Alliance Team Letter Markers

[Newt456]

So I've finally been introduced to raids for the first time (Crystal Tower series). When I ran it the first few times, I've noticed that there were environmental markers telling the players where they had to go for specific tasks depending on which team they are part of (like team A in LotA should go to the left and step on their panel to drop the shield around the enemy for team B).

I re-ran it today with someone who had never done it before and told them to just pay attention to the symbol when it pops up, since it usually means a mechanic we have to split up for. I was surprised to find that the floating letter symbols just weren't there anymore. Or they would flicker and disappear after a moment. Are these letter symbols not automatically generated by the map, but rather by the players setting a mark? Was it just glitching out?

[Supersnow845]

They are player way marks (you can put them down yourself it’s in the social menu)

People just generally put them down as a courtesy for sprouts because crystal tower is the first time the game throws split alliance mechanics at you

[Jeeqbit]

Veteran players often try to put them there, but they are difficult to place while running sometimes and it's worse if someone pulls before you can place them. It was changed so that you can't place them while fighting.

You can see at the top of the party list which alliance you are. The typical order is A, B and C go left, middle, right. This is important for tanks, who need to grab their respective boss. I see so many tanks in alliance raids that just don't understand this and tether adds together. It can be important for DPS checks or other mechanics as well.

[Newt456]

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Thank you both

It seems like I'll stick to using easier jobs for raids for the time being. I'm basically burning a hole into my crossbar with my eyes when playing machinist so my spacial awareness is completely turned off lol

[Jeeqbit]

It seems like I'll stick to using easier jobs for raids for the time being. I'm basically burning a hole into my crossbar with my eyes when playing machinist so my spacial awareness is completely turned off lol

I find Machinist one of the least distracting jobs to play, but I use a keyboard/mouse with legacy type movement and I keybind the basic combo. I can imagine the amount of abilities being distracting if they are hard to switch to on a cross-hotbar.

You could try Summoner, which is one button with one between it sometimes. The only other thing you have to do is switch summon occasionally and use Aether Flow, Fester and Ruin IV after all the summons have been used, but you can save that part until it's not distracting.

[Stepjam]

Thank you both

It seems like I'll stick to using easier jobs for raids for the time being. I'm basically burning a hole into my crossbar with my eyes when playing machinist so my spacial awareness is completely turned off lol

You might just need to work on your muscle memory. MCH is one of the simplest jobs in the game IMO. Zero RNG and a pretty straight forward rotation. More practice will help you get your eyes off your hotbar. Also one trick is to place a normal hotbar somewhere closer to the middle of your screen, set it to invisible, and then set your oGCDs and such on the hotbar. It'll serve as a visual reminder for when those skills are off cooldown so you aren't looking down as far to find that information.

[Newt456]

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Thanks again for the suggestions!

I started off as WHM, then NIN, MCH and finally BLM in that order. For some reason, WHM and NIN were a lot easier to pick up. I enjoy the somewhat reactive playstyle of WHM and i havent has issues with memorizing my buttons. And NIN feels so fluid, which made it easy to grasp the rotation without staring at the crossbar. MCH has felt clunky in a way that's hard to describe. It's all just practice at the end of the day