Tales from Duty Finder: Some make you laugh, some make you cry. Let's vent.

[Lyraele]

Please, SE. Starting us at 30 was a bad idea. Starting us at 50 is an even worse idea. Please just make us start at level 1 so we all have to put some actual effort into playing a job before we can start on dungeons.

No thank you. I mostly play tanks and healers. I just spent a couple of days getting RDM from 50-60 as my 1st ever DPS job past 30, and a large part of the decision to choose RDM was it starts at 50. Starting at level 1 won't necessarily raise skill, being willing to learn and practice is what makes the difference.

[YitharV2]

I don't tank very often, but I do keep one leveled for helping friends or FC members. I mainly leveled my DRK by doing roulettes daily and spamming Aery/Vault/Gubal, so there is still some content I am unfamiliar with from a tank perspective and some stuff that I never queue for as a tank because it is not my favorite role. So having finished gearing my MNK (main) and leveling my WHM it was time to remove the dust from my greatsword and level my DRK from 60 to 70.

I queue for Trials Roulette and get Thornmarch, a trial I never did as a tank. From all the other times I have been there as a DPS or Healer I remember one of the tanks just standing there with the King while the other pulls the tank Mogs asside and deal with them as the rest of the party burn through Mogs on a priority list.

Trial starts, I'm in a group with another DRK, who immediately gets Darkside on but no Grit, so I just go ahead and prepare to tank. While I wait for the healers to Protect us the other tank gets impatient, runs ahead and pulls the boss without ever putting his tank stance on, so I was like "ok, in for an interesting start aren't we?". First phase goes well, second phase starts and the other guy still has Grit down, so I figured it would be best if I pulled the tank Mogs asside and let him deal with the boss (you don't need tank stance for that, just let him slap you).

From this moment onwards things go terribly wrong, the boss is running around, people are dying, I'm barely getting any heals and have to focus on keeping myself alive while the boss runs around and the other tank is doing god knows what. Then out of nowhere the other tank has a massive fit and starts texting in all caps screaming I should be tanking the boss and asking what I'm doing, never for a moment considering aggroing the boss it seems.

I see the incoming wipe so I just take my time to explain what I usually see people doing in this fight as tanks, but the other guy was still super mad about it saying I should know better because I completed this fight before and demanding my head. I assume he started a vote kick because I wasn't even allowed to stay in the fight long enough to see a second pull.

I may have remembered that fight wrong, and sorry if I did, but dude what the hell? Take a chill pill, people can make mistakes.

That sucks. Based on the fact that he pulled, I would have also gone on the assumption that he wanted to MT the boss. Some people in this game...

[YitharV2]

Lol. Anyone who thinks you use Medica II during trash pulls as a WHM must not play much WHM. The only time I use Medica II during trash pulls is if the trash has unavoidable aoe (ex. Dragons in Snowcloak) and even then it depends on my party.

Medica II is generally a waste of MP and a GCD. In Sohm Al the WHM should have been using Regen and Asylum. Not Medica II. Not only that, if she was new why was the tank doing big pulls? That's incredibly inconsiderate. Even as a fairly experienced WHM I hate the big pulls there.

^This. Also I find it funny how your correct advice gets less likes than the wrong advice. Reminds me of this where a guy got 100 upvotes for saying to flash more or overpower more on a post that was just asking DPS to use Diversion to help speed up runs.

The only time I use Medica II is if the whole party is taking damage on a trash pull for whatever reason. Otherwise the MP cost isn't really worth it. Yeah, Regen+Asylum is the advice my pro friend gave me when I was just starting to heal this expansion.

[missybee]

Lol. Anyone who thinks you use Medica II during trash pulls as a WHM must not play much WHM.

Guilty as charged, I guess.

I haven't touched WHM since before 4.0, but is there not value in having two regens on the tank?

Maybe I'm the biggest trashcan healer, but I like doing Aspected Benefic and Aspected Helios so I can throw more orbs and stars and shit at mobs.

[YitharV2]

Guilty as charged, I guess.

I haven't touched WHM since before 4.0, but is there not value in having two regens on the tank?

Yeah, that's why you use Asylum. Asylum has 100 potency while Medica II only has 50 potency. And Asylum is free unlike Medica II which costs 2k MP, almost as much as Holy does. Holy's a little bit higher in cost. Medica II also has a high cast time. Both Asylum and Regen are instant cast.

[EdwinLi]

Me: LB please.

level 70 Melee DPS: What is a LB?

Me: Limit Break.

Level 70 Melee DPS: What is a Limit Break?

Me: Is this your first time in this game?

Level 70 Melee DPS: Yes I used a Jump potion to skip 2.0 and 3.0.

--the rest of the story does not matter but you can already guess my expression--

[missybee]

Yeah, that's why you use Asylum. Asylum has 100 potency while Medica II only has 50 potency. And Asylum is free unlike Medica II which costs 2k MP, almost as much as Holy does. Holy's a little bit higher in cost. Medica II also has a high cast time. Both Asylum and Regen are instant cast.

But Asylum has a 90 second cooldown? D:

I'm not saying don't use it - I think Asylum is great. I am more 'por que no los dos?,' if Asylum is on cooldown.

[VanilleFang]

Guilty as charged, I guess.

I haven't touched WHM since before 4.0, but is there not value in having two regens on the tank?

