Rushing new players through dungeons shouldn't be encouraged

[Suicune]

I'm a new player who just beat ARR. I've noticed whenever I enter a dungeon, a message pops up that says a new player has joined and there is a bonus for completing the dungeon quickly but the same message doesn't appear if all players have completed the dungeon before. This is backwards.

My first class is a white mage. Even after beating ARR, I know very few of the mechanics in dungeons because no one takes the time to explain them to me. They're so focused on getting through the dungeon as quickly as possible that I'm just frantically chasing and healing the tank while knowing nothing about the boss fights or keys I need to pick up or whatever.

It's especially important for new players to understand the mechanics and to have a casual experience in dungeons. I did Crystal Tower recently and I know ZERO mechanics. I announced it was my first time and no one said anything about what I'm supposed to do or avoid and in those fights you HAVE to know mechanics otherwise you'll die instantly - which I did many times. Since I'm a healer, it's kinda bad I was dead half the fight.

This severe lack of knowledge became painfully apparent to me when I tried doing a Command Mission. I'm solely responsible for doing the entire dungeon myself and yet I had difficulties with the very first one because I didn't understand mechanics.

This should be easily fixed by simply flipping the reward system. Don't give a bonus for a new player going through the dungeon as quickly as possible. Give a bonus for the fact a new player is in the dungeon without a time limit. Then if the entire party has gone through the dungeon before, give a time completion bonus.

[LeonKeyh]

Generally, people don't talk about mechanics for dungeons because they don't matter anymore at that level. Most of the important things are telegraphed and you just move out of the way, other mechanics are invalidated because of the way that item sync works (e.g. Sastasha's last boss has an add mechanic if you don't click on the bubbling waters; but 9/10 times you'll just kill the boss before the adds spawn if you stay on him).

Generally, if you're looking to learn the mechanics of a dungeon, look it up or run command missions or Duty Support, but that knowledge isn't incredibly useful anymore until higher levels and even then, higher level bosses do a much better job at just telegraphing what they're going to do for the most part.

Generally, people want to get in and get out of dungeons, even new people. If you're looking for a more "catered" or learning experience, then I would suggest finding a Free Company with people willing to teach you as you run through a dungeon, but I promise you that most other people probably don't understand the mechanics of those lower level dungeons either.

Lastly, the bonus for the new player isn't for "rushing them through as quickly as possible." The idea behind it is that it makes people happy to see new players instead of groaning about someone that doesn't know what they're doing; you're not incentivized for running the dungeon quickly with the new player outside of being done faster.

[LittleImp]

Honestly, it's really just not the responsibility of other players to sit down and hand-craft you explanations every time you run a dungeon. Like sure, it's nice if someone takes the time to do that, but it's not really fair for that to be a baseline expectation of the average player. If you really feel the need for explanations, just do some research before you run the content.

[Ransu]

It's worded weird but quickly really just means with no wipes on boss fights.

[Vidu]

Honestly there is little point in getting an explanation for every single dungeon or (boss)fight in the game in the first place - the game heavely relies on reusing and remixing some standard mechanics and you'd do well to learn those by heart instead of trying to learn (and remember) every single boss or dungeon.

A while ago (in a similar thread) I compiled a list - this doesnt claim to be complete, but its a starting point so I'll just quote myself here:

Generally speaking: Dungeons are so easy that it usually doesnt matter wether you know or remember them - and people usually dont mind newbies/returners messing some things up, as long as they're showing that they're trying to learn from their mistakes.

I dont think its worth to try and remember every dungeon in the game - however, there are mechanics that are repeated over and over again (sometimes with a slightly different animation or color) and its worth knowing those by heart. That way you dont need to know whats mechanics a boss will do excatly, but can adapt quickly to whatever appears on screen.

