How do you remember every instance?

[Gemina]

With gear you can pretty much skip adds when the boss at 10% and lower HP. I get pretty upset seeing people switch off the boss when you can kill him before the next add wave ><.

Condition 1: adds have more HP than boss - kill boss
Condition 2: boss has more HP or HP regen via add: kill adds
Condition 3: add brings KO mechanic: KILL IT NOW!!

[Auxilio]

Hello! I've started running into some issues with memory capacity regarding Dungeons, Raids, Trials, etc. How on earth do some people manage to remember all of them?

I'm not even to Heavensward content, and I'm well past the point of being able to keep track. I haven't been able to bring myself to roll a roulette recently out of fear that I'll royally screw up because I forgot everything.

I used to be exactly in your shoes, and I asked a friend how people would remember their own Job skills + other Jobs, various quests.. and just all the general info around the entire Eorzea. He told me it just comes by naturally as you put time into the game.

Now, I find myself helping FC mates and friends with various info once in a while and I get that moment that "hey, I'm sorta like that person I thought was crazy to remember so many stuff.. I'm crazy now too?"

Heh, but really it just comes down to doing things over and over again and the information gradually embeds itself into your memory. On your topic of dungeons, its the same really since you'll most definitely run it many times for many different reasons. Minions, BGM, mounts, undersized to help new members with clears/Wondrous Tails/achievements/glamour. I probably can't remember if off the top of my head now but the information is definitely in there somewhere, and I find myself always telling people "I'll remember mechanics when I see the boss" , which is true.

You'll get there some day , but don't sweat it even if you can't remember.. no one has perfect memory and most of us still seek help of wiki sites once in a while

[Warkupo]

If it didn't kill me it probably wasn't worth remembering.

[seida]

It's just time and experience. Having played since launch, and levelled every job to at least 50 and many to 60.... running things over and over to level, they become impossible to forget. (Sometimes I wish I could so they'd be more interesting.)

If I just joined recently and only had to run each instance once or twice each, it would definitely be hard to remember!

[BroodingFicus]

I've been playing since launch and this conversation happened yesterday:

Me:"...so is it orange run together and blue apart or vice versa"
Tank: "I can't remember..."
DPS 1: "....I can't either."
DPS 2: "No idea."
Me:"Well lets just assume one and try not to die."

You're going to forget sometimes. There are places you'll likely see so many times that its ingrained and others that are simple enough that not remembering isn't as big a deal. As others have said though, your best bet is to communicate. If you get to a fight and don't recall whats going on, just say as much and either someone will usually be ok giving you a heads up on important stuff or you'll all be clueless and die horribly. Either way.

[Chalbee]

It will come naturally the more you do them. There are really only a dozen or so basic mechanics in dungeon fights and they just get recycled/slightly tweaked throughout the game. There are some dungeons that have somewhat unique mechanics, but often time their uniqueness makes them easy to remember. Overall, just use good judgment and you'll usually be fine.

And don't feel bad if you don't remember. I don't think I've run Sohm Al once without at least one person who can't remember which jellies do what on the Dinosaur boss. It's perfectly fine to say "I don't remember this very well, anything to look out for?"

edit: Also, if a boss has a really annoying mechanic, a lot of times a party member will say "oh, this asshole" or something to that effect, which is your cue to ask about the annoying mechanic...

[Lokier]

I've been playing MMOs since I was 11-12, I'm 23 this year. My brain is just used to needing to remember dungeons, mobs, names, etc... I wish the same could be said for the things I learned in college. Cough.

That, and once you've seen maybe seven boss mechanics then you've seen them all.

[Miitan]

I remember everything.

I blame relic grinds for this.

[Dement]

Like others have said, there's a handful of mechanics which occur in tons of different fights, they just look slightly different. You develop the muscle memory to handle them and you develop the ability to recognize them rapidly when they start to manifest. "Did something fall and is still sitting there? I'm going to have to run behind it at some point" "Don't stand in AoE" "Aggro and kill adds" "Look away if you see an eye appear on a boss" "I have a tether, pass the tether to tank, creature, glowing thing" "Giant yellow arrows pointing at someone = stack" "Primal disappeared? Probably a dive of some sort, look for them now"

Anything that's really unique tends to stick in my mind for a long time simply because it is unique.

[Doki]

Relic/Anima quests have permanently burned most dungeon runs into my brain.