If you never felt that you were good enough to raid or do ultimates...

[Aurelius2625]

Hello, Aurelius here.

I wanted to have a little chat regarding raiding. In this game, there are high end raids including Extreme Trials, Savage, and the new Ultimates. I want to post this here as living testament that if you work hard enough, you can accomplish anything in game.

I have never played an MMO seriously before, besides a few free Korean MMO's like Conquer Online and 2moons. I don't have any raiding experience whatsoever, and little experience with the Final Fantasy series, outside of FFVI, FFVII, and FFXIII.

When I began the game, I had no idea what to do whatsoever, and had no idea how the game worked. I could barely figure out where to go let alone optimize dps rotations or understand how to even tank, heal, or dps properly. I mean, literally no skill or knowledge.

I was given the blessing of joining an FC that had players that were at endgame, and while not hardcore or even midcore themselves, were a welcoming bunch that answered my questions, and helped me figure out how to run content as best that they could.

I stumbled and struggled my way to HW with Black Mage, and upon learning that at the time it wasn't very good for raids (I understand now this was opinion over fact), I decided to go back tanking, and wanted to try out Paladin since no one in my FC really mained it.

My rotation needed some serious love, but being the perfectionist that I am, I studied hard and learned how to do things. I asked around for guides and was led to the Balance, where I received my first crash course on raiding. I learned the rotation, and through this I formed my first static. Needless to say, it was a TOTAL disaster. I had no experience, and take full responsibility for the failure of that group I tried to be more commanding and controlling, and it backfired as the members had raided before, and most likely didn't want someone "new" to tell give them guidance, even though I would frequently check with Balance members to make sure what I was saying was sound. It feel apart.

[Aurelius2625]

The next group I joined was a seasoned group of raiders from Coil and Alex, and they helped me after I got to Guardian with my old group. After I trialed they took me on and we cleared Guardian eventually, but struggled GREATLY with God Kefka (we literally had our first clear of it on the day Sigma was unlocked). Having to pug most of my clears of Godka, I began to hunger and thirst for optimization, raid buff alignment, strategy, planning between tanks and healers for mitigation, swaps, and the like.

It came to a boiling point where I was frustrated, depressed, drained, and didn't like raiding because of how inconsistent that group was, and how slow prog went as well as well as other issues. Needless to say, the group had one way of thinking, and I, had developed in my experience, another way.

I parted with them and joined my current static, a huge upgrade and honestly, everything that I've ever wanted in a static. Having cleared, I had some confidence, but my past two failures still weighed on me. I doubted myself and my abilities. I started an Ultima Weapon Ultimate group as the leader after clearing Godka. I wanted to push myself to the highest level of play possible. I wanted to prove to myself that I was good enough, ,that I was a good player, maybe even a great one if only at one job.

The group had a lot of hiccups at the start, balancing schedules, desired outcomes, prog rates, and so forth. We had members leave as we progged through Titan, and it was a huge blow to group morale, as prog dried up. I began to think back to the Sigma groups that I had, and I started to worry that I wasn't good enough to hold this group together. I watched PoV's, looked up strats, and tried to help as much as I could. Eventually, we had a full roster again of very talented people, and we killed Titan. This was after about 2 and a half months on UwU or so, longer than most groups would run it. The prog came pretty consistently after that, with some bad weekends and days mixed in. It was a BRUTAL slog through some of the MOST demanding content.

14 minutes in and wipe because someone made a small mistake? Back to the beginning, when most savage fights end at the 9 minute mark, or, have a doorman fight as a checkpoint.

When we got to Suppression, I truly felt like we could do it, our group, after four months could really do it! We pushed and we pushed and we pushed. Just last week we went from cleaning up suppression in UwU, the last true phase of the fight, to enrage at about 23 percent as our BEST run of it. Last night, having one lockout and a sub, on the last pull of the 2 hour instance, we ended up killing him. We all became "The Ultimate Legend".

At last, I felt like a weight (of the land) was lifted off my shoulders.

[Aurelius2625]

Similarly, during Alphascape, I progged the last fight ahead on my own, and ended up clearing with the help of some amazing friends and some randoms. Now, savage raids are at the "Normal" or "Hard mode" level, with EX trials being nothing for me. I look forward to progging Ucob and getting that kill as well.

I want to share my experience as a total newbish greenhorn that may have been labeled one of those people that "had no business raiding" or "was a scrub" or what have you. If you ever felt like you werent good enough, like you didn't have a place raiding or that it was too hard, people might be mean, etc... GET RID OF THAT perspective.

You're only holding yourself back. You have no idea what you are capable of, until you try. Don't give up, don't disband your group, or walk away from clearing anything that you want to. Don't give up on being a highly competent player that performs well in content. Don't feel like you can't play a role and give up on it, either. I went from being yelled at in Copperbell normal for "not tanking properly to block from the front with my shield" (which was wrong, by the way, blocking was omnidirectional by the time I started to tank) to a tank that cleared savage tiers and farms them with ease, and someone who's cleared Ultimate.

If you want to do something in this game, then do it! Your own attitude and feelings are the only things holding you back. You can do whatever you put your mind to, and don't let anyone get you down. Even in the worst situations, when everything falls apart, there are always people willing to help you, and you always have strength that you didn't know that you had to carry you through.

[Jaywalker]

This actually cheered me up a lot.

I messed up last night, not on a raid but on a party finder attempt at farming a mount. It was for an extreme run that I initially thought I'd cleared recently. Big mix-up, as it turned out I hadn't. Had been reviewing the fight mechs regardless and felt reasonably sure that while I might not have it down cold, I'd be able to get it in two-three tries and breeze through. That has generally been my pattern when trying upper level content.

