The difficulty curve in the game has... problems...

[Issaella]

*snip*

It just feels like an enormous amount of effort to put in for 18min of progress. That's it, 4 pulls, 18min of playing the raid, I looked at the instance timer in disbelief when everyone just ~poofed~ without a word. And now all I can really look forward to is another however long to form/join a party with the requisite progress just to have it implode again in less than 20 minutes. It's not exactly like the PF is overflowing with p2s prog groups.

I'm not saying I wont. I'm saying g** damn that is really disheartening... Like the end point after that doesn't feel any closer.

[Issaella]

I forced myself to join another prog at Harma with zero hope of getting any farther. Progged for about an hour before someone had to leave. I managed not to wipe us and get the mechanic right after like 5 tries on Harma. Actually cleared Overflow and the second Overflow easier than Harma. Saw enrage once near the end (~25%) before we disbanded. I died, like a lot, a lot more than everyone else it seemed like, and still am clearly the weakest link.

But, it may be, minutely possible that I can eventually clear it. Enrage once at 25% is a long a** way from a clear, but it might not be impossible. It's still really f'ing hard though and the game does absolutely nothing to prepare you for it. And I'd be willing to put a large wager that I just lucked into a unicorn group that felt sorry enough not to kick me bringing paper bag tier DPS.

I'll keep trying I guess. I will withold my judgement on the feasibility until I actually get a clear though. I think there is an above even chance I end up in the old folks home (ie - the perpetual "seen enrage a bunch" groups, but never get a clear).

[IdowhatIwant]

I forced myself to join another prog at Harma with zero hope of getting any farther. Progged for about an hour before someone had to leave. I managed not to wipe us and get the mechanic right after like 5 tries on Harma. Actually cleared Overflow and the second Overflow easier than Harma. Saw enrage once near the end (~25%) before we disbanded. I died, like a lot, a lot more than everyone else it seemed like, and still am clearly the weakest link.

But, it may be, minutely possible that I can eventually clear it. Enrage once at 25% is a long ass way from a clear, but it might not be impossible. It's still really f'ing hard though and the game does absolutely nothign to prepare you for it. And I'd be willing to put a large wager that I just lucked into a unicorn group that felt sorry enough not to kick me bringing paper bag tier DPS.

I'll keep trying I guess. I will withold my judgement on the feasibility until I actually get a clear though. I think there is an above even chance I end up in the old folks home (ie - the perpetual "seen enrage a bunch" groups, but never get a clear).

It sadly doesn't look like you have any logs. I was going to offer some pointers but I don't know what I am working with. I did my savage stuff as Mch, and I like to think I do well as Mch.

Yeah 25% is pretty high for enrage. How ever I am pretty sure when I first saw enrage my group had it pretty high as well but that is what prog is you typically aren't going to clear. If you don't feel comfortable with the mechanics to potentially clear (able to ideally go through the fight with out dying or killing some one) you may want to practice more before that push to clear.

[Issaella]

It sadly doesn't look like you have any logs...

Because they are hidden and will remain so. I don't need my shameful bottomdweller grey parses posted for all to see. I didn't even know I had any (or even thought about it) until someone said something a while back and I had to scramble to figure out how to get rid of them. There is noting to see there but disappointment and humiliation.

[IdowhatIwant]

Because they are hidden and will remain so. I don't need my shameful bottomdweller grey parses posted for all to see. I didn't even know I had any (or even thought about it) until someone said something a while back and I had to scramble to figure out how to get rid of them. There is noting to see there but disappointment and humiliation.

lol wear them with pride they eventually get better. I cleared P2S with a dark who was low enough to not even get a score, it doesn't really matter in the end, and I really don't think people actively check people before allowing players in a party. If they do then they are just losers you don't want to play with anyways.

If you are able to access them though, copy and paste one into the xivanalysis website and it will give you a run down in what you may have done wrong, and what can be improved. It's a pretty cool tool gives you essentially goals to achieve.

Fair Warning: If your parses are as low as you are claiming, it may be a bit overwhelming to look through at first, but I promise it is a good tool for improvement.

Example: Drill, Bioblaster: 25 / 30 (83.33%), which essentially is there were 5 additional drills I could have gotten off through out the entire fight but I did not for what ever reason. This difference alone may have made this run go from the 80% to maybe 90% as 5 is actually a lot to miss as a bulk of your damage is drill.

You can also take some one who has a high parse, and throw it in to see how they open, or what sort of rotation they do, to learn from them as well. Usually when I want to mess around with another job I use this tool to figure out how to play it.

[Issaella]

lol wear them with pride they eventually get better.

You vastly overestimate my ability to translate "you know where you stopped casting in order to move because you can't mouse-turn and click a cooldown at the same time, don't do that." and "you know when you stopped casting in order to process information to not wipe everyone, don't do that either" into an actual increase in performance.

[IdowhatIwant]

You vastly overestimate my ability to translate "you know where you stopped casting in order to move because you can't mouse-turn and click a cooldown at the same time, don't do that." and "you know when you stopped casting in order to process information to not wipe everyone, don't do that either" into an actual increase in performance.

Wack a dummy and move around while doing it. MCH is the best for being mobile and maintaining up time. Do your rotation enough you won't have to think about it at all itll just be muscle memory. Also practice not clicking skills and try to adjust your keybinds where you can actively press all your skills with one hand and little movement. Good keybinds are very key, I can't really give you advice on that really mine many would consider bad but its comfortable for me. May want to look up some guides on keybinding and play around with it. It took me a couple hours to figure out how I wanted mine, and that is excluding practicing it afterwards and making adjustments.

