Having a few issues with combat/gathering

[Bralch]

The most frequent and brain itching thing is the delay,for example when indicators show for boss attacks,you can run out of it and be out of it on your screen yet die as if you were sitting in the middle of it. Every game i have played so far has had no issue with ping/latency,always sitting at around 30-40 ms while ffxiv shows around 150 but feels like 2000.
The second thing is percentages,being that i can have 96% chance of say successfully mining an ore,but it fails 2 to 3 times....frequently...mostly wondering if the percentages shown are off/wrong and its a bug waiting to be fixed or if the games just overall broken

I have been only playing a month but these are the biggest brain numbing issues that make me want to run away from the game. (after i finish the story of course,the 60$ was well worth that) combat and crafting/gathering for combat materials being the main thing for me yet feeling wonky,is there any news on fixes, patches for the actual percentages etc because sadly i don't think it will be an enjoyable stay for the monthly fee after i finish the story from my experience so far. any help or tips would be appreciated

[Vrahjin]

As for the indicators in battle, try and keep a look out for the casting bar instead. When the bar finishes, if you're in the indicated area, you're toast. So get out before the boss/mob's cast bar finishes.
Doing that you can, more often than not, actually go back into the animation area and keep DPSing/Tanking/Healing without getting hit. Can take a little while to get used to and nail perfectly though.

As for gathering percentages.. that's XCo-, sorry, FFXIV for you. Sometimes you'll miss all 90+% in a row, and sometimes you'll gather all mats at 60+% while getting a HQ or two. Sometimes you'll even make three HQ items in a row at a 1% chance when crafting.
RNGesus is a cruel master.

[Naryoril]

To add to what Vrahjin said: The end of the cast bar usually, if not always, is the same time when the marker on the floor vanishes. If you are within the usually orange marker when it vanishes, you'll be hit by the attack, even if the animation and the damage come several seconds later. Conversly, as Vrahjin said, if you are outside of the marker when it vanishes, you'll not take any damage if you stand inside the animation when it happens.
In the past, long before heavensward was released, there were lag issues when you got hit by AoEs even though you were outside of them in time, or at least it looked like it for you. This was most notable in Titan Extreme, especially with the landslides which instantly killed you and you couldn't be resurrected anymore because you were dead on the floor far below the fighting platform. But this issue has been fixed since then and i haven't had it in years.

[Bralch]

So there is no helping either issue,all there is to it is to adapt or move on i suppose? As sad as that is for us who can't adapt to the combat style,it was still worth the money buying this game All that leaves is to finish the last expansion before this month is over,hopefully in luck of having groups that do not mind a frequently dead player for quest dungeons as i was quite lucky to find tolerant players so far. Thank you for replying and i will definitely wait excitingly for the next expansion down the road (seriously had days with 2 hours of sleep because it was itching at me to find out what happens next)

[HyoMinPark]

So there is no helping either issue,all there is to it is to adapt or move on i suppose? As sad as that is for us who can't adapt to the combat style,it was still worth the money buying this game All that leaves is to finish the last expansion before this month is over,hopefully in luck of having groups that do not mind a frequently dead player for quest dungeons as i was quite lucky to find tolerant players so far. Thank you for replying and i will definitely wait excitingly for the next expansion down the road (seriously had days with 2 hours of sleep because it was itching at me to find out what happens next)

The solution is to watch the cast bar over the AOE ground indicator. Because the AOE ground indicators can be so misleading, one should pay attention to the cast bar first. Some AOE indicators flash very briefly at the higher levels, and if you're not out of them before they even appear, you will get hit. And this is regardless of what your latency may be, so it happens to everyone.

Additionally, if you are concerned about latency being a true issue, you can always try a VPN. I use Mudfish, which has a Pay Per Traffic plan over a monthly subscription, so I just load up money onto it and use the VPN as needed. I loaded $10 USD onto it back in December 2018, and I still have over $7 USD left, and I use it pretty much every day. It won't get rid of latency entirely, but it can help reduce it. I went from 130~150ms to about 90ms, so a huge improvement. Obviously, though, if you are on console, this is not a solution. For consoles, I'd recommend changing you DNS settings and hardwiring the console into your router with an Ethernet cable if you are able to get rid of any potential Wi-Fi instability.



For gathering percentages, that's just RNG hard at work. It's frustrating, but that's what it's good at. Make sure that you are using your Mastery abilities to increase your gathering rates on items that you really want to gather. There are 3 basic kinds that are all learned by level 10:
- Field Mastery I: increases gathering rate by 5%; 50 GP
- Field Mastery II: increases gathering rate by 15%; 100 GP
- Field Mastery III: increases gathering rate by 50%; 250 GP

Make sure to stock up on cordials to use to replenish your GP faster. You can either craft them (level 50 ALC), or buy them from your Grand Company with Seals. Hi-cordials can be bought for Yellow Scrips, and replenish 400 GP. While they have long cooldowns (4~5 mins), they're a valuable thing to have.

[Naryoril]

So there is no helping either issue,all there is to it is to adapt or move on i suppose?

There is nothing to adapt to, you only need to understand how the system works and you'll never think "i wasn't hit by that, why did i take damage?" If you understand how it works, you'll always know whether you'll take damage from those AoEs before the damage actually hits. It's not a latency issue, even with a latency of 0 things would be exactly the same, it's just how the game works. The animation of an AoE skill does not matter in any way when it comes to whether you are hit by it or not.

[KRIPTICON]

There's not a whole lot I can say about the AoE thing that hasn't already been said but there are a couple of things I can add. I know that it can be difficult to watch for the cast bar during boss mechanics when there is a lot going on, especially for a healer because you're tasked with both watching the boss and keeping people alive. My advice is to be patient. Once you really begin to articulate mastery of your class, it should help with your overall awareness of what's going on and help deal with encounters better in general. It is worth mentioning, however, that latency IS a thing in this game and can't be ruled out completely. I'm pretty sure this has long been fixed, but back when Titan HM was current content, a lot of people were struggling with it. There was an issue with weight of the land where you could get hit by it even if you were clearly not standing in the telegraph. I'm not saying that latency is 100% of the problem but it could certainly be part of it.

For the gathering, I can provide some insight. I read somewhere quiet awhile ago (I don't remember where) that the sometimes wonky crafting and gathering RNG is the result of the system Square uses to determine the rate of successes and fails. Evidently, their system is inferior to the way other games handle RNG mechanics (you would have to ask someone in general discussion for a more thorough explanation). I know this because I looked into it myself a few years ago. What you are describing used to piss me off as well.

I hope I have been of some help. It would be a shame for you to quit the game when it's such a great time to be a part of it.

[savageink]

Every roll is separate and does not take into account any previous failures to increase your chances. It's like rolling a 20 sided die and rolling a 1 3 times in a row. Shit happens, and sometimes RNGesus doesn't love you. The only way to avoid that problem is to level above the % needed for what you want, or use skills as somebody mentioned.

Can't halp you with the AoEs. All I can say is learn to take the shortest way out as quickly as possible. And learn the patterns. Alot of AoEs come in patterns. So, if you know what the next one is you can already be moving out of it before it comes.