I HATE SPEEDRUNS SO MUCH!

[Velo_Vandore]

Summary: I love dungeon runs and therefore never want to speedrun them! Is this game just not going to work for me?

Wall o' text:

I love games which are heavily story focused, but have unfortunately have not enjoyed the final fantasy xiv story line much at all. In particular, the fancy theatrical tone in all the dialogue is definitely not for me. I'm glad other people seem to have enjoyed the story though

Anyway, I have enjoyed progressing through the game despite this for a number of reasons. I love the graphics style and music, alongside the many, many improvements to gameplay and user friendliness in general since the games previous release. Most of all however the dungeons have been an absolute thrill for me and are what I consider the very best content the game has to offer. In LOTRO I was always too shy to call out for a party, so skipped any group content all the way to Moria (where my character waits for me to one day return to him)... The duty finder feature and necessity of dungeons in this game has been just the kick I needed to make the most of the game.

I've played since release so I guess I was lucky to being playing alongside lots of noobs like myself. For me that's what an MMO is all about! Running an exciting dungeon with a group of real people! Taking on fresh challenges together, helping and adapting to one another's play style and level of experience, sharing in victory (and defeat), and despite being a bit shy chatting and having the odd joke along the way.

In one run of Sastasha, there was this tank who had some really weird tactics to say the least! Perhaps it's a legit strategy I'm unaware of but the guy was either non-English speaking or had no keyboard so I never found out. What he would do was gradually edge up towards each group of mobs and as soon as the mobs linked on sprint back towards and straight past us!?! Furthermore he didn't really do any attacking so the damage dealers and myself (cnj) shared the aggro! My friend got out the topaz carb which helped a lot and we eventually cleared the dungeon successfully. While the run was pretty hairy and sometimes frustrating with many wipes, the on edge moments meant my friend and I needed to think fast and really PLAY dynamically. It was a blast and I'm really grateful for the time spent with that group XD.

Straight after that my friend and I entered Tam-Tara. This time was the first run in I had with a pro / vet so far. The guy was a tank and after the first mob pull the lancer got a firm warning about pulling the second target (i.e. not tanks target). The next time the lancer made this mistake my friend used his topaz carb to keep draw off the stray mob. The tank decided to highlight for the lancer - "See! The yellow carby had to save you because you pulled. Why do you pull? bla bla >:[". So the guy is constantly barking orders throughout. "I thought I told you to use virus? Make sure you use virus". "Why do you follow me like ants? I said stay back I will pull them here", etc. I would take the cowardly tank over this guy ANY DAY!! I'm always happy to hear tips / advice where needed, but when it's the second dungeon in the game (which I'd cleared a fair few times already), all in the group were fairly competent, and we were at no real risk of not clearing at all it's not fun to be told exactly how to do everything for max efficiency as the expense of any form of freedom.

After that I seemed to bump into increasingly more players like this, and worse. At least the guy before intended to help, while many after simply insulted a given player repeatedly before leaving. I've heard many times that people should at least bother to research the dungeon before hand so they don't waste everyone's time. Why do you people play? Where is you sense of achievement or even identity withing this social game? Are only drones who only follow instruction to the word welcome in the game? If you use guides I won't call you a cheat, but it's certainly not for me and I don't like to be considered inconsiderate for wanting to figure out the tactics as I play (even if I fail).

Now I hit 50, exited to get started on the challenging end game content and it's just speedruns... and I mean JUST speedruns... Mindless, boring, angry speedruns. Personally, I would rather grind mobs in the field than disrespect the game by essentially just skipping this content in such a cheap way. My understanding is that the duty finder is designed to keep the game content alive for beginners and provide a rewarding support system for new players, while also giving casual players a chance to now slowly but steadily progress towards higher content and raids without the need to speedrun.

Well since most people want to speedrun on the duty roulette (which they do), who am I to interfere. So I resolved to dramatically sacrifice progress (tome collection) rate for the time being, and instead just find like-minded players through the party finder to at least enjoy playing the dungeons with each evening. To my utter disappointment this failed me too.

