Some advice to people, in hopes to resolve issues

[Kaurie]

- If you are new to MMOs, I highly suggest starting out as a DPS. It allows you to get a handle on the game's mechanics without the stress of a healer or tank job. It's more easy going, and people are more forgiving with DPS.

This is why we have so many bad DPS in this game

- All DPS should have Limit Break on their hotbar. Limit break is in your Actions & Traits menu. In my experience, melee DPS are normally the ones who LB. I know many people have different times they use the LB, but I normally LB at 5% with one bar and 13% with 2 bars. That way the last few percents are over quickly, rather than use it when the boss's health is at 50% and then it feels like forever til the boss is dead. I also like to save LBs for last bosses in dungeons so we will have a for sure LB 2.

This is horrible advice. You should never wait on LB until the last few percent for 2 major reasons.
1. You can start rebuilding LB and possibly use it again (often LB is used once per dungeon, but can easily be used 3x on a given dungeon)
2. If you LB at 5% and your LB does 6% of the bosses HP (or maybe the SMN you are with uses Deathflare) you've gone ahead and wasted part of your LB

- I do not recommend healing for anyone who has never played an MMO before. It is a lot of responsibility, and people (especially experienced players) are less forgiving when it comes to a healer not doing well.

Conversely, I'd recommend starting as a healer. It's the easiest of the 3 roles to play well, and allows you to ease yourself into creating rotations and optimizing damage AFTER you've learned mechanics and the fights. Healers also tend to have fewer mechanics to deal with in lower levels.

- I REALLY do not recommend tanking is you are new to MMOs. I've experienced tanking in other MMOs and no matter what, I still find it stressfull. If anyone is going to yell at someone in the party for not doing well, its the tank. Your job is to keep all the mobs attacking you and off the rest of the group. If mobs are all over the place, it can be quite a miserable experience.

I'd honestly just recommend people start playing what they are interested in playing. No matter what, people will be bad at first. If they want to be a tank later on, then they have to start learning soon than later.

- If you are DPSing and the tank numbers a kill order of mobs, follow the order. I mean, come on people, we know how to count. Chances are the tank doesn't feel comfortable with their tanking so they prefer people to focus one mob at a time. Theres nothing wrong with that.

I'd like to add... Generally speaking, DPS should be AOEing a trash pack. If your tank knows what's up, they may mark certain mobs that need to be downed fast (wasps with final sting etc). If you know the mobs and there is no wasp, then you're better off AOEing.

- If you have never played a certain class or role, you have no right to tell someone how to play it. If you have not played that class EVER, you don't know how they work, you don't know the good and the bad about them, therefore your words are worthless.

Now that's just mean. No one's words are worthless. They may not know what they are talking about when they say something, so tell them. "No Healers don't do that, because..." not "Worthless scum, don't tell me how to play my job"



Other than that, I agree with most of what you said. Great post!

[Kaurie]

LB's are for emergencies. Unless you are in a group that has it 100% down where you can assign exactly where and how the LB is to be used, or laid back content like dungeons or older trials where specified use will only save you less than 1min of time.

Again though, for emergencies so you don't wipe, is the ultimate time saver.

It looks like many people have talked about the LB stuff over the pages, so my post above was redundant. That said I want to reply to this.


LB's are not for emergencies. However, on trials and raids, it can be used in those situations. It often should be used at specific times on trials/raids to help clear the boss, before outgearing. For examples:
3x melee LB back on 2nd run on BisEX
3x melee LB Rav when he is in DPS stance (takes extra damage)
Tank LB to survive TeraFlare

If you use healer LB everyone is stuck with max weakness. On any content that actually would require you save it for an emergency it is totally useless. The outgoing aoe damage is too high and everyone on max weakness will drop like flies.

Anyway, on Ex Trials and raids, you work out with your team how to use the LB. So this post is not directed at them. On other content, no, it's most definitely not for emergencies that don't exist.

[Amiaze]

I really hope this helped at least some people ^^;;

I wish I could upvote your post more than once. I completely agree with your points. New players should always start out as DPS so that they can observe what the tanks and healers are doing, and not have as much responsibility put on them. They stand to learn quite a lot from playing each role for a while, and I recommend moving to healer second. That's what I did, and it made me understand a tank's limitations for when I started tanking, as well as a healer's limitations. While DPSing, I learned what not to do as a healer, because I'd see tanks go down due to bad/lazy healing or someone who prioritized DPSing over healing.

- Only DPS when you are able. You are a healer. Keeping people alive is your top priority. I cannot tell you how many times I've been in a group where a healer starts to DPS and then gets everyone killed repeatedly because they weren't watching peoples' health.

Definitely this. It's great to be confident in your healing abilities, but when I drop to 15% health, I get worried. And then I start using cooldowns that I don't need to use on a mob of three or five enemies because, as a tank, I'm pretty sure I'm about to die. And I have had a healer just...let me die, recently. They were so busy DPSing something in a Guildhest that, even with all my PLD cooldowns and cross-classed WAR cooldowns popped, I died.

