The Masked Carnivale is Some of the Worst Content in FFXIV

[Jeeqbit]

Yeah, because makes the RAZOR THIN MARGIN OF ERROR go away.

Try and think of a different strategy then? Use Diamondback if there's something hard. Spam White Wind or Pom Cure. Use Mighty Guard the entire thing with tank spec. In fact, I think some of them can be beaten with the self-destruct or final sting attacks (not tried personally)? You have so many options.

I forget if Basic Instinct works in there, are you using that?

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Yeah, because makes the RAZOR THIN MARGIN OF ERROR go away.

Have you tried using Mimicry: Tank, Devour for +20% max HP, Diamond Back, Chelonian Gate, Dragon Force... you know, a lot of defensive stuff? Or are we talking about "it does 99999"? Because if it is the latter, solve the dance better, you are overplaying the "margin of error" card.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

I forget if Basic Instinct works in there, are you using that?

Sadly doesn't, but would be overkill anyways.

[fulminating]

quoted content

Is this sarcasm? Carnivale isn’t especially hard, rarely has enrages and nearly every problem can be solved by looking through the spellbook, dropping gcd uptime to dodge or reading the rp text and acting accordingly, it’s not even particularly obscure “lunar goblin wrestles the iron cabbage” bs like nael says, more “The crystal is boosting my power” crystal suddenly has hp bar. Wat do?
The enemies even have helpful hints over their head if weak to an element, often have their weaknesses listed with tooltips in the stage selection menu.

[JamieRose]

Is this sarcasm? Carnivale isn’t especially hard, rarely has enrages and nearly every problem can be solved by looking through the spellbook, dropping gcd uptime to dodge or reading the rp text and acting accordingly, it’s not even particularly obscure “lunar goblin wrestles the iron cabbage” bs like nael says, more “The crystal is boosting my power” crystal suddenly has hp bar. Wat do?
The enemies even have helpful hints over their head if weak to an element, often have their weaknesses listed with tooltips in the stage selection menu.

None of that helps when the game decides to put three damage zones on top of you when you have 20% of act 2 to go and decides you failed to dodge one so it's going to OHKO you and make you do the whole stupid fight over from the top.

And when crap like that keeps happening to you it makes you lose focus and make more mistakes when you're not allowed to make ANY MISTAKES AT ALL!

I cannot, for the life of me, fathom why people think this is acceptable.

[TheMightyMollusk]

So, as someone who is genuinely fairly bad at BLU, anyone have a decent guide I can read? Preferably a text guide, not a video, but I'll take what I can get.

[fulminating]

If this is gold rush, just go to the middle and mighty guard + diamondback before the cast completes. You’ll get like 5 vuln stacks and need to move behind him when diamondback wears off because he does two beams at the end. His autos don’t hurt enough to worry about even turning mg off afterwards, although you’ll probably need to heal twice. Healer mimic and Pom cure would be easier on your mp than white wind.

[Casti_EL]

I'll admit I'm not great at playing BLU and there has been a number of MC acts that have gotten under my skin on countless occasions (still haven't done them all) but I still enjoy what they've done with it. I think BLU is a bit more of a unique job due to it's abilities and the way it's been designed so it requires you to understand your abilities a bit more than other jobs - putting together the optimal setup for the situation is a large part of the job, and MC really plays to that IMO.

Granted, yes some of the AoE's are a little on the nose, especially if you have a bit of connection lag (UK Player playing on US servers) but the pure satisfaction you get from beating an Act you've struggled with is extremely satisfying. If I struggle with any MC I'll just leave it, go watch some completion vids/read some guides (or do something else in game) and come back to it later - eventually I get it and progress to the next. I wouldn't say the devs need to change it - the challenge is what makes it appealing.

[LianaThorne]

MC is literally a puzzle-esque type battle experience. Things one shot you because you're meant to provide the counter to it. It's just designed to make you think more and prepare your spells appropriately before fights.

The content isn't difficult, you just have to change your way of thinking with it and stop trying to just brute force it the way you would normally.

Blue Academy on YT is a great resource and will hold your hand through it if you just want the clear and not the experience.

[Asako]

The Blue Mage stuff is some of the best stuff released in this game in years.

For those that are complaining about it being hard or it one shotting you then you are missing the point of the content. This is not battle content. If you want battle content there are roulettes for that. This is puzzle content. Use your tools to solve the puzzle. The reason you die in two hits regardless of health is because it's trying to get you to work out the puzzle, if you could just tank all the damage without solving it then where is the challenge?

In the new one for example the add spawns and starts casting and I couldn't silence it so it killed me. I go out and put stun on my bar and try that. Stun doesn't work so I try something else until I find a way to incapacitate the add.
Then later I get stung with heavy and cannot move fast enough out of an aoe. I immediately know that I have a skill for that and so I use that...and sure enough it works. It's all part of working out the puzzle and it's a shame that we only get great boss designs like this in the Blue Mage catergory. I would love to see bosses with more attack patterns like this in our dungeons. Obviously for dungeons you would remove the 2 hit ko aspect or regular players will struggle.

Great game design. Nothing is too cryptic that you even need to look up a guide. Check your moves, check the enemies resistances / elements and work accordingly. It's really not that hard.