Understanding why I was kicked from my static, and how to improve.

[GerPronouncedGrr]

To begin, I have only been playing XIV for about 5 months total. I played WoW for about 10 years before that, and that time includes Mythic raiding and even older stuff like AQ40. I played XIV for about 3 or 4 months until the end of the final tier of Ish. Resto. (mostly MSQ and crafting), then took a break until about a month-and-a-half ago. I joined this static 2 weeks ago for a trial run. I was clear that I was new and did not have BiS gear (my weapon is only i500) or savage experience, and the static leader indicated that they just wanted to prog E9-12S before EW dropped so that we could learn to work together as a group and get some experience. The group was billed as mid-core, if it matters. The static itself is also relatively young, although it does include some vets, so it seemed like a good opportunity to learn along with the rest of the group and, personally, to learn from more experienced players.

Week one went, I thought, very well. I was getting along with everyone, and I managed to learn and clear both E9S and E10S multiple times. My parses were not good, only about 8% of total damage, but everyone told me to focus on learning the mechanics and to practice my rotation in my off time, and no one indicated that my damage was bad enough to be a deal breaker.

This week we started progging 11S, and it didn't go as well. We had multiple members misunderstand mechanics, including myself, and on the last evening I was with them everyone seemed a little sour in general. There were no heated words exchanged or anything like that, these are nice and chill people, but it was obvious that most of us were feeling tired and frustrated.

Today I received a message from the static co-lead, asking me to leave the static. The reasons cited were that my damage was so bad that it seemed like I didn't know my class, and my inability to adjust on the fly if the boss was out of position or if a critical member was dead and I had to pick up something I would normally not have to. Additionally, I was told that I was not receptive to criticism of my play, and that it seemed like I was not putting in the same effort as the rest of the group. I was caught off guard by much of this, as I felt my performance during the previous week had been a good indicator of what I am generally capable of.

So, long story short (too late), I am left wondering if A) they really wanted someone who was already up to speed and could parse better and knew the fights, B) someone didn't like me or something I said and tore me down in private instead of speaking to me, or C) I really am not good at taking feedback and just ignorant of the signals people were sending me to change my behaviour. I honestly don't know what to think right now, so if you have experience with this kind of thing I would appreciate any insight. Thanks for taking the time to read this giant novel of a post.

[Eclipse12187]

It was most likely a combination of A and C, however I don’t know you personally so i can’t for sure say C.

That being said, we’re 2 weeks out from early access of the new expansion and you have an i500 weapon, idk what the rest of your gear looks like but you can buy high quality 510 gear from the market board and augment it to 520. It’s not the best gear but the stat gains are worth it. Relic, while being best in slot, is a massive grind that wouldn’t be worth it this late IMO, or you could learn the Diamond weapon fight and get a 525 weapon from there.

Your weapon is the most important piece of gear you can keep up to date, the weapon damage (or magic damage) on it effects everything you do, both healing and dps. Low weapons heal for less making you and your coheal have to work harder.

Learning the fight, especially e11s, is very important as well. In FFXIV all fights are scripted with some very minor rng of who gets what mechanics sometimes. E11s compounds this by also adding in fire lightning and light elements to his attacks, which changes the follow up mechanic to many of his attacks, being able to read that as well as adjust on the fly is very important.

It could be a number of things, unfortunately I don’t know you or your static to give a definitive answer but at the very least I would say if you plan to raid more before endwalker work on your gear and brush up on fights using guides.

[WhyAmIHere]

While I don't think this is the right section for this sorta thing.. and the forums aren't a blog as well..

Were you tanking? Healing? DPS? Assuming you were tanking from, well, tank section, and you've listed gunbreaker as your main class.
As far as performance.. Telling someone "go practice your rotation" is, in my opinion, a subtle way of saying your damage is low / bad. Now, if all the person(s) looking at numbers saw was your numbers, and didn't factor in things like your gear, comfort with your played class, comfort in that fight, etc, then frankly eff em.

Most ""mid-core"" groups don't seem to get what being "mid-core" means. As far as learning from the group, can you identify areas in which you feel you're lacking? Are you able to maximize uptime to the best of your abilities? Are you keeping your GCD spinning and not standing/moving whilst not using any GCDs? Are you stopping your GCDs while a mechanic is happening to try and see what's going on?

Nothing I see for you is open to the public so I can't just dig and find these answers myself, nor could anyone frankly, so again hearing just from you is only half the story. Especially this bit: "The reasons cited were that my damage was so bad that it seemed like I didn't know my class, and my inability to adjust on the fly if the boss was out of position or if a critical member was dead and I had to pick up something I would normally not have to. Additionally, I was told that I was not receptive to criticism of my play, and that it seemed like I was not putting in the same effort as the rest of the group."
My takeaways are:
>Assuming you were off tank; the main tank died to stupid and you werent as fast as they wanted in picking up aggro
>Damage can be factored in with lesser gear, but also were you breaking combos (i.e. breaking your 1-2-3 with a ranged GCD)? were you stopping your rotation at any point?
>Communication issues could be at play. They could have said something which to them was a point of "do this please," but that might not've been understood.
>How much research into the fights have you put, i.e. read guides on the fight(s) and the timeline of mechanics? Or were you just adapting to things as they happened?

