Tales from Duty Finder: Some make you laugh, some make you cry. Let's vent. 2.0

[Stanazolol]

Honestly it's the fact that things hit like wet noodles that makes healers feel superfluous. You can run 90 dungeons with no tanks or with no dps too. Tanks having sustain is great and the potential for glory moments gives players something to play and master their job for.

They might not know where the last pack is. Either forgetting or just camt remember. Some sections have two trash packs, some might 3 or more, and they dont know for sure until they literally run into a wall.

[EgilTheStressedMage]

Carried a RPR through Anamnesis as RDM, they were dead half the time. Ressed the healer towards the end. Not a single commendation.

[EgilTheStressedMage]

Had a tank do that in Dead Ends the other day...and boy was it annoying since they would stop for a second or two right at the last pack, then move to the gate.

Ah yes, I remember when I dropped my Ley Lines at where people with a brain would assume the pull would stop, the tank was like "yeah screw this BLM in particular" and pulled them out from my max range. Same dungeon too.

Edit: sorry for double post.

[Carin-Eri]

Gods - just quit the most annoying instance of Alzadaal's Legacy.

Granted I was tired - it was almost midnight at the time, and probably wasn't playing at my best (which is saying something as I'm not very good even when I am playing at my best!). However, I know Alzadaal's Legacy pretty well now and it's one of the few pieces of content I'm not completely useless at.

Anyway, was playing as Bard, the job I'm most comfortable with - and one of the team members kept criticising me for not using my DOTs. I was though - DOTs and Songs - and I said so, only to get "lol no your not", which prompted a 'lol' from someone else in the team. I persisted as far as the final boss and admittedly failed to notice that one of the players was watching cutscenes before firing off Caustic Bite and drawing attention to myself. I'll acknowledge that this was stupid and entirely my fault, and I certainly couldn't solo it and ended up dead and received a round of 'lol's for it. Somewhat deserved I guess - as I said, I'll admit that I didn't think before I acted on that one at least. Sadly it also prompted the first bigmouth to make several unnecessary remarks about how terrible and ineffective I was.

So, to be honest since I was really fed up of being told how bad I was, as well as being over tired, I quit and logged out (although blacklisted Bigmouth before I left). Possibly the wrong thing to do(?) but still - I don't mind admitting that I'm not very good at the game when am doing things wrong (and getting killed frequently), but I really don't think I was in this case.

[BRVV]

Anyway, was playing as Bard, the job I'm most comfortable with - and one of the team members kept criticising me for not using my DOTs. I was though - DOTs and Songs - and I said so, only to get "lol no your not", which prompted a 'lol' from someone else in the team.

Sucks to have such a negative experience. They didn't even give helpfull feedback. What where you suppossed to do? Use your 2 DoTs on EVERY enemy? I only use them on bosses and more resistant mobs. One tip: Use "Stormbite" first because the DoT deals more damage. As for the songs... do you always have 1 up? I sometimes use Radiant Finale on trash, so i can use another song without wasting that sticker.

[Carin-Eri]

Sucks to have such a negative experience. They didn't even give helpfull feedback. What where you suppossed to do? Use your 2 DoTs on EVERY enemy? I only use them on bosses and more resistant mobs. One tip: Use "Stormbite" first because the DoT deals more damage. As for the songs... do you always have 1 up? I sometimes use Radiant Finale on trash, so i can use another song without wasting that sticker.

Nope - no feedback, only criticism. Which, as have noted, I actually don't mind if it's valid, but I don't feel that it was on this occasion.

As noted, I was using DOTs as appropriately as I could, refreshing them with Iron Jaws when the countdown on the effects was appropriately low, and I always have a Song active. I do all I can to follow the rotation recommended by 'The Balance' on Discord.

I shouldn't really let this bother me, but I've played as a Bard for as long as I've played the game (about eight months at this point) and would say that, after playing the entire (to the current point) MSQ as a Bard and doing all I could to learn the job, it's probably the one job I've got a fairly good grasp of and I therefore felt a little more offended than I probably should've about being told I was doing it wrong.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Gods - just quit the most annoying instance of Alzadaal's Legacy.[...]

