Main Scenario Runs

[Kurando]

When a lot of us do the Main Scenario Roulette, most prefer to run through it and get it over with (as it is a tedious one to do after all). Occasionally there will be first timers, and although its no different to it happening in any other duty, the main scenario ones are quite cut-scene heavy but do actually relate to the story.

I think its alright to go ahead if anyone else in the team can at least update the newbie on where to go, or what do do/switch to press etc, it's easy to get lost in either of the scenarios. But there are many occasions when that doesn't happen, i.e. a tank might suddenly become a dictator pulling everything ahead as they go and shooting down anyone that questions it. Many times I have heard "we only need 3 people to run this", or "x person wasn't needed anyway" etc. You'd think with such salty attitudes you encounter in there sometimes that you were doing Extreme or Savage content!

[Kurando]

Its true that players can watch the cut scenes outside of the duty once it is completed, or they could set up a specific P.F. with cut scenes stated in the comments.
Yes all have our own reasons for running the main scenarios, but experience for some players doesn't exactly turn in to a positive one. The newbies generally want to take part in the fights with the rest of the team which is a fair enough request, and then we have Mentors (the ones who actually deserve the Mentor status) or even non-mentors that may try to assist them, guiding or giving hints etc. Of course there is no obligation to help, but we ain't all bad people and we have all been in this situation in the past when we were doing the story.

So curious, but is it actually fair to always treat it as a speed run, ignoring whether any first timers get left behind or should we at least attempt to make a little effort, whether its waiting a little bit or even just communicating?

[seekified]

The community has been discussing Castrum Meridianum and The Praetorium's shitty design for three and a half years now. SE have said they're not going to change them, so we're stuck with what we have and we have no way of making strangers on the Internet behave.

Personally, I think the only real solution is turning those dungeons into single-player instances. The Main Scenario Roulette was intended to give players an incentive to fill the queues, because otherwise newbies would never get through the queue for those dungeons. The tradeoff is what we have now - people who have been running these duties well over a hundred times and couldn't care less what happens in them anymore.

Removing the roulette with no other changes would make it almost impossible for newbies to progress the story. We can't make people be nice to newbies, regardless of whether it's a DF party or a PF one, and reporting for harassment after the fact hardly helps. Thus, make them single-player so newbies get their epic finale to the 2.0 story without having to deal with the current crap is a good solution, but again - SE have said they're not going to do anything.

[Hasrat]

I went into it first time knowing it was going to end up a speed run, skipped all the scenes (I'm not so invested that I need to see it all happen as it happens), etc, but it still was a bit hectic for me. The biggest problem, or two I guess, being the magitek bit (first time through, wasn't clear how/where to get that going, so I fall behind), and all the elevator-y warp whatevers (first time, no idea where I'm meant to be going).

Funny bit was everyone stopping before a boss (might've been final, can't remember), asking the Bard to pull, without realizing the Bard (me) wasn't anywhere near them.

Personally, I'm tempted to at least make a PF for learning the run myself, so I can either contribute or guide as needed. But that's what it's down to. You either know it and burn it, or you don't know and just get dragged along.

Isn't part of the problem that they're not iLvl synced? Changing that small thing right there would probably go a long way towards changing how they're treated. As long as end-game players get to use gear twice as powerful as during introduction, they've got no reason to hold back.

Of course, the bigger issue with "balancing" them at all is you run the risk of nobody ever wanting to bother even with the roulette. Tweaking it to a solo run would probably be the most ideal solution. But maybe that's too big an ask.