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

[Liam_Harper]

Spent all day trying to get an e6s weekly with a procession of wipefests, co-healers who got hit by everything and were allergic to using raise, "mistake = kick" groups that made 20 mistakes in 3 runs. Usual PF.

Finally find a good group today ...and I die twice first run and wipe the group after being flawless on mechanics all day before. My rule on farm runs is 2 mistakes I self-boot for fairness, and I saw they cleared first time right after with a better WhM so I'm glad I did, but frustrating nonetheless. Still a good learning experience. Back to the grind

[Kakiko]

Just got out of a >30 min run of floors 51-60 of potd on Chaos.
I'm leveling white mage but right now it's still conjurer because these early levels after you've done the MSQ are brutal. Up until now, it's not been an issue.

Queue in and get a MAR, WHM, and PUG. I know it's going to go slightly slower than usual and that's fine.

First room, tank pulls *everything* they can. I DoT but within about 3 ticks, I've got aggro. Tank does take it back, but it keeps going between me and them. We slowly clear that floor. I heal the party as best I can with my Cure 1 (wee).

The next couple of floors were uneventful but slow. Tank was still aggroing everything he could and by now I'd simply decided it was safer for me to avoid targeting anything because even with Steel on, I was taking a fair chunk of damage.

Then the tank and party run ahead of me into a room (no big deal) but on the way there, I triggered a trap. Luckily I only got 3 gremlins. Thinking the party would turn and help, I kept them in the hallway only to see the party engaged in the 4 mobs the tank pulled. Okay. Rather than risk a wipe, I kited my 3 gremlins around the hallway while DoTing them as I could, healing myself when I could, and throwing stones when I could. After about 3 minutes, I managed to kill the last one and saw the party standing there watching me. Thanks for the help, guys.

The next floor, I popped a pom of Raising which was fortunate because again I stupidly hit a trap (no one was opening gold chests except me so our poms were in short supply and I never did find a Safety or Sight) and once again the tank had run ahead to engage a pack while I had about 5 of them on me. Again, rather than risking a party wipe, I took the trap pack back out into the room and waited until I was almost dead, then ran into the hallway where I died. Pack de-aggro'd, I was raised from the pomander, and was met with a "gj" from the tank. Hrm.

The next floor, I ran ahead because the tank was just walking around the room. I saw one room was a deadend, so I turned around and went to come back only to see the tank Leroy Jenkins in and grab all the mobs in the room I was heading back into. No pomander of raising. Healer doing nothing but healing the tank. So I stood back and watched for a second. If I healed any of them or Dotted anything, I'd have been put on the aggro table and by the looks of things the party WAS going to die and since this was floor 56? at this point I really didn't want to wipe.

That's where this conversation started:

[10:18](Kiko Hakoda) if you die, they deaggro and I can raise you
[10:18](Tank) if you exit i be heppy
[10:18](Kiko Hakoda) you have a maurader and a conjurer
[10:19](Kiko Hakoda) pulling too big leads to wipes
[10:19](Kiko Hakoda) that's why I died earlier
[10:19](Kiko Hakoda) used pom of raiding, lead mobs out.. die
[10:20](Kiko Hakoda) I only have Cure 1 and Stone 1 and Aero 1. I can't do much damage, so if I hit anything you are hitting, and you all die.. I die too and we wipe.
[10:20](Kiko Hakoda) lol ok
[10:20](Kiko Hakoda) not gonna participate tank? (He refused my raise and only took the WHM raise; I know this because she raised him about 45 seconds after I did and when he raised, he went to her. Then he just stood around for 2 min doing nothing)
[10:21](Tank) mb you
[10:21](Kiko Hakoda) hrm?
[10:22](Tank) you dont heal dont dps but only agro mobs
[10:22](Kiko Hakoda) I'm trying not to aggro mobs
[10:22](Tank) whay you play?
[10:22](Kiko Hakoda) You're aggroing everything you see
[10:23](Kiko Hakoda) and I am not healing because then I get on the aggro table
[10:23](Kiko Hakoda) if you die, and the WHM dies and the MNK dies.. then I die and we wipe
[10:23](Tank) you go firts tand and agro mobs
[10:23](Kiko Hakoda) I hit traps
[10:23](Kiko Hakoda) that's not my fault
[10:23](Kiko Hakoda) and also I have been dpsing when there have been few mobs
[10:23](Kiko Hakoda) and I also WAS healing you
[10:24](Kiko Hakoda) but again, I have Cure 1. Small cure. Does barely anything

After this exchange, he tried to MPK me OR he tried to actually do what I was doing by bringing the mobs he pulled into the hallway, I'm unsure which. The remaining floors went slow but without incident. The final boss took 7 minutes to kill and I was OoM most of the way through.

