The Noob's Guide to Raiding in FFXIV

[DestroyerOfLargePlanets]

This guide is aimed towards those who have recently made it to raid-tier ilvl and are looking to delve seriously or semi-seriously into the true endgame: RAIDS. This will be a relatively short guide, but it may give some valuable input to those who need it.

Many people are hesitant to get into raiding at first, thinking it's over their heads, BUT FEAR NOT! The handy tips in this guide will help you smoothly transition over from those pleb contents onto the more challenging (and rewarding) parts of the game.

DISCLAIMER: I ain't no Xeno, so take all this information with a grain of salt!

1) Before you get Started:
Here's a checklist:
- Do you have the required ilvl to start raiding? [ ]
- Have you taken a close look at your tooltips? [ ]
- Are you doing a kickass rotation? [ ]
- Do you have communications (ie: Teamspeak, Discord, Skype)? [ ]
- Do you have a schedule that allows you to raid at least 2-3 times a week? (3 times recommended) [ ]

GOOD. Then you're ready to go!

2) Getting a Group Together:
If this is your first time raiding, then you'll want to join a NEWBIE-FRIENDLY group. This part may be hard, since team composition matters in raids. Not only that, but schedules might not align and therefore you'll have to keep looking and looking until you find a group. Try the forums, cross-server party finder, FC chat, friends, and even try shouting in the middle of town to find a group that's good for you. If you're like me, and you want more control over your roster (or you just straight-up want to main DRK not matter what) then you might want to recruit people yourself via the same methods.

More on your Group's Roster/Composition:
- Make sure the raid leader is ready to kick people out. This guide IS aimed at those who want to kind of take this seriously, right? It's highly unlikely that the first group you join or make will be composed of players with similar expectations or skill levels. In most cases there will likely be 2 or 3 people who constantly fail mechanics or deal subpar DPS compared to the rest of the team -- at which point the raid leader must decide whether to wait for them to improve or simply replace them with a better player. Having a raid member/s drag the whole raid down is not a good situation -- such a composition breeds conflict, stunts progress, and creates tension in the raid group which will inevitably end in a raid member or two leaving or worse: the raid group exploding and scattering to the winds. Most of the time the raid leader will have to kick the weakest links as soon as possible and replace them with suitable players with an acceptable skill level. Less often the raid leader might have to kick people who don't have a good attitude. This is all up to the person who has the <Golden Boot of Kicking People Out> (ie: the raid leader) which is a pretty good reason why you should recruit people yourself if you want to have control over your group composition and group direction!

3) Wiping and Learning:
So as a new raider, you'll notice that your group will wipe (die) A LOT during progression. This is to be expected! After every wipe, I'd highly recommend IDENTIFYING THE CAUSE of the wipe. This is where your members' attitudes will come in. If a tank made an error or lost aggro, they have to own up to it so that everyone knows what went wrong. If the Dragoon failed a mechanic and caused a full raid wipe, they have to tell the whole raid. Own up to your mistakes and identifying mistakes will be much easier, and by extension CORRECTING those mistakes will be easier.

More on Identifying Mistakes:
- Raids in FFXIV consists of 2 things: a) MECHANICS b) DPS/HPS CHECKS. When your party wipes, it's because they failed either in mechanics, or DPS/HPS checks, or sometimes both at the same time. The easiest to correct are the errors your party makes with mechanics. This will simply require you all sit down and discuss alternate tactics, positioning, tank swaps, etc. HPS checks are slightly harder to correct. Did everyone just die from raidwide AoEs even though the healers were healing their lalafellin bottoms off? Then it might be a good time to look into the mitigation/buffs your team has at its disposal. (An easy solution would be to have your Scholar save Fey Illumination and your Monk to save Mantra for that part, for example. Pop both of those at the same time and healing will be no problem). DPS checks are the hardest to correct. That's because failing a DPS check is indicative of a bigger problem: someone or some people in your raid group are either not doing optimal skill rotations, or your entire group is just lacking proper gear. Fixing a bad rotation or accruing better gear will likely take a lot of time.

Once your team identifies mistakes, then your team must LEARN from them. Only then will your team be able to progress.


If you guys have any suggestions as to what I should change in this short "guide," then feel free to reply down below!

[matteoxyz]

This will sound really dumb but I don't know what "raiding" refers too in terms of content. Does it mean playing only Alex Savage? What happens when the group has finished them all? If I agree to raid with my FC, what are they assuming I will have unlocked and I what minimum iLvl?

[DestroyerOfLargePlanets]

Yes, when I say "raiding," I am referring to the most recent tier of Savage-difficulty instanced 8-man battles. At the moment, that would be Alexander Savage floors 9-12. Once your group is able to complete all four floors every week, then it's just a matter of farming it for loot until the next tier of raids is released. If you agree to raid with your FC, then they'll expect everyone to have completed the normal versions of the fights because once everyone has completed the normal versions of the fights, then it's really easy and quick to unlock the savage versions. The average item level for Alex Savage floor 9 is 245. Floor 10 is 250. Floor 11 and floor 12 are 255.

[matteoxyz]

Thanks for clearing that up for me!

[rxantos]

Not really a lot of help.
Do you have a site where each raid is explained in detail?
My main is a tank and don't want to look like a headless chicken doing them.

[ItMe]

Do you have a site where each raid is explained in detail?

Unfortunately there isn't a single place that collects guides, so your best bet is to just google up guides for each fight as you prog.
Do you learn better with text guides or videos?
The Balance usually links to some google docs, so I'd recommend checking them out.
As for video guides, I'd recommend checking out MTQcapture on YouTube.