When you Love the Story, but are Really Bad at the Gameplay

[TaleraRistain]

+1;

OP- It might sound cold, but unless it's causing a wipe and/or very severe strain on my healing resources, I don't care why people die. They died. My job is to get them up so we can get the mission done sooner than later.

Some healers I have met take it as a personal attack when you yank them out of whatever Zen they're in with just DPSing/Tank focus and, yeah, that's dumb.

Exactly. If we're waiting on SC to refresh or our party is here and they're way out there, those are situations where we act in the best interests of our party and resources. But when someone has the capability and doesn't use it, it's just pure ego.

[Carin-Eri]

Well, a friend here suggested (in another thread) I should revisit this thread and decided to do so.

To be honest I guess things haven't changed all that much really. I'd have to concede that I know the jobs I play most (Bard and Red Mage) better than I did and am likely more effective in that respect at least, but I'm still far too clumsy with my reaction to mechanics. Tend to think I'll probably never be particuarly good at the game, but am aiming to at least be competent.

Nonetheless I was/am grateful for the encouragement received here - the MSQ was/is an experience that I, in hindsight, would've hated to have missed!

[Packetdancer]

To be honest I guess things haven't changed all that much really. I'd have to concede that I know the jobs I play most (Bard and Red Mage) better than I did and am likely more effective in that respect at least, but I'm still far too clumsy with my reaction to mechanics. Tend to think I'll probably never be particuarly good at the game, but am aiming to at least be competent.

Out of curiosity, what do you find particularly stymies you still with regards to the mechanics? I ask because my FC has a number of people (including me) who try to help others who feel like they're not quite having mechanics "click" for them, and some of the advice/tips we've put together to help them might be applicable to your situation.

Nonetheless I was/am grateful for the encouragement received here - the MSQ was/is an experience that I, in hindsight, would've hated to have missed!

I'm glad you had a chance to enjoy it!

[Carin-Eri]

Out of curiosity, what do you find particularly stymies you still with regards to the mechanics? I ask because my FC has a number of people (including me) who try to help others who feel like they're not quite having mechanics "click" for them, and some of the advice/tips we've put together to help them might be applicable to your situation.



I'm glad you had a chance to enjoy it!

Its mostly my reaction (or, often, lack thereof) to them to be honest. I don't often recall which mechanic does what and even when I do I often find myself a bit too slow to react.

[angienessyo]

I think you'll remember things in time! FF14 likes to repeat mechanics like if there's a donut/go in mechanic there will likely be an equivalent mechanic for going out in the fight. If there's a fire/don't move mechanic there will likely be an ice/keep moving mechanic. Also a lot of fights basically start out with mini tutorials at the start, they even do this in savage. You'll usually see a raid wide, tank buster and an easy version of what the main mechanic will be towards the beginning of the fight. But it can take time to recognize all the patterns and with you being a newer player I wouldn't stress about it if you're slow or forgetting things.

[Kyssa]

Well, a friend here suggested (in another thread) I should revisit this thread and decided to do so.

To be honest I guess things haven't changed all that much really. I'd have to concede that I know the jobs I play most (Bard and Red Mage) better than I did and am likely more effective in that respect at least, but I'm still far too clumsy with my reaction to mechanics. Tend to think I'll probably never be particuarly good at the game, but am aiming to at least be competent.

Nonetheless I was/am grateful for the encouragement received here - the MSQ was/is an experience that I, in hindsight, would've hated to have missed!

Are you me?

I was just talking to my son about this. He introduced me to the game last year after years of trying to get me to play.

I'll be honest, one of the things that made me keep the game at arms length was watching him play whenever I went to his house. The amount of madness on his screen in instances/raids was something I just wasn't used to. You're talking to someone who started gaming in their 20's when Ultima Online was released- and most recently played WoW since it's release. The mechanics in this game are just something I don't think I'll get used to.

Now, my son does take me places in-game- we hop on Discord and he explains markers, boss attack signals, etc and I do pretty good- but I still get mechanic panic. I will say, this community, for the most part is VERY supportive of it's fellow WoL's and if I speak up and tell them I might be... a little sloppy, lol, they are understanding and even encouraging. If I go in and keep my head down w/o saying anything and have difficulty, I have run into the odd.. let's just call them butt-dot to keep it PG who will get nasty with me, but that's rare.

Healing is so very different in this game and that's what I played for years, that I have rolled different professions so that no one is relying on me to live, lol. Dancer and Summoner are my favorites, but I also have a bard I love and a black mage I dabble with- don't worry, I don't subject the masses to me playing that one either.

However, there are so many things in this game that I've really come to enjoy, that I'm glad I made the change. Like you, I freely admit I'll never be someone anyone wants to take into any non-basic stuff- unless they like the ornament my nicely glamoured body makes lying in the dirt, but I do try and I always give it my all and I don't go signing up for stuff expecting to be carried...

Unless I'm bringing my son- because apparently, his "arms hurt for all the mom carrying" he has to do.

