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

[Cubsbane]

I just had the most awesome Labyrinth of the Ancients run I have ever. I joined post-Shadowbringers, but I really felt like I traveled back in time. This got so lengthy that I'm going to have to double-post, and I apologize, but I would like to tell the full tale.

Roulette as RDM because even though I've already gotten the daily bonus, I just need a liiiittle more exp for the next level and hey it's DPS in need! Why not.

Once we get to the first area, immediately things are a little... off. It takes a moment for the MT to start pulling, and after he does, he seems to give up. A Valefor starts munching on me. No tank provokes. I feel like the real Alisaie Endwalker. I die.

The second area is a bit weird, too, and I wonder if the tanks are having a bad day. Once we get to Bone Dragon, it becomes clear that the MT has never tanked this place before. Or... maybe has never done it at all? Not only does he not move to the middle or the back (yes, the back isn't needed but it's standard on Crystal), he tanks it on one of the first platforms... at an angle that faces everyone. With its butt inaccessible for the most part.

That we make it through mostly in one piece is a testament to the healing. I also saw one person off to the side, smacking a skeleton. Huh, I think, that's weird, that's the old strat, isn't it? Maybe they watched a guide, or are from another data centre? This actually becomes relevant later.

I will spoil you here by saying the majority of the run was chaos. But this part? Walk of Lament, where someone always pulls early, every time? It was so peaceful. Absolutely everyone waited until we were all at our stations before anyone pulled.

Thanatos time. Everyone waits until A is present, so far so good. Except... our tank also might not have ever done this. Because he doesn't put on his tank stance, and I watch the little enmity icon turn to orange. Thanatos slaps the AST around and takes a stroll around the arena. It turns red. He's got me in his sights, he walks over and I see his castbar fill as he lifts his sword. I barely survive as he then goes off to his best friend, the AST. What a philanderer.

Allagan Bomb is pretty normal, at least on my end. There was a moment I feared trouble, but it was just Alliance B's tank being very slightly late to pull. (At least, that's what it looked like, I have no idea what their party chat was like.)

Now, you'll see the other day that I wiped in King Behemoth due to boulders in his hitbox. This did not happen. What did happen is MT held him at a really weird angle while the colossus ran around, smacking boulders. We did not survive this, and I mention in alliance chat that the colossi do destroy the boulders, because I went a long time myself without knowing this.

[Cubsbane]

This is what ties in to the Bone Dragon fight. Someone pipes up that not only does a tank need to pick up adds, but a DPS should be at every tower. Oh. Oh. This must be the one who was hitting the skeleton on the side earlier! An older player familiar with the original mechanics! And they're the only tank I haven't seen be awful or absent.

Our next attempt wipes again because MT really does not understand how to position bosses and adds go around wreaking havoc once more. We are left with no boulders to hide behind. I ask if someone else can MT. The previous person pipes up, "I'll try".

King Behemoth is then tanked at a normal angle, in a normal spot, and we are given instructions to kill all the adds. Adds go down, we hide behind boulders, it's all going great... and then I see "if I MT I need to be healed". They're dead. After a few other people get slapped, I become the MT-- I think both other tanks were alive, too, but I'm not certain-- and I hold my breath. He's casting his meteor, and he dies before I can take any damage. My easiest tanking stint ever.

So how does Phlegethon go? 3 wipes. We wiped 3 times. First, he was tanked towards A— despite the MT not even being from A— and so of course C didn't get back in time. Then the second time, our tank takes charge and tanks where I suggest ("either centre or off-centre towards B", he picked the latter) we died to the second Flare. And then again the third time.

Someone suggests bongos. Another suggestion to watch his cast bar, use focus target, make sure to kill hands, healers use rescue if need be.

Fourth try. First Ancient Flare starts. B's tank is running towards our pad for some reason. He doesn't make it and he lives. He didn't even use Hallowed Ground, he just walked it off with a large chunk of HP gone. This was the tank that kept positioning the bosses weirdly, too. How the hell...

The second Ancient Flare starts. Yelling in chat and— there it is, the danger bongos. The shield goes up; we've done it. I LB Phlegethon because why not, it's what all the cool kids are doing, and then frown as I remember we only have 1 bar filled and nobody will be blinded.

It was kind of fun, honestly. Probably not at all for most of the group, but I was dying for some excitement after so much Syrcus.

Here's what we learned: RDM and AST are Tanks. Bad Paladins are also impervious to death. Bongos are OP.

