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

[Averax]

Another one from earlier today.

I zone into Fractal Continuum as a Scholar.

Group seems normal, so i take the time to inspect my tank and judge how much dps i'll be able to do.

The tank is in crafted sub-60 gear, however the two dps (smn/nin) seem decently geared from my brief inspection, so i decide that my dps may not be necessary.

So we pull the first mob, the tank kites it around the room for some reason. I get frustrated, but i keep healing.

After the first boss, i notice that things are dying extremely slowly, so i take a gander at what the DPS are doing.

First i glance at the SMN, who is applying all his dots... and thats it... he'd apply dots, burn all his aetherflow stacks, and then use deathflare. He was not casting ruin at all, in fact on the next boss fight he actually decided to use tri-bind. He would only occasionally use ruin 3.

So i tell the SMN "Hey, you really need to be using ruin as your filler spell." and for some reason, he takes this as a personal offense, and is pissy with my for the rest of the run, and he still does not cast ruin.

And then, after being so distracted by this, i failed to notice that the ninja was literally drifting in and out of sleep, and it was causing him to ignore some mechanics, he mentioned it after we wiped the first time on the last boss.

The tank tells the NIN to pull it together and pay attention while I have a few words with the SMN about his lack of using ruin among other spells.

The Ninja does not react to the tank until later, however the SMN decides to try to find some fault with me and turn it against me, so he says "Maybe you should be cleansing more isntead of telling me what to do" as i had previously not dispelled a few aetherochemical bombs instantly as they appeared. So i retorted "Well, i'd be able to dispell them faster if i were not forced to pick up the dps you're not putting out". He didn't like that at all.

The tank decides to pull and the SMN says "You know what, it's worth the penalty." and bails mid fight. Needless to say we wiped again.

We got a replacement rather quickly, a machinist. Instead of inspecting them, i decide that they'll probably be better than the SMN no matter what at this point, and I was right. The next attempt went down nearly perfectly, the ninja was coherent through most of the fight, the tank didn't get ripped like a wet paper bag, and the machinist was performing up to par (maybe a little better) as hoped.

We defeated the boss, and finally the ninja decides to react to the tank telling him to get it together. "Hey tank you're a f***t" and then leaves. The tank goes "Dafuq???" and leaves as well. The machinist asked me what the hell went on throughout this whole run, so i regaled her with the horrors i had dealt with over the previous 30 minutes. We had a good laugh, i gave her a commendation, and we parted ways.

I needed to lie down for a few minutes, as that whole ordeal had emotionally drained me.

[Dtwo]

I have one it's old story back 2.0.

I remember my fps was 12 I think, back then I had a old comp, man sastasha was a nightmare mode I was freezing left to right my party was dying and we wipe a lot and disconnected too. so I just stayed out doing fate and side quest after I upgrade better comp.

[AskaRay]

Just was in Stone Vigil HM.. last boss. I died due to my controller freezing (whoops), the NIN dies right after me.
I'm AST so I just rez and run back....

The NIN and I watch as the WAR and the newbie BRD obliterate the last 3/4 of the boss(es) without us, haha.

[SchalaZeal]

You HAVE TO stance dance Cleric when DPSing as a healer.
So you have to:
1) PERFECTLY know the dungeon to know when you can stop healing for 5+ seconds.
2) Check the tank's gear.
3) Trust the tank (VERY hard in DF).
4) Have Cleric bound on something that's easy and fast to reach.

In pre-50 dungeons (but ideally, pre-30), your INT and MND are close in numbers (like 150 vs 250), the benefits of stance-dancing are less clear as your dots still do damage, and if you don't know the tank, better be safe than sorry. Between 31-50, they are still close in numbers (like 200 vs 350), but you should have a bigger HP margin by then, especially as Scholar, to put on and drop Cleric.

At 50+ dungeons or trials, the difference is already about 500 (200 mnd vs 700 int), though the dots are not useless, they are slight help only. If the tank does big pulls you won't have time to cleric usually, but on regular pulls you'll be able to stay in cleric the entire time. I haven't tried healing 60 content yet. I know the difference is even bigger (200 mnd vs 1100 int), but I'd still at least apply Bio, Combust, Aero if I had time and MP on big pulls.

While I WILL do my absolute best to DPS as a healer when I have downtime, there are days where I am too tired to stance-dance, or my stance-dance button doesn't work, or when I just don't want to switch my cross-class skills to be able to use Cleric...
Healer DPS is a bonus, not a requirement, and you should be happy about healers that DPS, not frustrated with those that don't.

But you don't have to stance dance to do enough damage in Halatali and Sastasha. You'll do fine without cleric using your dps skills and the tank, even if geared, will have low HP, not enough time for you to do much. Also macros are nice and all, but it's pretty useful to keep old skills on your bar (even if you move them 'away' from your main skills) and to not just rely on macros for anything. You should be able to dot on the fly for mobs that are almost dead (because sometimes they outlast Ruin 2 and you want to dot many - like Tonberries in WP - yet they won't last enough to apply all 3 dot and bane).

Example for me is the Fractal final boss adds, as Summoner. My single target damage is really bad or costs too much MP, and I won't waste several GCDs using Ruin 2 on them, so I just Bio all of them. A macro wouldn't work if you use Bio II always at first. Btw I also start my dot rotation with Bio always. And I don't macro crafts because they sometime malfunction, skip a step and screw the entire thing, even if they have enough /wait 3 everywhere.

