Rage Quitting this game

[aindriu]

Hi everyone,

I started FFXIV again last week with the road to 70 buff. Rather than do all the boring MSQ all over again, I bought a story skip potion.

I was leveling a scholar initially on dungeons but swapped over to astrologician after reaching 50.

I was having a lot of fun leveling up in the newbie dungeons with the healer. However, after reaching level 50, about 10-15 new dungeons became available.

These dungeons are much, much harder than the newbie dungeons. I tried a couple of them, and healed well. However, every time I log in, I am dreading queuing up for the dungeons, as I know, I'll be presented with a difficult dungeon run which brings stress to me.

I kinda like doing the newbie dungeons because they are easier than these ones. I run the low level dungeons on alt jobs and feel good when we complete it easily.

Last session, I loaded up my astrologician level 56, and was doing the Aery. I tried watching a video before hand to see what it was. The tank said it was his first time. However, when we were on the first boss, I tried dodging the orange circles like normal, but then all of a sudden I got one shot.

I then just rage quit the session. I'm not sure if it was my fault or not, but what I don't like about this game, is that there are so many dungeon bosses with different mechanics, other than the orange circles, that I feel that it's impossible to get through the game being new and learning everything.

I'm kinda half thinking of boosting this astrologician to 70 and just doing trusts, which are npc controlled dungeons. That would defeat the purpose though of my goal of leveling via dungeons and experiencing the dungeon runs in this game.

Otherwise, I might quit the game, and try out an easier game.

I don't think this game is very newbie friendly, especially the dungeons because there is so many different special mechanics on each boss.

Now, if the game was just simple 'avoid the orange circles' then I'd be happy enough doing dungeons. But when a big effin dragon boss turns around and one shots you with a bolt of electricity, it really ruins my fun. It feels like I've done something wrong.

I know dungeons are meant to be a challenge. Maybe, I just don't have the right mind-set starting out or something.

I just don't want to presented with stress everytime I queue up for a dungeon.


What's everyone's thoughts on this? Are dungeons way too hard at level 50? Do people enjoy memorising all the boss mechanics in all the dungeons? Should I even start out with a healer?

Thanks

[Baxcel]

Being new to the game and just to a new dungeon.. deaths are going to happen, its about learning from what killed you on the next pull or attempted at the boss/dungeon.

As a healer main your job has to be to stay alive and keep others alive, that means learning what attacks do and avoiding them..

a lot of attacks have different names but behave the same way.. like for example all the cyclones an most of the giant minotaur have a swing and a swipe attack.. they're usually not shown as markers and you'll have to learn how to avoid them or you will most likely die from the damage..

Its might also be a good idea to try out another class, maybe a DPS until your more comfortable with the fights. I'm not saying you should stop healing but if your having so much stress you want to quit.. maybe its time to change jobs, at least until you sub runs out.. then decide if you want to keep going.

Good luck!

[aindriu]

Its might also be a good idea to try out another class, maybe a DPS until your more comfortable with the fights. I'm not saying you should stop healing but if your having so much stress you want to quit.. maybe its time to change jobs, at least until you sub runs out.. then decide if you want to keep going.

Good luck!

Thanks Baxcel. I might try out a different dps class then.

[Iscah]

I'm kinda half thinking of boosting this astrologician to 70 and just doing trusts, which are npc controlled dungeons. That would defeat the purpose though of my goal of leveling via dungeons and experiencing the dungeon runs in this game.

Boosting your level wouldn't help on this front. Trusts are only available for dungeons in Shadowbringers, regardless of your current level.

There are definitely too many inconsistent markers for learning fights, but they have improved this from Lv60 onwards - eg. a consistent "stack together" marker.

It's definitely less stressful learning dungeons as DPS, and even as a healer I remember struggling with astrologian compared to white mage.

[Payadopa]

There are definitely too many inconsistent markers for learning fights, but they have improved this from Lv60 onwards - eg. a consistent "stack together" marker.

I must say I agree with that statement. But saying the game is not newcomer friendly (as the OP said, if I'm not mistaken) rings false to me, honestly. If anything this game takes hand holding to an absurd degree.

All level 50 dungeons, are a giant tutorial, all raids get nerfed, etc etc. And to rage quit just because you died once in a new dungeon is something I personally don't understand.

The problem is that you can heal through pretty much everything bar current end game so receiving a slap on the wrist and loosing just a couple of HP isn't teaching new players much other than to not bother much with AoEs. At least that's the only explanation I can think of when players drop left and right in a difficult dungeon where everyone has to pull their own weight.

And (again) I don't see a problem with dying. Just have fun out there and try to improve.

[DBriggs304]

I wouldnt boost as it will just be the same 70 to 80. I would stick with it and see if it improves. I'm also leveling an AST and I have the whole healer anxiety thing, but the more I play and get used to it, the more fun I have.

I'm no where near a great healer but as small as it may be, you feel good when you get comms, and I got three the other night when I thought I was terrible. No one died but I always over critique what I could have done.

