Why does everyone use PF as a representation of the game?

[Derio]

PF is where the majority of players do their endgame content. You will be surprised how many people dont have a full group so they rely on PF to either fill the remaining roles or them themselves jump in as a solo player to join a group. From EX all the way to Savage and even ultimate.

There is a healer problem but that is a large combination of factors, not just this raid tier but from a healer gameplay perspective as a whole.

[Absimiliard]

I have been told for the last 6 weeks by seemingly people who cleared that there can never ever ever be balance issues if a single team of players managed to clear the fight on week 1 using nay particular job no matter how undertuned it is.

Those people are morons.

[SeiyaSoiya]

PF is where the majority of players do their endgame content. You will be surprised how many people dont have a full group so they rely on PF to either fill the remaining roles or them themselves jump in as a solo player to join a group. From EX all the way to Savage and even ultimate.

There is a healer problem but that is a large combination of factors, not just this raid tier but from a healer gameplay perspective as a whole.

again what is your source?
the vast, vast majority of the 28 million registered players never interact with pf, and of the small minority of those who raid, they will raid with their own group of 7 other friends and never, ever interact with the rest of the game population.

[Midareyukki]

again what is your source?
the vast, vast majority of the 28 million registered players never interact with pf, and of the small minority of those who raid, they will raid with their own group of 7 other friends and never, ever interact with the rest of the game population.

And where are YOUR sources? Because I can easily just come in and tell you that people tend to go on PF a lot more than sticking around in a static. Also, I wouldn't go for the registered playerbase, I'd go for the active playerbase. It's far fairer of a comparison.

[SeiyaSoiya]

And where are YOUR sources? Because I can easily just come in and tell you that people tend to go on PF a lot more than sticking around in a static. Also, I wouldn't go for the registered playerbase, I'd go for the active playerbase. It's far fairer of a comparison.

it's just common sense
nobody is gonna argue with me when I say the official forums userbase comprise maybe 0.5-1% of the entire active playerbase
nobody would argue with me when I say raiders are maybe 1-5% of the entire active playerbase
and nobody will argue with me when I say pf is maybe 1-5% of the entire raiding playerbase

[MilkieTea]

Clear Rate Percentages (Current Top 50):
Tanks

1. Dark Knight 51.0%
2. Gunbreaker 33.0%
   
3. Paladin 8.0%
4. Warrior 8.0%

Healers

1. Scholar 36.0%
2. Astrologian 34.0%
3. White Mage 16.0%
4. Sage 14.0%

Melee DPS

1. Ninja 28.0%
2. Samurai 27.0%
3. Dragoon 25.0%
4. Monk 16.0%
5. Reaper 4.0%

Physical Ranged DPS

1. Dancer 76.0%
2. Bard 20.0%
3. Machinist 4.0%

Magical Ranged DPS

1. Summoner 42.0%
2. Black Mage 24.0%
3. Red Mage 24.0%

I'd say that these are pretty representative numbers, if a bit skewed towards meta because these are the top 50 groups. Tack on maybe 3 or 4% to MCH and RPR and you'd have accurate numbers (or as close to accurate as you can get.)

PF in NA is pretty much where you'll find a majority of raiders, most people aren't up to par/don't have the confidence to join a static.

[LianaThorne]

it's just common sense
nobody is gonna argue with me when I say the official forums userbase comprise maybe 0.5-1% of the entire active playerbase
nobody would argue with me when I say raiders are maybe 1-5% of the entire active playerbase
and nobody will argue with me when I say pf is maybe 1-5% of the entire raiding playerbase

You do realize that a lot of people are also afraid of being in a static because they think they'll be deadweight and kicked out or don't want to deal with the drama that can easily erupt and break the entire static apart. Those who work well in groups/dont get anxiety when talking to people and are more of the midcore/hardcore mindset usually will go towards statics, that I will give you. However, the remainder which makes up of arguably the larger chunk of the raiding scene (casual raiders, people with small friend groups of like 2-3 people, those who get anxiety when being on voice, those who are just afraid of statics in general) will lean to the PF and get their clears that way. There are actually a lot of groups that also form strictly for one or two fights because they're waiting for other members of the static to get back from real life engagements and then break up (how I personally got through the first two fights of the tier).

There are a lot more ways to not be in a static than there are to be in one, just the facts.

[Axious]

I guess the Devs could remove PF and revert back to 2.X. Shout in the zone till you found a party?
Would there still be a shortage of healers? Would certain jobs get excluded? Would the Devs still make a decision to balance without PF?

[Absurdity]

And where are YOUR sources? Because I can easily just come in and tell you that people tend to go on PF a lot more than sticking around in a static. Also, I wouldn't go for the registered playerbase, I'd go for the active playerbase. It's far fairer of a comparison.

Their argument is complete nonsense from the start. They're arguing under the assumption that only PF has issues with the balancing because PF groups perform inherently worse than statics... do I even need to talk about this? As someone who has raided in a casual static, a static focused more on fight optimization and party finder, most of my PF kill groups had less issues with dps checks than my casual static did. So how exactly is this only a PF problem?


But my personal anecdote aside we have the data backing this up because FFlogs covers both kinds of groups and all of them had massive problems with the P8S P1 dps check when running underperforming comps.


As for the healer shortage, I'll refer to my statement here https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-issues/page82


While this is by no means exclusive to party finder, it is more likely to occur simply because of how party finder works. You have a much wider gap between individual player skill in any given party and the communication is more limited, making coordinating party mitigation harder which then consequently puts more strain on the healers.
But as I said, this can absolutely happen in statics as well, they aren't some magical solution to easily clearing raids. I still remember horror stories from other tanks in Stormblood about their static's dps refusing to use Diversion because it's "not their job" and the tank should just "generate more aggro".

[SeiyaSoiya]

I guess the Devs could remove PF and revert back to 2.X. Shout in the zone till you found a party?
Would there still be a shortage of healers? Would certain jobs get excluded? Would the Devs still make a decision to balance without PF?

everyone always assumed the people spamming shout chat even back in wow were the bottom of the barrel scrubs who will never clear
true well adjusted social individuals always had an active guild with set raiding schedules and all roles filled, they never had to resort to pugging
pugging has always been seen as the last resort