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

[Packetdancer]

You know, I actually have no idea how newer mentors are supposed to tackle mentor roulette. Should they do every Trial from previous expansions synced first?

Well, you explicitly have to clear every bit of (non-Savage, non-Ultimate, non-Unreal) content in the game to have access to Mentor Roulette. Because Mentor Roulette is designed to match you into every bit of (non-Savage, non-Ultimate, non-Unreal) content in the game.

So... kinda, yeah?

More specifically and seriously, it's not that you need to clear everything synced, per se, but that you need to be prepared to run it synced. Which means you need to be familiar with the fundamentals of mechanics (i.e., the LEGO pieces this game uses when building mechanics), and able to read a quick summary of a fight and act on it.

The point of all roulettes is to make sure that people who need to do content have other people available to do that content with. Without Duty Finder, you'd have to go set up a party finder (or ask on your FC chat, or whatever else) every time you wanted to do the next MSQ dungeon or trial as you went through story. We have roulettes for alliance raids, and if you queue into alliance raid roulette you should be prepared to get any of the alliance raids you've done; queuing in expecting Crystal Tower raids may be a safe bet, statistically, but you should be ready to end up in Puppets' Bunker if you're on a level 80 job. We have roulettes for leveling, and if you're on a level 80 job you should be equally ready to be matched into Cutter's Cry as into Mt. Gulg.

Mentor Roulette is explicitly the catch-all, the "this duty needs another warm body to function, but there aren't any explicitly queued in an appropriate roulette" fallback. It is mentor roulette because, since it can match you into literally anything, you should be prepared to be matched into literally anything -- including content you might need to help folks figure out how to clear.

Now, whether or not that's a roulette which should be tied to the mentor system -- and whether or not the mentor system is inherently broken and you have strong opinions on the sort of thing which would be a better system (as I do) -- is an entirely different topic.

But queuing into Mentor Roulette is queuing in knowing that you could be put into literally anything in the game that isn't savage, ultimate, or unreal. Which means you should be prepared to be put into literally anything in the game that isn't savage, ultimate, or unreal.

Yeah, those extremes are all optional... but so is mentor roulette.

[Cubsbane]

Oh, I agree that if you queue into mentor roulette as it is, you should expect to get some Extremes. I just had no idea how a prospective mentor would even tackle that.

(For what it's worth, I don't think Extremes should be bundled up with absolutely everything else in one roulette, but that's how it is right now.)

Though this talk of mentor roulette and party finder reminds me that I queued for Odin for like an hour before realizing it probably wasn't a normal Trial when I was new. Maybe it's lucky it was pre-free trial expansion, I would not have been ready for anything very difficult. I wish I'd known about how Party Finder works earlier on, too.

[Kaoru_Nagisa]

Was doing Alliance roulette on my baby alt, Syrcus Tower. Was a decent run, fast dps, one of our not-new dps kept dying to avoidable stuff so I just stopped raising him, but nothing noteworthy otherwise in terms of how the run went.

However, my group's tank had to leave on the way to Scylla because they said their wife went into labor. Immediately dropped group after excitedly proclaiming they were gonna be a father. It was-- a little shocking (and definitely true, since they didn't just hang around trying to get carried/asked to be kicked but legitimately dropped out), but also wholesome.

Hope your wife gave birth to a healthy baby, man, and good luck on your journeys in parenthood!

[BeerMusketeer]

I generally like how nice and positive the community is, but this really should go both ways.
Just did a run of Antitower on my Scholar. The tank absolutely refused to walk out of ANY red AoE markers (and to use any AoE abilities of his own for that matter). After I asked him multiple times to please at least try to dodge some (to no avail) I just stopped healing the damage he took from them. Inevitably he died and when I explained to him why, the gamer words started coming out. The other members then turn on me ("he's learning!").

I will bear with any player who is actively trying to learn but this guy was not, and I think that's toxic on its own when you're playing a team game. The other guy who defended behaviour like that even more so. How will people like that learn if I just heal away his mistakes? I mean, don't stand in red stuff is literally Hall of the Novice stuff, you shouldn't be doing that at level 60+.