[ItMe]

I undersized Syrcus Tower with 2 friends (all dps) to see if it would give relic memories (it doesn't).
So we cued for it and boy the alliances were zooming. The lot of us cleared AS FAST as we did undersizing it

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Pretty much. Farming group or no essences. I'm not gonna spend any gil on them. I used up most of my DPS essences doing DR.

I hoard essences in earlier days of Bozja content so I’m happy to have something I feel worthy to spend then for. (Heck, I’m running with too much essences as of now) might as well use them while the content is more crowded for a time being

Well, it's mechanics are fairly brain dead simple, it just requires people to pay attention. About it. Now that's the thing.

P-pay attention!? That’s t-too hard! Nerf please SE!!

/shrug

[Mahoukenshi]

Garuda normal. Tank forgot stance for two minutes into fight, four if you count the following: WHM was using one handed weapon and shield. WHM connected from the bloody First irl. They were also wearing the Brand New Ring. At 46+.

Nobody botheres with the right-side pre-50. It's wasted gil on the MB and quest rewards are generally stingy with right-side gear.

[Dogempire]

Ghimlyt Dark run, I queue in as Gunbreaker and everything seems to be going smoothly for the most part, minus the healer dying a few times during boss fights, minor red flag but nothing too concerning, healer also seems to be having issues keeping the party's health up.

Cue the final boss, we get through both phases and start to get close to the enrage, dps health is low and healer has once again kicked the bucket but our red mage managed to throw them a rez. We hit the final charge mechanic where everyone gets marked up with puddle markers as the bosses charge around the arena one last time. I notice our Dragoon is a bit low so I throw Aurora on them to make sure they survive the puddle.

The bosses start charging around the arena and puddles drop, both the red mage and dragoon survive the puddle drop, and then when I think we'll be fine they both walk face first into boss charges and die, leaving me alone to deal with the enrage mechanic, or so I thought.

Bosses begin casting their enrage, healer raises. Okay, we can somehow pull this off.

Healer then proceeds to waste several GCD's healing me to full through their brink of death debuff, meanwhile in the background I'm facedesking between gcd's as boss health isn't dropping fast enough, and dps are gathering dust on the floor as the healer throws rocks at the boss as a last ditch effort, seemingly unaware of their ability to raise the dead.

We wipe, having killed the first boss and only getting the second to 40%, needless to say I wasn't happy after that. We killed the final boss on the 2nd try, but by that point I just wanted out of the party and left without a word

[VelKallor]

Nobody botheres with the right-side pre-50. It's wasted gil on the MB and quest rewards are generally stingy with right-side gear.

There are not enough words to describe how I feel about the crafted right hand slots 30-50.

Well there ARE..but its a long story. Jokes aside, that IS a major gripe of mine as an omnicrafter, ARR gearing is..haphazard....30-50, once you hit 50 it evens out and is more doable, but before that? Yeah not fun. There are, in some cases, 10 level gaps between upgrades,. ARR gear crafting in that range really needs to be looked at.

BTW why is my main listed as a Red Mage? I've barely used it recently...

[Frizze]

Nobody botheres with the right-side pre-50. It's wasted gil on the MB and quest rewards are generally stingy with right-side gear.

As s self-styled goldsmith, it pains me how true this is. Brand new ring has better stats then anything you can wear until youre around level 40, and even at 49 youre only losing 2 points of main stat(+3 vs +5). Not keeping gear up to date is a bad habit we dont want to encourage. Still, right side gear doesnt get meaningful stats until 50.

[Mahoukenshi]

As s self-styled goldsmith, it pains me how true this is. Brand new ring has better stats then anything you can wear until youre around level 40, and even at 49 youre only losing 2 points of main stat(+3 vs +5). Not keeping gear up to date is a bad habit we dont want to encourage. Still, right side gear doesnt get meaningful stats until 50.

I agree that it shouldn't become a habit and I tend to cover gear differences with vendor gear pre-50 if the gap become too huge. So, it's pretty stupid that even regular vendor gear (if I don't feel like farming dungeons just to hope for random accessory drops) for right-side equipment stops at around ilvl 29. If you don't have many alternative jobs during the 1-50- phase, you may get some more from sidequests or leve reward by chance.

As for Ghimlyt Dark: I'd never touch this hell of dungeon with a healer. It's a clear winner in my "never ever again" category once I survived it with many annoying deaths and likely a reason why I don't touch 50/60/70 roulettes as there are too many cancerous dungeons in (for my poor player skills).

[TheMightyMollusk]

BTW why is my main listed as a Red Mage? I've barely used it recently...

It doesn't change unless you manually go into your forum settings to change it.