Would you like an in-game parser?

[AphraelAmarantha]

Honestly? It tells me that you lack awareness. If, after 900 runs, you still can’t figure out when Susano is casting/readying Stormsplitter, then that speaks to your lack of raid awareness. And, unless that improves, then you will be unable to do any other Extreme primals that are even remotely more challenging than him. And I’m not saying that to be mean or anything, and I’m not saying that that’s the case now. But you asked, and I thought I would provide an honest opinion.

No it's fine. My question back is how do you develop raid awareness?

Learning occurs through repeated exposure and practice. Like with your previous example regarding education, and some learning a subject at a slower pace: yeah, they learn at a slower pace, but how do they learn? By practicing; by studying. You don’t learn things instantly. If these fights aren’t getting any easier for you, then it may be that you just aren’t able to do them. If you are really trying your absolute hardest, studying the fights, asking people for advice on how to improve your performance... if you are doing everything within your power and still cannot keep track of a simple tankbuster, then you are just not ready for the content.

Yep, I won't disagree with you here. I find the EX fights quite challenging and I usually just avoid them at this point because I can't really do them, (even with i328, i know I am probably being carried.) The only reason I have been doing Susano recently because a friend asked me to since I've done the fight before several times (liek that really means anything, lel).

On a side note, would you believe that I actually perform better when I don't have to do deal with people in a group? I actually solo'd EX Ifrit and EX Titan with my level 70 RDM. That was quite hard and I died several times before beating them. It was more fun though.

There was really no need for this sentence. At all.

Sorry, I said it because that's how I feel. People go: "these fights are easy!" and then I do everything I can and I find them quite difficult, hence why I feel are they just that good or am I just retarded and can't do this stuff? This leads into:

How are you dealing with the specific issues? Do you try to juggle healing and DPS? Have you tried to just heal and see if that eases your stress levels? Have you Focus Targeted Susano to try and watch for his tankbuster cast? Have you set up your HUD in a way to make it easier to keep track of the things you need to keep track of (MT, party health, boss’s HP bar/cast bar, etc.)? Have you increased the size for things like enhancements and enfeeblements (this would help when looking out for the Churning/dice debuff)? You’ve mentioned what you’re having trouble with, but you haven’t really explained anything you have done to try and alleviate the problems.

I've done everything you have listed except increase size of buff/debuffs and used Focus Target. Mainly because one I didn't know you can increase the individual size of HUD elements and two, what the heck is focus target? O.o

[Tridus]

I've done everything you have listed except increase size of buff/debuffs and used Focus Target. Mainly because one I didn't know you can increase the individual size of HUD elements and two, what the heck is focus target? O.o

Focus target is an extra target box that is locked to a target and doesn't change when you change target. On PC, you can get it by targetting Susano and typing /focustarget

That gives you a target window for Susano that never changes, so you can ALWAYS see his casts and current health in it. You can position that separately from your normal target in the HUD configuration, so put it somewhere easy to see.

[AphraelAmarantha]

Focus target is an extra target box that is locked to a target and doesn't change when you change target. On PC, you can get it by targetting Susano and typing /focustarget

That gives you a target window for Susano that never changes, so you can ALWAYS see his casts and current health in it. You can position that separately from your normal target in the HUD configuration, so put it somewhere easy to see.

Oh that sounds very useful actually. I will have to try that, thank you!

[akaneakki]

Oh that sounds very useful actually. I will have to try that, thank you!

Don't need to be sorry from previous post and also there is a HUD thing you can change name, change the cast bar from the enemy HP. What you do is you go in hud layout, click on the enemy bar, click the clog thingy and split the cast bar between the enemy (boss target). This will help you see cast bar a lot better too. I have mine like right over my cross bars, so I can see it easy. I can take a screenshot and show you later. And I'm honestly glad you take tips from others as well in here, that's something we all appreciate honestly, because many refuse to. So thank you to you as well.

..if you are farming ex primals when they are relevant, to the point where you feel ok solo healing them, you aren't a casual healer, good lord.

What makes a casual? Or hardcore? I play less than most people a week, does that make me casual then? Sorry to say, but awarness and knowing the fight is the only thing besides experience from old raids etc that makes them a better player and that's not even a hardcore mind, just because you think most of us play 24-7 doesn't make is hardcore just as that RP guy sitting in limsa is not hardcore. And I'm pretty sure most of us doesn't spend all day playing the game either.

