Issue With End Game Raiding

[Uchia]

You nailed the problem head on, most people I've spoken to in-game have this same problem and have stopped raiding, They should go look at DCUO where you can log in whenever you want in that game an raid any day, time an with whoever you want to raid with, without struggling to find people an not spend 2 hrs+ in pf waiting for people to join or replace someone.

[Garotte14]

What you're experiencing isn't new or isolated to FFXIV. Is there something wrong with it? I don't believe so.

There are plenty of things to do in this game at your own pace, but the core of this game is an MMO. The foundation of a game like this, is your ability to become a team and work with others.

I'm like you. I love to raid. I've gone through 5 statics since Beta, and server transferred twice.

If you love to raid, then you're probably more about the accomplishment than the gear. So doing an easier 4 man Alex/Coil would be less rewarding.

So my advice is, you have to decide what you want. The system in place isn't flawed. If you want to raid and that's why you play, keep looking and server transfer if you have to. Statics are breaking up everyday, so an opening can become available any day. If you don't want to leave your FC and friends, create an alt to visit when not raiding.

That reward sometimes takes sacrifice.

[HylianBebop]

I think raids needs to be put into DF at the start. This will allow more people to access it.

Heres an idea that could work. Obviously theres flaws etc that people can point out if they want to.

Queue 1:
Only people that have not cleared for the week may join. Need to have cleared before if solo queue. No need to have cleared in a full premade group. Therefore, upon clearing there will always be 2 chests and each person gets a page and you clear that turn for the week. No ilvl requirement

Queue 2:
Anyone can join this queue. No loot. Clearing doesn't change your 'cleared for the week' status if you haven't cleared. Insert some high ilvl requirement.

I think the issue here would be not running with the same people (or mostly the same people) every time you queue up for this. Also the lack of communication other than in-game chat. I think most raid groups use voice chat to some extent, so unless SE included a voice chat option in-game, I don't know if this would work. Also they would probably need to increase the time limit of the instance to account for discussion/strategy.

IMO, the reason why it is sometimes possible to learn/clear EX Primal content strictly through DF is because after roughly a few weeks to maybe a month, a "most common" or "popular" strategy emerges. Like on Sephiroth EX, the general strat is DPS left, healers/ot right, purple goes right (or back), 6/1/61 for add kill order, tanks have an assigned tower side, and finally green/tethers go up front and to the right or left, allowing melee with orange debuff to get up close on the other side for max dps. It's not very complicated and you can even macro most of it into a mini-guide up front (a player on Ultros does this for pug groups to help them out - develops macro-friendly guides to make pugging easier).

However, I think the complexity of some of the raids would be too high a barrier to overcome via DF, at least I would think it wouldn't be viable for some time after more universal strats are adopted from the existing pool of guides/videos.

i think instant DF is a great idea, despite the actual chances of even clearing with a fully random group, it DOES allow one the chance to at least practice and get familiar with the vibe of the fight, regardless of wipes or clearing

and that may in turn get more people into raiding, or at least trying, because they can just say "hey i wanna go test this fight out real fast in DF" instead of making a PF (some people dont like making them) or having to wait for a learning party, or if you come back to the game in such a point where if there even ARE learning parties they ar eusually last phase ones.

I agree that all content should be available via DF regardless of the chances of actually clearing it. So like say you get 4-5 people who want to do A5S or A6S right now in a pre-made, you can queue up and try to get the remaining people via a DF. Way more encouraging than sitting around waiting on your PF to probably never fill.

Honestly, I think that the best way to "fix" raiding would be to provide some method for practicing the phase of your choice, rather than starting from the beginning every single time. Only provide rewards for a complete run, but allow a group to start at any point in the fight while practicing, maybe?