Finally... its ultimately not that big of a deal if one static says their goodbyes. Just find another. But if the next one has similar feedback to you / your gameplay, maybe some introspection's called for. You say you're not *that* experienced with 14 playtime-wise, so having these moments of learning / growth are fine. Don't take it to heart such that you're disparaged from trying to find another group. Especially a ""midcore"" group. More often than not people aren't honest with themselves in what they really want. If they weren't happy with how you performed, take the time to see what useful insights could be gleaned from their feedback versus your gameplay, and look for a static that would be willing to help you improve.

[Argyle_Darkheart]

Right off the bat, if I was trialing you and you had an i500 weapon, then that would be a massive mark against you. Your probably didn't mean it this way, but it suggests you're either lazy or don't care about making a good impression. That said, I would question you on it pretty quickly.

As for the other stuff, I don't know since I didn't play with you. Did you research the fights ahead of time? How extensively? Do you, in fact, know your rotation?

Without knowing a lot more, all I can say is take their feedback to heart and answer this question yourself.

[GerPronouncedGrr]

Sorry about the lack of clarity, yes, I am playing GNB and was tanking in the static. I had this in my original post but had to trim it for length.

Thank you both for your comments. Just to reply to a few things:
-My overall iLVL is now 520. I wasn't aware I could buy/aug a 520 weapon and no one suggested it to me.
-I put several hours into learning each fight beforehand, including watching the specific strategy videos suggested, talking through mechs with the other members, and watching additional videos to see how other people were doing it.
-For my rotation, I am aware that keeping your GCD rolling is #1 priority, and I do my best to always try to do that and maintain uptime during mechanics. I rarely fat finger a combo, but since GNB is more of a priority based job I certainly make the wrong decisions sometimes, due to lack of experience or panicking if a mech is going badly.

At the end of the day I do understand that this isn't the end of the world, and I certainly have a lot of room for improvement. I guess I should just accept that I will never really know the reason and move on.

[WhyAmIHere]

Sorry about the lack of clarity, yes, I am playing GNB and was tanking in the static. I had this in my original post but had to trim it for length.

just as another tip: you can always edit your message after the fact to get around the character limit.
What I do is if a message is too long, i just copy it, post 1 through 0, then edit that post with the original message.

[Argyle_Darkheart]

I mean, that all sounds good, so I don't know what to tell you lol. Looking at the rest of your gear, I wouldn't hold the i500 weapon against you after questioning. So, I doubt that was it. If it was, then the people trialing you failed at communication, as far as I'm concerned.

It could be that your situational awareness or on-the-fly decision making were truly lacking. But it sounds like other members were messing up too, so I'm not sure how high their standards should realistically be.

Were they trialing other tanks? It could just be that there was a better candidate, although I always inform trials when that's the case.

[GerPronouncedGrr]

My situational awareness tends to be pretty good, though obviously not perfect. I caused two wipes early on in 11S due to not adjusting the lightning tether away from the group properly when he was in an odd rotation. My on the fly decision making in this game is definitely lacking. I can learn the fight robotically, it's something I've always been good at, but when the situation gets spicy I don't always make the right decisions in the moment.

[Edenn]

E11S is a VERY huge jump from E10S. It's like comparing apples to oranges, so you can't really use 10S to gauge your ability to savage raid.

I'm not certain on how other DCs handle raids, but Crystal (ime) is a lot more lax than other places, so it may just be the pressure from the time constraint(s) until EW.

If I were a static accepting people in a "mid-core" group, I definitely wouldn't have taken in someone who's been MIA for a while, nor do they not bother with the relic/getting augmented exarchic at the least (many ppl cleared w/o relic, but it does help massively)
All-in-all, I dont know you as a person so i couldnt confirm if it was a personality thing, but it was most likely just them not understanding what mid-core is, I would definitely recommend trying to get into a casual group tho if you continue with raiding.

[Undeadfire]

I played WoW for about 10 years before that, and that time includes Mythic raiding and even older stuff like AQ40.

Drop this story, it isn't going to bring merits in groups having interest in you, many high level Wow players who raided hardcore in the raids claimed 14 is easy and they perform horribly bad.

My parses were not good, only about 8% of total damage, but everyone told me to focus on learning the mechanics and to practice my rotation in my off time, and no one indicated that my damage was bad enough to be a deal breaker.

No one cares about parses in progression, as long you make the DPS check who cares, and you lack gear to even come close in comparisons. Week 1 groups give up time just to stay alive and get more prog time spent in.

This week we started progging 11S, and it didn't go as well. We had multiple members misunderstand mechanics, including myself, and on the last evening I was with them everyone seemed a little sour in general. There were no heated words exchanged or anything like that, these are nice and chill people, but it was obvious that most of us were feeling tired and frustrated.

Don't over think on mechanics, E11S mechanics are far more simple than you actually believe. Prog is prog, we all get frustrated trying to push the fight but the point is you have to keep it fun and enjoyable, and everyone is on the same page.

Today I received a message from the static co-lead, asking me to leave the static.

We can't answer this if we don't have any footage, words are words.

So, long story short A)
B)
C)

A: Only possible if that was the statement, no one would go time wasting who is new when they expected everyone to know the fights. Parses doesn't matter in progging, whoever thinks otherwise needs a brain check since you should focus mechanics 1st. If you get stuck an impasse then worry about DPS.

B: We can't answer much to this.

C: Raid Leader should be talking to you private if there's a problem in a constructive way. It's either one you have issues yourself, or the raid leader is incompetent. I raid hardcore now which I started in SHBs and cleared week 1, I was just a Mid-core > Semi-Hardcore player before in the older times of 14.

I will give my best insight I can.