I wasn't the only new player in my group, and I was DPS. It took a long time for the party to fill up. I explicitly told the initial members I was new but learn fast, and while I didn't state it outright to the rest of the group I referenced it in pretty clear terms.

We wiped twice. The first time I made some dumb mistakes, which I noted and fixed the second time. I definitely did better in the next attempt, surviving stuff that had previously killed me. But we still wiped.

People left the duty silently. I followed suit, confused. One person simply said not to advertise for farming if I was new to a fight. Nothing more was said and everyone left before I could even type an apology.

I felt terrible. It seemed like everyone thought I was the sole reason that party failed. And while I definitely saw other people mess up too (dying in very avoidable ways), part of me has been worried acknowledging that to myself would be skirting responsibility or something.

I seriously want to learn that fight. I want to run it multiple times and I do want to farm. As I'm doing that I want to get better and better. I've done that in other fights, sometimes even with newbies. Didn't mean to mislead anyone or waste time but I felt too guilty/ashamed to try again before.

This was encouraging and reassuring. Ultimately it's all just a game for fun and different people enjoy in their own ways. I'm going to take a break for a while, then will try again with a very clear explanation in party finder.

[miraidensetsu]

Well congratulations for your achievement.

I have that thinking too, that I'm not good enough for raiding. But I don't really want those clears. I will spend so much time, effort and will have to eat so much crap and even have to nail it on the first try (because the system itself doesn't want me to be training). I don't even have time or a good conn or even an PC who's oficially supported. Maybe, with much effort I can be good enough for this, but I don't want it. I just want to have some stress-less fun, some dungeon runs and that's great, not a second job where I am not even paid for it.

Maybe on next patch.

[Risvertasashi]

On the one hand - yes - if you're willing to put in many hours of practice, most anyone can get up to the level of content they choose and shouldn't be discouraged. Keep at it and you can do it.

On the other hand, raiding isn't for everyone - not for a lack of skill but due to simple preference, or perhaps a shortage of time, etc. And that's ok too.

[Nora_of_Mira]

"you can do anything if you keep trying"

I'm really glad you stuck with it. your experience is very similar to mine as it took 3 attempts at having a static for raiding to actually be fun. All I've wanted was the savage raiding weapons/armor/mount from a current tier and Alphascape was the first one that I was able to clear. o/

[Ogulbuk]

If stars align, and you get a good group of supportive and tolerant people that will stick with you through learning the ropes, you will be golden.

Personally, I was unlucky every time I tried. The range of reasons it didn't work was all over the place, from RL friends that played other MMOs and felt raiding here was designed for babies, to fellow casual players that quit the game entirely over being insulted for failing a mechanic on their first attempt. Not to mention the time where the a group was looking OK, but would not stop racist profanity that, as a Latino person, I just was not willing to suffer though. I just had so much time to put in the game, and enough stress in real life, to stick with the trail and error of finding the right group of people.

Sorry for being so negative on your uplifting thread.

[Jimmymagic]

Hello there. I appreciate your share on raiding. I personally hated raiding when I first started. Everyone else had done LotA and syrcus and WoD so many times I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Another Problem I have had in the past to was either no one really knows proper mechanics of the instance or there ilevel was insane so it didn't matter.

First time doing LotA I told everyone I new and it was my FT. I asked for help....no response....I think I died like 6 or 7 times. The last time they didn't rezz just cleared the dung. I was pissed and frankly my attitude was f-raiding.

However, I stuck with it for awhile and started to learn the mechs take better prep for each run, and even if I died I ask for rez sometimes yes sometimes no...but I didn't leave.

So to speak, I took my medicine and got better. I guess the main point is to not let other players get you down when you mess up or are lost. Take any positive criticism and use that to improve. Ignore the self righteous douche bags who are not there for fun or challenge but there to troll.

Just about everything I've experienced with FFXIV is patience, patience, and more patience when doing group activities. I don't rush to quit anymore. I stay to play.

[Aurelius2625]

One thing that always keeps me going, especially when it's rough, is that it doesn't matter how other people clear: Faster, better, and so forth. The clear I am getting will be MY clear, and I'll do it my way. My group was remarkably salt free, and I can't believe, given my past experiences, that it was to be that way. Even in my bad groups, I still tried to focus on, "What can I do to be better?", in order to have experience and be able to speak on that, should the opportunity for a more hardcore group arrive.

There was one hardcore static that wanted to recruit me. I didn't know why, and the leader essentially said, "If we didn't think you were capable, we wouldn't even be having this discussion right now". These were people going after week 1 or 2 clears of the entire tier, and people who had cleared the ultimate raids. For me, who had only cleared Sigma with above average/average performance on my part, I suppose it was my mentality that caught their attention.

For me, I always look at a run at "what did I do wrong?". Even the trappiest of traps becomes a learning experience. I get to perfect my opener, my rotation, not overcapping or wasting resources, and so forth. No matter what, a run attempt is never "bad" or "lost".

Yes, you can get a good or bad group, but it's not simply that "if the stars don't align, you WON'T accomplish your dream". The BRD that is in my ultimate group pugs the entire thing. So he never has the ability to know what he's getting, he just has to make do with whatever he's got.

Raiding includes some of the best, and some of the worst people in game, imho. Generally, people are really, really good about this game and interacting with people. Most will just leave the party if things aren't going so well, very rarely have I ran into bad situations, although I have as well done so. Some of the nicest, most supportive people I've bonded with over raiding, and have helped me improve in ways that I can't repay them for.

Keep at it, you never know where you will go.