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

[Aosha]

I go 121323 combo (3 ammo then quick reload after clean) with a total potency of 1300 without weaving in ogcd actions in roughly the same span of time. I still see it better to single target with bishop turret in 2-3 situations but totally agree that 4+ is a must for spread shot.

That does look like a solid machinist ammo rotation, and is for sure the correct one at 1-2 enemies (6-GCD 2-target Spread is just 1160 pot). For future reference, doing the same with your level 64 variant is going to be 1480 potency.
But, on 3 targets the same 6 GCD time spent on Spread Shot, using the same 4 ammo, is going to be 1740 potency ((105*4+80*2)*3). An extra 440 potency (or 260 at level 64). An extra Clean Shot and Slug Shot in the time of 6 GCDs (or an extra 73 potency per GCD). So I'd say it's still worth it to Spread at 3, at least to "soften them up" part of the way.
[Sorry for spamming all these numbers at you, just can't help myself sometimes. These comments weren't written out of a misunderstanding that the AoE disagreement was what you were frustrated about, but because of a real desire to educate, in this case about game mechanisms.]

It was still, admittedly, very uncouth of them to kick you out right at the end. Horrible dungeon etiquette no matter the circumstances.

[Hiss13]

Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight madness that was my first Rabanastre run. So, the co-healer friend from my last post and I queued up for Rabanastre yesterday. He was pretty excited for it and I was admittedly quite excited myself. Like I have done with every 24-man, I ran it blind. Instincts and logic were generally enough for me to figure out mechanics, so it was what I ended up going with as usual.

So, we drop into Rabanastre. Greetings are given. And then we head towards Mateus. Now, how do you think that went? From what I could glean off the alliance chat, Alliance B and C's tanks weren't properly aggroing adds. I died numerous times both due to a combination of adds aggroing (like during the Azure Guard phase) while I tried to keep an eye out for my alliance's tank who did seem to know what he was doing and trying to figure out the mechanics since death has always been a good teacher. I also saw my framerate drop from 60 down to 12-15 fps multiple times. Needless to say, we all wiped. This went on one more time. At the end of that, numerous people began to drop out. We lost most of Alliance C. Hell, I think Alliance C underwent a full Theseus's Ship paradox. A couple of our DPS on A also dropped out as well. But most importantly, both the B and C tanks dropped out. We waited a good while before the alliances were all filled up again. My co-healer explained to me over linkshell about the mechanics behind the avoidable deaths in the meanwhile and then we finally tried again and succeeded, thanks to the A tank taking charge somewhat. Though, at this point, I'm half expecting to get kicked since I felt my performance in general was fairly poor due to all the deaths.

We pass through the chocobo+mimic trash with no issue though framerate drops were happening aplenty for me.

Then comes Hashmal. Oh, boy. Here's where the 'fun' starts. Shortly after the boss battle starts, my framerate drops again. The Jagged Edge attack begins to spawn and i think it was targetting me since it kept going after me. Needless to say, I end up dying here. At this point, everyone stops running around, boss included and I realize something: I got DC'd. Game boots me out back to the start menu screen and my internet comes back. It was out for a minute or so, probably. I wait to log in since the game keeps telling me it needs to log me out first and eventually I log back in. After the loading screen, I find that I've been marked with a 'Target to Bind' icon. For obvious reasons, I hadn't accepted any Rezs thrown at me so I was marked, according to my co-healer. Eventually, I got a rez and started to get back to work, and was subsequently killed. We eventually wiped.

Now, at this point, I'm worried. I half joke to the co-healer over Linkshell 'inb4 kick' but I'm genuinely worried that I'm going to be vote kicked at this point for poor performance. Another set of ship jumpers happen though luckily, all tanks stayed. After replenishing our numbers we try again. My co-healer and I end up being forced to constantly back-and-forth rez each other. I kid you not, we were basically shuffling who was alive back and forth. We ended up wiping. At some point, my co-healer also got marked.

I decide to take a look at my gear and notice that its status had dropped from 100% down to 58-66% by that point. While my co-healer and I were talking about it over Linkshell, Tank mentions that his gear also drops. I think we all bonded over that. Probably not.