For example I have my rotation as qwe, with my ogcds gause barrel and ricochet as 12, so I can easily press 12 after each step of my rotation, Drill air anchor and chainsaw I have as rty.

[Inanegrain]

Because they are hidden and will remain so. I don't need my shameful bottomdweller grey parses posted for all to see. I didn't even know I had any (or even thought about it) until someone said something a while back and I had to scramble to figure out how to get rid of them. There is noting to see there but disappointment and humiliation.

I started off the bottom, during my grind, I started to see it go from grey, to not grey by other people who logged me in random EX farming.

[Packetdancer]

I forced myself to join another prog at Harma with zero hope of getting any farther. Progged for about an hour before someone had to leave. I managed not to wipe us and get the mechanic right after like 5 tries on Harma. Actually cleared Overflow and the second Overflow easier than Harma. Saw enrage once near the end (~25%) before we disbanded. I died, like a lot, a lot more than everyone else it seemed like, and still am clearly the weakest link.

If you feel like you died more than others... I mean, that was fresh prog for you. Chances are that others had seen the other mechanics before, at least a few times. It's very, very easy to get obliterated when a mechanic is new to you and you're focused on matching what you see on-screen to the description you've seen elsewhere.

(I will also note that if you're feeling self-conscious, you may also have thought you died more times relative to others than you did; especially if you're not the healer, it's easy to not really register someone else dying if you're focused very specifically on making sure you pick up the mechanics.)

That's one reason I do prog ahead of my static within a fight, by spending time in PF. I know that even if I look at a video or a Toolbox or whatever, I personally don't have a mechanic really click for me until I've seen it a few times. But once it does click, I know I can call it (and answer questions about it) when my static gets there.

I will also note that there's almost no way one person alone is responsible for missing enrage by 25%, so you might be judging yourself a little harshly there. Sure, it's worth thinking about your DPS. But focus first on the mechanics; better to do some DPS and execute mechanics correctly than to do more DPS but die.

(Admittedly, the ideal is doing more DPS and not dying, but even the best raiders rarely focus on the two at the same time. You focus on the "not dying" so that the fight becomes smoother to perform, then you focus on the "more DPS" to beat the enrage check.)

But, it may be, minutely possible that I can eventually clear it. Enrage once at 25% is a long a** way from a clear, but it might not be impossible. It's still really f'ing hard though and the game does absolutely nothing to prepare you for it. And I'd be willing to put a large wager that I just lucked into a unicorn group that felt sorry enough not to kick me bringing paper bag tier DPS.

Honestly, it is likely you will clear it. You say that you think the fight is beyond you... but I'm going to point out that from what you've said, you've been in a grand total of... what, two parties for P2S? And you've already seen enrage. That is a great deal better than many people do.

Yes, granted, you probably have other people in there who had cleared the fight before, and who are very well-geared. And even those who haven't cleared the fight can be well-geared by now, given the Aglaia coins to upgrade Radiant gear. Still, to be able to get through to enrage -- even enrage at 25% -- ain't nothing, as far as progress goes. It means you've seen the whole fight! It's less "learning the fight" now, and more "getting practice at doing the mechanics more smoothly".

If you really find yourself stuck... the Discord server for the FFXIV subreddit has datacenter-specific recruiting channels, and there is likely a raid community Discord for Aether. For instance, Primal has the Primal Raid Community server (or PRC), where you can find a static or ask for a learning party to be put together or whatever, in a more active and collaborative way (including voice chat if needed) than just relying on party finder; I have little doubt that a similar server is out there for Aether.

(As I play predominantly on Primal -- and periodically on Crystal a little bit with friends over there -- Aether is not a datacenter I have any familiarity with the raid resources for, so I'm afraid I don't know where precisely to point you. The subreddit's Discord will have Aether-specific channels, though, and someone there may be able to help more directly.)

[Issaella]

Honestly, it is likely you will clear it. You say that you think the fight is beyond you... but I'm going to point out that from what you've said, you've been in a grand total of... what, two parties for P2S? And you've already seen enrage. That is a great deal better than many people do.

Yes, granted, you probably have other people in there who had cleared the fight before, and who are very well-geared. And even those who haven't cleared the fight can be well-geared by now, given the Aglaia coins to upgrade Radiant gear. Still, to be able to get through to enrage -- even enrage at 25% -- ain't nothing, as far as progress goes. It means you've seen the whole fight! It's less "learning the fight" now, and more "getting practice at doing the mechanics more smoothly".

My original suspicions were confirmed. The party that got to enrage was a unicorn/fluke. The ones since then have been lucky to get to Harma, let alone get past it to Overflow. There is enough despair in PF at this point to turn a certain blue bird grey again. I will reiterate my argument - unless you are significantly more skilled the the average player there are only two types of PF groups - [Duty Complete] that you can't get into and Practice/Completion groups that will remain that way forever without 5-6 experienced players to drag the rest through. There is no kind of uniformity, might as well be starting fresh in every group. Even the ones that are posted as "practice X mechanic" take multiple pulls just to get there if you are lucky and "seen enrage", which is just a euphemism for "walled at enrage".