Just had to get that off my chest because it really pissed me off lol.

[Rinhi]

I generally like how nice and positive the community is, but this really should go both ways.
Just did a run of Antitower on my Scholar. The tank absolutely refused to walk out of ANY red AoE markers (and to use any AoE abilities of his own for that matter). After I asked him multiple times to please at least try to dodge some (to no avail) I just stopped healing the damage he took from them. Inevitably he died and when I explained to him why, the gamer words started coming out. The other members then turn on me ("he's learning!").

I will bear with any player who is actively trying to learn but this guy was not, and I think that's toxic on its own when you're playing a team game. The other guy who defended behaviour like that even more so. How will people like that learn if I just heal away his mistakes? I mean, don't stand in red stuff is literally Hall of the Novice stuff, you shouldn't be doing that at level 60+.

Just had to get that off my chest because it really pissed me off lol.

ssshhh, you can't say this or the forum police will call you toxic because "you force your playstyle onto others" and to "be nice"
that that behaviour breeds those really bad level cap players gets ignored because "a clear is a clear" even if it took double or triple the time or similar excuses
oh and don't forget; if you try to give people advice on how to play better, even just generic advice that they really should have figured out after a few hundred hours, that's also bad because reasons! so many reasons that are totally not just "pls be nice to everyone uwu even if they're rude and waste your time" or "pls be nice to bad players like me"

Pharos Sirius.

The Black Mage in the group insisted on killing the eggs during the Zu fight, causing the boss the enrage. We wiped twice and each time the Black Mage decided to blame the Dark Knight. After the first wipe, I'd already spoken up and politely explained what to do. Though I ended up proposing a vote kick after the second wipe due to the false blame being thrown around. Shortly after the Black Mage was removed from the group, the White Mage left as well. Though we found replacements for each within five minutes and proceeded with no further issues.

killing the eggs shouldn't be an issue if the group DPS is good enough, though

[Theodric]

killing the eggs shouldn't be an issue if the group DPS is good enough, though

The White Mage was running about in a panic and not really healing, whereas the Black Mage wasn't attacking the boss and instead targeting the eggs - so the damage on the boss was only coming from the Dark Knight and myself.

[Rinhi]

The White Mage was running about in a panic and not really healing, whereas the Black Mage wasn't attacking the boss and instead targeting the eggs - so the damage on the boss was only coming from the Dark Knight and myself.

yeah, I figured lmao, it was just a general statement after having run that dungeon plenty of times with people who couldn't keep their fingers still and concentrate on just the boss :P
I hope those two have learned from that experience and know better now, at least

[Xirean]

Got an almost complete Keeper of the Lake; healer left on the last boss. Whenever I am filling a spot I often ask "leave, kick, or dc" just to get an idea of what to expect. They say that the healer left. During the final boss it became very clear why. Tank kept spinning the dragons, hitting everyone with the breath attacks and at one point I had to rescue them towards the correct ad to tank. Got a clear so not really that big of a deal, just thought it was funny how quickly all my questions were answered.

[Jettinson]

I generally like how nice and positive the community is, but this really should go both ways.
Just did a run of Antitower on my Scholar. The tank absolutely refused to walk out of ANY red AoE markers (and to use any AoE abilities of his own for that matter). After I asked him multiple times to please at least try to dodge some (to no avail) I just stopped healing the damage he took from them. Inevitably he died and when I explained to him why, the gamer words started coming out. The other members then turn on me ("he's learning!").

I will bear with any player who is actively trying to learn but this guy was not, and I think that's toxic on its own when you're playing a team game. The other guy who defended behaviour like that even more so. How will people like that learn if I just heal away his mistakes? I mean, don't stand in red stuff is literally Hall of the Novice stuff, you shouldn't be doing that at level 60+.

Just had to get that off my chest because it really pissed me off lol.

