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

[Yeol]

I wanted to share what happened in a party earlier this morning in Brayflox's Longstop Hard.

From the start, I told the group that I was new to RDM and that I had only done the dungeon on normal once back in July. Everything goes smoothly until the final boss. After we wipe the first time, the tank politely explained to me and the other DPS who was unclear with the dungeon, what we were doing wrong and how we could improve.

We wipe about 8 times on the final boss. I thanked the tank and healer for not quitting and they both told me "It's more fun teaching someone who listens and actually downing the boss". Not once did they lose their cool with me and the other DPS and laughed when they screwed up after doing what they explained we were doing wrong.

Really gave me hope that there are still chilled people playing MMO's

You and the other dps are a rare breed.

[Madeen_Est]

Shire gear

if it was shire gear not augmented one that probably he bought a jump potion
as it includes the whole set of shire gear for the class you choose.

[Aylis]

Anyone have any possible explanation for this?

Only things that come to my mind is maybe they were new, as in new to tanking the place and wasn't clear on what they meant. The other is and I'm guilty of this too is I'll say I'm newish. Meaning I've done it but I'm still skittery with the place until I've done it maybe 3-5 times or such when I feel I'm confident enough to say I know the place by heart.

if it was shire gear not augmented one that probably he bought a jump potion
as it includes the whole set of shire gear for the class you choose.

Or that, I forgot a jump potion gives a set of Shire gear.

[HyoMinPark]

if it was shire gear not augmented one that probably he bought a jump potion
as it includes the whole set of shire gear for the class you choose.

Also, easy way to tell, is that the Shire gear from a jump potion will have the character’s name on it, like crafted gear does. Figured that out a few days ago.

[KaivaC]

I actually have a nice feel-good story to add. And I got fully act like a mentor, yay!

So, randomly jumped into a Susano Ex clear party on PLD for reasons. My co-PLD was new to the fight, but said they saw some vids. I offered to MT it and they said go for it. Asked them to go into Sword Oath, explained that Stormsplitter was the usual mechanic for a tank swap, and advised them to not provoke until the second Stormsplitter. Pointed out that there were orbs they would have to eat during sword phase and set up waymarks for them, and in we go.

Given that it was the first time they fought Susano Ex, I kept an eye on everything they did, just in case they messed up. We wiped when the tank forgot to grab the second orb, and it was left to a SAM to try to hold it. At some point, noticed that even though I was in Shield Oath, I was quickly losing aggro to my co-tank, who was in Sword Oath. Come to find out they were spamming their enmity combos. Understanding that this was probably their first time tanking a tough fight in SB, I calmly asked them to use their DPS combos while in Sword Oath and we continued. We got down our tank swaps, told them about Susano's audio cue to move him during the stun lightning phase, and thankfully, the party was patient and very supportive of them.

I did everything I could to help out my fellow PLD with small tips here and there, and on our fourth pull, a new PLD had finally achieved the clear. I can’t remember your name, but if you were in that party earlier yesterday and you are on the forums, co-PLD, you were doing great, and I would love to pair up with you more for anything

[ko_]

So I'm trying out my baby war today and ran into amazing people. Told them I was new to everything as I am and the astro in my last party was happily pushing me to pull more in long stop as I was doing tiny pulls. I'm scared of messing up. who knew I could hold hate and actually tank. I ran it a few more times and got to a point where I'm pulling more than I think I can handle. Made a bunch of friends my last few runs of that dungeon. One dps said he doesn't believe I'm new all cause I used overpower and provoke. This is odd as when I started today I had a run in manor where I was dying left and right and felt so bad I almost quit tanking. That party didn't lose their cool and gave tips I'm following now. I went from dying and failing to mass pulling in less than 4 hours. I still got ALOT to learn but wow.... amazing what helpful people can do for a newbie player. Thank you all who had me as their baby warrior tank today. I only hope I keep improving.

[KaivaC]

Snip

We need more people with an attitude like yours

Sounds like you're doing an amazing job. Keep it up and yeah, tanking is a rewarding job.

[FelixDaCat]

You and the other dps are a rare breed.

Thank you for saying that.

I'm well aware it's better to just be honest from the start and as long as I am being spoken too (IE not shouted at in Caps) , I don't have a problem listening to more experienced players who have been playing this game much longer and at a higher level than I have.

I actually have a nice feel-good story to add. And I got fully act like a mentor, yay!

So, randomly jumped into a Susano Ex clear party on PLD for reasons. My co-PLD was new to the fight, but said they saw some vids. I offered to MT it and they said go for it. Asked them to go into Sword Oath, explained that Stormsplitter was the usual mechanic for a tank swap, and advised them to not provoke until the second Stormsplitter. Pointed out that there were orbs they would have to eat during sword phase and set up waymarks for them, and in we go.