[Ssmiley_Bjakkzz]

Snip

out of the subject, your characters face are really stunning pretty with these white on the sides, I love your glam for your character face, very pretty <3

[Zeonsilt]

No it's fine. My question back is how do you develop raid awareness?

- Focus target macro on the boss will help you to check for incoming Tankbusters and strong raidwide aoe boss abilities. You just need to remember the names, which is not that hard.
Place it somewhere, where it's comfortable for you to see the enemy cast bar/skill name.

- Sometimes boss says something, like: MAKEEEEEEEEE WAAAAAAAAAY (c) Susanoo. Those vocals are hints to casted abilities. When i do X fight X number of times, i'm starting to catch up those things.

- Bringing a friend along, that can help/voicechat incoming stuff, i.e. "Tankbuster inc", "Susano cloud spawn soon", etc.

4 months ago i used to PUG Savage with a Ninja friend(he quit the game at this point), and in voicechat we helped each other a lot, because sometimes either i or he got some memory problems -cough-. dps problems during burst

p.s. Most points already been voiced, i was just late to /update the forum page.

[KaldeaSahaline]

I do agree with you about people who aren't willing to learn. The question though is what can a game developer do to force people to learn, even if said people don't want to learn? You can't stop them from buying the game and screwing people over with their bad attitudes.

My personal opinion is you need to design content where people fail AND ensure that proper feedback is given in game on how to overcome hurdles. That would include things like parsers, job quests that actually fail if you can't heal/dps simultaneously, or teach you how to heal multiple targets over a long period of time (can't spam AOE heals).

Again, it doesn't need to be savage hard. You just need to design it to fail if you do not respect the rules of the lesson. Then ensure that you teach how to pass. Don't teach muscle memory though, teach concepts.

Let me list the things that I think make the fight a challenge for people like me.

1) A ton of mechanics happening all at once like aoes with dice and thundercloud. Especially if I am also trying to heal the tank but my oGCD are on cd and so I cant cast a quick spell to heal them. Or I am trying to get Medica II back up but i have to keep moving and I don't have an available quickcast. this is particularly difficult near the last 10 percent of Susano's health bar.

Based on what I am reading here you are not using your oGCD in a good way. oGCDs are like tank cooldowns. They are best used at specific points of the fight. Take some time to figure out where they work best. Do not simply cast them on cooldown or because the party took damage.

2) The purple marker for the lightning when you have to dash across to the other side. It's too small and I can barely see it past the other stuff that is going on. I have to be constantly looking at the party to make sure hp levels are good and no one is dying and the battlefield making sure I don't have the stupid marker on.

If you haven't already, in raids turn off other player spell effects (or limited). This will remedy this problem instantly. In addition, make sure you're not directly standing on top of someone as this does make it harder to see. Also, use sprint, it's a short cooldown and super useful.

Secondly, you do not need to tunnel vision healthbars. This is not a good play habit. You should glance at most and only heal when you truly need to. Let your regens do work especially if there is no upcoming damage.

3) Same with the dice, I cant see the marker until almost too late. When grouped together with other people, it cant be seen very well.

Same as above. Don't stack on people and turn off effects.

4) Tank busters. These come out very fast and I don't see them coming because I'm not looking at the cast bar when they pop up because I'm paying attention to health levels. It's usually when I'm dpsing is when I usually see it coming.

Others covered this already, but I'll echo it. Use focus target. Tankbusters are not very fast. Not only that, if you merely look at the boss he clearly lifts his sword in the air and holds it for roughly 5s before hitting the tank. That is yet another clue the TB is coming. Time your heal to hit around the same time the tank takes the hit and it looks like he never even got hit.

I think your anxiety about the content is actually making it much harder for you than it should be. Take a deep breath, you almost always have more time than you need so don't feel rushed or overcompensate.

[AphraelAmarantha]

My personal opinion is you need to design content where people fail AND ensure that proper feedback is given in game on how to overcome hurdles. That would include things like parsers, job quests that actually fail if you can't heal/dps simultaneously, or teach you how to heal multiple targets over a long period of time (can't spam AOE heals).

Again, it doesn't need to be savage hard. You just need to design it to fail if you do not respect the rules of the lesson. Then ensure that you teach how to pass. Don't teach muscle memory though, teach concepts.

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