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

[Cincierta]

In Stone Vigil a BRD has Mages Ballad and Armys Paoen, but no WM/pitch perfect, nor Rain of Death (that's lvl 45).

It's wrong to not use them, sure, but in such a low dungeon, he only lost bloodletter procs and the increased speed of AP.

That BRD just didn't use Quick Nock obviously.

What made this more excruciating was that not only did he have Tactican and Refresh at that level and never used them once (both the war tank and me on whm could have used them) but they never bothered to use Foe Requiem and Quick Nock. Both of the crit songs you get only have a 30 sec uptime and 80 sec cooldown, meaning he could have easily used them throughout the dungeon instead of me having to remind them.

My brain is still melted from that bard.

[Heliantheae]

Just had co-tank in Tsukuyomi that gave me a headache. There were a couple of new people, so there were a few missteps here and there. But this tank. He was in Shield, so I let him MT. A couple of people died to the Moon Phases so the healers were busy picking up the DPS. Torment unto Death happens and of course, there's SAM right next to the tank and he dies too. And this tank didn't mitigate or anything and he's setting there at really low health. I throw him a Clemancy. Fight goes on. Another Torment unto Death. Again he just eats it. and he was almost full too and dies. I pick up Tsukuyomi. I'm still in Sword. Not having in problems with aggro, so stick with it. Torment unto Death, pop Shelltron, everything's fine. The other PLD gets up. Notice he's still in Shield and starts spamming Rage of Halone. I let him grab it back and just to be safe after he has aggro, I shirk him. Then I have no idea what happened. He cannot hold the boss still. He killed this one healer twice and this monk once and the samurai again. The fight ended with just us standing. The healer he killed twice called it mess.

Then I go onto raid roulette. Get in 8m in progress. And of course it's O12. Five of the people are new, including the other tank. So to the tank who abandoned these new people, good riddance. This new tank made a couple of mistakes, it's fine he's new and learning the fight. But he's 70 and he and that other tank had something in common though. I just want to say something to my other PLDs. And this is coming from someone who mostly heals. We have Clemancy, we have Shelltron, we have Hallowed. If you see the healers are busy picking up people, please do them and the rest of the party a favor and take care of yourself. There's all these mitigation tools that just go to waste. You want to set in Shield because you're not comfortable in Sword, that's fine while you're learning. But use your toolkit. There's all these things to keep you alive. And if you see your co-tank holding aggro. Do not rush in spamming Rage of Halone combo. A surprise tank swap throws the entire party off.

[xkazh]

I enjoy getting Xelphatol for 50/60 Roulette cus I always stop off and pet the shaggy stoats. I got a group today who hadn't really stopped to see them before (one newbie, the healer used dps'd). Our tank lost aggro at the 2nd boss to me and I died thanks to refresh/tact being on cooldown, but it was all fine. We had a good laugh, it was a really fun party \o/ our newbie dragoon also didn't use the shortcut and ran all the way to catch up (bless) but said he saw the piggies on the way through!

[ChaseNetwork]

I enjoy getting Xelphatol for 50/60 Roulette cus I always stop off and pet the shaggy stoats. I got a group today who hadn't really stopped to see them before (one newbie, the healer used dps'd). Our tank lost aggro at the 2nd boss to me and I died thanks to refresh/tact being on cooldown, but it was all fine. We had a good laugh, it was a really fun party \o/ our newbie dragoon also didn't use the shortcut and ran all the way to catch up (bless) but said he saw the piggies on the way through!

Maybe the Dragoon has PTSD from the MSQ Roulette Dungeons, who's shortcuts can often send you backwards. xD

[AxHell]

Queud in O 12 as a PLD with Sword Oath on cause I didn't feel like MT-ing (but will if need be).

My co tank who is also a PLD was new and put on Sword Oath. So I put on Shield Oath...he does so too.

Hence begins a series of both of us switching between both stances. And surprisingly, everyone else and the co-tank had a good laugh. So did I because seeing each other trying to have the "last word" was pretty fun.

And then my co-tank died. But he then performed pretty well

[HyoMinPark]

Sadly, I don’t have a really good story this time around.

Been leveling up my alt the last few days, working through Heavensward, and I decided to unlock and level RDM a bit because AST is almost level 59 and I’m on level 54 MSQ. So I run my roulettes, but I’m just shy of 53, so I queue into Dusk Vigil.

I really cannot stress this enough: if you buy a jump potion, and jump a job—any job, but especially a core job like tank or healer—please, for the sake of all that is holy, read a guide or at least your tooltips before you jump into content. We had a DRK that had clearly jump potioned (full i260 Shire with one i245 Fillibuster ring), and it took him until the first boss to turn Grit on, despite everyone asking, me dying twice from tanking, and the SAM dying once from tanking. The healer and I tried to advise him to Unleash on trash pulls, which he did—but only once. So aggro was still bouncing all over the place. I’ve actually never ran an entire dungeon with Diversion AND Lucid NOT on cooldown.

It took us 30 minutes to reach the last boss because the SAM and I tanked more than the tank did, and the healer had to babysit us as a result instead of DPSing (when they weren’t trying to keep the tank alive because what are cooldowns—he used one cooldown the entire time: AWARENESS).

Again, I really cannot stress this enough: PLEASE READ YOUR TOOLTIPS AND/OR A BASIC GUIDE IF YOU JUMP A JOB BEFORE YOU RUN CONTENT ON IT.

I generally have more patience, but today I am a bit tired and lacking in that department.

[MetalSnakeXI1]

Ok this isn't necessarily a story but it's not something that deserves it's own thread either and it's a mechanic im struggling with.