I set up in the party finder a run for Ampador Keep - Newcomers welcome, slow and easy, no cutscene skipping, supportive players welcome, no-speed runs, no stress. Somehow this was misinterpreted. The pace was set by the black mage who forged ahead pulling mobs without any room for discussion, reprimanding the tank for using the limit break (despite no harm coming from the decision) and expressing much frustration to each of us for various reasons when we wiped on the end boss for the third time. "This is getting annoying -_-", "How many times do you have to get hit by the tail to understand -_-", "You said you knew this fight?". I reminded the black mage it was a slow and easy run, and despite understanding the tactics in theory I was not experienced and as such there's was a good chance I would mess up. I asked why did he join the group if only to become frustrated by any failure? He said "why do you think I joined, to help! But if you don't listen I don't know -_-". In the end we did clear the dungeon, but that was of course never my primary objective. I would rather hit the time limit or the group burn out if at least we could have had fun and shown respect to one another without petty drama.

I don't care if other players mess up a lot or we don't clear the dungeon every time, and if I'm the one who messes up I would hope for the group to tolerate my mistakes as well. Is it possible to play this way or do I just give up? After the last party finder run I'm not keen to keep trying that method. I consider starting another class but is this ultimately all I can look forward to? It'll be a shame to leave the game for this reason.

[NeoAmon]

I think you are lucky. Speed runs are no longer required as there are many ways to collect tomes with little efforts after 2.1. At the begging it was a race, T1-T2 were doable with low ilvl but T4 was a nightmare to do with AK gear. Everyone who managed to clear T4 in the game very early life knows exactly what I'm talking about. Knowing the strat and executing it perfectly was not enough due to T4 being hard DPS check. We had to use every single job to it fullest potential to achieve a kill, even that did not work constantly with an entire party made up of AK gear and few ilvl70 pieces.

That is where speed runs came from with best method being AK pre nerf then CM and you needed at least 33 full runs to just get the left side to ilvl70. It was a competition for spots inside Coil groups and the only way to such already formed groups was the gear at that time, as it was extremely hard to form new ones when there was not enough lvl50s let alone Ak geared players. Not to mention of course the infamous Titan HM, no Relic no Coil as he was the gate to Coil.

Now back to the topic, Speed runs are no longer required. Heck I'm full ilvl90 BiS and I stopped SR long time ago. Duty roulette might be the best thing that ever happened to FFXIV and many dungeons to run in DF or PF that would net you good amount of tomes. Plus, there is no hurry to anything, there are new Coil groups being formed daily and they are taking their time with the content. Even when 2.2 comes out with the new Coil, it is not going to require anyone to SR anything as Coil T1-T5 don't have adds to clear. Kill the boss and move on, if not try again and again until the execution is perfect.

[TurnBased]

Umm... Speedruns? I do dungeons everyday with lots of random players and I never have to speed run. Duty Roulette made sure of that. Are we playing the same game?

[FurryFury]

People do speedrun CM and Praetorium in Main Scenario DR for quick tomes - but the problem there is not with speedrunning itself, but with a obscene amount of cutscenes in both instances. Also, many speedrun WP in High DR. Other than that, not much. Speedrun Sastasha or TTDC? I leveled GLD and CNJ exclusively in dungeons and never saw any "speedruns" except in aforementioned three dungeons.

[VisRalis]

Except for some other thread that explained what actual speed runs were about...
Most speed runs seem to be ppl just being in a hurry without actual concerns on time saving strategies.

[Yunnie]

if you do not like doing speed runs (as with many other people), then I suggest using Party Finder. Make sure to set the search functions to slow, as well as no cut-scene skipping. Make sure Story mode is also clicked. It might take a while to get a party going, but its awesome when the party fires off. You have to then make sure everyone in the party knows what they are signing up for. When everyone agrees to Run it the way you envision, then feel free to enter the dungeon.


You will find, there are many like minded people just like you, who want to go through the dungeon and experience all it has to offer. If this still doesn't work, try server transferring to Balmung. There are many RPer's here, and even though I personally am not an RPer, I still like to story mode dungeon from time to time. It can be quiet refreshing when I'm tired of speed running things.

Party finder is a great addition to the game, please don't let SE's hard work go to waste!

Also, after setting up party finder, you can also attempt to duty roulette with your party, by having everyone changing their language to something specific like... F (french) then doing a count-down. Have everyone then click register for duty at the same time, then make sure everyone's pops pop up at the same time. If all goes well, then everyone will get the same dungeon, so you can reap the benefits of duty roulette reward.

