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

[Frizze]

I kind of wish I was able to tell what was going wrong in a party like some of you can.

Things have been dying really slowly on the last couple Expert roulettes I've run as a summoner. Today's run I was paired with a ninja in Hero's Gauntlet. Normally a pack of enemies only needs one of Dreadwyrm/Bahamut/Pheonix mixed in along with my other AOEs. Many packs this run could use two, and one lasted long enough for all three...

Sometimes we know, sometimes we guess, sometimes its a mystery. Outside of a crystal ball, class knowledge is your best bet. Do i see/hear your aoe going off on packs? Are dots/debuffs showing up on the enemies from the classes that use them? Am i seeing the group buffs your class does show up in my window? Do you seem to be standing still(as in not moving and no attack animation/cast bar) for noticeable stretches of time? Are you taking a lot of avoidable attacks(reduces healers DPS potential plus possible debuffs)/dying a lot? Is your spot on the aggro list approx where i expect it to be? And one I can check before the run even starts, is your max HP in the right range for your class type? If HP is low then their overall gear is probly pretty bad, at which point check the weapon in particular as that has the biggest gear effect on damage output. Their stuff could also be broken, which makes it effectively useless. If i run through all my questions and havent figured out why we're slow(also assuming im awake enough to be playing well) then i tend to write it off as a slow run. "Everything seemed fine but we took 5 mins longer then i expected" isnt an interesting story, so most of those dont make their way to this thread. Being 5 mins off means we were significantly slow if a run is usually sub-20, but its still lacking a narrative. Mind you, some of the absolute horror story runs of ton of things going wrong were still finished within 30 mins. My last run i wrote up(egotistical tank has a fit being the short version) we made it to the boss in 17 mins flat(the drama made if feel like we'd been going for almost half an hour, so i noticed the time as the boss cutscene happened and was surprised we were still that fast - i didnt happen to notice the boss finished time though), and finished the fight in one fairly clean pull. But the fit along the way and how petty some people can be was the story, not how we were a couple mins slower then we'd have liked(a really fast group is out of the dungeon quicker then we reached the boss afterall).

[Wrestlefire769]

Tried to Alliance Raid Roulette my way into another Bozjan Relic token today.

Got Orbonne Monastery instead. (Yay me... *twirls little finger*)

Run goes surprisingly smoothly until Ultima. We wipe there for our sole wipe.

Jerk in C basically says, after someone said to try to spread out the AoEs, that we just needed to try to git gud.

To which I (in B) then said: "Take and stuff that attitude, plskthxbye."

Other person then says: "Maybe Mr. Sonofraiser shouldn't die so much."

Me? "Bite me."

And then, when I died to a mechanic in the second round of the Ultima fight: "That, unintentionally, was for you."

So we get through the DPS check, and while I'm watching the scenes before Part II:

"Please stay after the fight."
"I want to comm you."
"So do I!!"

Got three comms, and I don't think any of them were because of my "talent" in one of those raids I just hate.

(I wonder what the jerk would feel like if he saw me in Puppet's Bunker!)

[Packetdancer]

Tried to Alliance Raid Roulette my way into another Bozjan Relic token today.

Got Orbonne Monastery instead. (Yay me... *twirls little finger*)

Me (prior to Tuesday): *runs Alliance Roulette, gets Labyrinth of the Ancients for the eleventy-billionth time*
Me: ...augh. As always.

Me (on Tuesday): Well, Alliance Roulette always gives me Labyrinth or Syrcus, so at least when it get it this time I'll be getting a Loathsome Memory for Bozjan relics! I might as well queue as monk because it's a little more fun to play DPS in the Crystal Tower ones instead of healing.
Me: *queues into Alliance Roulette, gets Puppets' Bunker of all things*
Me: *shocked Pikachu meme, Gaius voice* Such CONTENT! This was NOT my expectation!

So far, my Alliance tally this week is Puppets' Bunker on Tuesday and Ridorana on Wednesday.

(I... actually can't complain, because while I'm not doubling up and getting my relic memories, at least I'm getting alliance raids I prefer over Yet Another Labyrinth of the Ancients. It just strikes me as amusing that the one time I wouldn't mind getting Crystal Tower yet again, Alliance Roulette decides to give me some variety.)

[Anacondo]

I was healing Gubal normal and this dancer died four times agains the first boss. Four times. Not even a sprout. When I left him dead our dps went up. I'm very upset, life is suffering,

[Theodric]

I've been slowly building up my confidence to play as a tank again lately. Mostly because a lot of the recent tank gear just looks incredible to me. I was doing it constantly in PvP already - though that's a different beast to PvE - and so far my foray into roulettes has been pretty smooth and enjoyable. When I'm feeling a little braver, I'll make my into some of the tougher content.