In the end, most people are cool if you just mention you're still a leaf in regards to AST.

Good luck!

[Claire_Pendragon]

Unfortunately the problem is that you skipped the story, and are gaining too much exp from road to 70. (its meant to encourage players to balance the servers. its not meant to truly be the best way to play the game) It takes time to get used to the basics, and to learn mechanics.
Let me put it to you this way. Lets say you're trying to make a fight, and you want players to do something, other than mashing 123, while watching netflix. You make orange markers, to tell players not to stand in it. If they stand in it, they die. Great! now they wont watch netflix, but actually look at the game screen! (trust me, i know way too many ppl who say they were watching netflix when they stand in orange circles)
But now, the players are mad they died to standing in the orange marked ground! They complain, demanding u fix it! So now you adjust it, so this way they barely get hurt. This should discourage them from standing in the circles, get them to pay attention to the game, and also not punish them too much, right? Wrong, they go back to watching netflix, since they can now just stand in it, knowing they can survive it. Why dodge it, if its not fatal?
So now you up the damage, to the point of REALLY hurting. They still stand in it, and now just blame the healer for not healing them, if they actually died.

There is no winning when it comes to making games like this.

The player is the one at fault 99% of the time. They created a VERY lengthy story, to teach u as much as u can learn, and normally the leveling process is slow enough to let u see fights enough times to learn them. You should never know how to win a fight the first time seeing it. This also doesnt mean a fight isnt winnable your 1st time either. The argument I feel you're mostly trying to make is that the game lacks conveyance. When you see the purple marker in World of Darkness, you dont think "oh, i should gather together with people" you think "oh, better not stand near anyone, so they dont get hurt"

As another said, later on, most AoE markers become more reasonable. But some bosses, the whole puzzle of the fight, is to learn what to do. (You dont always tell someone how to solve a puzzle, before they attempt it and fail)

As for "Difficulty" this is one of the easier games on the market, and is easily counted as an "Easy" game as a whole. Healer is probably the easiest role you can play right now. (In how to actually play the role) But unlike a DPS, its more punishing when played badly. Its also punished for being played at a medium degree, if the rest of the group is trying to maximize your potential with massive wall pulls in leveling dungeons. (otherwise medium play is faceroll easy in single mob pulls, with no punishment)

If you came to the game back in 2.0, when the game was harder, you'd actually argue this game was too easy. Because players over explained all mechanics before hand, to make sure u dont mess up, and because most players were new. And it took forever to level up, so you got to see and learn everything before you reached Lv50.
I have a Lv60 alt, who hasnt even unlocked the Lv24 dungeon yet. Road to 70 is unreasonably too much exp, even more so for a player skipping the story, who can level up even faster than my alt. (I have 4 new friends, 3 of which have road to 70, and are Lv60+ in every single job. They still dont even know how to target mobs effectively)

My advice to you, isnt to play a DPS. Its to play a tank. If you mess up a mechanic as a DPS, u die, then get rezzed by the healer. (Also endgame is hardest on DPS, not healers. Healers have it the easiest, except in groups of players who werent capable of winning anyways, then it can be torture.) if u mess up as healer and die, u can only hope a SMN or RDM will revive u, otherwise u start the fight over again. but... as a tank? you mess up a mechanic, you're usually still at 90% hp. and you gain a vulnerability stack.mess up again, now u survive with 80% hp. and now gain a second stack of vulnerability. Ive seen tanks with 12 stacks of vulnerability. Its pretty hard to die as a tank. Tanks are the 'middle ground' when it comes to complexity. not as easy/simple as healers, but not as complex as DPS. The most complex is PLD. The "easiest" is arguably between DRK and GNB, depending on how good/bad you are. If a player is absolutely terrible, DRK is the job that gets the most out of them. If they are only semi bad, and actually try, then GNB is easier, and gets more out of the player. (Both DRK and GNB have room for good players to maximize them.)

Either way, if u switch to tank, i suggest u start in sastasha, and work ur way up, getting used to tanking. (its not hard, its literally just "run up to group, spam AoE".) later u pop cooldowns when ur ready to start pulling more mobs. just focus on doing damage, and you'll do the bare minimum of the job, even if it isnt being played to its maximum ability.

If youre not sure how to do a mechanic as a tank, just stand there, and observe what others do, and what happens. You almost never die, and you get to see what happens. (and hopefully learn from your observation.)

[Sabrenn]

Now, if the game was just simple 'avoid the orange circles' then I'd be happy enough doing dungeons. But when a big effin dragon boss turns around and one shots you with a bolt of electricity, it really ruins my fun. It feels like I've done something wrong.

You did do something wrong, you're supposed to give the lightning tether to a statue. But that's fine, most new players I see in there do the same mistake.

I don't think the dungeons are too hard. I think you just need to stop stressing out and that if you die, try to evaluate why and try something different that you didn't do last time. Look at the floor patterns, they usually have hints on where to stand etc. If there's a statue or something in the zone, it's usually not decoration either so it's highly likely that will be used in a mechanic.

