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

[kaynide]

To the OP with all due respect, it’s kind of the point to go in knowing nothing and having to figure out how to win.

That said, could things be better? Yes. Specific markers are very sloppy pre Heavansward (gather together, run away, etc often just used generic orange/blue with no continuity across fights).

That said, if you play the game you will find certain mechanics introduced either earlier in a previous dungeon as part of a boss or in the case of trials, often the first phase previews different mechanics. The new Eden 2.3 is a great example of this.

In addition, bosses for a new expansion tend to use mechanics from the previous expansion’s raid series (eg. A certain tentacled boss in a certain undead themed flying ship has been reskinned in both a Heavansward dungeon and not one, but two shadowbringers’)

Allllll that said, if you are overly self conscious of dying I highly recommend MTQcapture’s guides for a quick and dirty before going in.

[PyurBlue]

To the OP with all due respect, it’s kind of the point to go in knowing nothing and having to figure out how to win.

I don't want to speak for anyone else, but I think that's what everyone wants. Being handed a win with no effort is meaningless, but laying on the floor dead doesn't have to be part of the learning process. Things could be fixed if there were other failure conditions besides death. The problem with FF14 though is that it's an established game with years of content so it's unlikely that that SE will go back and rebuild everything, not to mention that doing so might turn away part of the playerbase.

[SamRF]

I don't want to speak for anyone else, but I think that's what everyone wants. Being handed a win with no effort is meaningless, but laying on the floor dead doesn't have to be part of the learning process. Things could be fixed if there were other failure conditions besides death. The problem with FF14 though is that it's an established game with years of content so it's unlikely that that SE will go back and rebuild everything, not to mention that doing so might turn away part of the playerbase.

I had this idea that they could introduce more complex mechanics in normal duties, but have them give your a lower dps penalty instead of death. Still have the insta death mechanica we have now but on top of that, more complex ones and you'll be rewarded with extra dps when you go trough the effort of handling them, as an individual player.

[SamRF]

For normal duties, Tbh I wouldn't mind some kind of ingame guide section that explains mechanics (not during the fight). Would rather read something consistent ingame than look up a guide. Speaking normal duties, I always read a text guide first (dont want video to spoil anything) and then sometimes a video afterwards if I'm still confused about some mechanics. It's just normal mode, I'd rather know what to do beforehand than die as I learn in a random PUG, it makes the fight more immersive too as it's part of story progression first time you do it, and the Warrior of Light ego gets hurt when you're getting carried by a random PUG cause your immersion matters the most first time.

For normal content only, not talking about high-end. However would be handy if it becomes available for the High-End as well as it gets patched out of the High-End section and is no longer relevant gear wise.

[magdahmhara]

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.

Sorry meant to answer this post with my WoW explanation, lol.

[Gemina]

On one hand, I totally get where you are coming from as I am not exempt from not being able to understand a mechanic and having to seek outside sources for help, or to confirm for me how the mechanic works. A more recent example of this was in the Qitana Ravel (prob my favorite ShB dungeon). The first boss combines two mechanics to target three quarters of the arena, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out where the safe zone was. Sure, it's easy just to follow other players or your trusts NPCs, but I hate that. This does not help me understand the mechanic.

On the other hand, I am fine with it as is. Using the same example as above, while it was frustrating, ultimately figuring out how it works on my own was very rewarding. By reward, I mean that these educational experiences carry over into other fights since the devs love to reuse mechanics.

It sounds like you are doing your due diligence when it comes to understanding mechanics, and tooltips can sometimes be confusing. A great example of that for me was friggin' Judgment Nisi in the Alexander raids. I read it and was just like, "oooooookaaaaayyy." The thing with mechanic design is that the devs always have to give some kind of indicator if it is a mechanic that is meant to be avoided. Sometimes, the clue can be as subtle as the name of the ability being cast. Other times, how to handle a mechanic is literally shoved in your face, "MAN THE DRAGON KILLERS!" But in hindsight, there is always something telling you that you are about to eat dirt.

Best advice I can give is that if you are having trouble understanding a debuff mechanic, don't be afraid to ask. You can even come here and ask if you find yourself in a burn-type group that just wants to speed things through. It's things like where this community shines since most are more than willing to help in situations like these.

[kaynide]

I might also suggest figuring out/getting some general advice... like if you go in blind/want to figure a dungeon out.

One example is that a lot of the artwork on floors in boss rooms/raids have designs that are, specifically related To the mechanics (divide into quarters, have circle areas, lines, etc)

[PyurBlue]

I had this idea that they could introduce more complex mechanics in normal duties, but have them give your a lower dps penalty instead of death. Still have the insta death mechanica we have now but on top of that, more complex ones and you'll be rewarded with extra dps when you go trough the effort of handling them, as an individual player.

I also prefer damage downs to instant death. They give the same feedback but a damage down doesn't sideline you into twiddling your thumbs. I just wonder how threatening they would be without an enrage, which is something that most casual content doesn't have. Still, I think they're worth having, and even if they don't raise the stakes I'd definitely try to avoid them just for optimization's sake.

What I'd really like to see is being able to fight to a draw (dynamically, not predetermined by the story) canonically in the MSQ and then have a rematch later where the mechanics are slightly different from the first fight, but similar enough that you can learn from the original encounter. That would allow for a fight free from instadeath penalties while still putting some pressure on players to succeed, but like I said before the game isn't designed to work that way so I don't know if it's a realistic idea.

Reply to a few above: (re: not insta death but penalties to give a second chance)

That’s kinda the direction they’ve moved in. I wanna say..4.0 onward, if you get hit by a mechanic it gives you a debuff that increases damage to you. Get hit by 1 and while probably fine. 2 or 3.. a bad time. 4+ probably dead.

It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good for what it is.

Vuln Ups are also better than instant deaths, but one issue with them is that they can punish you for failing completely unrelated mechanics. If you're totally new to a duty and like to go in blind, you could easily fail two obscure mechanics in a row and die. That's not necessarily a bad way of doing things, but I prefer to feel like dying is the result of a major mistake on my part rather than chance.If mechanics are obscure it pretty much comes down to chance whether you get them right or wrong. Given how SE has designed the game though, vuln ups are a good compromise.

[Genz]

Vuln Ups are also better than instant deaths,

Vuln up and instant KO share the stupid trait of making "healing" irrelevant, and are the source of the problems regarding healer jobs.

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Duty mechanics explained IG may seem to be the next logical step for what's the game is currently doing, but it's still sold as a "RPG", and the suggestion, if implemented, would cement FFXIV as a glorified "Simon's says".

As an aside, Selenomancy is indeed a blatant design error (as often with instant KO). It would be already a little more intuitive if it was an increasing DoT for example.

[Quintessa]

Oh wow.

When a mob is about to do a paralyze move or whatever, there is a big reddish(purple?) EYE BALL that flashes on the screen, but I still see people not turning around.

Come to think of it, it doesn't really tell you what to do, just that something bad is gonna happen REAL SOON.