[Vidu]

Two or three weeks ago I was reminded how overpowered clemency actually is (and how much I'm loving it):

My partner (BLM) and I (PLD) queued up for an expert roulette - for once its Battle for Novrandt and not Matoyas Atelier. With us are a maschnist and a scholar (either new or a returner, I dont remember - but he had one of the little plant icons beside his name). We say our greetings (except for the scholar) and off we go!
The healing isnt great, but oh well, its not like that really matters, I'm just grumbling a bit (the longer I play the less I can stand DF-people, it seems... but as long as I keep the grumbling to myself, all good, right?) and we reach the first boss. The scholar clearly has no ability to read the mechanics at all and eventually dies when Locke - sorry, the Phantom Thief - is at about 15% health - easy enough to finish off.
Boss is dead and the scholar... stays dead. And then disconnects. We wait a little to see if he comes back, but after one or two minutes we're beginng to ask ourselves if this was a "shame DC". We still have loot up, so we cant kick him just yet.

Instead of just standing around, I suggest we might aswell try going on... so we do.
And this is where it gets kinda fun and intresting, but also a little weird: I'm doing normal pulls, keeping myself up with clemency and rotating cooldowns and... it works. Pulling two groups is enterily possible as paladin, no healer required, apparently.
We reach the second boss - the healer has been kicked by now and we're waiting for a replacement - and the maschinst makes a comment along the lines of "Oh, we cant do this one without a healer, I guess"
Hes wrong. You can.
You can also clear the rest of the dungeon without a healer while doing normal pulls.

A WHM joined us when the last boss had about 30% HP left - they were a little confused but took their tomestones gratefully.

It was quite fun doing this dungeon without a healer and I love how powerful clememcy is - but I cant shake the feeling that something is broken here and that this shouldnt have been possible. I might be biased, but I dont think its clemency thats broken and rather the general balance of dungeons, which are way to easy - both boss-fights and trash-mobs.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Have you reached to the point where you’re simply not-so-inclined to explain the ‘why’ of a strategy against certain mechanic? Because I certainly think I’m hovering back and forth on that point nowadays.

Leveling Roulette: Castrum Abania, rolled as an AST
Cooldown-less tank? It’s fine. Maybe I’ll let their HP hover slightly uncomfortably lower than usual before topping them up... perhaps they’ll get that cooldowns are powerful & shouldn’t be neglected? Yep. They started using their cooldown post 2nd boss. THANK YOU! (I do admit I probably did it too much because they would hit their invuln button real quick several times)

Also hello RDM that did not try nor (probably) paid attention. I typed the required element buff to have to not get damaged by the repel damage to no avail. First elemental phase, I’m still being nice. Second elemental phase and still ain’t learning...? To the floor you go.

None of them were first timers either. Oh well.
/shrug

[Mahoukenshi]

Have you reached to the point where you’re simply not-so-inclined to explain the ‘why’ of a strategy against certain mechanic? Because I certainly think I’m hovering back and forth on that point nowadays.

Leveling Roulette: Castrum Abania, rolled as an AST
Cooldown-less tank? It’s fine. Maybe I’ll let their HP hover slightly uncomfortably lower than usual before topping them up... perhaps they’ll get that cooldowns are powerful & shouldn’t be neglected? Yep. They started using their cooldown post 2nd boss. THANK YOU! (I do admit I probably did it too much because they would hit their invuln button real quick several times)

Also hello RDM that did not try nor (probably) paid attention. I typed the required element buff to have to not get damaged by the repel damage to no avail. First elemental phase, I’m still being nice. Second elemental phase and still ain’t learning...? To the floor you go.

None of them were first timers either. Oh well.
/shrug

Not reading the chat log is annoying. For whatever reason. Happens to me as well, but I understand the frustration. However, why are people still using the "no first timer either" excuse to complain? There are people who did that dungeon for MSQ maybe only once and just happened to get it during roulette. So a total of twice. Could they have memorized all there is by then? Maybe, there some wonders out there, but is it common? Dunno.

[SturmChurro]

Had to drop everything and go AFK, so I returned not too long into a fight. Some nonsense in party chat ensued:



I don't have to explain myself, if I have to go afk, and I DEFINITELY do not owe the party an apology even if they think I do. If I apologize, it's because I feel bad. This is the latter bit of the chat. The saddest bit was, I think they were throwing such a fit, because I was a healer, but my healing was severely nerfed, because of the profane I had on the entire time previously. And no they didn't need my heals either, the party wasn't having trouble with heals, they were just being picky, because I went afk. For that matter, I am pretty sure you can't replace me if I am kicked, so they just wanted to kick me to get back at me for going afk.

[Vahlnir]

Had to drop everything and go AFK, so I returned not too long into a fight. Some nonsense in party chat ensued:



I don't have to explain myself, if I have to go afk, and I DEFINITELY do not owe the party an apology even if they think I do. If I apologize, it's because I feel bad. This is the latter bit of the chat. The saddest bit was, I think they were throwing such a fit, because I was a healer, but my healing was severely nerfed, because of the profane I had on the entire time previously. And no they didn't need my heals either, the party wasn't having trouble with heals, they were just being picky, because I went afk. For that matter, I am pretty sure you can't replace me if I am kicked, so they just wanted to kick me to get back at me for going afk.

Things come up, and I think most people are understanding of that. Sometimes, albeit rarely, I have to do the same out of the blue. Such is life. If I can or if I think of it I will type a quick "Brb", but sometimes there's just no time for that. If I have to afk and the group decides they need to kick me, so be it. That doesn't change the fact I had to afk. lol You just encountered a couple jerks is all. You were in the new raid too by the look of things, so people are probably being a bit more "serious" about it.