- If you are DPSing and the tank numbers a kill order of mobs, follow the order. I mean, come on people, we know how to count. Chances are the tank doesn't feel comfortable with their tanking so they prefer people to focus one mob at a time. Theres nothing wrong with that.

- BE PATIENT. You need to realize not every run is going to be fast. You shouldn't force someone to go faster if they're not comfortable with it. Don't go into a dungeon if you don't have time for a run that could last longer than you want. If you want quick runs so badly, get a premade group of people who want that too. Don't get mad at tanks and healers if they can't handle it.

Again, yes. I'm a PLD. I try to pull mobs big enough so that nobody gets bored, but not so big that we'll struggle to survive. But, recently, I've been pulling either really tiny mobs (around 3 enemies) or large ones (around 10 enemies) in low-level dungeons because my healers refuse to heal me unless I pull very large. This also forces people to follow an order. I'm tired of getting Final Sting because DPS are focusing on the Death Claw that I did not mark instead of the bees.

As much as the FFXIV can act like a single-player game, it isn't. It really isn't. It's an MMO, and that means you're going to have to be able to function with parties of people that you likely don't know. When in doubt, do your role and put the party before your own pride. Just considering other people can go a long, long way.

[Arkenne]

A tip I can give if you are new to tanking and want to start doing big pulls on lvl 50 content is:
Shortcut a Waymark... be it A, B or C, whichever do the trick. When you do the pull make sure to place the Waymark on the spot you want to stop in. That way you will alert your party (specially your healer) that thats where the stop is coming and be ready for the AoE fest time.

[DawnSolaria]

I always keep myself alive over tank, if tank dies I can res, but if I die chances are we are going to wipe.

[Kosmos992k]

Some advice in hopes of resolving issues...

• Treat *every* other player you meet as a real, living, breathing person with likes and dislikes, feelings, emotions and worth.
• Civility and respect are free to give, so give freely.
• Communication is innate to human beings, so communicate.
• The only person who controls your actions and reactions is you, don't let others control you or your mood.
• FFXIV is a team game, there is no 'I' in team.
• It is greater to give than receive.

Some definitions
Playing : engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.
Game : activity engaged in for diversion or amusement

*Always* remember you are playing a game. If you forget that, or find yourself feeling otherwise, perhaps it's time to re-evaluate how you are 'playing'?

P.S. To err is human, we all of us make mistakes. Whenever that happens, forgive, forget and remind yourself that this is a game you play for enjoyment.

[Evtrai]

Some advice in hopes of resolving issues...

• Treat *every* other player you meet as a real, living, breathing person with likes and dislikes, feelings, emotions and worth.
• Civility and respect are free to give, so give freely.
• Communication is innate to human beings, so communicate.
• The only person who controls your actions and reactions is you, don't let others control you or your mood.
• FFXIV is a team game, there is no 'I' in team.
• It is greater to give than receive.

Some definitions
Playing : engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.
Game : activity engaged in for diversion or amusement

*Always* remember you are playing a game. If you forget that, or find yourself feeling otherwise, perhaps it's time to re-evaluate how you are 'playing'?

Hopefully you take your own advice by not attacking opinions that digress with yours.

[Kosmos992k]

Hopefully you take your own advice by not attacking opinions that digress with yours.

Hopefully you'll do the same? This is a positive topic, is it really your intent to use your reply to incite a confrontation?

P.S. To err is human, we all of us make mistakes. Whenever that happens, forgive, forget and remind yourself that this is a game you play for enjoyment.

Please reconsider the discussion in the topic you are no doubt referring to. We disagree, our opinions and points of view are completely different. I don't believe I made anything personal, nor did I attack you or anyone else. What you call "attacking opinions" is another way of saying disagreeing with an opinion and stating why, or simply arguing about something. If disagreeing or arguing with you is perceived by you as an attack, there is not a lot I can do about it. I left that topic because it became clear to me that there was no discussion happening, we were all talking past each other, and not discussing things with each other. I saw no reason to continue that - nor do I see any reason to continue it now.

[MaloraYuki]

I'm gonna admit, when I started this game I really didn't know I had chosen a tank. For some reason in my mind I thought of gladiator as a DPS. So it took me getting to Haukke Manor for some kind soul to explain enmity and how I should be positioned, etc. etc. So I'm just going to say that if someone of any class isn't performing well - don't harass them about it - tell them what they could do better...nicely.

Telling people nicely is a great way to help them learn however it would be nice if when you tell someone to kill what you marked or not to do something, such as pull when they aren't the tank, it's hard not to get mad when they don't listen... or if you ask someone to do something 6 times and they don't listen it gets frustrating.

[AsteriaStarfall]

A lot of good advice from the OP.

One thing to note, as i have just started leveling my paladin. Please dps, let the tank pull, that is their role, not yours.
I have a policy that if you pull it on purpose, you tank it. Doesn't matter to me, i have the time to waste. I have purposely let dps die for it. If you pull something by accident, no big deal. But if you target something and attack the moment the duty starts, you are on your own.