I've brought that up quite a bit in discussions in our FC, saying they really need to just let people skip to either %HP phase changes of the fight or Time based phase changes for practice purposes. So like in the case of A6S, you could skip to the robot you've been reaching but haven't been clearing yet. Requisite would be that you had to have seen or reached that spot in the fight under normal conditions first, so you can't just skip ahead to parts you've never seen. Would be based on everyone in your party. Up for debate whether this "lock" is determined by the player with the least experience (ie you haven't seen this far, nobody in this part can skip past it), or vice versa (somebody has seen to this part, we can all skip to it to try it).

The only downside I can see to this is on SE's end. People would learn the fight faster theoretically, and thus probably clear content faster. Clear the content faster, they have nothing to do, they complain and possibly unsub. Which I find completely unfounded -- the only times this ever happened were Dead Game Time (post 2.55 wait for HW launch) and the longer-than-normal Gordias raid cycle. Both are addressable issues, too. So I don't buy the "people will quit" if they clear stuff too quickly and have nothing to do.

With the weekly lockout, you have to farm for your gear, which takes many weeks. And by the time most people would clear the last turn...they still need to farm it for their weapon! That could take up to 2 months. Otherwise, why even bother with the token system? People need time to get their weapons while it's relevant! So yea, people would stick around.

@OP, I think you should actively recruit like minded players who are interested in raiding at the same time as you are available. Sometimes, rather than seeking a group of people to run content with, it's better to make your own group to run the content you're interested in running. I think that with enough patience and effort you could form your own static of players you recruited on your own and your experience with the game will be much more positive.

I wish you the best of luck and hope that you are able to either find a group to join, or that you're able to find 7 other people and create your own, successful, static!

I put in my work to learn a raid (research vids, any guides out there) and provide feedback when raiding, but I don't have the time/will power to get 7 other people together and be a a leader. Just trying to search for a group for 1 open spot is enough for me. Basically, I'm not really a leader when it comes to raid stuff.

While this is a good idea in principle, it is fraught with difficulty in practice. In a lot of fights in the game, the early phases influence how the later phases play out. Consider starting T12 at phase 3 - how many Bennus are there and where are they positioned? AS2 any phase - how many gobwalkers do you have left and how much EP remaining? Even a question as simple as "how much is the LB gauge charged?" is influenced by the early phases and can be crucial to the strategy for the later ones.

This is a good idea, but I can't see how it could be done.

It just always defaults to the more difficult option. So in the T12 example, it always defaults to 5 Bennu. If you happen to get 4 in real time, it means things will go much better for you. For the A2S, you could maybe have it set to an average based on existing clears or groups at that point as an option. You could also set the levels maybe (full, halve, 1/3, etc) to practice as you want. I would also say you could pick the option to have LB gauge at whatever level you want. Just know that if you're setting it to LB3 each phase, that's not going to happen. Maybe you use it to get past something to learn the turns mechanics/the dance, then as you optimize dps, you eventually take away that crutch. Eventually you would only rely on LB as it was intended, but until then, you're getting in practice and learning mechanics at least.

What you're experiencing isn't new or isolated to FFXIV. Is there something wrong with it? I don't believe so.

There are plenty of things to do in this game at your own pace, but the core of this game is an MMO. The foundation of a game like this, is your ability to become a team and work with others.

I'm like you. I love to raid. I've gone through 5 statics since Beta, and server transferred twice.

If you love to raid, then you're probably more about the accomplishment than the gear. So doing an easier 4 man Alex/Coil would be less rewarding.

So my advice is, you have to decide what you want. The system in place isn't flawed. If you want to raid and that's why you play, keep looking and server transfer if you have to. Statics are breaking up everyday, so an opening can become available any day. If you don't want to leave your FC and friends, create an alt to visit when not raiding.

That reward sometimes takes sacrifice.

I should add in more of my perspective then to give some insight into why I play. I didn't want to cram it all into the OP because then it would have been a novel.