Speaking of toxic, Imagine having in the party the same players that refuse to learn on a wipe in floor 50 after spending 15\20 minutes there... then a second run and still get hit by mechanics that will actually kill whole party.
Had a black mage that complained about having pox (which is annoying but not the end of the world with the huge amount of healing items you get) and told me we were going to wipe because of that and
we needed to wait 5 minutes... only for him to get hit by the gaze mechanic, stay so far away from boss and get hit by the donut aoe (and not using aether manipulation which is a godsend) and having our whole party almost dead due to the unavoidable powered up raid attack, i told him just that that no amount of curing pox would have helped and i got called toxic.

Straight up will have patience on some trials and dungeons but deep dungeons you gotta learn something before or even try because losing all the progress hurts.

[sakkito]

Mentor Roulette - Gubal Normal, Me - WHM, Tank - BLUE, Nin - RED, BLM - Purple (though he is mute here). I have a feeling this may be a bit controversial.

The tank has a leaf, doesn't watch cutscenes so initially, I am fairly happy as it probably means he knows the place (easier to deal with newbs if they are on DPS). The Nin is a pro and Black Mage is brand new.
The tank does double pull, loses 2 mobs to me pretty instantly, takes them back - so nw. I put down my asylum, nin puts his sandpit - tank runs out. I thought he is checking if he can pull more, I knew he couldn't as there is a wall, he walked back to us but he never entered the bubble just stood like 2 cm from it same with the nin sandpit. So I click rescue. He sprints out again. So I type an explanation (sadly my keyboard changed languages hence initial z and y swap). As we run into first boss tank types 'quit complaining'. Tbh it was really triggering to me as ... um, we were just trying to explain that the things were actually good ^^;. Anyways the tank and BLM don't dodge so I track down my bestie - esuna. That BLM dies to the first book closure. Tank dies to third (don't ask, I will assume DPS was low as even the previous pulls took longer, but I literally expect nothing more from runs with new people). I run slightly ahead but wait for tank to pull. Anyways tank pushes sprint ^^. And while I get tethered to the book and I also managed to tank one add, he runs ahead and pulls next group of adds plus the next book. I admit I just stayed with the first book and didn't even attempt trying to
join him (retrospectively I don't think I could even heal that full pull anyways). I think at that point I was shocked as I remember just hitting stone and staring blankly at the screen. Just like... what? Anyways it is not only me at the first checkpoint, NIN stayed behind. We wipe. The conversation called 'y u no join' ensues. I blame it on the book, because that is partially correct.
We respawn. Tank sprints ahead again. Does triple pull again (that first book died before we wiped) when I managed to join him (I was slightly delayed) he was almost dead. >.> Bene.
Then second boss. Ya know how the Boss Invulns and then there are books and stuff. Our Brave Tank tanks the boss while me and 2 dps kill adds.

Then tank does another impossible pull (wall to wall, 4 packs, I burn through everything, while having to bene myself and hard casting cure 2 on repeat to save him, at least he stayed in asylum there). Anyhow I forget about the last two packs and type asking him to pull less. As we clear the last pack I type ouff. The cutscene starts. BUT NOTHING. I MEAN NOTHING. SHALL STOP OUR BRAVE TANK FROM STARTING THE FIGHT XD Literally, at that point, I was not even surprised. I was waiting for that BLM to stop watching cs to join the fight. Obviously because of the rush I didn't even have time to type in advice for the newbie. So yeah that still went better than I thought it would. We hit adds on every turn because only me and NINja were running through the rings, on turn 3 I rescued that BLM to us but obviously couldn't do it a second time. In case you were wondering, the third turn add does some line aoes. There is a first time for everything. The tank insta leaves. The NIN comments about things being painful. Says good job nonetheless. I respond with a good game and thanked him. Got 1 comm.

I have to say that BLM was trying and when she saw me and NIN doing stuff she copied it with delay. That tank though... >.> I mean this is age old discussion who is leading the party --- tank, or the party composition. And all I have in my brain ATM is 'that brave leaf' xD The fact is though, he was still a n00b, clearly didn't understand the mechanics but also was not happy with anyone trying to help. Also pulling a bit too bravely for the party. Anyways, I am still trying to wrap my head around all this. Also ever since when 'mentor' is a slur lol.