[Irya]

I really hate when people says things like: you're wasting my time...

Last night I finished Amdapor Keep for the first time, it was not my first time in the dungeon thoug. So, we killed all 3 bosses whithout a single death and at the end the healer attacked me saying that I must learn the dungeon and that I was wasting their time.

Hello!? Its the second time I entered there I knew the fight but not have so much practise on it. How are we supposed to know the fight if it is not doing it?

[Velo_Vandore]

Hi Guys. Thanks for reading my rant and your comments.

NeoAmon, I totally agree that speedruns should not be necessary. Thanks to the duty roulette we should be able to take our time. My point is that every time I use the lvl50 duty roulette almost every player wants to get quick tomes. My issue is not personally the cutscene skipping so much as the way the group forges on sliding past loads of the mobs, and get impatient and short tempered by people who mess up and slow down the run or cause any issues. This is what I meant by speedrun but maybe I using the term incorrectly?

I know I can use the party finder but I don't get the roulette bonus that way right, so really progress will be greatly hindered since I'll only do a handful of runs per week? If that's the case then I accept and still choose Party Finder, but even there, as I described in my long OP, I'm getting players which will be intolerant and pushy despite the party finder criteria stating slow and easy, newcomers. etc. Maybe that was just bad luck?

I agree that speedruns aren't really happening when I do the low level dungeons when I duty roulette, but I feel there are more impatient players wanting to get thier daily dr bonus tomes here now, who can become frustrated and intolerant to mistakes and slowness. Besides I don't particularly want to just run the old dungeons forever.

I think in summary I'm just struggling with two things:

1. I thought the duty roulette would mean players don't need to speed run for quick tomes anymore. However the fact is that joining a level 50 dungeon through the duty finder WILL result in a speed run. I guess people don't enjoy these dungeons much and just prefer to collect tomes. Fair enough but frustrating for me.

2. Even in party finder group, setting criteria as Newcomer's, Slow and Easy, Supportive Players, No Stress, etc, the bossy and intolerant attitude of many players, and finding it difficult to get a group together with the same goal as me - to log on in an evening, just do one dungeon run with a group of nice guys. I don't care if we wipe over and over and hit the time limit, or burn out. I just don't want to have to deal with other players stressing and being rude over who used or didn't use the limit break. Enjoying dungeons is why I'm here. Tomes are great, but secondary to having a good time in each and every run, despite the rewards and completion.

[baopee]

once the myth cap is removed, the speed run would be back.

[Velo_Vandore]

if you do not like doing speed runs (as with many other people), then I suggest using Party Finder. Make sure to set the search functions to slow, as well as no cut-scene skipping. Make sure Story mode is also clicked. It might take a while to get a party going, but its awesome when the party fires off. You have to then make sure everyone in the party knows what they are signing up for. When everyone agrees to Run it the way you envision, then feel free to enter the dungeon.


You will find, there are many like minded people just like you, who want to go through the dungeon and experience all it has to offer. If this still doesn't work, try server transferring to Balmung. There are many RPer's here, and even though I personally am not an RPer, I still like to story mode dungeon from time to time. It can be quiet refreshing when I'm tired of speed running things.

Party finder is a great addition to the game, please don't let SE's hard work go to waste!

Also, after setting up party finder, you can also attempt to duty roulette with your party, by having everyone changing their language to something specific like... F (french) then doing a count-down. Have everyone then click register for duty at the same time, then make sure everyone's pops pop up at the same time. If all goes well, then everyone will get the same dungeon, so you can reap the benefits of duty roulette reward.

Hi Yunnie. I sort of skim read each post before (hypocritically for a speedrun hater :P) but I've just read over your post again. Thanks for your suggestions and encouragement! I'm going to give the Party Finder a better chance and just make sure to confirm with the party before we enter that they are not going to be concerned by any wipes and mistakes or if we don't happen to clear the end boss.

I've been wonding if I should seek out the role-players, but I'm not sure what I'd be stepping into there and slightly hesitant. I have a couple friends on phoenix who play as well from time to time so I'll stick here for now and try to make the party finder work for me. In theory I know it should.