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

[ICountFrom0]

So, since the poster didn't say what the mechanic was that was causing wipes, I went and looked up Holminster Switch.

Final boss is that big fisty sin eater...

Chain mechanic is also in the gryphon fight, but it goes all the way back to the level 50 hard mode dungeons.

Rotation. Now I will admit I died to this the first time I saw this... in the ff15 crossover event. If nowhere else it was in the Ivalace raids.

So, yes, the mechanics are elsewhere. I'd say everybody should remember noteworthy mechanics they've seen before in the game. This game is very carefully structured, you meet a mechanic, then you do a more complicated version of the mechanic. Latter you meet the simple version again elsewhere without the training and warning.

[Dreamsoap]

Doing Iconoclasm with 4 sprouts. Tank was new so he would cleave party with tank buster but honestly it wasnt so bad because we could adjust around him. What really got me was the immense salt from the AST and DNC. Normal content ... is normal. In PF you get what you get, and with sprouts it's simply not going to be optimal. I don't know what to tell you other than grow up and get over it. People don't decide to be new to content just to ruin your night, so don't go ruining theirs. Just tell people to follow you for whatever mechanics and it'll typically get the clear.

[Imora]

Let's see here.. tales from the duty finder eh? How about lack of it?

75 minutes in queue for Limitless Blue... The required part. T.T

[Shibi]

Let's see here.. tales from the duty finder eh? How about lack of it?

75 minutes in queue for Limitless Blue... The required part. T.T

You probably know this, and sorry for telling you if you do, but just in case... make sure you tick all languages.

[Frizze]

After queue popped and went in, I notified everyone that this was my first time going through this as a heads-up for them. It was fine, but throughout the entire run, I got no tips on the bosses and each one I at least fell once. I was asking with each one if there was anything I should know. I got nothing and was essentially left high and dry.

Because honestly there isnt anything to tip you off too. First boss uses nothing but line or circle aoes - and they show up on the field plenty early to dodge the moves. Second boss uses one stack move(which you should have seen before), and one numbered charge. Numbered charge you might not have seen yet, but all it takes is not stacking - and the other players should be avoiding you even if you dont know to avoid them. Third boss has pendulum - thats just a proximity aoe so not new. The side-swipe punches arent new, but maybe looking for the visual tell or cast bar is something you wouldnt be used to. Chain isnt new. And his rampage(i forget the name) is just forward exa-flares combined with a backward tail sweep and an obvious spin. The move is visual enough that you shouldnt take any damage from any part of it even if you havent seen the various parts.

And yeah, most people wont just tell you mechs during a run. A lot of people get offended if you do and a lot more dont need to hear them and dont want you wasting their time. Plus, a lot of people play on controller and typing a message is really annoying. If the mech isnt absolutely life and death, then wont bother. Nothing in Holminster rises to that level. At worst its a hard hit and a vuln stack.

[TheMightyMollusk]

So, since the poster didn't say what the mechanic was that was causing wipes, I went and looked up Holminster Switch.

Final boss is that big fisty sin eater...

Chain mechanic is also in the gryphon fight, but it goes all the way back to the level 50 hard mode dungeons.

Rotation. Now I will admit I died to this the first time I saw this... in the ff15 crossover event. If nowhere else it was in the Ivalace raids.

So, yes, the mechanics are elsewhere. I'd say everybody should remember noteworthy mechanics they've seen before in the game. This game is very carefully structured, you meet a mechanic, then you do a more complicated version of the mechanic. Latter you meet the simple version again elsewhere without the training and warning.

To be fair, the Ivalice raids are not required for the MSQ, and the crossover was a few years back, so if they haven't done those, this would be the first time it came up.

[MrPresident]

To be fair, the Ivalice raids are not required for the MSQ, and the crossover was a few years back, so if they haven't done those, this would be the first time it came up.

Rotation mechanic happens on first boss of Ghimlyt Dark. Literally the previous dungeon you will unlock before Holminster lol

[Aldora]

Hoo boy, as a healer main, I can safely say I have a story to tell.

As I was running through the ShB MSQ I was going through Holminster Switch for the first time. I figured, "eh, I did it with the others and managed fine, so this shouldn't be too bad." After queue popped and went in, I notified everyone that this was my first time going through this as a heads-up for them. It was fine, but throughout the entire run, I got no tips on the bosses and each one I at least fell once. I was asking with each one if there was anything I should know. I got nothing and was essentially left high and dry. The final one, a new mechanic popped up that I knew nothing about, so I ended up getting creamed and the party wiped each time. I asked once more, and it was on the third attempt of this that someone actually deigned to tell me after I made it painfully clear that it was my first time, "I was under the impression that you read a walkthrough of this."