[not_ya_wify]

Okay, to start at the beginning, I started playing FFXIV mid-December (last year), on a Free Trial account (I registered several months before but hadn't actually played the game) and was instantly hooked - the story the game is telling is amazing and really does leave you with a 'just one more quest/cutscene' feeling at almost every step. I've subscribed and played through to the post-Stormblood/pre Shadowbringers quests so far.

As much as I love the game and it's story... I'm really, really bad at the gameplay element. My character is at level 73 now although I'm not sure how I scraped my way to said level. I feel like I should have enough experience to play my favored job (Bard) at least fairly competently by now but that isn't the case - I don't think a single MSQ duty finder goes by where I don't spend a great deal of time being resurrected by healers, or just completely failing at a mechanic (repeatedly). Anything involving waiting for visual cues ends poorly because I'm usually either too slow on the uptake or staring at my hotbar and trying to figure out what I should press. None of this is coming naturally to me and I feel like I'm a burden to the teams I join when teaming is necessary. I did try reading guides/watching videos and such but haven't been able to put what I learnt to good use.

Point in fact - I hit a proverbial brick wall a few days ago. Try as I may (and I've tried repeatedly) I cannot complete the 'A Requiem for Heroes' duty - I can just about scrape past he first stage (playing as Hien) but when it swaps to my character Ascian Zenos just keeps wiping me out no matter what I do or try. To my utter humiliation I can't even defeat him when have tried setting the difficulty level to 'Very Easy'.

I've seen threads/posts on this forum referering how many feel the the game is too easy and tried talking to a friend who dismissed my comments as me being defeatist - so I have to ask - since I don't feel as if I am really competent enough to play the game at this point, should I continue?

Don't give up! Watch a lvl 1-90 Bard guide on YouTube and set up your hot bar in a way that makes sense to you. Then go to a dummy and practice your rotation if it's still complicated. A lot of it is muscle memory. It also helps to ask if someone who knows the mechanics can put a Doritos on their head and just follow them around. I don't know the mechanics in a lot of content and just follow people around. I think there's also an issue when you are Lalafell or a smaller race, it's hard to see the boss. I'm female aura and often have trouble seeing the mechanics. You can move your camera higher with the command /tiltcamera 100. I have macros for /tiltcamera 100 and /tiltcamera 0 to be able to move the camera up or down quickly.

[Renalt]

If you want to get through the story you can always opt for the Easy Version of whatever said encounter you are doing. No shame in that if just trying to play the story.

[Carin-Eri]

Are you me?

I was just talking to my son about this. He introduced me to the game last year after years of trying to get me to play.

I'll be honest, one of the things that made me keep the game at arms length was watching him play whenever I went to his house. The amount of madness on his screen in instances/raids was something I just wasn't used to. You're talking to someone who started gaming in their 20's when Ultima Online was released- and most recently played WoW since it's release. The mechanics in this game are just something I don't think I'll get used to.

Now, my son does take me places in-game- we hop on Discord and he explains markers, boss attack signals, etc and I do pretty good- but I still get mechanic panic. I will say, this community, for the most part is VERY supportive of it's fellow WoL's and if I speak up and tell them I might be... a little sloppy, lol, they are understanding and even encouraging. If I go in and keep my head down w/o saying anything and have difficulty, I have run into the odd.. let's just call them butt-dot to keep it PG who will get nasty with me, but that's rare.

Healing is so very different in this game and that's what I played for years, that I have rolled different professions so that no one is relying on me to live, lol. Dancer and Summoner are my favorites, but I also have a bard I love and a black mage I dabble with- don't worry, I don't subject the masses to me playing that one either.

However, there are so many things in this game that I've really come to enjoy, that I'm glad I made the change. Like you, I freely admit I'll never be someone anyone wants to take into any non-basic stuff- unless they like the ornament my nicely glamoured body makes lying in the dirt, but I do try and I always give it my all and I don't go signing up for stuff expecting to be carried...

Unless I'm bringing my son- because apparently, his "arms hurt for all the mom carrying" he has to do.

Mechanic Panic! I love that description, and it's very apt!

As for the rest of the post - seems we're very similar!

[RyuDragnier]

Well, a friend here suggested (in another thread) I should revisit this thread and decided to do so.

To be honest I guess things haven't changed all that much really. I'd have to concede that I know the jobs I play most (Bard and Red Mage) better than I did and am likely more effective in that respect at least, but I'm still far too clumsy with my reaction to mechanics. Tend to think I'll probably never be particuarly good at the game, but am aiming to at least be competent.

Nonetheless I was/am grateful for the encouragement received here - the MSQ was/is an experience that I, in hindsight, would've hated to have missed!

Reacting to mechanics can be difficult at times. As much as I raid, I still have difficulty reacting to some things just because I either don't see them all that often, or my brain has difficulty with them (E6S and Aglaia orb kicks...). Keep going, some of them will become second nature over time, and don't worry, everybody has a mechanic they struggle on or need somebody calling out for them (even in Savage raids).