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

[tdb]

I don't recall seeing the skeleton explosions while the dragon is alive. Especially not multiple at once, which is pretty much necessary for a really noticeable HP drop to happen. The skeletons only seem to appear after the dragon is "killed" the first two times. Maybe that's another thing which doesn't really happen anymore after the gear inflation?

Another story. Weeping City of Mhach, i'm tanking on GNB again. During the add phase of Forgath (the second boss), the succubus doesn't get focused fast enough and gets a seduce off. Most of the raid are killed in the following AoEs, but me and the healers of my party miraculously survive. I immediately pick up the boss (B tank had him so far) while the healers go to town with raising people. The first Hell Wind gets me killed because I don't realize what it was and I probably had a dot or something. I get a fast raise and take the boss again from the healer he ran off to. Subsequent Hell Winds do not pose much trouble. Some people were quick to return to start and asked us to wipe it, but we kept going. Might be starting over would have been faster, but damn if coming back from that near-wipe didn't feel good. Mad props to the healers who were able to keep me alive and at the same time raise most of the remaining players across all three parties.

[Ilenya]

Queued for MSQ. I asked if I could be MT since it was my second time in it as a tank. Took a while to activate the first console and died in the second one. How do tanks do these two parts fast and w/o dying XD?

Practice, timing, and luck. I tend to not worry, personally, instead grabbing everything and running backwards so the AoEs don't hit the marker for everyone. No real issue if I die.

[MsMisato]

Can anyone who plays DRK help me out here? Does gear just turn to poo when synced down to that level? Is a level 73 DRK missing out on some vital skills they get later on? Maybe just poor CD usage? I'm also not ruling myself out of the equation here. I may have been in more of my level 80 mindset, although I've never really had problems in that dungeon. But yeah, something was definitely off, and we stuck to single pulls for the rest of the dungeon. D:

Asides from the gear squeaking by on ilvl. were they popping their def. cool downs on the big pools. I noticed with a lot of new players when i play healer for funsies they don't pop any cool downs whatsoever. Something to keep an eye. Some people don't know and its a result of just being carried through for 73/74 levels others simply don't care and will expect you to heal and not dps.

[Morningstar1337]

Okay I decided to heal the Level capped roulettes,and started with 80.

1. Akadmeia: The reason for the title. My all too typcially slow speed prevented me from reaching the tank in time and he thus died. Tanka nd DPS died but the mobs never aggro'dme or the SAM (I moved to the right side of the building and the SAM was between packs,) we tried again but one of the DPS left and then we wiped, the other DSP decided to quit and after a few mins, so did me and the DRK.
2. Twinning: We did much better there (Helps that there was only one pack before the first wall) And I managed to become the competent healer I know I usually am and we cleared.
3. Anamnesis: Things also went smoothly bar a wipe to the last third of trash.

[tdb]

Akadmeia: The reason for the title. My all too typcially slow speed prevented me from reaching the tank in time and he thus died. Tanka nd DPS died but the mobs never aggro'dme or the SAM (I moved to the right side of the building and the SAM was between packs,) we tried again but one of the DPS left and then we wiped, the other DSP decided to quit and after a few mins, so did me and the DRK.

How would an SSD help here though? It should only affect loading times, and no one can leave the start area before everyone has loaded in.

[Ursa_Vonfiebryd]

Okay I decided to heal the Level capped roulettes,and started with 80.

1. Akadmeia: The reason for the title. My all too typcially slow speed prevented me from reaching the tank in time and he thus died. Tanka nd DPS died but the mobs never aggro'dme or the SAM (I moved to the right side of the building and the SAM was between packs,) we tried again but one of the DPS left and then we wiped, the other DSP decided to quit and after a few mins, so did me and the DRK.
2. Twinning: We did much better there (Helps that there was only one pack before the first wall) And I managed to become the competent healer I know I usually am and we cleared.
3. Anamnesis: Things also went smoothly bar a wipe to the last third of trash.

I feel like this is server/internet lag and not something an SSD would fix.

It sounds like you're really talking about character speed. A lot of times tanks will sprint while pulling big mobs to put themselves out of range of their auto attacks. Try to save your sprints for when you see the tank sprinting, so you can get to them in time for those precious heals.