Fun times.

[Packetdancer]

Was it a trade mentor?

Trade mentors often aren't real mentors. I mean, some have the best intentions and help a lot so you always can't judge, I'm a trade mentor myself. But sadly it's just a free ticket to mentorship. The requirements might as well not exist.

Oh, hey, I get to reuse a thing I posted elsewhere!

I like to think good Trade Mentors are... y'know, good Trade Mentors.

I'm a competent player, and more than happy to help sprouts get through stuff, but I'm hardly someone who can reel off optimized rotations for every job from the Balance, or remembers every single mechanic from even single fight from every bit of content, or whatever. I joined the mentor program to help with the stuff I'm really good at explaining (DoH/DoL), hence why I joined as a trade mentor; I'm not setting myself up as a battle mentor because I have no desire to inadvertently add to the reputation of BK crowns if I were to unwittingly give bad advice for a job I'm not familiar with.

(I don't wear the crown on my nameplate regardless, but the trade mentor icon shows on the Novice Network, which I figure shows what I'm predominantly there to help with.)

Sure, I'll pitch in to answer battle-related questions I know the answer to ("Hey, we've wiped on <X> three times and our tank is going to drop party if we wipe a fourth time, is there a trick to getting through this fight?") or jump in to get someone unstuck ("Help, our healer disconnected, can anyone queue a healer for <X> in progress?") but if someone asks for job comparisons or how to be more efficient at a specific job? I leave that to the battle mentors.

In the trade mentor role, though, I've helped sprouts get crafting rotations down—and more to the point, showed them how to figure out their own rotations based on their stats, because blindly copying and pasting macros off the internet ain't an ideal way to craft—helped get a couple of newly-80 DoL/DoH outfitted properly, helped sprouts learn the collectibles system, etc.

If a trade mentor is doing the job right, they're mentoring in tradecraft, and I think there's genuinely a place for that (especially given how many sprouts seem confused by gathering collectibles).

If a trade mentor is trying to mentor in battle stuff... that's not performing the role they (theoretically) became a mentor to do.

[KaleShibata]

I encounter these mentors in the duty finder, it's only natural to discuss them in the duty finder vent thread. Besides I like to complain about mentors, I do it quite often actually.

I'm a mentor now and even I complain about other mentors. its a really silly medium i have going now.

[Cincierta]

To the tank I just had in Darkhold on my alt RDM:

-Please update your gear, having lvl 28-38 gear in a 44 instance makes your hp suck ass when you're mass pulling. Gathering gear does not qualify as tank gear, neither do casting pieces. Also about that 28 aetherial plate belt...
-Please use cooldowns WHEN you actually have the mobs on you, not before you pull. This helps your healer since you get more bang for your buck when you actually have mobs on you.
-Please ask your healer if they can handle big pulls. Saying 'small it is then' when we were nearly done with the dungeon makes you look like an idiot, especially when the rest of the party disagrees with you. Then saying that 'tank decides pace of dungeon' when your healer clearly cannot handle it, you go at the pace that the healer can handle.
-Please use your aggro aoe more than just once per pull. If I'm just using my basic aoe combo as RDM at that level and ripping hate from you near instantly, that's a YOU problem, not a dps and healer problem. Don't accuse others of 'ninja pulling' when you're the one being quite lazy.
-Please stand in the blue light for the first part of the dungeon. This DRAMATICALLY reduces the amount of damage you take from mobs. Then again, you did decide to stand far outside of the light when the ahirman decided to swing by and say 'hi'.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds

Have fun.