Maybe I'm the biggest trashcan healer, but I like doing Aspected Benefic and Aspected Helios so I can throw more orbs and stars and shit at mobs.

Even in 2.x and 3.x using Medica II during most trash pulls was a complete waste. You are healing 3 people who most likely won't get hit, and are wasting a GCD that could have went to a stronger single target heal or DPS. Adding 50 potency to Regen at the cost of a GCD and a large sum of MP is incredibly inefficient and won't save anyone any trouble.

Asylum should be your primary go to second HoT level 52+. Before level 52 Regen is good enough. Medica II should come out during AoE heavy pulls/bosses/raids.

Adding 50 potency HoT doesn't give you much extra breathing room as the heal is pretty miniscule. You are still going to have to heal the tank regardless. Instead of using Medica II you can "save" that GCD for a Cure II, or Stone II/III/IV.

[Maeka]

My thoughts on the whole tank thing:

I am Lv67 and I've done up to Doma Castle thusfar as a PLD. I wear full VIT. I have not had threat problems whatsoever, but then I go full Shield Oath and I use my Enmity Combos, Flash, Circle of Scorn, etc. I only use Goring Blade and Royal Authority on bosses when I have fully established threat (usually after the first combo, lol).

I don't care if we're going through the dungeon slightly slower. The small change in my DPS output should not make that much of a difference as to how fast we kill mobs. Even if it were 10-20%, that's still piddly compared to what the DPS or even the Healer is putting out. My job is to keep junk off of everybody else, and that's what I do. I do my job. But then I tend to earn commendations rather often, so apparently most people don't mind the fact that they rarely pull aggro.

Now, on the flipside, as a healer, I hate it when a tank runs in and starts grabbing everything ON THE VERY FIRST PULL before he even establishes whether or not the healer can handle it. I am not a fan of unnecessarily large pulls. I can usually handle them, but it is far more stressful than I would like and one bit of lag or one DPS that gets caught in an AoE could cause a wipe, or ANY mistake on the Tank or even My part. Yes, I'm human like everybody else, I can make mistakes. For example, I had a tank LoS me yesterday. It caused a wipe, because said tank left me very little room for error and that Cure 2 that I was casting would have saved his life, but instead he died before I could get another out and we all ate a wipe. Now, the tank apologized for it and admitted it was their mistake, but it goes to show that one wrong move in large pulls means a wipe and a lot of wasted time.

Anyways, on to Duty Finder tales...

A few days ago, I get to Doma Castle for the first time as my tank. We enter the instance, and well... sometimes my item inventory gets to be a mess as I've been trying to get through MSQ and crafting dailies and ventures, that I end up with a messy inventory. It's a new instance, and I'm barely high enough level to be there. I'm not undergeared by much (I've like two accessories that are outdated). But, it is good XP and I wouldn't mind having some extra tank stats to pay for the outdated accessories, so after we zone in, I pull open my inventory and I try to find some food. I know I have tank food on me, but I couldn't remember where exactly it is. I eat the food and I notice that someone is half-dead in the group UI and their name is dull. *sigh*

I hit sprint and run after them and drop an AoE provoke and manage to save his scrawny butt. IIRC, it was a SAM. I was like "Excuse me? I wasn't even ready."

No reply.

Seriously. I really don't like people who can't wait 10 freaking seconds after the circle disappears. What if I had a phone call or something and it took longer than 10 seconds for me to get back to the keyboard or something? Then you'd have a dead group.

EDIT: My #2 Pet Peeve in Duty Finder groups while I'm a healer? GIVE ME FREAKING TIME TO RESET MY WONDROUS TAILS. KTHX. No, seriously, that crap is downright obnoxious. My top row of WT is all done and I've got a bunch of Second Chance points. I can't reset it before going into a dungeon because I don't know if I'm going to get a 1-49, 51-59, or a 60+ dungeon ahead of time. So, my only option is to try to reset before the end boss, and sometimes if I don't do it right away, I end up forgetting and I end up going home without a sticker. So please, don't go anywhere until I cast protect. I hate trying to cast Protect when we got tanks trying to multi-pull, DPS running around everywhere, and Protect has an annoyingly small AoE radius.

[ilea]

Didn't think I'd be posting in this thread again so soon, but wow.

Expert Roulette dropped me into Kugane Castle with a DRK, BRD, and RDM. DRK and BRD came together; pleasantries were exchanged and we were off.

DRK started dropping really fast, so I inspected his gear -- no problems there. I only realised into the second pull that he wasn't using Grit. I don't have a problem with this, but I was running low on MP, even after using Lucid Dream and extending it with Celestial Opposition.

So I asked him to put up Grit, and the following occurred:

Link

DRK is blue, BRD is red, and RDM is purple.

He threatened to shirk us for my request, and actually shirked the RDM later on. During the first boss, he moved to stand in both bomb AoEs dropped by the Harakiri adds, apparently planning to kill himself. The vote kick went through after the encounter ended, with no deaths, amazingly. We got another tank shortly after, and the run went fine.

I don't think I was being rude, but this guy responded to me like I had told him he was a scrub. His friend (BRD) later commented that he wanted the BRD to document the conversation, because he thought the dismissal was unfair. I don't know. I consider threats of shirking, and intentional play sabotage, to be worthy of a kick.

He said he wouldn't tell us how to do our jobs, but told me and the RDM what to do. :P