I flipped and said, "Of course I didn't! I don't like doing that!" After that, someone decided to say, "The mechanics of the fight showed up in previous dungeons. You should've known about them." That angered me and safe to say, I wasn't exactly enjoying that run at all.

Unfortunately, you will come across these types of runs if you are running with players who have run the dungeon / encounter so many times that they can do it with their eyes closed. They will then go through the dungeon as fast as they can. It will be difficult to fully explain what mechanics do during a fight, because either:

- The tank pulls immediately and you can't explain in detail while you tank/dps/heal
- Most of the mechanics speak for themselves, so only highlights of the things you need to look out for will be mentioned (just to save time)

The best thing you can do, is remain calm. Pay close attention what other people are doing and don't be afraid to speak up if you don't understand something. This doesn't mean that every one will stop to give you more (detailed) information, but people you are willing to lend you a hand will do so accordingly. Just, don't be mad if they don't give a detailed description of the fight, or lend you an additional hand. @Deiranoth, i see that you're on the same DataCenter as me. If you want more info about the dungeon or need a hand with something, let me know. We can sort something out, like running the dungeon together.

Well, there are a few ways of looking at this:

1- Running a dungeon for the first time, in normal content, there is no need to read a guide or watch a video- first of all, by a certain level, people should know a lot of the mechanics, and know the basics of their job.
2- seeing a guide spoils the experience for some people.
3- Reviewing a guide helps some people who have more responsibility in a party, and/or who usually take a bit more time to pick up mechanics. It can make that first run it a bit less stressful.

All of these viewpoints have merit, where it falls apart in my experience is where someone insist on *their* way being the only acceptable way or when they aren't really suited for their preferred way. Don't want to read a guide first? No problem- but I hope by level 60 or 70, that person knows not to stand in AOEs, or that you know what a stack marker is. If someone can't figure out that your standing over here when the whole group is over there is probably a bad thing, well , maybe a change in preparation made be a good thing.

It is true that you don't have to look up a guide in order to be able to clear dungeons. Based on the experience you've build up with the previous encounters (Dungeons, Trails, Raids, etc), your knowledge of the different types of mechanics you can find in Dungeons will expand. However, there will be times where even the most experienced player will be surprised with a new (variation of a) mechanic. These experienced players will most likely see those on the high-end content, which might be used in dungeons at a later stage.

However, players who don't run high-end content might not know about it and get blindsided by it. Nothing wrong with that. You learn by experiencing it at first hand, which brings me back to the guides. Not every player can read a guide and get a clear idea how to handle the mechanic. They need to see it for themselves first before it clicks (i'm one of those players). The same goes with "following the leader". If you are new to an encounter, you tend to focus on stuff that is right in front of you (like checking if your party needs healing), while something else is happening somewhere else in the arena. Due to this, you might miss that something is happening that you should be paying attention to.

The game has come a long way when it comes to informing players that a mechanic is happening and giving hints on how to handle them. This is mostly due to using the same animations / telegraphs more consistently and make them as clear as possible (like the stack marker for instance). Before Void Ark, a stack marker didn't have the big arrows pointing inward, but could be a random marker above your head and you had to figure out of it was a stack or something else. For instance, in the World of Darkness Raid, with the Hydra fight. A stack marker in that fight was a purple marker above you. You would have to stack with a few other people, otherwise the lightning would one-shot you.

You would only know that, if you got blasted with it. As of this day, you still see people running away with the purple marker each time they get it. Mostly because it hasn't clicked yet. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're bad. Just inexperienced.

Just keep going at it. You'll get the hang of it.

[Bright-Flower]

You learn by experiencing it at first hand, which brings me back to the guides. Not every player can read a guide and get a clear idea how to handle the mechanic. They need to see it for themselves first before it clicks (i'm one of those players).

This is 100% me as well. Watching a video for an EX trial etc, a lot of the information goes in one ear and out the other, but once I see things in action I'm able to pick up on them.

[Kolsykol]

People still fail in WoW Classic dungeons and raids, where there's basically no mechanics or one mechanic lol.
People always find a way to fail.

If I think someone doesn't know or have forgotten I mention it quickly, like in Sohm Al recently on the second boss.
I just said '' red stack, blue spread ''.

Guess what.
They still failed xD.
I think to some extent no amount of explaining will help some people because most mechanics especially in dungeons are really obvious and repeated mechanics.
Like I shouldn't have to explain what a stack mark is, at least in Sohm Al I can see it be a bit misleading so that's why I just quickly mention in those cases.