My favorite content in the game are the EX Primals. However, they only come every patch, and they're only good for MAYBE a month from my perspective. Clear them within first few days-end of week, farm over next week, help other people get clears over next week or two. After that first month, I might occasionally pop into learning groups or FC help groups. I think generally they are the most well designed and fun battles in the game. I would trade away end game raiding each cycle for a new EX primal every month. Especially if they all drop mounts!

Then I like the raid content because it tests your skill more so than the primals. However, because it is even more team dependent (players have to be more on point, way more strategy involved, higher skill requirement), it's not always as easy to get into or even do when you want, which is my problem now. This is the lionshare of end game PVE content available right now, so if you can't get into this, you're left with a few other PVE options, which to me are way less appealing.

I have all my crafters/gatherers to 60, and am a CUL specialist (I have WVR/ALC specialist, but only my CUL is geared enough to make any recipe at the moment). So I enjoy trying to craft HQ stuff for people when possible, but it's not very often. I also got super tired of the script system, so after decking out my Miner and Culinarian, I stopped caring about capping that each week.

I do enjoy collecting mounts and to a lesser extent minions. I go super hard on the mounts. I have all the primal birds now. I have all the GC horses (yes, all of them) and the ADS mount. I'm only missing the 3000 comm Choco (700 comms away), the 200 WAR clears (30 away), the Feast mini-airship (180 wins away), and sadly the Legacy Chocobo which I can never have since I refused to sub to the terrible 1.x version of the game (quit 2 months into 1.0, but we don't need to beat a dead horse here). Putting a mount in A4S was a very strong reason for why after my OG static broke up during A3S I even considered raiding again. I wanted that mount and I didn't want to wait. No mount in Midas means a bit less motivation to get through it all, at least with any urgency. FYI, after my OG static broke up, I joined one of the few Ultros pug LS dedicated to helping people clear content. I got my A3S clear with them, and found a group through them for A4S and Midas (the one that broke up a month ago). However, I was giving serious consideration to changing my raiding schedule as a result of the burn out I felt from A3S. I was resigned to just playing the game casually in even numbered patches, and then try to jump into raiding on odd number patches when poverty gear was abundant and refined strategies were available, hopefully make the progression at that point much easier than it was at the start.

I've dabbled in the Gold Saucer stuff (Choco Racing, Cards, Verminion) to get some of those rewards, but not really into any of that.

I went hard on PVP during the Seize days in 3.0-3.1, getting 100 wins with each GC, and 200 with Maelstrom to get all the mounts. I played like 1200 matches and got almost all the achievements for Seize. However, I didn't like the stressful nature of Wolve's Den (Fold), so I barely played it. Feast 4v4 is more of the same, that eSports competitive mentality doesn't mesh well with me, makes me feel to anxious and not want to play. But I am playing 8v8 every now and then and I find it pretty enjoyable, but once I get the mount I probably will stop playing it.

But anyway, the reward for raiding was it was engrossing content that was challenging. I only cared about the gear for two reasons: making progression of new turns possible and clearing past ones easier, and glamour (the true end game). The sooner I could clear a raid, the sooner I could go back and assist other groups who were struggling because I was free of the chains of progression.

[Awful]

I've only cleared A5S and I can empathize I used to be a hardcore raider in 2.0 and now I can barely get anyone from my static consistently on. It really sucks and I'm in the same boat do I keep playing or just quit? It's honestly just a headache to get everyone on and when they do its 1 cycle and we're done till before reset. The raiding needs to change that's for sure but there's not many ideas left that hasn't already been said.

[Warlyx]

I've only cleared A5S and I can empathize I used to be a hardcore raider in 2.0 and now I can barely get anyone from my static consistently on. It really sucks and I'm in the same boat do I keep playing or just quit? It's honestly just a headache to get everyone on and when they do its 1 cycle and we're done till before reset. The raiding needs to change that's for sure but there's not many ideas left that hasn't already been said.

Alex gordias killed raiding for lots of ppl......

[HylianBebop]

Alex gordias killed raiding for lots of ppl......