Well that's one $h!tty encounter to experience. Sorry to hear that. That sort of like a public humiliation ngl.

So, to be honest since I was really fed up of being told how bad I was, as well as being over tired, I quit and logged out (although blacklisted Bigmouth before I left). Possibly the wrong thing to do(?) but still - I don't mind admitting that I'm not very good at the game when am doing things wrong (and getting killed frequently), but I really don't think I was in this case.

Personally I would've blacklisted such individual myself for being an a$$hat by putting you on the spotlight. But setting that aside for a moment...

After I took a peek on one of your runs out of curiosity in 'that website that should not be named' then compared it to another random, average BRD, I could for sure tell you that songs are definitely not the main issue nor your DoTs. At least NOT solely. Sure they are not pitch perfect play (pun intended, however unrealistically) but I could see the pattern that you're clearly playing the songs in correct order, you're trying to have those DoT up - you are trying to practice what you've seen in those guide. Which is great!

What I could also tell from that, you have a major trouble at keeping your uptime even as a physical ranged who has full access to infinite mobility. This means using any weaponskills at all to keep your hotbar GCD 'rolling' even while running around. The other average random BRD fired 3 times as much Burst Shots (mostly in boss encounters ofc) & 5 times as much Ladonbites (mostly in trash pulls) in the same dungeon run but about 2m shorter. These two buttons are where their largest contribution of total damage comes from whereas yours actually comes from the built-in auto attacks. A glimpse to this figure kinda tells me that you pretty likely focusing a lot more to dodge/do mechanics correctly before resuming your own things. Have you ever tried to move and attack at the same time? Because that's one of the main perks of picking up physical ranged: access to full movement and still able to attack freely.

Do correct me if I pictured a wrong scenario of you.

Also, will you be updating your personal thread?

[Liam_Harper]

Nope - no feedback, only criticism. Which, as have noted, I actually don't mind if it's valid, but I don't feel that it was on this occasion.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience, there's no excuse for direct rudeness.

At a glance, you're doing ok with DoT's. Your main issue in dungeons is lack of aoe and uptime. Chances are someone in your group was running a meter, saw low damage but didn't know how Bard works and threw out bad advice. No excuse for that, it doesn't help you at all.
On large pulls tab between mobs and apply Stormbite while you're running for free damage and once they stop nuke them with Ladonsbite and Shadowbite when it procs. Make sure you're hitting multiple targets.

Uptime is to try to always be pressing buttons constantly, even while moving or doing mechanics. Even if you press the wrong things by mistake, it's better than a correct rotation done with downtime. Focus on getting GCD uptime right first before the finer points of the rotation.

It'll only get better the more you play so stick with it and good luck

[Carin-Eri]

*Snip, because character limit*

*Snip because character limit*

Thanks for the replies - this is exactly the sort of feedback/advice I need since I'm clearly oblivious to the specifics of where my performance is lacking - and to be honest you've pretty much hit the nail on the head.

I will confess that I DO try to remain mobile, but I'm also mindful of the fact that I'm aware of what my biggest, most obvious, failing is - mechanics. I'm still pretty useless with regard to reaction time and admittedly sometimes tend to focus too much on rotation and not enough on positioning, the consequence being stupid mistakes and, often, KO. I really need to work on this, as whilst have worked hard at learning to play Bard and Red Mage better, my understanding of the mechanics is sorely lacking.

Also, will you be updating your personal thread?

I'd all but forgotten about that to be honest! Will have to revisit it!

[Rilifane]

Was leveling my DNC and only 2mil shy of hitting 90, so how about a quick trial roulette.
Of course I get Hydaelyn...

Usually not a problem for me but I'm currently getting used to a new keyboard and the key placement is slightly different from my old one and I kept fatfingering buttons. Rotation was still okayish but whenever I had to move quickly, I actually had to look at what my fingers were doing because instead of moving forward, I often ended up strafing.
And finally, I strafed straight into the wall like a pro during add phase while meaning to dodge the middle cleave. They had a good chuckle in party chat, I got ressed and we continued. Then came the lightwaves and... yeeepp, DNC strafed into the lightwave instead of dodging it.
Next raid day is going to be interesting.