Why is it so common to join extremes without watching a guide first?

[AmiableApkallu]

I mean, if you get an extreme in Mentor Roulette, it is almost always because the sprouts don't know what an extreme is, so obviously have no idea they should prepare for it.

Yes and no. I remember queueing for ARR extremes in Duty Finder as a sprout. An "extreme" is a more difficult version of the "hard" and/or "normal" version of the fight. The game all but tells you that. And like every other dungeon and trial you've done, there's this journal entry you want to get rid of, and you've always used Duty Finder in the past, so that's where you turn to yet again.

The problem is that as a sprout, you don't realize how broken the item-level sync is in ARR. All those dungeons and trials labeled "hard" don't actually seem that much more difficult than the "normal" version, so there's no expectation that an "extreme" would be any worse of a jump up in difficulty. And indeed, at least for a few of them, once someone explains the one tricky mechanic, the party powers through by sheer force.

[Packetdancer]

The problem is that as a sprout, you don't realize how broken the item-level sync is in ARR. All those dungeons and trials labeled "hard" don't actually seem that much more difficult than the "normal" version, so there's no expectation that an "extreme" would be any worse of a jump up in difficulty. And indeed, at least for a few of them, once someone explains the one tricky mechanic, the party powers through by sheer force.

That's more or less what I meant; the game gives them no reason to think "Hard" -> "Extreme" will be any more dramatic of a jump than normal -> "Hard" was. If "The Howling Eye" and "The Howling Eye (Hard)" were both facerolls, what reason would a sprout have to think "The Howling Eye (Extreme)" would not be?

When you're talking about groups in PF for current-level extremes that state a specific progression point, yes, it's rude if someone joins without any experience and expect people to explain the strat. But if they're at endgame and looking for groups in PF anyway, it's safe to assume they know enough about the game to know that extremes take a little preparation; if they want to be spoon-fed the mechanics in a group that isn't expressly a fresh teaching party, they're being inconsiderate of other people's time at best.

(Though, I will note, sometimes we have enough different strats used in PF—more in savage than extreme, admittedly—that asking for strat clarification isn't a bad idea; P7S can be interesting if someone labels the PF "JP Harvest" and half the group thinks you're doing Inumaru for War's Harvest and the other half thinks you're doing far tethers. But in that case, you usually know the fight in general and would just like clarification on which strat is being used.)

But when you're talking about getting an ARR extreme in mentor roulette, I don't actually think it's fair to expect anything other than sprouts coming in unprepared; the game gives them absolutely no reason to think they should read up on the mechanics.