People who use addons are so apparent...

[LianaThorne]

Really? Because I got chewed out on these forums for suggesting people watch a video before doing a dungeon, raid or trial. The general consensus on the forum was "everyone should go in blind to experience the story first! It's fun to learn to mechanics on the fly!"

So...um...okay. Which direction is the hivemind moving in now?

I remember that thread but I think the issue from that one was that people didn't want to deal with inexperience or mistakes that would slow up their clears.

I wouldn't consider this the same thing as the topic is plugin use and the issues there rather than whether or not you should be required to know everything before coming in.

Might just be thinking of an entirely different thread though, the majority of topics tend to be repeat customers here.

[Knot_D]

Is doing good considered as cheating now?

[Basteala]

While I definitely find anyone relying on a "DBM-esque" addon to be incredibly lame and tryhard, there are definitely plenty of fights that do things more or less in a pattern, at the same time. And there's usually some predictable overlap over fights.

For example, the last boss in EW dungeons lately have been pretty liberal with their party wide AoE within the first few seconds of the pull. First and mid bosses sometimes, too.

[True-to-Caesar]

While I definitely find anyone relying on a "DBM-esque" addon to be incredibly lame and tryhard, there are definitely plenty of fights that do things more or less in a pattern, at the same time. And there's usually some predictable overlap over fights.

For example, the last boss in EW dungeons lately have been pretty liberal with their party wide AoE within the first few seconds of the pull. First and mid bosses sometimes, too.

Yep ! Wish they did different shit. Right now it’s either big AoE or tank buster few seconds after they aggro. It’s too predictable when the same template is used over and over.

[Padudu]

U ever consider that other people are just good at the game?

[Semirhage]

Is doing good considered as cheating now?

Duh. Everyone who understands this game's combat system better than I do is obviously using dreaded "plugins". I am the peak of performance, all higher than I are cheating.

The amount of bending over backward to kiss their own asses the toxic casual FFXIV community will do is fascinating to watch.

[Necrotica]

I am not willing to risk the ban but God bless those that are and carry me in the process.

[caffe_macchiato]

Guys, I think we have a problem here. If the game is so monotonous that we all are indistinguishable from AIs...isn't that a bad thing? I mean, the whole Simon Says thing. The whole "wash, rinse, repeat" thing. The whole "it's a dance" thing. Raids in this game are incredibly monotonous. Mechanics have no variety, no diversity. Everything's scripted to the second. You perform the same "dance" for hours on end until you get it. And if you die? You do it all over again. And then once you clear, you do the exact same thing again, week after week. Performing the same narrow set of actions for an extended time turns people into automatons. In other words, bots, just as OP described. That's why it's so easy for something like Cactbot, or worse, Miqobot, to replace human thinking: because there is no thinking required.

Now, I know about the tech debt. Square Enix can't design more complex raids because they're low on money, the engine is old, we all play for the story anyway, we're still better than WoW, etc. But, in 2023, is this really the best we could do? Or do you think that perhaps our hubris is a bit overdone at this point?

[NekoMataMata]

I mean you can witch hunt if you want but there's really no way of knowing. Especially in alliance raids where new comers are likely to try and follow the crowd.

For example, during Althyk and Nymeia you're going to see a lot of people doing whatever the up coming mechanic is the moment they see the cards, even though the cast bar for that mechanic hasn't been cast yet. All it takes is one player to panic and start doing the mechanic early and suddenly half the raid is following them.

[Themarvin]

It is also very obvious on new content when those things used is not updated or the likes... people die left and right even in casual content... which is funny to watch.

I think that SE should take a point about this and try and disable the combat logs for a month or two, from where in which many of the elements is read from.