Given that it was the first time they fought Susano Ex, I kept an eye on everything they did, just in case they messed up. We wiped when the tank forgot to grab the second orb, and it was left to a SAM to try to hold it. At some point, noticed that even though I was in Shield Oath, I was quickly losing aggro to my co-tank, who was in Sword Oath. Come to find out they were spamming their enmity combos. Understanding that this was probably their first time tanking a tough fight in SB, I calmly asked them to use their DPS combos while in Sword Oath and we continued. We got down our tank swaps, told them about Susano's audio cue to move him during the stun lightning phase, and thankfully, the party was patient and very supportive of them.

I did everything I could to help out my fellow PLD with small tips here and there, and on our fourth pull, a new PLD had finally achieved the clear. I can’t remember your name, but if you were in that party earlier yesterday and you are on the forums, co-PLD, you were doing great, and I would love to pair up with you more for anything

Much respect for you doing that and willing to party up with the dude or dudet again. It's people like you who really help new players feel more in control when they are doing content for the first time. I can't applaud you enough!

[Deithwen]

Another awful experience from yesterday.

Tagging for leveling roulette as Whm, end up in sastasha, things seems okay until I notice that the monk, doesn't seem to do any damage. A quick check at his gear and it reveals that he has nothing but lv1 gear (squall outift).

This guy had litterally no hp, and did no damages at all, well as much as a lv1 is expected to do.

When asked why he only had lv1 gear, things went ugly. Turns out he "doesn't need gear", "don't care if carried" and that he has nothing to learn because "he has o4s on farm" (which proved to be a big lie, a quick research made it obvious this guy didn't even get past o3s, and performed poorly in o1 and o2). I told him to level in potd if he can't bother gearing up decently not to be a dead weight in dungeons.

Bad luck for me, turns out he had a friend who tagged with him (just as toxic as him) and they boot me out, not without taunting and insulting me.

This game needs something to prevent this, this is not acceptable that one can join a dungeon almost nacked. I had never seen that before and I really fail to understand what's in those people's head. We need Ilv restrictions for leveling roulette. Imagine if all 4 people do that ? everyone ilv1 in say, Haukke manor ? What will they do ? just wipe in chain and leave until they find a group to carry them ?

A simple fix : base ilv roulette on a min ilv based on your char level : example : char level 30, min ilv for leveling roulette : ilv 25, even 22 would be totally accepptable. But level 1 ? damn, he just had to clear the hall of novice to get decent gear in no time and for free ! The kind of laziness is just incredible.

[Iscah]

Playing Brayflox's Longstop as astrologian. The tank is new, a bit undergeared, and not great at holding enmity, but that's not the main point of this story.

The first section goes wrong in every possible way, some of them my fault. The tank takes a wrong turn and doesn't collect the key. We go back for the key, fight the enemies and I run up the hill not realising someone else already got it mid-battle, and have to dash back to the boss room before the barrier goes up. I get in at the last second (and as the tank faints) only to be thrown back out of the room as the barrier appears behind me, and also drop to zero HP. Failure is inevitable, and as I'm typing an apology the barrier goes down and the revived-and-returned tank goes dashing back into the boss alone.

I warp back to the start, and we return to the boss. The tank is lying there waiting to be revived, so we start the battle with them in a weakened state. I struggle with healing, forget to reapply Diurnal Sect and make a complete mess of my cards - several bad draws, then casting a much-needed Ewer onto the tank by mistake! - wipe number two.

My luck is much better on the third run (when not being chased by a flock of ziz), and we beat it this time. We continue on to the next mob of dragons, and I notice one of the DPS names is greyed out in the party list. "We've lost Oddname*", I think to myself as I notice a blue spot on the map back in the boss room.... and also notice that Oddname is right in front of me fighting the dragons. And suddenly it clicks.

We have two ninja Lalafells called Oddname Something.

And only one is moving at a time.

I think I can see what's happening here.

They're not straight bots because the player has been responding in the chat window when I apologised for my earlier fail. While I can't easily watch what actions the individual melee players are doing, I can see from the party list that only one of the ninjas is using abilities like Bloodbath while the other just tags along (or doesn't). Enemies are taking a painfully long time to die.

The second ninja begins the Aiatar fight with Shadow Shift (a damage-nullifying shield) up, but dies shortly after, and somewhere between the principle of it and needing all my time and MP to keep the tank alive, I have to just leave them on the floor. The three of us scrape through somehow.

And then the ninja says "yay we won!".... and I really didn't know what to say.

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On a side note, the Longstop seems hard work as an Astrologian? It was one of the first dungeons I did when I'd unlocked the class, and I felt like I was struggling with MP management even without party issues. Maybe because the cards have unlocked but your abilities with them are limited.

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*Name(s) changed, of course, but it was distinct enough to draw my attention to it.