Anyways, third run of Hashmal is a bit of show as well. We're doing better but close to the end, Alliance A is nearly all dead. I try to LB3 and get one-shot during cast. Despite being in Alliance A, I somehow ended up in Alliance C's section of that trifurcated field. Hashmal ends up eventually going down though, I personally felt like I didn't earn that victory.

Fortunately, the rest of the raid is mostly uneventful. Aside from me going full excitement over the scenery and the bosses, the madness had subsided and we cleared without much incident. Despite feeling that my performance was subpar and expecting no comms, I did get a comm. I think it was from the summoner I rezzed multiple times. Whoever it was, it was a nice gesture. Perked up my mood after all the disasters I felt like I played a decent part in.

But, the marker over my head never disappeared in the end.

Moral of the story...umm...lighten up a bit? I don't know.

[Miniut]

Moral of the story...umm...lighten up a bit? I don't know.

You're a brave soul going into the 24 mans blind this far into the expansion. You're playing a crucially important role, and it's very likely you'll have a similar experience if you approach the next 24 man raid the same way, regardless of possible DC's/framerate drops. Just my tidbit.

[Kaoru_Nagisa]

Like I have done with every 24-man, I ran it blind. Instincts and logic were generally enough for me to figure out mechanics, so it was what I ended up going with as usual.

While I myself also usually need to be actively doing stuff to "get it", I still try to watch or at least read a guide on the content I am doing - if said content is months old by the point I pick it up. There is really no excuse for a vital role like a healer to be going into something 100% completely blind without even having mechanics explained beforehand by your friend/the Alliance itself. It ends up being a detriment to the group as a whole. ( Please note: it was bad on the Alliance to not explain mechanics in some way too, as I'm sure the newbie bonus popped up to alert for fresh faces. )

I understand the desire to learn as you go. Believe me, I do. But you do not have that luxury on a vital role like a healer or tank. Learning as you go and learning through deaths will end up with the entire group being dragged down. In the future, I really recommend just taking a few minutes to watch ( or read, if you don't wanna "see" the raid before doing it ) a guide on Ridorana/whatever other old raid you do before entering it. It will save you and your party a lot of grief.

[Jonnykit]

I remember the day that Rabanastre came out and Hashmal was by far the toughest fight in that 24-man in my opinion. I died multiple times when he jumped away and dashed through the arena. I never noticed that one of his arms was on fire and you had to be on the side that wasn't til someone pointed out to me.

[Hestzhyen]

While I myself also usually need to be actively doing stuff to "get it", I still try to watch or at least read a guide on the content I am doing - if said content is months old by the point I pick it up. There is really no excuse for a vital role like a healer to be going into something 100% completely blind without even having mechanics explained beforehand by your friend/the Alliance itself. It ends up being a detriment to the group as a whole. ( Please note: it was bad on the Alliance to not explain mechanics in some way too, as I'm sure the newbie bonus popped up to alert for fresh faces. )

I understand the desire to learn as you go. Believe me, I do. But you do not have that luxury on a vital role like a healer or tank. Learning as you go and learning through deaths will end up with the entire group being dragged down. In the future, I really recommend just taking a few minutes to watch ( or read, if you don't wanna "see" the raid before doing it ) a guide on Ridorana/whatever other old raid you do before entering it. It will save you and your party a lot of grief.

You absolutely have the opportunity to go in blind on any role in a 24-man. Going in with that large a group affords a lot of redundancy beyond even having a co-healer to rely on.

The expectation that someone watch videos before doing any content if they happen to be behind the curve for whatever reason is pretty absurd. If we're talking about a person applying to a raid group that wants a certain level of performance that's one thing. But in a 24 man, the other experienced players can absolutely pick up and help out a new person by this point. I help out and pick up the slack for other alliances when I join as RDM/healer so we can all try to clear. It's a group effort not a test to see who's the weakest link so they can be booted. And at this point in Rabanastre having dead healers does not mean the end of the run if the other alliances are in good condition. If everyone's dropping like flies then everyone needs to step up. Hiss13 and their friend sound like they weren't the cause of the wiping all by themselves in those situations.

Personally I don't learn much at all except by doing. If you demand that I read a guide/watch a video before doing something, you won't be able to tell if I did or not since things won't click for me until I see it for myself. I will be able to recite back to you the moves and what to look out for but knowing and doing are totally different.

