It Would be Nice If Duty Mechanics are Explained by In-Game Tool-tips

[Eldevern]

There are only a few mechanics that can be really tricky. For my part, the bothering thing is the thunder icone : one fight it is a share, another fight it is a cloud to place... kinda weird when same icone has two meanings.

[Quintessa]

-Brayflox longstop-
Boss Aiatar

Big tool tip window pops up

TOXIC SPIT: PULL AND TANK BOSS ALONG THE PARAMETER OF THE ARENA.

[lolicon09]

Yeah... No. Ever heard about "trial and error"?, because that's exactly how mechanics work

[StriderShinryu]

I can certainly understand what the OP is saying. It's easy to say "just learn by doing it!" or "trial and error!" but when you're running content that's more than a couple hours old there's often an immediate expectation that everyone already knows everything and sometimes there isn't room for "trial and error." Even in the most hardcore content if it's more than a week old there are many people who just don't accept trial and error. Idiots are going to idiot, but Square could do more to ease the learning process.

That said, I'm not really sure a pop up or tool tip is the right way to handle it. Ideally I would like to see a more active tutorial system like an expansion of the Hall of the Novice. They don't need to go over every single mechanic in the game but, as many mechanics are reused throughout the game, they could easily cover the common indicators and markers so that even if you were going into a fight blind you'd have some idea of what's happening before it kills you.

[KageTokage]

There are only a few mechanics that can be really tricky. For my part, the bothering thing is the thunder icone : one fight it is a share, another fight it is a cloud to place... kinda weird when same icone has two meanings.

The inconsistency of markers is something I could consider a valid complaint about encounter design.

Stack AoEs can be indicated by several different markers and not just the obvious "move in" arrows...assuming they're indicated at all and you're not forced to assume that untelegraphed mechanic that killed someone was a stack because of how much damage it did.

They've still been adding new types of markers for existing mechanics types (The pulsing arrow for chasing AOEs and the swirling red "caution" indicator for ranged tank busters springing to mind), so I think it would be nice if they'd go back to older fights and adjust the markers for the sake of consistency.

[Tint]

That said, I'm not really sure a pop up or tool tip is the right way to handle it.

Yeah, we already have content with a pop up wich explains the mechanic: Guildhests. Now try the lvl 40 Guildhest "Ward up" where you have to kill the 5 adds at the same time with your usual random group >.>

[PyurBlue]

I know exactly how you feel. This was also a bit frustrating for me when I was new to the game. Challenge is good, but FF14 felt more random than difficult and it's even worse when you're the only one completely lost in an encounter.

This is how the devs chose to make the game though. I would absolutely prefer less scripted combat, but to my surprise when I did make it to the end, high level content was fun even if the fights were more or less set in stone.

I think it would be a really good improvement for new players if the duties tell you what you are supposed to do. Like the example I just give, if I move my mouse over the debuff, instead of saying something useless like "the power of A color shines on you", it could say "the power of A color shines on you, it will kill you in N seconds, absorb the power of B color to dispel this debuff". This would be very nice and clear!

This might sound good on paper, but practically it might be a lot to do in a short amount of time. I guess as an option it's not going to hurt anything, but the trial and error nature of FF14 is baked into the game. There isn't any way to really get around it unless the devs change how content is designed.

[kaynide]

To the OP with all due respect, it’s kind of the point to go in knowing nothing and having to figure out how to win.

That said, could things be better? Yes. Specific markers are very sloppy pre Heavansward (gather together, run away, etc often just used generic orange/blue with no continuity across fights).

That said, if you play the game you will find certain mechanics introduced either earlier in a previous dungeon as part of a boss or in the case of trials, often the first phase previews different mechanics. The new Eden 2.3 is a great example of this.

In addition, bosses for a new expansion tend to use mechanics from the previous expansion’s raid series (eg. A certain tentacled boss in a certain undead themed flying ship has been reskinned in both a Heavansward dungeon and not one, but two shadowbringers’)

Allllll that said, if you are overly self conscious of dying I highly recommend MTQcapture’s guides for a quick and dirty before going in.

[SamRF]

For normal duties, Tbh I wouldn't mind some kind of ingame guide section that explains mechanics (not during the fight). Would rather read something consistent ingame than look up a guide. Speaking normal duties, I always read a text guide first (dont want video to spoil anything) and then sometimes a video afterwards if I'm still confused about some mechanics. It's just normal mode, I'd rather know what to do beforehand than die as I learn in a random PUG, it makes the fight more immersive too as it's part of story progression first time you do it, and the Warrior of Light ego gets hurt when you're getting carried by a random PUG cause your immersion matters the most first time.

For normal content only, not talking about high-end. However would be handy if it becomes available for the High-End as well as it gets patched out of the High-End section and is no longer relevant gear wise.

[PyurBlue]

To the OP with all due respect, it’s kind of the point to go in knowing nothing and having to figure out how to win.

I don't want to speak for anyone else, but I think that's what everyone wants. Being handed a win with no effort is meaningless, but laying on the floor dead doesn't have to be part of the learning process. Things could be fixed if there were other failure conditions besides death. The problem with FF14 though is that it's an established game with years of content so it's unlikely that that SE will go back and rebuild everything, not to mention that doing so might turn away part of the playerbase.