If all dungeons had the same identical mechanics it would be boring. In fact, you don't have to do any of these after you complete them once, just level up with fates and take your time, if the dungeons are too stressful, maybe don't do more than one in a play session.

A lot of us had to learn these dungeons without guides, I don't think you should watch guides before every dungeon, that just increases stress to perform at a good level just tell the group you're new when you join so people lower their expectations and say sorry when you die then try to do better, that's all. No one is expecting you to play at a top tier player in a dungeon. It's a leveling dungeon.

All you need to do is make sure the gear you're wearing is at the relevant ilv for the dungeon you queue it and that you are clear with your intentions when you queue in. Your party is not psychic. Communication is important (but sometimes people don't care). Also if you are struggling with a dungeon you can always apologize and leave. You will get 30min penalty but they can always get a replacement in progress and you can just chill out in the meantime, it's not a big deal.

That mechanic targets anyone at random so it's not relevant as to what job you use. I do think it might be easier to start as dps. You kinda need to understand how mechanics work in the game in order to mitigate them better and it's easier to be in a position where you're not going to wipe a run, but your dps contribution is also a lot more important and I have a feeling you will hate the stress that comes with that more than healing.

Anyway, at the end of the day you're supposed to have fun with it so if it stops being fun, don't force yourself through it because of the amount of time you spent on it, go do something else and if you miss it, it'll be right back where you left it.

[Frizze]

Last session, I loaded up my astrologician level 56, and was doing the Aery. I tried watching a video before hand to see what it was. The tank said it was his first time. However, when we were on the first boss, I tried dodging the orange circles like normal, but then all of a sudden I got one shot.

I then just rage quit the session. I'm not sure if it was my fault or not, but what I don't like about this game, is that there are so many dungeon bosses with different mechanics, other than the orange circles, that I feel that it's impossible to get through the game being new and learning everything.

So generally speaking, if/when i recommend someone watch a guide i usually tell them that Mizzteq(MTQcapture on youtube) usually does a good job on them. She doesnt often miss/forget mechanics, and her explanations are usually fairly brief and understandable. She doesnt always offer the "best" strategy for a fight(making videos when a fight is new means that the "best" strategies havent always been found yet), but her techniques are always workable. I remembered this boss having one extra dangerous attack, so i pulled her guide and sure enough im sure i can explain what happened. So you were dodging the orange circles, like you expected to. This is likely Rangda's Ionospheric Charge attack - random lightning strikes. At the same time that mechanic is happening, he targets one party member at random and starts charging a large lightning bolt. This is done using the "Prey" mechanic, which appears in several other instances(although this might be the first MSQ one that includes it). The person hit with "Prey" basically has a bullseye on their back(and the marker on the party buff/debuff list is indeed a bullseye - this particular one includes a purple tether as the attack is getting ready to go off). There are(generally speaking) two types of "Prey" attacks. Ones where you need to hand the marker off, and ones where you need to direct the upcoming attack away from everyone else. In this case, there are large lightning rods around the outer part of the bosses arena. If you run behind one, the "Prey" marker will switch to that instead, and you take no damage from the hit(in the MTQ video for the dungeon, this mechanic is explained around the 38 second mark).

So thats what happened. You got randomly selected for Prey, didnt notice(it was the first time you ever saw that type of move, easy thing to miss), and died from the big hit that followed. So if you were in my group and this happened(assuming you didnt quit before i could say anything) i would have just told you that attack could be avoided by moving behind the lightning rod pillar things around the arena. No big deal, we all die sometimes. As for the rest of your questions, i am one of the people who thinks its a good thing that not all bosses have the same 2 or 3 moves. The wider variety makes them more special. I also happen to be the type of person who remembers little details like this fairly easily(but sometimes cant remember names or birthdays). Dungeon difficulty does trend upwards as you go up in levels, but its not a straight or smooth line. You tend to get several easy dungeons in a row, then one difficult dungeon which seems even harder by comparison. And as for starting as a healer, if its what you enjoy i would never tell you to play something else. But if its too stressful for your first time in a dungeon to also be healing then a DPS role could very well help you easy into it.

At the end of the day, the game is meant to be fun to play. If you can find a way to have fun, id tell you to keep playing. If its just stress with no enjoyment, maybe its not right for you. Only you know for sure.

[aindriu]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions.

I found I was letting my emotions and performance anxiety dictate whether I should play the game or not and perhaps rage quitting was premature. I realise this is a fun game, and that there are many challenges in the game, one of which is learning the different dungeon mechanics as you progress. I understand this is a game which you learn progressively what to do and to just skip dungeons is probably not helping me.

I am going to do a bit of exposure therapy next week on dungeons for myself. I am going to take my 57 Astrologician (either that or a tank or a dps [I haven't chosen yet]) and do every single dungeon 3 times in the duty finder. I'll read up on each dungeon on MTQCapture first.

My brother says just keep doing the dungeons over and over, and don't give a fk what other people think. I think he might be right.

Thanks again,