Current State of End-Game Contents - A Blog Post from A Japanese Player

[Tirocupidus]

simply watching others succeed/fail at a mechanic and being powerless to do anything about it

This. Tanking Titan HM is the ultimate example. I stood there countless times doing a job a monkey could do, watching the rest of the party die off one by one. There was satisfaction in defeating him, but the process wasn't fun. Raiding is the last thing in the game that appeals to me, and now people in my FC are leaving because even that isn't fun anymore. It's just frustration.

The latest frustration for us is Rafflesia, but more specifically Thorny Vines. One vine connecting two people is usually simple enough for people to handle, but occasionally people run the same direction, I suspect because latency issues cause each person to think they're in front of the other, so they keep running, expecting the other to reverse course. With the worse vine configurations, one bad break can lead to a wipe, even if the rest of the run was flawless.One of the worst parts is that it's often difficult to determine who actually did something wrong, so how can we fix the problem? We attempt this fight twice per week, at most, and we've been doing it for months.

With frustrating raids and boring everything else, I'm about ready to quit. I would have quit after 2.2 if I didn't like my FC so much.

[Tiggy]

The latest frustration for us is Rafflesia, but more specifically Thorny Vines. One vine connecting two people is usually simple enough for people to handle, but occasionally people run the same direction, I suspect because latency issues cause each person to think they're in front of the other, so they keep running, expecting the other to reverse course.

BOTH players must run away from each other. If they are expecting the other person to correct for them then you will run into this problem. It shouldn't be "so they keep running, expecting the other to reverse course." Fix that problem and you'll be fine. If you are tethered to another player move away from them. If you are tethered to two players move away from both. This needs to be done in the most direct path possible. The only time where this doesn't work is if one player is already against the wall. In those cases it is 100% on the other player to cover the rest of the distance.

For your example it isn't the game making you powerless. It's your players aren't doing the right thing so they are getting everyone killed.

[Tirocupidus]

BOTH players must run away from each other. . .

I'm well aware of how the mechanic works, you didn't understand what I said. Both players are running, but each sees themselves at a different point than the other sees them due to latency. This leads to one person thinking they're running the correct direction, with the other person following them. However, the other person sees that they are the one running the correct direction. Other players may see them running very close to each other. Each person thinks the other should change direction, and they're both right according to what they see. Usually this gets fixed soon enough by one of them changing, but sometimes they both change the same way or neither change, thinking the other will. Multiple vines compounds the problem. Most often we're fine, but like I said, a single bad break can bring the end.

[Tsunenori]

snip

I'm pretty sure you're talking about my static specifically, because everything you said is exactly what's been bothering my group lately. That and one of our healers is probably the weakest mechanically of the entire group and dies to Acid Rain every time we get to Phase 3. It's frustrating spending well over a month on a fight, doing enough damage to push phases, and being completely incapable of progressing because of a few individuals whom, while they're generally good people and friends of the whole group, are slower on the take. The only T6 clear we had was when two of them were out for a night and we pugged a couple of players.

The answer however isn't "get a better raid" or "kick those scrubnubs" because that's exactly what the blogger was talking about being the problem. Because my friends don't dance, and if they don't dance, then should they really not be friends of mine? I don't necessarily agree with that. I'm a patient person, but my patience with the instakill mechanics is wearing thin. I can handle them, but it feels like the majority cannot and over time that will be unhealthy for the state of the game. It'll be interesting to see how fight design progresses through the next year.