[MoroMurasaki]

You absolutely have the opportunity to go in blind on any role in a 24-man. Going in with that large a group affords a lot of redundancy beyond even having a co-healer to rely on.

Given some of the 24man runs I've seen lately I would have to disagree.

I know when I'm on a healer and we're still unable to salvage a fight that there are a lot of people just not doing their jobs. The idea of a brand new healer being in my place for some of these is even more laughable. I've done Rabanastre enough that I could likely do Hashmal in my sleep but sometimes you find yourself in there with 20+ people who (despite their clears) have no business being there without a bonus.

I just think preparing yourself as best you can when entering new content is the responsible thing to do. If you do things in the first few weeks after patch by all means go in blind but once you've got things like mizteq guides out if you don't watch them that's a choice you made to give your party less of a fighting chance especially as a tank and even more so as a healer.

I agree with Kaoru, the alliances should have had more patience and explained mechanics... but also part of me feels that they shouldn't be in that position for a raid that's 6 months old. Google is a thing.

[kupokage]

The two PF unsync'd A12 NM runs in two different days both went like this:

*after add phase*

Tanks: "Rip. No LB3. Lol."
Healers: *sits with thumb up asses*

*no Tank uses LB2 and no healer mitigates*

*wipes*

Me: How about we LB2 and mitigate next time. Passage, succor, etc. Something.

Tanks/Healers: Oh. Right. *laughs nervously*

Siiiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhhh

[Frizze]

my first Rabanastre run.

Back when this was a fresh raid it wasnt uncommon to see 2 or 3(sometimes more) wipes to Hashbrowns from a "normal" DF group before everyone got it together. Made you(or me anyway) really appreciate when you would wind up in a "good" group and could just sail through. I think only the tower-fall attack of his is an instant death(i dont think the charge kills, its the DoT it leaves that finishes you off), but he has multiple moves that hit hard enough to kill a non-tank in 2 or 3 hits, and they usually come either several at once, or back to back. The sort of fight where completing the dodge probly means a more then a slight loss in DPS from delaying your rotation. Though if you let him hang around too long it gets incredibly rough.

And i also get wanting to do these fights blind. I make it a point to run all my non-ex/savage encounters blind the first time through(then looking to a guide after to see what i missed). Of course, im also up to date on content so im running them on the first day or two after they get patched in(morning of if i have the day off work). And Miniut and the others are right, that youll probly have a rough first run of the lighthouse if you go blind. But ill stop short of telling you not to do it. The fight is 3 months old, and ive been in a group explaining the more confusing mechanics as recently as this week to newer people who didnt get it. The last group was actually very happy to explain to the new guy what he didnt get, as it showed he wanted to learn(probly didnt hurt that we one shotted each boss, but we were typing mechanics mid fight as everything was going fairly smooth). Almost wrote up the story to post here(short version - new guy died alot and then asked questions to understand things, everyone answered helpfully and offered him encouragement for asking... its a nice story, but i wasnt quite compelled enough to write it up for real). Really, for lighthouse each boss has basically one move that trips people up and if you figure out(or ask) those you should be golden.

My own opinion of course but id say ewer(the one after tsunami where he spins it), tethers, computation, and lysis are the 4 moves. Am i wrong about this? Anyones experience tell them that a different/additional move is causing a lot of grief?

So im in the "research suggested but not required" camp* i guess.

*Again, this doesnt apply to anything at extreme/savage difficulty or higher. For those fights read/watch a guide unless youre doing it with a set group who all agree to go in blind and learn the fight together.

[KaivaC]

Here we go again. If people are trying to convince me to quit, they're doing a damn good job at pushing me towards that direction. I've had more friendly experiences in Anemos than I've had in the DF lately.

Went into the normal raid roulette and got Exdeath. First phase went fine. Everything was all good, until the next phase after he knocks off the wall barriers. Vacuum wave came up, and being on BLM for this, I popped Surecast. Next thing you know, we lost our main tank and both healers. I see the RDM is about halfway on his mana so I mana shifted him thinking that he'll rez since he's the only one that can.

But nothing. We wipe.

On the restart, the RDM asks me why I didn't rez. I told him I can't rez, and he proceeded to explain to me to look in my role actions and set resurrection. I said to him again that BLM didn't have a rez.

One of the healers told him the same thing. RDM said that they can't play with a caster that can't rez, and I was kicked shortly after that.