping. My gut feeling paid off and I was pretty happy for the newbies we had (three of them in my party. There could've been more in other parties).

What stuck with me though, was that player's statement. It stuck with me because its not the first time I've seen it and while it doesn't show up often, I feel like those players forgot what some very key aspect of this game:

-Roulette is just that: roulette. Unless a players specifically queues for a certain raid or dgn, it is actually quite possible to spend weeks or even months never showing up in a specific dgn/raid. I wish I could say I was lying when I said that two weeks ago, I entered Neverreap through a roulette for the second time since I first cleared it: over a year ago. I didn't remember a single thing about that dgn to the point where I felt the same kind of gratifying experience when you get new content. So even if we were to exclude new players aside, its completely possible to have people join a raid they rarely have done and by that same bias, forget some parts of it on how it rolls.

-Job experience through leveling: People are bringing pretty much all the jobs to the roulette that they couldn't bring prior to alliance roulette for exp now. You have people experiencing mechanics that they wouldn't otherwise encounter before because they used to bring their best job first to it. For example, I used to do Dun Scaith exclusively with my SMN and thus never had to deal with mechs that focused on melee dps. So if someone has a couple of jobs tied to different roles that they are lvling, they might be prone to making mistakes. Not as bad as someone who's never seen the content before but just enough to not play as optimally as if they were playing with their best job.

-Give people a chance: I'm sure everyone has their own ragequit/nopeleave rules when it comes to doing any content. Mine for alliance raids that have been around a long time is 2 strikes per boss fight and that second strike has some conditions. For example, if my party mostly consisted of new people, I might extend it to 3 but only if no one bothered to explain mechs or if the newbies didn't ask. I personally saw a pattern that made me believe that everyone was learning from their first try and I'm glad I stuck it out. Expecting nobody to wipe just because Dun Scaith has been around for a long time is setting your expectations too high, in my opinion. I'm not saying to expect the worst but rather take in what kind of game this is and come to a realistic conclusion as to why people wipe in old content.

[MoroMurasaki]

We all have those off days; don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’re doing fine. ^^
Can’t be any worse than me on a melee! Leveling up NIN and every time I mean to do “Doton”, I perform “Suiton” instead. I feel like such an idiot like 90% of the time on that job lol.

I very much agree that we all have off days and as a healer it's that much more visible. Don't let them get you down Sieya!

In terms of melee dps... I feel like it's literally the opposite of healing. As someone who mainly heals I have found DRG at the mid 30's to be interesting and a new experience, in many ways more than tanking, simply because of the focus I have on my personal DPS. There is literally no reason for me to even look at the party window right now - I don't even have Goad unlocked yet.

Also I keep screwing up Blood for Blood because I'm using Life Surge and Jump both like tenish seconds before it comes off CD and then being unable to use either of them in the actual DPS increase window because they're on CD... You aren't the only one making silly melee mistakes HyoMin! <3

[FictionalProtagonist]

<Snip>.

So true! I appreciate it when people give others a chance. One of the best extremes I've ever done was that time I (foolishly, perhaps. In my defense, I was new and without FC) duty finder'd Garuda EX, but everyone stuck through and learned together and we cleared it. Such a great feeling.

Aside from the things you already listed. Some of us just simply started playing the game much later in the release cycle. I have yet to do Dun Scaith because by the time I hit 60 everyone else was busy on lvl 70 content. I've done alliance roulette but it hasn't popped up yet and while I'm certainly willing to look up strats that doesn't mean one can execute them flawlessly if you've never seen the raid before (or at least I personally need a chance to experience the mechanics to get a good feel for them). I am sure there's many more players who are only now, thanks to alliance roulette, getting to see these 24 mans.

[Paladinleeds]

So true! I appreciate it when people give others a chance. One of the best extremes I've ever done was that time I (foolishly, perhaps. In my defense, I was new and without FC) duty finder'd Garuda EX, but everyone stuck through and learned together and we cleared it. Such a great feeling.

Might not have been in your party when it happened, but I remember doing a Mentor Roulette where I got Garuda Ex. When I saw an ex primal pop up, my eyes kinda lit up. I felt like yes, I was gonna be teaching stuff for this. Let's do it! We had to replace the WAR (because he didn't have provoke as his GLA was 16, this was pre-SB where you needed 22 GLA) and we kept wiping because we couldn't do the tank swap. We replaced him, the other mentor swapped from DRG to tank (I think PLD), as I was a healer, and then we proceeded to 7-man it, with the 8th person (DPS) joining us shortly into the killing pull. Shame I could only give 1 comm!

[Taika]

Happened to run into these little rays of sunshine today in PF. This exchange followed from me having the nerve to suggest the casters should slot Surecast for the fight (Shinryu ex). I have no words.



Edit: I should add that this happened during the first pull, so I didn't even get a chance to be "a poor excuse for a player".

[MoroMurasaki]

Happened to run into these little rays of sunshine today in PF. This exchange followed from me having the nerve to suggest the casters should slot Surecast for the fight (Shinryu ex). I have no words.

I've had the worst luck with my Shin EX PF groups.


I've cleared 4 times now, really only with groups comprised largely of FC members. I understand that my FC members (in general) are better than average in terms of gear and skill so I kind of want one on my own to prove I can do it.

My issue is I feel shaky joining a farm party because I feel like I can't possibly have it on farm as a person who has only cleared 4 times. I join duto complete/learning parties. Here comes the next big issue...

... they aren't ready.

I tend to set up markers in the beginning of the fight to pair up for the chains/stackup in phase 3. I've had several people leave saying "this is too complicated," a few say "lets not worry until we beat phase 1" and my absolute favorite "we aren't getting that far, don't worry about it" which... Huh?!

Not with that attitude we aren't, buddy!

I might just sneak into a farm I guess. Maybe on BRD. It's less geared but I know my rotation and I won't be responsible for keeping anyone alive through stupidity.