[Kolaina]

In pre-50 dungeons (but ideally, pre-30), your INT and MND are close in numbers (like 150 vs 250), the benefits of stance-dancing are less clear as your dots still do damage, and if you don't know the tank, better be safe than sorry. Between 31-50, they are still close in numbers (like 200 vs 350), but you should have a bigger HP margin by then, especially as Scholar, to put on and drop Cleric.

At 50+ dungeons or trials, the difference is already about 500 (200 mnd vs 700 int), though the dots are not useless, they are slight help only. If the tank does big pulls you won't have time to cleric usually, but on regular pulls you'll be able to stay in cleric the entire time. I haven't tried healing 60 content yet. I know the difference is even bigger (200 mnd vs 1100 int), but I'd still at least apply Bio, Combust, Aero if I had time and MP on big pulls.

you forgot to calculate the potency boost given by cleric stance

[Shurrikhan]

Ninja spammed Mutilate, no mudras. Tank did only single target combos with a SCH and SMN dpsing.

[Kalsam]

-snip-
Example for me is the Fractal final boss adds, as Summoner. My single target damage is really bad or costs too much MP, and I won't waste several GCDs using Ruin 2 on them, so I just Bio all of them.

Save your Tri-Disaster for these (This also works as a timer for when they're next up, as it's available for each spawn of them). Cast it on whichever is in the middle, Bane. Your dots alone should kill them by the second square if you're at least 175 ilvl. When I run with my friends, the other DPS never touches the adds, since they know my dots will kill them off.
The only exception is those rare times that the first two spawn on opposite sides/one square apart. He'll then jump that one (as he plays a DRG), and a Ruin 2 finishes it off if he doesn't crit.

[Azazua_azura]

here is a good 2 horror stories, and prolly the poster child of why tanks barely run in DF.

So i was a lvl 23 gladitor and qu'ed up to halatali with my boyfriend who was leveling his dragoon. I haven't tanked all that long after 6 mnth break and on a fresh character who not that geared. I get a whm in the party who i reconize from my server (and a few run in on my previous character). I mark mobs and pull, and he casts aero before i could hit the thing, the smn doing the same as well. Resulting in hate going everywhere. I fully admit i wasn't playing well due to relearning how to play the class/job. The whm then starts to get me to mass pull, and i kindly said no i'm only lvl 23 and not well geared, and stated i haven'tr played the class in a while and very rusty. He then states "its just halatali" and darts forward pulling mobs, i stand there wondering wtf is his issue.

I wasn't trying to be rude, but i was shocked this even was happening, and with the smn casting before i could pull the mobs i was tryting to make sure i hit first or have provoke ready. The smn complained how long the run was taking (it was 3 min into the dungeon) the whm keot ragging on me, and i got fed up with it and called him a sucky whm (which he was he was trying to tank for me) He told me i was a sucky tank, andi said I know i a,m i'm just starting to relearn the class/role. He said that if I was struggling in low level content i should quit the game.


Second story is short mostly today i was running haukke manor and was in a pt with a geared drg (my boyfriend was healing) who more or less just trolling the go ahead and pull/solo mobs said nothing throut the dungeon and we vote kicked him.

bonus story, was in a jp group earlier in haukke who had a whm and dps pull before i could or attack before i could get the mobs set up. And wouldn't stop, not really wanting to deal with it and close my target level, i asked my boyfriend to vote kick me. First time got rejected so i walked to the start and he tried again and it went through, not somerhing i took pride in, but i'm tired of leaving dungeon getting a 30 min penalty because other people want to be rude. (this was right after the vote kick run so mine was on 4 hrs)

[RadiantRay]

I don't really have any DF horror stories, they've all been pretty much the norm/pleasant. If I do have to one then I can say the people who rage quit Extreme level primals after the 2nd wipe especially those who are new to the fight. You'd think by the time these people get to Ramuh extreme that they'd know they'd be wiping a lot but I guess pretty much everyone gets carried and aren't used to wiping and learning >.>

Cleric stance stuff :3

Actually I feel cleric stance at lower levels is very well worth it since cleric stance gives 10% dmg boost on top of switching your int/mind. Especially as a scholar, they can practically live on cleric stance because of their fairy and low level dungeons hardly requiring much attention from you. I actually get a lot of comments on how fast dungeons are going because my dps when I play lower level content on scholar. As an experienced healer, I'd say that you should always pop cleric stance no matter what level content you're in if you're planning on dpsing, you just do so much more damage. Of course doing so can be more difficult depending on what dungeon you're in and sometimes you can't, but remember the sooner you pop cleric stance the sooner you can get out of it (that mean using cleric stance after a pull, dotting enemies as tank is pulling and so on)

[sirDarts]

Tried A1 today. We wiped at Faust. I have NEVER wiped in A1N Faust before. We almost wiped the second time, then wiped twice on the Opressor before I ragequit. This was after a totally terrible A4 that wiped twice before vote abandon hit.

...I give up on DF today.

Wait WHAT?! You can actually WIPE on Faust in A1N?! HOW?! I have only had one run that was not solohealable, and had to switch out of Cleric for the last 10% due to adds, but every other run I did, I was just sitting in Cleric all Faust long and the other healer was easily able to keep both tanks up AND DPS every now and then...