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

[Frizze]

Another fight that badly needed an enrage at launch was Math Blaster from Ridorana. I vividly remember a twenty minute ordeal one time I happened to queue for it where 5 people basically kept the entire alliance going. They stayed alive, whittling down the boss and trying to rez whenever they had a spare moment to do so, and were generally the heros of that instance. Yet predictably because the fight was still ongoing in spite of everything, the people who died due to a lack of understand with the mechanics would inevitably die seconds after being rezz'd out of sheer and understandable panic. Healer LB3? Useless when everyone dies seconds later because they're running around like headless chickens. Yes the boss eventually went down, but it would have been infinitely faster and kinder to the newbies had an enrage forced the instance to reset so those who were struggling could have some time to digest what they saw.

My first run of Ridoranna featured one of these 20+ minute monstrosities. It was maybe night 2 of the patch and i went in blind(i always do for less then ex level content). I was doing fine on most of my dodging. Dispose caught me off guard, but the group was doing fine. I messed up the math portion(i didnt realize standing in the circles added to your hp), and most of my alliance didnt survive tartarus(we killed the add but most of us werent close enough to the exit to get out in time). The first high speed dispose caught half of the alliance. From this point on there were rarely more then 6-8 people standing. The healers would get people up, but often they were knocked back down shortly thereafter. So sitting there dead on the ground i paid attention and observed the attacks and how they were dodged. I was down for almost 10 straight minutes, but by the time a res finally found me(i had died in a corner to one of the room wide attacks) i knew the patterns. I was able to dodge all the attacks, and would stay up until i died to a roomwide(neither healer in my party had figured it out yet). By this point the healers left standing were prioritizing raises to the people who didnt instantly die, so i got bumped up the list a bit and was mostly alive for the last few minutes of the fight. So why do i relive this memory? To affirm that this happened to other people, and to point out that at least one person learned the second half of the fight while lying in a pool of blood(math i figured out some other way). But a reset and start over(with maybe a mechanic explanation) might very well have been faster then those few people dragging the rest of us through. Of course, theres no guarantee that anyone would have learned their lesson and the second pull could have been just as rough.

[Aosha]

Weeelllll then.
Leveling roulette, Castrum Abania. Scholar.
Red Mage in level 70 stuff, doing fine.
Dragoon in mostly unenhanced Shire gear, but doing ok otherwise.
Dark Knight in... mostly Augmented Hellfire. And some other pieces of higher levels (mostly ~255-260, a couple things above 270).
This was kind of a horror to heal. Half or more of the DRK's HP would be gone with any tank buster, and enmity was all over the place. He was playing ok, but the gear really made it a not fun experience.
The last boss had just gotten an upgrade before we killed it. Considering it was already doing ~80% of the tank's HP (with Adlo on) with a buster, plus applying a dot, AND a vulnerability, I really am glad it died right there... I'm not sure the poor lizardman could have survived more.
We got through deathless in about 30 minutes, but wow that was stressful. My butt clenching pressure probably could have produced diamonds if I had some coal.

[Ghishlain]

It feels good when you Alliance DR into World of Darkness on PLD and:

1. You get to the final boss
2. Half the raid ends up dying because a meteor exploded after first cloud phase
3. Get to second cloud phase, where there isn't enough people to kill clouds will doing meteor mechanics
4. Raid buster kills everyone but me, as a PLD, because I literally popped every CD I had available to survive
5. Finish killing final boss with the help of DoTs applied by the raid who was at sub 1% when the raid buster went out

This happened like a week and a half ago so it's a bit of a late story but I am proud to have finished that fight like that.

