Suggestion: Single Player "Tutorial" Dungeons (no rewards)

[Lethallin]

No.

Not only would a single player experience not be able to introduce most of the mechanics of ANY fight that's worth practicing (Tank Swaps, DPS checks, staying away from party members, staying close to party members, how much party damage needs to be healed, mechanics targeting a single player, party positioning, the party doing something while the tank keeps the boss away)... ANY EX fight or Coil I can think of would be almost completely worthless to go in solo and immortal for actually learning the fight, and would only lead to confusion, overconfidence, and frustration when preconceived notions from this 'solo fight' are proven completely wrong in the real one.

The only thing this MIGHT help would be a few of the simple normal dungeons, which are not complicated or hard enough to bother with doing it like that. It would be a lot of developer and server resources for something that could be easily resolved by getting into an FC that's slightly better then "completely awful", who will almost certainly and happily get you through and give you tips on what needs to be done in standard dungeons.

[randysquirrel]

New "expert" dungeons I'll go into blind, as they're never particularly difficult anyway, and can be a laugh going in with buds all for the first time.
New coil turns though... not so much, typically last about 10 seconds before something wipes you all, so I'll always read a guide or watch a video. For me though, I learn quickest by doing both - I'll watch a video, then try my have (and wipe), then watch video again, then try again (and wipe again) and so on until I get there. Videos help but you still need to actually go in and try it for yourself

[Espritduo]

I think a better way to go about single player training modes (which I think would be a great thing) would be to scrap the whole "alone, invincible" thing. Give the player NPC allies with some modicum of intelligence about what to do in the fight, give the player normal stats, and let them go wild. There is no mechanic in this game that an NPC couldn't be programmed to handle with at least some effectiveness, and giving the NPC's a larger HP pool to both allow for their AI shortcomings and allow the player to actually see what is happening for any length of time would be perfect for training. For particularly difficult or obtuse mechanics, the NPC's can even throw out hints like "you better not point that thing at me!" when you get shrieked in T7 or "pass me that rot!" when you get Allagan Rot in T2, etc. If you die repeatedly, the game starts giving out hints on some of the general fundamentals of the fight, like how dying repeatedly at the final boss in Dissidia prompts the game to give you some tips on the fight.

These fights would be every bit as unforgiving as their multiplayer counterparts, but without the headache of finding players who are actually willing to help a new guy, dealing with players when you/they wipe, and the whole no-spoiler experience. You could go into them in any role, and the NPC's you're given and the advice they give would change accordingly. These modes can even count towards story completion for those who only care about that (it seems they're heading this way for low-level content anyways, from what the developers of said). I for one would absolutely sit down and master every aspect of a fight in every role in these training modes before I ever step foot into the fight with others if the game let me. Screwing over other people (friends or strangers) with my own inexperience has never been something I considered fun.

[Lethallin]

snip

Squeenix doesn't make the strategies for fights. They may have some ideas as to how players will figure out how to do something, but basically giving away their idea for how a fight should be done would be nothing but detrimental to the creativity of the bleeding edge of content pushers. Or they'd have to actually endorse a particular strategy, and even if a better strategy would be available, people wouldn't use it because that's not what the NPCs do.

Not to mention the massive amount of time it would take to program AI NPCs for 4-8 characters for every instance for something that only a handful would take advantage of is ridiculous.

[Espritduo]

I find it pretty hard to believe SE makes these fights and then goes "oh well we have no idea how this fight is supposed to be won, but we're sure someone will figure it out." They design the fights very carefully to be won using a specific strategy and gear levels that is usually flexible enough that different people tend to come up with different ways of getting things done, but the end result is still that the fundamental things to win the fight that need done...need done. What, you think they pull those required ilevels out their arse? They know, far better than most players do, what it takes to win the fights they create.

And if only a handful would use this (which I also find pretty hard to believe)...incentivize it, like they do with everything else they put effort into that they want people to use. Achievements, vanity, whatever. Hell, make it mandatory to do the trial mode before you can even DF the group mode so anyone that is in a random group can be assumed to have some understanding of the fight. It's not hard and it would make endgame actually playable and enjoyable to a huge number of people that just plain stay away from "the hard stuff" because banging your face against a wall with other people and failing, and causing them to fail, ain't fun for most people.

[Tsolake]

I don't know about that...

Part of what makes raiding fun is all the frustration. Well, maybe not fun, but it's a lot more rewarding. If EVERYONE goes into a duty knowing exactly their role and what to do, it kind of ruins the fun of the duty. It's a weird concept, but after playing multiple MMO's that start to spoonfeed the boss fights to you, they become so easy and lose all of their sentimental value. Again, sounds silly, but you learn to appreciate the duty because you've wanted to throw your controller at the TV hundreds of times.

I agree with what a lot of people are saying above; I think they could expand a little more on the guildhest system, as those ARE designed to teach you certain mechanics. I do NOT think there should be single player duties that run you through a boss fight multiple times before you actually do it.

It takes out all of the anxiety, which, again, really makes the duties more memorable.