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

[Seryne]

Dun Scaith. Healers had to use LB3 on Diabolos Hollow twice. Yes, that's right I said twice. I'm still not even sure what the hell was going on in there that that ended up happening.

[Silverquick]

Well after my Void Ark Series runs last Friday I can only agree with some here...

I have run the Void Ark Series raids for at least 6 pieces of Shire Gear and a couple extra kicks. (Because its actually a cool and very scenic raid, and the story is good)
I was doing the last upgrade on my Shire and walked headlong into things I'd never seen before. Prior to this I'd seen a whopping total of two wipes, and those just turned out to be flukes, because the next time at the boss we just destroyed it.

First crew, I have no idea why this one group in the alliance kept dying, and it was a total wipe for that party almost over and over. I swear I spent more time raising them than DPSing. They had to have been seriously under geared. And this Alliance should have been a DPS dream team too. We had 3 BLMs and 4 SMNs. Yet at times I was on my 4th Deathflare and had only seen a whopping two other ones go off. Should have been round the clock Deathflares. And I barely saw any Fire IVs go off from the BLMs.

I was like what?

This group was on the last square of Deathgaze, and I had never seen that before... ever. It's one of those things where you HEAR about it happening, but you never actually see it. So its like a myth... but here I was going... wow... never seen that before. This crew barely made it past Proto Ultima the DPS was that low. And wiped 3 times at Scathak, before vote abandoning... again something I had never seen before Friday (an actual honest vote abandon). They were dying to the Hands, the easiest mechanic to avoid. The final wipe the Tank didn't pick up Cothak or whatever his name is, and he got too close to the queen. This one group in the alliance had constant total wipes, and I spent so much time Raising people it was almost impossible to keep any Damage on Target at times. I don't mind emergency Raising, its a part of the job as SMN.... Despite all that, no one could deny... this crew had no DPS. I was just going... wow.. never seen that before.

So I was just thinking.... fluke... bad crew, it happens sometimes.

Re-queued, and the next one I was in, never even made it off the Airship. In all fairness this one was probably just unlucky. Deathgaze was doing all kinds of really screwy stuff I had never seen him do before.... one of which was putting the Icebergs at the complete opposite end of the ship the Raid was on.... making it impossible for anyone to get to them in time to not be blown off... so I couldn't fault the group for that. But then the second time no one picked up the adds and half the alliance got heavied... and right at that opportune moment Deathgaze did his Void Doom. Half the alliance got sucked in and died. That was the second vote abandon... I was just going... wow.. never seen that before. While its true this crew may have just been a little too loose as they were joking around a bit much before we started, at least this one I could chalk up to some seriously bad luck.

Third time... Actually made it to Diablos Hollow, DPS still a little low but doable. Still wiped twice, and had to use Healer LB. Another one where I spent most of my time Raising, and not DPSing. Still we did at least clear... despite all that disaster.

I was just sitting back after all that going... wow... just wow... I've never seen the stuff I did today before. Prior to that I'd seen a whopping 2 total wipes, and they were flukes because we just destroyed everything after that. Sure people die sometimes, and sometimes a lot of people die, it happens... but I have never seen that many actual failures to clear before. I'm hoping this is not becoming the standard in there...

Right now I'm working on clearing Alex, but I don't tend to enjoy JUST boss mob fights I like a little more variety like the Dungeons, and the story isn't as good as Void Ark, and Void Ark is more scenic. While Alex does have a certain coolness factor to it, its not quite as cool as Void Ark. Alex surprisingly seems easier despite everything. I've burned through Gordias and Midas without any real problems. First time clears. Just have to make the final stretch but the queue times for this one are a lot longer. Its the last piece of content for me that I haven't yet done. So its the final stretch per se.

[NovaLevossida]

Not easy to do if you play on console or with a controller.

/statusoff "Regen"
/statusoff "Medica II"
/statusoff "Whispering Dawn"
/statusoff "Aspected Benefic"
/statusoff "Aspected Helios"

I guess be aware of AST shield stance, but this macro basically kills everything.

[NovaLevossida]

Three recent incidents:

1. We wiped to first boss of Dun Scaith because there were no safe spots on the airship, the DPS was that bad and dying that often. Didn't even know the fight could get to that point.

2. We wiped to the first boss of World of Darkness because the group failed to kill all the hourglasses in time. I've also never seen that ever...


3. Had a tank in expert roulette for the Wall pull mobs at the beginning in Deliverance and then failed to hold hate. We barely lived, he repeated this, and then we all wiped. He blamed it on his controller, then threw on Defiance. On our way to the last boss, I notice he's not in any stance right now, so I let him know and he never puts on a stance or says anything. Halfway through the boss, I see those enmity bars creeping up, and I know it's about to get bad. I remind him again he's not in any stance at all and he just ignores me again. Well, both of the DPS die at this point, and *then* he puts on defiance. I didn't say anything, but it's like, dude, don't bother now, us dying reset our enmity bars and now you're just lowering your damage for no reason. The kicker on all of this is he had grade 5 parry materia melds.