[Lilseph]

Weeelllll then.
Leveling roulette, Castrum Abania. Scholar.
Red Mage in level 70 stuff, doing fine.
Dragoon in mostly unenhanced Shire gear, but doing ok otherwise.
Dark Knight in... mostly Augmented Hellfire. And some other pieces of higher levels (mostly ~255-260, a couple things above 270).
This was kind of a horror to heal. Half or more of the DRK's HP would be gone with any tank buster, and enmity was all over the place. He was playing ok, but the gear really made it a not fun experience.
The last boss had just gotten an upgrade before we killed it. Considering it was already doing ~80% of the tank's HP (with Adlo on) with a buster, plus applying a dot, AND a vulnerability, I really am glad it died right there... I'm not sure the poor lizardman could have survived more.
We got through deathless in about 30 minutes, but wow that was stressful. My butt clenching pressure probably could have produced diamonds if I had some coal.

These bosses' busters are scary and deadly, even for well geared tanks. Thank goodness they didn't decide to drop their tank stance, otherwise these boss would make a stew with the tank as the main ingredient.

[Ursa_Vonfiebryd]

Ahh. My bad. I always assumed Enrage was where the boss suddenly becomes the ass-hander specifically. The one for Deathgaze seems so...passive. I don't know why he seems to be the hardest boss too. Like seriously more wipes happen on him than on any of the others and hes so freaking easy it makes me rage everytime I get that duty.

In any case I'm still glad theres no enrages in Orbonne. People can barely do the most basic mechanics there (or in any of the 24 mans really) for that to do anything other than make it even more of a chore. I get where you're coming from, because yeah it'd make people put the heat on but like someone said, that'd pretty much end up punishing other people who are doing the best with what Duty Finder deigned to give them.

[HyoMinPark]

Been on my alt the last two days—started on the 3.x MSQ, and got to 3.3 (best patch, btw ) before I decided I wanted to do the Warring Triad storyline. I’d already done BisEx and RavEx before, so I picked up with Sephirot and my favorite waifu Sophia—those went smoothly and uneventfully; the only thing they brought was nostalgia from when I had done the fights originally (I really liked the Warring Triad fights).

But I knew when I queued into Containment Bay Z1T9 that stuff was going to hit the fan.
After all, it always did back in HW.
And I was not disappointed.


First mechanic with the pizza slices that fall away: 2 DPS immediately die. A MNK and a DRG (go figure on the second one—at least he was just fulfilling his lolDRG duties). I raised the MNK and waited to for the other healer to raise the DRG. My co-healer, who was new to the fight, didn’t raise them. So, I popped Lightspeed and raised them as soon as we fell down to the bottom platform. Okay... maybe she wasn’t aware that they were laying there dead for the first 15% of the fight but okay...

Soar comes up. Of course, 2 people die (they had stacked the fireballs on top of one another); I wasn’t shocked by that. No one died to the first stack though, so I was pleasantly surprised by that. And things were smooth up until right before the add phase, where another DPS died (I think they ate Wave Cannon). Co-healer wouldn’t Raise them, so I did despite sitting at below half MP with Lucid still on cooldown. Adds come up, no big deal there (other than the tanks getting trucked, but those Wills do hit really hard, so no big).

We go into Phase 3. I’m waiting for Broken Seal, because I know something bad is going to happen. And, sure enough, every Broken Seal we had, we failed (we had 3 of them, and killed him before he was about to do a fourth one). When Soar comes up again, my co-healer dies because she had the stack, and she didn’t move to the middle where everyone else was already running. I guess she expected us to all come to her. I Raise her. She dies again to Biting Halberd. So I Raise her again. At this point, I’m dying for MP (we had a BLM and a RDM—no Mana Shifts, btw). I notice that she’s sitting on nearly full MP, but she won’t help with any of the raising. So I fumed over that.

The PLD dies to the buster—I raise him. The WAR takes over.

For the second Broken Seal, half the party died—I think they were low on health from the DoT ticks, but I was trying to heal them up with Helios when I could (where was MEDICA II?!?!?!). It was literally me, the tanks, and the DRG, who then LB’d because we don’t need to use Healer LB3 when half the party is dead. They get animation locked in Southern Cross and bite the dust. Co-healer died again to the donut AOE he does right after Broken Seal, and I just couldn’t afford to Raise them yet. So until the next Broken Seal, it was just me and the two tanks. When the WAR died to the buster (I had no MP to raise and none to heal), I did my best to keep the PLD alive with my baby Benefics and clutch Essential Dignities (I miss my Earthly Star and Lady of Crowns ; ^; ) until I could get Lucid off and LS+Raise the other healer.

