"Don't Explain; Learn by Doing"

[Shurrikhan]

I've seen every combination of texts walls working and failing as I continue with DF groups while playing. There was a time I entered a sync'd odin trial with DF and 6 people were new to the fight (and out of those 6, only 2 even had ironworks gear). The other tank and myself were both overgeared and I started to explain the fight to people. The other tank said, "not needed" and pulled and to my surprise, we beat it in one go. I've had that happen in god knows how many other DF odin runs and this was the first time I passed odin in DF sync'd. Ever.

The same occurred with one of my Titan Ex runs... and Levi Ex... and my first attempt at Nidhogg NM. Just had people dodge things as usual, mark targets as needed. For Levi Ex I'd toss out some reminders, like "BLM, you're shooting yourself. Swap targets," or "Any movement ability will break the slide / knock-back," while the healers, both new, would mention stuff as they go like "Hey could you swap in / until this debuff's gone?" Titan Ex was silent aside from a "kill the adds at the same time so we can stack death puddles". A quick run and 6 achievements. DF's just that variable.

But if I were to give a rule of thumb based on my experiences, bringing out the info for mechanics only when they're about to actually occur works a whole lot better than text-walls. On 2.0 PLD, I could easily enough type them out between GCDs, prepping for the next phase shift and its mechanical addition. But if it was obvious, it was better left unsaid; bringing it up made it sound like something much more pivotal than it actually was. "Some raid damage coming up back to back; might want a Medica II" also tends to work a lot better than naming the particular AoE names and their exact damage or intervals when the margin of safety and possible reaction time is still quite large. Tldr; keep it simple, and only as necessary.

[Xenos88]

I don't understand why people get uptight about explanations. I always give one to those who are new so that way its easier instead of having them going in blind. explanations work wonders and minimizes the number of wipes for the entire group. A little patience goes a long way in helping a fellow player instead of acting like a bozo

[Vulcwen]

I don't understand why people get uptight about explanations. I always give one to those who are new so that way its easier instead of having them going in blind. explanations work wonders and minimizes the number of wipes for the entire group. A little patience goes a long way in helping a fellow player instead of acting like a bozo

You don't understand why people don't want story spoilers either then?
Going in blind gives it a fresh experience, and full blind runs are one of the most fun things to do in the game, unfortunately, not everyone that wants this is capable of getting a group to do this with. I find it OK to have stuff explained after the first wipe, you'd expect that even going full blind, but ruining the surprise element really takes away from the experience, in a way that's permanent for that fight.

As you say, a little patience goes a long way.

[Xenos88]

Explaining boss fights in a dungeon or a trial fights are completely different then spoiling a story. I completely understand where you're coming from but I would rather minimize the number of wipes by just explaining the boss fights.