I don't get angry in DF, but at least don't ignore party chat like that.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I know right?! I died three times in the group I was referring to in my post. Each time because of lack of heals. We had an AST and a WHM, and neither could bother to give me at least a HoT. Or a shield even!!! ;-; I was like "...do they think DRKs can self-heal like WARs can because we totally cannot ;_;"

If only! The one thing DRK can't do. ;-;

OMG. I THOUGHT YOUR NAME LOOKED FAMILIAR. I was thinking "Where have I seen this name before...it's so freaking familiar...where?!" It was bugging me all night. XD

It was a pleasure healing with you!! Hopefully we'll bump into one another again! <3

RIGHT?! I saw your name was like "Wait!" But then wasn't sure and had to double check! Have discord, perchance? Love to bump into you again or cross PF.

[HyoMinPark]

If only! The one thing DRK can't do. ;-;

Right?! XD I'd love to be able to self heal like a WAR on my DRK. <3

RIGHT?! I saw your name was like "Wait!" But then wasn't sure and had to double check! Have discord, perchance? Love to bump into you again or cross PF.

I sure do!! My discord thingy is Hyomin Park #0055 <3
I'm like always online, be it discord or FFXIV, so I'm sure we will definitely bump into one another again!!

I guess be aware of AST shield stance, but this macro basically kills everything.

Yup. I'm aware. But I'm still of the mind that precasting HoTs is just unnecessary and bad practice. Why give yourself unneeded enmity when the tank or party isn't even taking any damage? I won't die in the 5 seconds it takes for me to secure aggro on mobs, so I don't understand why healers just insist on casting Regen on me before I even pull anything, or Medica II before a boss. And so many healers (WHM in particular) don't understand how to manage their own aggro (Shroud is your friend, WHM)...the times I've seen over-eager healers get killed because they keep spamming unnecessary heals and HoTs is ridiculous.

If I'm healing with a tank that is chain pulling, and if they need a heal that badly, Swiftcast+Cure / Benefic or a quick Tetra or Essential Dignity. I don't trust DF tanks enough to take aggro back from me if I get hate from HoT ticks, and I'm not a huge fan of having my face punched in either.

For the poster that said something about casting right as mobs die, my personal rule of thumb is if my HoT won't tick for 75% duration or more before the last mob dies, I don't use them. If the tank needs healing that badly before the last mob dies, I just drop cleric and give them a basic Cure / Benefic.

[Alusan_Ilossa]

Have the 3 trash mobs in the Aery, right before the wyvern rush near the end on me. I'm a max DRK, big deal right? Shadowskin is on, and Shadow Wall is still down for a bit from the last boss. My health has dropped to about %50. Eh no biggie. Health hits %25 and I'm still just trying to keep these adds off my DPS. Meanwhile, the healer is spamming Gravity trying to out-DPS my Ninja and Dragoon the whole time. Health drops to 179 HP. I go down, and the mobs scatter. He swift cast raises me, but it's too late, he's down, and my DPS are right behind him then I follow suite, so I'm salty as all seven hells right now and the healer stops on a set of stairs between where we died and the first boss. I'm expecting him to say "My bad dude, I didn't see your health." Nope. "Quit being lazy, use your cds" You done messed up now. Vote kick starts, and I reply "Heal me next time F*ckwit." I saw him pause, he was typing out a reply, but before he could send it, the vote passed.

[dragonseth07]

Bismarck story mode. We get in and people immediately ask "How does this fight work?" Okay... why waste all of our time inside instead of just yours by looking it up first? Seriously. This always pisses me off, so I knew this wouldn't go well.

The DPS is so bad that I'm beating most of them in Shield Oath. We can't kill the adds fast enough to actually beat the fight in time, and a few of us recognize that and say so early on. Eventually, we wipe, and the salt starts flowing from the worst players in the instance about the elitists in the group being mean. Well, the worst actually leave the trial, and get replaced quickly. The replacements top the charts, and we one-shot it.

I'm sorry if I came off as a jerk, but DPS checks are real guys. You have to learn to play eventually. :/

[Mhaeric]

But I already really good at that, I don't have any problem tracking my own buffs/HP/MP/TP, what the boss/mobs is doing, where are the other players and their special needs (if melee like monks) and predicting routes to the best use of my AoE enmity skills during pulls.

But not noticing whenever the healer is casting spells before you pull? Whether that be stoneskin, adloquium, or regen, it is very good practice to be noticing the healer cast at the very least so that you can delay the pull by half a second if necessary. And if it happens to be regen then one is already in the position to see it and do something about it. Whether that be clicking it off or adjusting the position of your flash, overpower, etc to account for the position of the mobs as they run to healer instead of you is up to you.

[bardaboo]

But not noticing whenever the healer is casting spells before you pull? Whether that be stoneskin, adloquium, or regen, it is very good practice to be noticing the healer cast at the very least so that you can delay the pull by half a second if necessary. And if it happens to be regen then one is already in the position to see it and do something about it. Whether that be clicking it off or adjusting the position of your flash, overpower, etc to account for the position of the mobs as they run to healer instead of you is up to you.

At some point you have to realize that doing something stupid and expecting someone to be smart enough to fix it is backwards. .. it's annoying, and healers shouldn't do it... end of story. If it happens sometimes sure it easily fixable but to insist that doing it is ok and to suggest it's on the tank to have awareness. .. if you are going to defend poor play by expecting the tank to be smart, why can't you expect the same of a healer. Don't do it... it's annoying.