So today I made it to God Kefka for the first time...then come Forsaken 1.

After a few wipes I managed to get a grasp on how to handle the skulls as a DPS but then comes Wings of Destruction

Apparently it targets the two players closest and furthest from Kefka but it's a bit confusing to grasp and I feel so stupid cuz I caused my party to wipe 3 times during our practice run as one player not being in the correct melee distance from kefka will cause the entire party to die

I didn't wanna subject the party to my incompetence in this phase so I had to leave and go study the fight thoroughly before my next attempt tomorrow.

what's the best way to handle Wings of Destruction if the cast happened to start before you exploded your skull?

[HyoMinPark]

what's the best way to handle Wings of Destruction if the cast happened to start before you exploded your skull?

When first Forsaken hits, all DPS should already be pre-positioned to soak their tower depending on what strat you’re doing (I believe cross-strat was the most common with skulls, but I could be wrong as it’s been a while).

After your assigned tower pops, you should wait for a bit of top-off from your healers before popping your skull (which they should be casting AOE heals/shields as soon as your Incurable debuff falls off since Heartless Archangel drops you to 1 HP), and then immediately move behind the boss at max melee so that the tanks can properly handle Wings of Destruction. It helps for tanks to place a waymarker at mex melee for all DPS to stack on, but it isn’t necessary—just look for Godka’s toga’d butt.

If you are waiting too long to pop your skull, you shouldn’t be—you only need to wait for a slight top-off/shield after your Incurable falls off, which the healers should be doing ASAP (Incurable only lasts for a couple seconds if they had you topped for Heartless Archangel, and their heal should be timed to hit you right after it falls off). If you are waiting due to lack of heals, that is the fault of the healer for not being quick enough to heal the party, because you do have to be healed to soak your skull. If you are waiting because you have the 12-second Incurable, that is the fault of the healer for not topping you to full before Heartless Archangel casted, and all you can do at that point is either have another party member soak it for you (like a tank or healer—the DPS cannot take more than one skull as it gives you a brief Magic Vuln) or sac yourself rather than cause issues with the Wings of Destruction mechanic.

It sounds as if you are hesitating to pop your skull, because normally by the time he begins to cast, the party should be all gathered on his butt. But it has been a while since I was in O8S, so perhaps the mechanic happens a tad faster than I remember. Biggest thing you can do is pop your skull the minute you receive heals from your healers. Holding Second Wind to help top you up is something I used to do for Forsaken.

[MetalSnakeXI1]

When first Forsaken hits, all DPS should already be pre-positioned to soak their tower depending on what strat you’re doing (I believe cross-strat was the most common with skulls, but I could be wrong as it’s been a while).

After your assigned tower pops, you should wait for a bit of top-off from your healers before popping your skull (which they should be casting AOE heals/shields as soon as your Incurable debuff falls off since Heartless Archangel drops you to 1 HP), and then immediately move behind the boss at max melee so that the tanks can properly handle Wings of Destruction. It helps for tanks to place a waymarker at mex melee for all DPS to stack on, but it isn’t necessary—just look for Godka’s toga’d butt.

If you are waiting too long to pop your skull, you shouldn’t be—you only need to wait for a slight top-off/shield after your Incurable falls off, which the healers should be doing ASAP (Incurable only lasts for a couple seconds if they had you topped for Heartless Archangel, and their heal should be timed to hit you right after it falls off). If you are waiting due to lack of heals, that is the fault of the healer for not being quick enough to heal the party, because you do have to be healed to soak your skull. If you are waiting because you have the 12-second Incurable, that is the fault of the healer for not topping you to full before Heartless Archangel casted, and all you can do at that point is either have another party member soak it for you (like a tank or healer—the DPS cannot take more than one skull as it gives you a brief Magic Vuln) or sac yourself rather than cause issues with the Wings of Destruction mechanic.

It sounds as if you are hesitating to pop your skull, because normally by the time he begins to cast, the party should be all gathered on his butt. But it has been a while since I was in O8S, so perhaps the mechanic happens a tad faster than I remember. Biggest thing you can do is pop your skull the minute you receive heals from your healers. Holding Second Wind to help top you up is something I used to do for Forsaken.

Thanks a ton Hyomin ^_^

Well in some cases I wasn't topped off so the incurable i got was the 12 seconds one....but in some cases where i came back to the party just in time the wings hit us and all but the MT died....maybe because by the time I got to max melee distance the cast still counted me as closer in distance to Kefka than the MT?

This will take me a while cuz the fight seems a lot harder than neo exdeath if only because the punishment for positional mistakes is much higher than that of Neo's mechanics

[HyoMinPark]

Thanks a ton Hyomin ^_^

Well in some cases I wasn't topped off so the incurable i got was the 12 seconds one....but in some cases where i came back to the party just in time the wings hit us and all but the MT died....maybe because by the time I got to max melee distance the cast still counted me as closer in distance to Kefka than the MT?

This will take me a while cuz the fight seems a lot harder than neo exdeath if only because the punishment for positional mistakes is much higher than that of Neo's mechanics

Np ^^

Wings of Destruction will always hit the MT (as the “closest player”) and whomever is furthest out (which should be the OT). When the MT was still alive, it’s possible that yourself or another player were too close to Godka, and it chose you or them as “the closest player”; OR, the OT did not run out, so it chose the party instead as the “furthest player”. There are several ways that mechanic can go wrong.

Since you’re saying the MT was the only one left alive a few times, I’m willing to bet that the OT didn’t run out fast enough or far enough, and the party took the hit instead. Assuming everyone else was adequately max melee.