I can say for myself, it almost made me quit the game. The group I was in, which went through several replacements during A3S, spent 3+ months trying to clear it. I didn't get my clear until 4 months after first stepping foot into that turn. Absolutely the worst decision the dev team made was allowing that version of the fight to get through testing (and we all saw how they "tested" it .... SMH). Maybe if it was the last turn people might have dealt with it better, but A4S is actually a worse fight IMO (super boring mechanically). A3S mechanics are actually fun, it's just it was tuned way too high for the majority of groups, and individual skill couldn't carry/overcome anyone's shortcomings during progression for it. I know it got nerfed hard and has echo now, but I would say it's a fun fight even now that everyone should try out since it's less challenging. But yea, I was so close to saying screw it, this is ridiculous. A4S I heard also made a lot of people quit, too.

[Warlyx]

I can say for myself, it almost made me quit the game. The group I was in, which went through several replacements during A3S, spent 3+ months trying to clear it. I didn't get my clear until 4 months after first stepping foot into that turn. Absolutely the worst decision the dev team made was allowing that version of the fight to get through testing (and we all saw how they "tested" it .... SMH). Maybe if it was the last turn people might have dealt with it better, but A4S is actually a worse fight IMO (super boring mechanically). A3S mechanics are actually fun, it's just it was tuned way too high for the majority of groups, and individual skill couldn't carry/overcome anyone's shortcomings during progression for it. I know it got nerfed hard and has echo now, but I would say it's a fun fight even now that everyone should try out since it's less challenging. But yea, I was so close to saying screw it, this is ridiculous. A4S I heard also made a lot of people quit, too.

same here , replaced 3 players (1 left because was bored to tears ) ,and i almost quit , patch took too long , that didnt help either, took weeks until we finally killed a3s....and in the end i still think it wasnt worth it , i wasnt even happy , just saying FINALLY ....ugh

[Awful]

Alex gordias killed raiding for lots of ppl......

It honestly did my old static got to 11% AS3 and we were at it night after night for 2 weeks straight (at least 4 times a week) after that poof no more static. Then I had to refill the slots and it was just a headache, Alex Gordias was just not a good raid the new Midas is but that's because the fights are actually not as soul crushing as the last ones. Still a pain but the problem is Gordias turned off so many raiders that no one (even new players) don't want to do Midas Savage. SE might have screwed it's raiding community this expansion.

Also the rewards still don't justify the means why do raiding (especially back in 3.x...) when you can upgrade your 200 gear for 210 and make the rest of the gear obsolete from raiding? Why bother getting fending when STR was the meta back then? There are so many design flaws even now you can be fully pentamelded and have 240 gear either or, and still in 2 months time the gear is replaced as Lore will be the new non capped currency with the new Void Ark gear being better + with a weekly drop. It's pathetic.

[Bahd_Monkey]

SE is working on a way to jump to certain phases of a raid for practice:
"On a basic level, this raid finder would have the same function as the Duty Finder, but it would primarily address Savage raids with specific participation requirements.

For example, you would be able to select whether you wanted to go for practice or to clear it by checking a box. If you were going into a raid to practice, you would be able to select the beginning, middle, or end phase of the fight."

Source letter from the Producer April 12

[Garotte14]

I understand you are all saying it's tough, but like I said, statics are breaking up everyday. You just have to be vigilant and persistent. Keep PFs up, post and scour the forums and Reddit recruitment thread. Be specific what you're looking for. Everyday, someone could get a promotion at work or get relocated and have to leave a group. Someone could have a baby, and need to step away. School might be too time consuming and spots are opening up in statics as you're reading this.

I've been there. I had a static break up during T12 and it took me 2 months to find a static. Finally a found a group already clearing T13 who gave me a shot. I went in and one shot T12 and cleared T13 after a few pulls. They were impressed how quickly I picked it up an voilà.

It just takes some patience and determination, but just keep at it and you'll find a group