Broken Seal happens again, and I shield myself and the MT. We live. Co-healer dies because she never healed herself after I raised her—all she did was Raise the WAR (hey, at least she finally raised someone, right?!?!?!). I raise her again even though it used up all my mana because I NEED HELP WITH THE HEALING. PLD dies to the buster. WAR picks up Zurvan, and dies to the next Broken Seal explosion because I couldn’t keep up, and my co-healer was just not healing. Before it went off, I got a LS+Raise off on the PLD, and prayed that the other healer lived in the event I died (I had 3 vuln stacks from the failed Broken Seals so I was expecting not to live—I didn’t die though; she did). The PLD Provoke’s Zurvan off of me, and the fight ends with me and the PLD duo-ing him down that last sliver of HP. I ended the fight with about 600 MP left and the PLD was at like 20% HP.



I was glad to see that Zurvan still wrecks people’s days.
That fight will never not be a meme.

“Suffer in endless torment.”
Indeed.

[shiroxkatsuya]

Weeelllll then.
Leveling roulette, Castrum Abania. Scholar.
Red Mage in level 70 stuff, doing fine.
Dragoon in mostly unenhanced Shire gear, but doing ok otherwise.
Dark Knight in... mostly Augmented Hellfire. And some other pieces of higher levels (mostly ~255-260, a couple things above 270).
This was kind of a horror to heal. Half or more of the DRK's HP would be gone with any tank buster, and enmity was all over the place. He was playing ok, but the gear really made it a not fun experience.
The last boss had just gotten an upgrade before we killed it. Considering it was already doing ~80% of the tank's HP (with Adlo on) with a buster, plus applying a dot, AND a vulnerability, I really am glad it died right there... I'm not sure the poor lizardman could have survived more.
We got through deathless in about 30 minutes, but wow that was stressful. My butt clenching pressure probably could have produced diamonds if I had some coal.

And this here is a perfect example of why at the very least HW and above leveling dungeons need minimum ilvls. The 69 dungeon rips through synched 70 tanks, much less a super undergeared 69 tank. Edit: Also @Hyomin. That was a bloody amazing Zurv tale. Brings back memories. One of my biggest disappointments in SB is the lack of meme worthy ex primals. Where as in HW we had thord ex, sephirot, nid ex, and zurvan.

[Liam_Harper]

And this here is a perfect example of why at the very least HW and above leveling dungeons need minimum ilvls. The 69 dungeon rips through synched 70 tanks, much less a super undergeared 69 tank

All of them need a minimum ilv.

I reached lv70 recently on a WAR that I had leveled purely through PotD and HoH. I couldn't help noticing that even with 4ilv and no job quests done since lv30... I could queue as tank into Lakshimi or Castrum Abania if I wanted to. The game would do nothing to stop me. Why Enix decided that was for the best is beyond me.

[Anselmet]

I was glad to see that Zurvan still wrecks people’s days.
That fight will never not be a meme.

“Suffer in endless torment.”
Indeed.

This gave me stress just reading it. Zurvan is a mean, mean monster...

[Aosha]

I wish people would communicate more.
Level roulette threw me into Tam-Tara.
Had a full team of first-timer sprouts: archer, lancer and gladiator.
The gladiator's battle plan was run in, Flash once, Riot Blade spam, Shield Bash randomly. Now, this is usually bot behaviour (aside from SB), but I'd say this guy very clearly wasn't a bot. He actually threw out a greeting at the start of the dungeon, and had that uncertain wobbly movement you only get from a nervous new player (and just generally didn't follow the pathing that a bot would, as far as I've seen and can imagine).
I tried to give him some pointers along the way, but sadly he apparently wasn't reading chat. I really wanted to help, as he was clearly trying, bless his heart, but he just didn't quite know how.
I wish all 3 sprouts happy adventuring, and hope the gladiator picks up on tanking before he gets in over his head.