It Would be Nice If Duty Mechanics are Explained by In-Game Tool-tips

[Yuuuuuki]

I started playing FFXIV a while ago and I have played for a few months now, but I haven't got to end game yet because the contents just get more and more frustrating to do and it feels really discouraging. What I feel really frustrated about is how dungeons and trials get more difficult but they never explain what you are supposed to do.

For example this trial I just did for the first time, (No spoiling anything) the boss does this thing that divides the map into 2 colors, and you get a debuff put on you. I was totally confused and I tried to read the boss's dialogue and I tried to read the tool-tip on the debuff, but none of them said anything useful, and the debuff just instantly killed me after a few seconds. I didn't get any chance to heal or shield or do anything to react. I only figured out you were supposed to walk to the other side's color every few seconds to change the debuff when the boss did it for the last time and the duty was almost over. This is okay in low level dungeons because you can just derp through mechanics and figure it out eventually, but in higher level contents where the punishment is so harsh this becomes just frustrating because as new player the game is basically designed to make you fail by not telling you what you are supposed to do so you just die a lot and you are useless, especially when people in the party don't explain the mechanics, which is understandable because a lot of people are doing roulette and just want to get it over with.

I understand if it's max level end-game content like big raids and big bosses where you need to plan and work with your team to clear stuff, but the lack of help on filler contents really makes progression just plain irritating. Why should I even bother trying in these contents if I would just be dead most of the time anyway because the game doesn't tell you what you are supposed to do?

I think it would be a really good improvement for new players if the duties tell you what you are supposed to do. Like the example I just give, if I move my mouse over the debuff, instead of saying something useless like "the power of A color shines on you", it could say "the power of A color shines on you, it will kill you in N seconds, absorb the power of B color to dispel this debuff". This would be very nice and clear!

And another boss that I just remembered is this one where you have to pick up white balls and use them or else the boss will blow you off the map. Again when I did it the first time I didn't know when I was supposed to use the white balls so I kept dying a lot. It could be improved by flashing a sign or with dialogue or some other cue to tell players what exactly are they supposed to do instead of letting them be clueless and useless. I hope Square Enix team would consider making this improvement to give new players especially people doing a particular duty for the first time a better experience.

[Reap00]

There isn't a single encounter in this game you can't ascertain the mechanics without some trial and error. Contrary to popular belief it is OK to die in an mmo. I promise it won't effect you in RL. I don't see the need for a change here.

[Nestama]

I think it's fine as is. One thing to note when it comes to buffs and debuffs is how the icon looks. If it's an arrow pointing up, it's a buff and nothing to worry about. If it's pointing down, then it's something to be concerned about and if it starts gaining stacks, then I should see what I should do to remove it ("Hmmm, I have a white moon. Let's stand on the black part of the arena and see if it disappears."). Debuff icon aside, SE also has a moon floating above your characters head, which gets fuller/eclipsed the longer you stay in the light/dark.

Lakshmi is also kinda vaguely obvious. You're given a new tool to use and there are two specific points to use it. One for her Astral Flow, the other for when she covers the entire arena in an AoE you can't avoid.

Trial and error is better than outright telling you what to do, imo.

[AduroT]

There’s a level 50 Alliance boss who has a similarish 50/50 color split, so it’s not the first time you could have encountered that. You might not have since it’s currently not MSQ required though. Snake god is a real pain though. Definitely took me a bit to figure out how that duty action worked, and I’m still not 100% on it since I’ve only done it the one time.

But yeah, a lot of boss mechanics had to be learned thru trial and error. If you haven’t done something before pipe up and say so at the beginning and that they should warn you of do or die mechanics. Otherwise death is a learning experience and they shouldn’t hold it against you nor you yourself.

[Sindele]

Most mechanics are puzzles, you're expected to pay attention to what's going on (and to some extent the theme of the fight) and figure it out from there, ideally collaboratively but they're never completely without feedback. If it told you specifically and exactly what to do, it's not much of a puzzle, is it?

To add to that, most trial and raid fights will go through their first rotation of mechanics specifically to introduce you to concepts that will become more widespread and deadly later on in the fight. The first time you see a set of mechanics, you should always pay close attention to it if it's your first time in the fight, even if it's not specifically focused on you - there's a non-zero chance that it will occur again later in some larger, faster, or more widespread form.

[Quintessa]

There isn't a single encounter in this game you can't ascertain the mechanics without some trial and error. Contrary to popular belief it is OK to die in an mmo. I promise it won't effect you in RL. I don't see the need for a change here.

If you die in the game you die in real life.
"If he dies, he dies"
People die when they are killed.
People are killed when they die.

[Vyrerus]

game hard

You call it filler content, but at one point it was all the brand new endgame thing. Everybody had to figure it out at some point, and yeah, some people wiped completely because of it. Just, try not to stress out when you die. When things in the game kill you, you at least learn that they're lethal. Visual queues on the battlefield go a long way, and considering the bosses and enemies that you are fighting are usually trying to kill you, it stands to reason that any effect put on you by them is also trying to kill you. The fights are already designed to be beaten, so just change your mentality on learning and death.

[Enla]

There isn't a single encounter in this game you can't ascertain the mechanics without some trial and error. Contrary to popular belief it is OK to die in an mmo. I promise it won't effect you in RL. I don't see the need for a change here.

Hell most encounters in this game are designed specifically to slowly teach you mechanics, with the potential exception of some savage and extreme encounters. If you pay attention almost every encounter is slowly guiding you to harder mechanics via repetition.

[KageTokage]

XIV fundamentally uses trial and error as part of its encounter design which is honestly a form of artificial difficulty, but it's not really a dealbreaker for me.

Selenomancy is not what I'd consider one of its crueler examples of that as the stacking debuff and the differing colors on the floor are a fair indicator that something unpleasant is going on and it gives you ample time to resolve it, unlike some extreme/savage specific mechanics that will basically instawipe the party if they aren't positioned in a very specific manner that only becomes evident after much experimentation.

[Jin-]

It's true that the buff / debuff descriptions are really vague in this game. Like spell damage buff, says that it increases your spell damage. Okay....