Never do BA again on NA servers

[Zolvolt]

In my honest opinion, Baldesion Arsenal was a mistake to add to a game if you understand the NA community of Final Fantasy XIV.

Our community is deathly afraid of failure. So the idea of failing in BA and wasting all that time is something they fight against religiously. These premade groups that have sprung up requiring discord to enter and having to put up with toxic attitudes/people and elitist "this is OUR baldesion arsenal" mindsets is not only the reason I now hate Baldesion Arsenal but also the reason I am dreading having to do any other content like it in the future.

Hello. Hi. How are ya? I'm Zolvolt. I have 10 BA clears now and getting here was awful.
I've been kicked from two BA discord servers, one was for telling my group I was disappointed in how they griefed another group by letting the support NM fail on purpose and then telling them how hateful they've been towards other players was disgusting. The other one I entered Hydatos on my own right after work entered a party to do support NM, was told there was no support group and then went into a portal. Got a DM on discord right away saying I was kicked for sniping portals.

Its obnoxious and unnecessary. One of my clears of BA's was all pugs with no discord at all. Its just a group of people who think they need to maximize BA or they will fail. They're afraid of running the risk of accel bombs blowing up or meteors being misplaced so much so that they will ostracize any player that is not a part of their clique even if there is no malicious intention behind it.

Putting up with all of these players toxicity, bad attitudes, elitist us vs. them attitudes is why I hate BA after 10 runs. I simply wanted 10 clears for the achievement and getting it was a huge hurtle because the players who you have to engage with to get there are awful to work with a majority of the time. That being said I met quite a number of nice people who I look forward to seeing again in the future. But for now I'm not asking, I'm begging. Do not put the community through this again, please keep in mind how awful NA will act when it comes to public content with a high risk. The high risk is 100% why players act this way. Please convey this. I don't wanna deal with this ever again I am actually sick of the horrible attitudes that people here have.

[Zolvolt]

Also if anyone wants advice on how to get BA done without the toxicity.
Get a small group of friends together with stabilizers. maybe 4-8 max. Use stabilizers when other groups are going in. The only caviot is that your group needs to understands the ins and outs of every boss because premades aren't going to help you out if one of you makes a mistake. Also, its public content, if people give you shit for it tell them to get over themselves, they don't own the BA instance or the portals in there. If you want to do it. Just go in and do it. People have the option here of being welcoming to randoms, helping them out and gaining benefit by doing so but its clear after my 10 runs thats the NA community are never going to accept that path and are going to stick to being hateful, and ostracizing. The game needs to be designed in a way that avoids putting players in a position where they can act like this. Its gross.

[Avenger]

It sounds like the main problem is the NA players.

Maybe this will provide some incentive for the players to cooperate more.

[HyperiusUltima]

It sounds like the main problem is the NA players.

Maybe this will provide some incentive for the players to cooperate more.

To be honest OP, I don't know your experiences very well, and am sorry if you had to deal with such things. The BA Discords already put a heavy check on toxicity and the like, plus I think that SE needs to rethink this design for BA regarding portal sniping. Right now, it's TOO EASY to get into BA because you wait the 5 minutes Earth Time. If they really wanted to gate it, they should consider the Stabilizers instead of having them only give you priority access. HAVE THEM GIVE YOU ACCESS ONLY, Nothing Else. Make BA require Stabilizers so people have to put in work to get that privilege to go into BA.

[Ing-Dono]

It sounds like the main problem is the NA players.

Maybe this will provide some incentive for the players to cooperate more.

Yes, and I doubt it would. (at least for EU)

If it does, it would be great, but I don't see it happening soon over at the EU servers.

Language barriers (multiple), Discord groups practically ignoring anyone that doesn't play ball and the fact that you can get killed by other players (meteors/cleave (Meteors will most likely lead into you being thrown into hyda, but it's still a death you probably don't have any control over), which will set you back in experience, requiring you to level back up (which isn't hard or slow, but you still have to do it).
Makes for content most people either join with a Discord group or accidentally stumble into, just not knowing what awaits them on the other side of the portal.

While I will look into doing it the intended way (gathering a single party at most and going in do complete it with other random parties). I don't expect a lot of succes.

Taking responsibility and listening to other players hasn't been the strongest part of the EU community, people that actively communicate with others not in their FC are few and far between. (and honestly the ToS changes don't promote change for the better in that.)

[Crux]

It sounds like the main problem is the NA players.

Maybe this will provide some incentive for the players to cooperate more.

I agree and that is the whole idea of Eureka, to be more like an old school MMO or FFXI. Community has been taken out of MMO's, newer players probably don't know anything other than Duty Finder or similar grouping aides. They are trying to bring a little of that back, where people have to work together to solve problems.

[Avenheit]

Yeah, I just did a BA run as a pugger, then got ridiculed because a premade was in the instance as well. They didn't let me join any parties, and some players I considered a friend have now blacklisted me.

I no longer feel welcome inside Hydatos, just because I wanted to content available to everyone.

If you're wondering, Yes. I made it through Ozma by myself.

Yes, i did get to the portal first.

[Avenheit]

Yeah, I just did a BA run as a pugger, then got ridiculed because a premade was in the instance as well. They didn't let me join any parties, and some players I considered a friend have now blacklisted me.

I no longer feel welcome inside Hydatos, just because I wanted to content available to everyone.

If you're wondering, Yes. I made it through Ozma by myself.

Yes, i did get to the portal first.

I got to the point where I broke into tears because I somehow convinced myself that I am a garbage person for wanting to do public content. And then continued to hate myself because I cried over people I've never met/over a simple video game

[kidalutz]

I got to the point where I broke into tears because I somehow convinced myself that I am a garbage person for wanting to do public content. And then continued to hate myself because I cried over people I've never met/over a simple video game

Just remember it's a THEM thing not a YOU thing The current toxic sludge you're dealing with are generally here from other MMO communities and don't have the FF XIV Community mindset that bring you in from the leveling dungeons The helpful polite players that genuinely want to see other people succeed and maybe surpass themselves is tossed to the wayside by those who think they're WINNING a game.

Bear in mind that alot of the problem stems from those people moving in from other MMOs While the one that wont be named that was beyond a disappointment caused yet another loss of subs those subs moved here and before you knew it we had 14 million people subbed (I've played both this was the better investment.) Thats alot of people with vastly different mindsets from what we got used to over the years.

Now I'm rambling I guess what I'm saying is never give up theres kind players out there.

[Avenheit]

Just remember it's a THEM thing not a YOU thing The current toxic sludge you're dealing with are generally here from other MMO communities and don't have the FF XIV Community mindset that bring you in from the leveling dungeons The helpful polite players that genuinely want to see other people succeed and maybe surpass themselves is tossed to the wayside by those who think they're WINNING a game.

Bear in mind that alot of the problem stems from those people moving in from other MMOs While the one that wont be named that was beyond a disappointment caused yet another loss of subs those subs moved here and before you knew it we had 14 million people subbed (I've played both this was the better investment.) Thats alot of people with vastly different mindsets from what we got used to over the years.

Now I'm rambling I guess what I'm saying is never give up theres kind players out there.

I do agree with you, I started playing back in private beta of ARR and I've had a wonderful time inside FF14 until today. Once I move passed this, I'll get right back into it. I love the game, I enjoy it so much and I was never a MMO player originally.

Given some time, I'll be right back into doing content square has offered EVERYONE to play