Why do you fail at Hashmal?

[Sebazy]

I also do not understand how you can see the fight every single second. Even on a red mage, I need to look at my bar to see procs and cooldowns and stuff. When I am a white mage I need to keep my eye on the party and alliance bars. Even if I put this bar literally in the middle of the screen I still need to look at it for a second.

A lot of it comes down to reflexes and how fast you can do these things. Remembering to hit sprint is also a huge help. I suspect playing with mouse and keys is also quite the boon as I can swipe the camera from one side to the other almost instantly.

[Deceptus]

I think one of the things that add to the difficulty and affects many players is the lack of visibility. In many fights you can see the full area so you have a better idea where stuff is and where not to go. With Hashmal you can't really get a full view of the field and the various towers, bells and such block an awfully lot of what can be seen. I know I spend probably as much time to reposition my view to avoid mechanics as I do focusing on targets.

Pretty much this. If they'd do red warning areas people would instantly know where to go but for some reason the SE Dev team has shied away from them to artificially enhance "difficulty".

[AlexanderThorolund]

How fucking condescending do you have to be? (Before I go into this rant I have to say I’ve been playing this raid since day 1 and have learned it like the back of my hand).

Not everyone learns something at the same pace as you. I mean look at the Angra Mainyu from world of darkness. People still struggle with this boss because there’s always an influx of new players. People don’t learn something to appease your sense of completion.

People are playing the game to enjoy themselves and part of that is accepting the fact that (Luckily for the game) there will be always be new people.

So get off your high horse and be more accepting for the community.

[KaivaC]

snip

Seems like a nerve was touched. My point still remains. Generally, you'll know when you have new players in a run when you get a bonus message. I'm not referring to those runs, because I'll help out when I can if I see a bonus message. And notice I did not include the Crystal Tower or Void Ark raids. Those, I can understand because a lot of players coming in now rushed through ARR and HW to be able to access SB. I don't mind that. This is not being condescending...this is me sharing an opinion that others have that I agreed with, and have decided to openly share.

I am not suggesting that all casual players are bad, only a general huge portion. And I did ask why it appears that way, and many players here have shared their thoughts, which I respect and understand. Visual indicators, camera issues, monitor resolutions, spacing out...yes, I can understand that. I wonder, though, if that applies to whole parties? What is the reason when it happens to an entire party? Not talking about back in October - talking about now, when you don't have a bonus message for new players.

[Tridus]

Generally, you'll know when you have new players in a run when you get a bonus message.

You don't reliably get bonus messages in Rabanastre for some reason.

[XenabelleS]

You don't reliably get bonus messages in Rabanastre for some reason.

I ran it for the first time this week and there was no bonus message on either my Thursday attempt which was a disband after two wipes on the 2nd boss, or the subsequent Friday attempt which was a clear.

As to the OP, I'm in the "oh crap, that tower got sliced in the direction that I am strafing" camp. I try my best to move where other people are moving but if I am even a half second behind, I get hit by the aoe that went of a few seconds ago even when I am standing with everyone else when it kills me.

Also, it was only my 2nd time even seeing this fight - so yes, there are still new people. I started Heavensward when Stormblood dropped and started Stormblood in mid December (took my time to level all my DOH/DOL/DOMs to 60 before starting SB MSQ)

[RiyahArp]

Reasons why they die :

-Hashmal's dive requires you to spin the camera to locate where the hell he is, then process which side is safe and run to it. If you fail this mechanic, unless you are a tank, it's a one shot; even knowing someone is about to die, server ticks prevent you from cleansing or healing in time on a dps or heal even at 340 ilvl. Later on, they add red circles, which can kill players running just because of random positioning.

-control towers are a mechanic with a weak visual tell. If a person tunnel visions or is at a bad angle where they can't gauge the direction, they can die. Also, many dps jobs can't always have a panorama of the whole map as easily as others.

-most of dust sphere deaths tend to happen from low dps; either raise sickness (SCREW RAISE SICKNESS, it was better to have them low HP than do half damage and heals) or people outside of their markers. Its actually possible to survive one dust attack if you are at full health; I always immediately top my party off after the stack and shield them. So you only can fully wipe if two alliances miss their dps check.

Thats about it, really. Nothing else is that unrecoverable from.

Edit: oh, keep in mind...a lot of people only do this raid once per week. To actually git gud at the patterns requires you to do more than that, which is why locking all incentives off per once a week sucks. Of course people wont be perfect if they don't do it that often.

[MeridaQ]

I don’t know, I go into raba expecting shenanigans and it rarely disappoints. I actually think it’s pretty exciting, because of the number of deaths. One time on hashmal, myself and the two other tanks were the only ones alive. We took him from 7% to 1% (if the PLD had used clemency we would have killed him) The DRK and I (WAR) kept tank swapping to rebuild health. The rest of the alliance were cheering us on. Now the couple of FC members that went with joke “why don’t you just solo it?” xD.

[Rokke]

The leading cause of wipes at Hashmal I’ve seen is poor situational awareness.
- what alliance are you in?
- where is your alliance?
- where should you run when X is happening?
If you cannot answer all 3 before the aoe marker vanishes, you’re dead or dying very soon lol

Im as casual as they come and I still don't understand how this fight trips up so many people. If you are dying because you're tunneling your party list/buffs/procs/insert other HUD related excuse here, imo you should probably adjust your HUD. His attacks all have huge tells. People shouldn't be eating them as often as they do :I

[KaivaC]

snip

I'm more or less a midcore player myself, and it's just this one fight that just stops so many people. Honestly, Mateus has more mechanics going on for her simultaneously (the first phase, with the three water puddles, the ice skater, the numerous adds that need to be killed, and ice slaves if you let them spawn), yet as it stands now, a majority of groups can get past her, but not Hashmal. Now I can acknowledge some players may have issues, like with their screen resolution, tunnel vision, amongst others...