Also you can hit the tank with a shield or Heal Over Time to help keep them up during a sprint pull, before they get too far away from you.

If its more of cast timer issue, try slotting some quicktongue materia to any gear that isnt already maxed in that stat to help get those spells off faster.

If it truly is slow hardware, the SSD might help a little but it sounds like you have multiple issues going on. Maybe just let the party know ahead of time so the tank is more aware of their proximity to you. Not all tanks will care but some will appreciate the heads up and will work with you.

[tdb]

Also you can hit the tank with a shield or Heal Over Time to help keep them up during a sprint pull, before they get too far away from you.

Be aware that a heal over time may get you unwanted aggro if the tank fails to hit some mobs as they run past a pack. I prefer using shields for this reason, and only apply heal over time once we've arrived at the killing spot.

[kelevra13]

Practice, timing, and luck. I tend to not worry, personally, instead grabbing everything and running backwards so the AoEs don't hit the marker for everyone. No real issue if I die.

Oh snap. Forgot to think about the AOEs hitting the others. Thanks for this!

[Ceridwenae]

I would like to make a formal apology for anyone who ran with me and my family last night in some random dungeons courtesy of the DF. The tank (my husband, WAR) got quite drunk, listened to too much Nightwish and decided it was at this point he would make his great and glorious re-entry into the world of tanking after being away from it for something like 6 months or more. The runs were somewhat chaotic, to say the least, but I have been through worse. We did bunny-hop a lot, and I didn't even have the alcohol or Nightwish excuse.

Our daughter (DNC) dutifully informed all our randoms at the start of each duty that the tank was drunk and she was sorry. She did not bunny-hop, btw, she was just embarrassed because teenager. She made a good point of "expressing doubt" with her father regularly. He forgot tank stance a few times which had me screaming at him (I was healing, SCH), but we were steamrolling through nicely if chaotically. Daughter eventually had to go to bed because she's a kid. Her dad was not finished however, so I stayed with him. It's after 1am at this point and although I usually quit using my brain at 11pm, it wouldn't be right to let someone else heal this drunken reprobate who is taking WAR's overpower cone to new dancing heights - he's never, ever done this before quite so... dance-y. If you will. He was still listening to Nightwish and putting lyrics in the chat periodically, so I can only think he was Overpowering and doing other WAR stuff in time with the music only he could hear.

So, still not done, we end up in the Dorkhold. I thought I was just very tired, my heals weren't as punchy as they could be; his health was dire and he needed lots of healing. Eventually, with barely any health left on Batraal, tank hubby just keels over dead, pretty much as he's typing an LB request. I had just healed him, and I'm internally screaming again about how his health had just zipped right back down and now he's dead and I couldn't stop it. One of the DPS LBs and the boss is down. I res the husband and ask him what he thinks he's doing. He has no idea (he's normally quite a decent tank) and I'm like, "you have cooldowns, use them. Thanks. Don't drink 'n' tank next time." He said he had used cooldowns. I went to bed, very tired, and was asleep before he was.

He wakes up this morning with this revelation: "I know what happened last night. All my gear was broken!" Turns out he'd doubled checked after I'd gone to sleep. He apologised. Have no idea why I didn't examine him in the first place, but then I'd normally trust him to take care of that stuff himself because he usually does.

So, again, apologies to anyone we ran with last night if the forays were tedious, or just odd. I shall try to ensure it doesn't happen again. I am just glad I stuck with being his pocket healer for the evening, I really would've hated to put that on anyone else!

[Packetdancer]

Queued for MSQ. I asked if I could be MT since it was my second time in it as a tank. Took a while to activate the first console and died in the second one. How do tanks do these two parts fast and w/o dying XD?

On keyboard, if you have nothing targeted, numpad 0 will (in theory) select the nearest targetable usable object. If you have a usable object targeted, it will use the object. If you have a dialog box up, it will select the default option. Detargeting any mobs and hitting numpad 0 repeatedly should thus target the console, use the console (popping up the 'do you want to teleport' dialog), and pick the default ('yes') option in the dialog.