Quote Originally Posted by Mixelplix View Post
New Player (about a month or so) still working on MSQ level 69 White Mage. A few thoughts I have when I read this thread:

-More than a couple of raids I have been on have come with vets throwing a tantrum when a lot of sprouts are in their 1st time run and cause a wipe

-I watch strat videos before I go in, but it does not prepare me fully for the actual timing of the fight

-As a healer, my main job is to heal. I have no confidence to predict when damage spikes are coming to balance my mana usage, so I cut back on dps until I can run things a few times

-There are a lot of new players (which I think is a very very good thing for an older game). Vets need to understand that it is all brand new to many of us.

-Some people will not watch strats ahead of time, fact of life

-Helpful encouragement from vets goes a long way to player retention

-Timed runs, like WoW mythic plus, are a terrible idea
I just wanted to chime in and say that luckily not all of the veterans out there will "throw a tantrum" if a wipe occurs. It is true that when you look at the Final Fantasy XIV player base, you have a lot of people who have been playing the game for a long time. Based on their background and the experience they've collected over time, they will have a certain expectation when it comes to grouped content. Depending on their expectations, they can respond quite harshly when certain things happen during the run. But, there are plenty of players who are understanding, especially if you let them know beforehand if you are new to said run.

There is no shame in letting others know that you are new to a duty or the class/job you're playing. We're happy to help, but at the same time when we notice that players are doing something wrong / could something differently, we don't appreciate it if we're getting a "you don't pay my sub" kind of reply. Due to this, most veterans will remain quiet unless spoken to. Just don't let this bother you and don't feel bad if you make mistakes. We're all human. We've all been there and had to learn how to play the game ourselves.

If people ask me for tips, it would the following:

- Be sure to read the tooltips of your skills, so you know what each individual skill / spells does and how they work together with other skills in your toolkit.
- Keep practicing in order to gain muscle memory, so that it becomes something like a second nature and you will have to think less about what to use next.
- Get comfortable with your job. If that means that you need to stick to healing at the beginning, that's fine. But, keep challenging yourself by inserting offensive spells too. The general rule when playing, especially for casters, is "Always Be Casting" (also known as "Learning your ABC's")
- If you don't feel comfortable practicing with other (random) people in a duty, you can find training dummies at several locations (as well as the "Stone, Steel and Sky" timed content) where you can practice to your hearts content.
- Ask questions if you're confused about something. Some might even join you at a training dummy to walk you through a rotation.
- If possible, expand your horizon by trying out several different jobs. You'll eventual find one that feels the most natural to your playstyle.
- Outside of in-game means, there are loads of community websites and Discord servers where other players can help you.

Finally, you don't have to watch guides for content like Dungeons, Normal / Hard Mode Trials, 24-man Raids or 8-man Normal Raids. These types of content are tuned in a way that they will show of mechanics in sequence before combining them in later phases. That way you'll get the change to learn what each mechanic does before you need to handle multiple at the same time / in quick succession. Extreme Trials are a good bridge towards the end-game Savage and Ultimate content. Once you feel comfortable with your job and have built up a good amount of experience within the game, give those a go. There are plenty of people who prefer to clear content blind, so they won't require you to watch a video first.

Also keep in mind, when grouping with others, runs can be a hit or a miss. If you happen to end up in one of the "miss" groups, don't worry. Learn from the experience and try it again (perhaps with another group).

You'll get there. (^_~ )-b