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

[Alaray]

I don't feel like the initial post was really to people who don't like/don't want to do raid content.

It sounds pretty geared to people who want to try it, but are nervous/anxious to try it out. Which is pretty common, I wouldn't have raided in Sigma or learned how to tank at all had it not been for a chance friend-of-a-friend who wanted to make a group for new/beginner players and see how far we'd be able to go together (which was 3% God Kefka enrage until the group fell apart, mostly since half had to step out for life obligations and the others got frustrated over trials). Kinda felt bad near the end that I was on DRK, but :B

But I was pretty surprised how I improved that tier, and after picking up a new job in the same role, been having a lot of fun in this tier even though we started really late in January after BFA crashed and burned. (And haven't been 8/8 since... like, early Feb really). I like the sensation of improvement, even if picking up a new job after a 6mo break or so from the game made me really rusty for a bit until I got the hang of things again.

For stuff in PF, most of the time it's pretty chill if you join a group oriented to where you're at. Be it learning a fight (so, a learning/prog party), or going for a clear of a fight you feel confident on (so, a clear party). Farm parties tend to be 50/50 I've been in some solid ones, but some that just get stuck really fast and struggle.

I do get a bit of stage fright in PF whenever a well-known enough streamer joins in, but the actual individuals have always been really helpful in terms of teaching.

But since it can be done via PF, raiding doesn't even really need to be a heavy commitment. Can just be "got an hour to spend, maybe I'll try to learn this fight" etc...

Ofc the entire conversation changes if you don't like to raid, but if that's the end of it then it's like... well... don't... raid? (like how I choose not to... craft).

Ultimates are the ones that spook me, more since I'm not confident enough in my own ability to attempt them, but also they tend to require a heavier time commitment since each pull can be anywhere from 30s to 15+ minutes with a reset back to the start. (And also just... lazy to go back to kill the fights I need to in order to unlock them, since I didn't raid in Delta and stopped playing after the 3% Enrage since the group fell apart on Godka).

Idk, I rambled some but figured it'd kinda fit in with the overall theme of the original post a bit.

[Allegor]

Personally, while I could welcome some challenge, my average ping is 230 ish (WTB South American data center :'C), so I tend to avoid potential high stress content where a single second can save or doom a group.

[Voltyblast]

I raided before, back in vanilla wow and TBC especially where it was at its peak, so I know I can do it if I put effort and I enjoy raiding for the challenge - although FFXIV raiding is less than a challenge and more of "remember everything to a tee or else you restart". Now, I did manage to reach bahamut eventually so I'm not new in raiding in this game.
However, I just don't like the OHKO mentality of the raiding system here: it's like restarting a game because you messed the stats and the game became harder, but you didn't know that doing the other way around could've made it so easy it's insulting ("Cough" dragon quest 8 "cough").

Problem is the static mentality is a toxic one and it's all about "first come first served" where if you're far behind in progress - as in learning the bosses - well, good luck learning in PF with pugs: nobody's gonna carry you while you're far behind, even if you got the latest gear and back when I started cross party PF didn't exist so it was either hard or impossible. There's just no real cooperation except for that one goal, which is clearing the raid. Everything else doesn't matter really, heck you'll probably never play with your static members. I never did at least and I was in several statics during ARR.

Of course, there's always the "pay the gil" route which I don't recommend but hey, there's a reason why the PF is spammed with people selling raids right?

[Dualgunner]

Very well put, Obama! I had a very similar experience to you; FFXIV is the first MMORPG I ever put any serious amount of time into. For the first four years of my career in this game, I had little to no raiding presence; some friends helped me through Turn 5 of Binding Coil, I subbed in for some Gordias statics, joined a Midas static for all of a month...not very exciting. I didn't do much of anything, and didn't think I was capable of much.

In Stormblood, I decided I wanted to be in a static and to really throw myself at it. I picked up RDM, studied it in and out, practiced against Susano, and my static made it to Exdeath Savage before the Paladin and I left (personal reasoning); we quickly assembled a new group of people I consider good friends, and finished out the tier in time for UCoB to be released. At the time the static didn't think it was good enough for UCoB so we never tried; Sigmascape came and went, and with UWU coming I really wanted to throw my hat in. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do whatever I set my mind to--and a little under three months later, we crushed the Ultima Weapon into the dirt!

Now my group is farming Ultimate Weapons since Alphascape Savage is over. Once we get 10 more kills we're also gonna move on to UCoB (hey, maybe we can make it a competition? :P I guess it kinda wouldn't work since we both have Kaeda in our static lmao) Actually my discord was one of the ones you posted your victory vod in--I'm so proud of you!

Thank you for posting this. I agree with the message wholeheartedly. The biggest obstacle for anybody is themselves: focus on improving every day, and even Ultimate will bow before you and your team!

[Jaywalker]

Small update from initial post! I did the same recent extreme run with a group that was advertising in party finder it was to learn the run and git gud, and we cleared it together while having a lot of fun! One member got a mount too! Feel insanely better about participating in farms going forward. Thanks again Aurelius for sharing your story, honestly I was feeling awful before but knowing this is just part of the process really helped.

[MorbolvampireQueen6]

its not that they hard but honestly the mech fights really are lame and boring to fight in games so I skip any of them i can.. really hate robots/ and mecha stuff organic fights i can enjoy.. but if i can avoid it i will not fight a mecha

[Ramesses]

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)

As I started reading through all your posts, the above quote was the first element that cheered me up immensely... Black Mage is a beast of a DPS job if properly played and its rotations are well delivered. To further expatiate your point above regarding opinion, I can even provide further insight into one of the misconceptions that evolved about Black Mages. here's the summary:

A while back, a small handful of full time raiders made a few comments about how they would prefer certain DPS jobs over BLM in just a few of the savage raids. The premise was that they were trying to utilize the party buffs that those DPS jobs would bring to the raid... for instance, Bards...and in so doing changed their line ups to reflect this.

As always happens with the exponential development of fake news, when this information finally trickled down to the rest of the player base, the story evolved into how BLMs could never be used in raids. To compound matters, there was an influx of newer players who did no know how to play the job... which of course just ended up fueling the impression that BLM was no good. Hence the past stigma.

In reality, they couldn't be further than the truth... and as people gradually found out that Black Mage has actually been one of Yoshi's main job class since forever, the perception towards the job has massively improved.

By the way, great posts and great charcater name... I'm a real life fan of Obama.

[KageTokage]

I was in the "not good enough" mindset during HW, but decided to take the plunge in SB.

I managed to finish the entirety of Omega Savage in PF groups while each tier was still relevant, so I felt kinda stupid for not trying sooner.

[SunAurel]

A friend of mine asked me "hey you main paladin right? Can you help my static today?" (Back at A5) so I was like ok sure.
I was a fresh lvl 60 and didn't have that much experience at all. Turned out it was a permanent raid position.
I didnt even know my rotation!

But I got better with the group and we progressed! Every raid tier I improved my gameplay and I've been raiding with this static for ca. 3 years now.
I'm not the best Paladin ever since my parses are purple/blue but every raid tier I discover new tricks for my class to be more effective.

If you truly are afraid and scared to raid then get together with people you can get better with together

[Fynlar]

Cool story bro