[KalinOrthos]

To the tank I just had in Darkhold on my alt RDM:

-Please update your gear, having lvl 28-38 gear in a 44 instance makes your hp suck ass when you're mass pulling. Gathering gear does not qualify as tank gear, neither do casting pieces. Also about that 28 aetherial plate belt...
-Please use cooldowns WHEN you actually have the mobs on you, not before you pull. This helps your healer since you get more bang for your buck when you actually have mobs on you.
-Please ask your healer if they can handle big pulls. Saying 'small it is then' when we were nearly done with the dungeon makes you look like an idiot, especially when the rest of the party disagrees with you. Then saying that 'tank decides pace of dungeon' when your healer clearly cannot handle it, you go at the pace that the healer can handle.
-Please use your aggro aoe more than just once per pull. If I'm just using my basic aoe combo as RDM at that level and ripping hate from you near instantly, that's a YOU problem, not a dps and healer problem. Don't accuse others of 'ninja pulling' when you're the one being quite lazy.
-Please stand in the blue light for the first part of the dungeon. This DRAMATICALLY reduces the amount of damage you take from mobs. Then again, you did decide to stand far outside of the light when the ahirman decided to swing by and say 'hi'.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds

Have fun.

Wait, they have multiple 80s. They have multiple 80 tanks. They should know how to play by now. I don't...I can't...

[Doozer]

I encounter these mentors in the duty finder, it's only natural to discuss them in the duty finder vent thread. Besides I like to complain about mentors, I do it quite often actually.

I wasn't telling you not to tell stories about mentors you find in DF, just to be careful because it doesn't take much for conversations to devolve into arguing. It also happens whenever someone mentions certain types of tanks, what kinds of pulls someone did, elitism, etc. I was just advising to exercise caution when it goes from a vent post to multiple people discussing an element of the game because people here like to fight over stupid stuff. There have been times where I made a simple post in this thread complaining about a bad experience and there was at least like a full page of people trying to argue with me about it. I'm just trying to help.

[Mhaeric]

-Please stand in the blue light for the first part of the dungeon. This DRAMATICALLY reduces the amount of damage you take from mobs. Then again, you did decide to stand far outside of the light when the ahirman decided to swing by and say 'hi'.

Have fun.

Clarification: The blue light only affects the damage the ahriman does and does so extremely well. It does nothing to mitigate the damage any of the other mobs do.

[Cincierta]

Clarification: The blue light only affects the damage the ahriman does and does so extremely well. It does nothing to mitigate the damage any of the other mobs do.

It actually does affect how much damage you take from normal mobs as well. It's why you can do the full pull in the first hallway.

[Doozer]

It actually does affect how much damage you take from normal mobs as well. It's why you can do the full pull in the first hallway.

This is true. It extremely reduces all damage taken by anyone standing in the light, and it's always been that way.

Also, I remembered a story of my own I wanted to post:

Last night I was queued for one last Ivalice raid to get the last tome event item I wanted, and after waiting forever to get in (I did it to myself by queuing at like 3am though), I got into Orbonne. Immediately our DRG complained that they were there again, and after asking if they would prefer Labyrinth of the Ancients, they said they just didn't want to fight Cid again. So that would imply that they were experienced with the raid, right? Super wrong. They screwed up every single mechanic in the entire raid, including the one in the second fight where you pick up the shields and guard from the boss's attack. They would just stand on the circle to get it but they would never use it and just stand there and get hit. I explained in alliance chat that people need to make sure to use the shields and not just pick them up, but then they still did it again. Then we wiped on the adds because our tank, as usual, never wanted to tank. So we go again, and still the DRG doesn't use the shield. So I say in party chat this time to remember to use them. We finished the fight and they never used it once.

I didn't snap at anyone or anything, it's like everyone who needed to hear it just forgot how to read.

Oh and of course every fight was a true battle against our tank and healers, but thankfully my partner was there as a RDM and did a lot of raising. I think one time the WHM actually killed me with an AoE that was chasing them in the Cid fight because I got out of the way, then they ran to hold hands with me and I couldn't get away fast enough. I guess that's what I get for queuing so late/early in the day.