Heres a list of mechanics that I think would be worth to remember:
Avoid AoEs: Hopefully very obvious, but: Dont stand in big circles that appear on the ground. Usually orange. Sometimes bosses will place AoE/debuff/DoT-zones on the field, like (green) poison puddles or (red) zones in which you'll get a bleed. Dont stand in those. If you notice that you have a dot or debuff and the ground beneath your feet looks funny, move a bit to the side.
Dont stand infront of the boss: Unless you're a tank you have no place standing infront of the boss. If the boss turns around, its usually a good idea to move a bit to the side - it could be a sign that the boss is going to shoot something in the direction hes now facing. Around the boss is a circle with a little arrow that shows where the face/front of the boss is - if you have difficulty telling by the model, you can take a look at this circle instead.
Killing Adds: Yes, there are a couple of fights where adds can be ignored. And there are quite a few where ignoring the adds means a wipe or waste of time. Unless someone specifically mentions to ignore the adds, try to kill anything thats not the boss before dpsing the boss (again).
Stack marker: Usually an orange/yellow-ish circle AoE around a person with a big arrow pointing towards the middle. That means that this person will take a huge amount of damage that needs to be shared amongst multiple people. If you get such a marker, run towards your party and/or into the middle and/or towards the tank and then stand still. If someone else gets such a marker, run to them. Using shields before the hit and healing everyone up afterwards is a good idea aswell.
Spread marker: These come in a couple different flavours, the most common one is probably an orange crystal that appears above your head. In broader terms, I'd say that its not a bad idea to learn what the stackmarker looks like and assume that everything else is a spread marker - aka: if you get one like that, get away from everyone else. If the spread marker includes an AoE around you, try not to hit other people with that aswell. Since some spread markers will result in cone- or line-AoEs being shooted towards you, its a good idea to try to spread around the outside of the arena and keep the middle safe.
Chains: Chains will usually bind two players together - indicated by a debuff-icon aswell as an orange chain that appears between the two players. In most cases you need to break the chain by running away from the player you're bound to - there are little expections where you need to stand close together, though. Not breaking the chain usually results in some debuffs and/or damage taken. Run away from your chain-partner (sometimes it requires quite a distance) and if that doesnt help, try running towards them.
Theters/Chains between enemies: Sometimes enemies will theter to each other. Most of the time adds will theter to the boss and most of the time it will make the boss invulnerable (boss will get an icon and wont take damage. Esay to tell by the huge 0 the game will show you if you attack it). Kill the adds, then proceed with the boss.
Look away!: If you see a big, purple eye appear above a mobs head, its time to turn your back to that enemy or else you'll take damage/get a debuff/be turned into stone etc.
Towers: Circle AoE-markers on the ground with a pillar/tower in the middle, usually there are multiples of those. Each one needs a person in it or it will explode for raidwide damage and/or debuff.
Meteors: Very similar to tower - again circle AoEs on the ground, usually with an orb floating in the middle. They light up if a person steps into them. The person inside the meteor will take a bit of damage, but it prevents the meteor from exploding for raidwide damage and/or debuffs, so its worth it. If you see a meteor: go and stand in it. One person is enough, though.
Spinning bosses: This became popular in Stormblood - the boss will start to turn either clockwise or anti-clockwise will performing some sort of cone-attack (often a breath from the front). Arrows on the side of the boss show in which direction it will turn and you need to run around the boss, following that movement, to stay in a safe place. If you see huge arrows appear on the side of the boss, get close to its hitbox and prepare to run around.
Esuna: The game will now show you which dots and debuffs can be removed by using Esuna - if the dot/debuff has a white line under the icon, you can and should remove it using Esuna.
Interrupt/Silence: Likewise, the game will now show you wether or not a cast can be interrupted: If there is a white, pulsing outline around the castbar, you can use your Interrupt-skill (if you're a tank, melee or ranged dps) to avoid that cast from being completed. Not a 100% needed but always nice to prevent huge damage going out or debuffs being applied to the whole group.
Special actions: By this I mean both the duty-actions aswell as enviroment that cane be used. Duty-actions only apply in a handful of fights and are highly situational, so I'm just mentioning them to make you aware of these. Using the enviroment happens a bit more often, I'd say - usually in the form of some kind of "teleporter" that gets placed on the field, most likely a blue circle (maybe with some flavour added, like a water-sprout or something). If your teammates suddenly disappear, they probably used such a teleporter - look for something with a blue circle and/or name displayed and see if it gets you to a new place!

This might not cover everything and there are a few specific AoE-patterns that are worth remembering because they're being reused.
The important bits for dungeons are pretty much limited to: Dodge AoEs, kill adds, dont be in front of the boss, stack with your party if needed, get away from your party otherwise (but not so far that AoE-heals cant hit you anymore).
Trashpulls are pretty much limited to: Avoid ground-AoEs if you can, heal the tank as much as needed, kill the trash. Theres no mechanics to them that absolulty need to be performed.

Having no clue at all on how to handle basic mechanics like a stackmarker is pretty annoying - if you have that basic knowledge however and are able to apply it "on the fly" in a dungeon you dont know/remember, showing up without a clue about the dungeon itself is not a problem, though. A quick "Hey, I'm new" or "This one has been a while" at the start while showing that you're willing to take (friendly) advice and are trying your best to apply that advice/improve can help aswell.
No one expects anyone to know every dungeon like the back of their hand.

That being said: At the end of the day its not other peoples responsibility to hand hold you through every duty. If you dont feel comfortable with other people you can run a lot of dungeons with NPCs now - you mention that you're struggling doing so, because you dont know what to do because no one ever told you... how is that different from any single player game out there? If you need a guide, there are guides that you can look up.
Personally I dont think a guide is needed and that figuering stuff out for yourself is fun in the first place (and easy in dungeons in the second place). If thats not fun to you, you should probably consider using other sources than people in that specific run - people who might not be able to explain mechanics to you in the first place (may it be because of a language barrier or a non-existing keyboard or any other reason).

[AmiableApkallu]

My first class is a white mage. Even after beating ARR, I know very few of the mechanics in dungeons because no one takes the time to explain them to me. They're so focused on getting through the dungeon as quickly as possible that I'm just frantically chasing and healing the tank while knowing nothing about the boss fights or keys I need to pick up or whatever.

It's especially important for new players to understand the mechanics and to have a casual experience in dungeons. I did Crystal Tower recently and I know ZERO mechanics. I announced it was my first time and no one said anything about what I'm supposed to do or avoid and in those fights you HAVE to know mechanics otherwise you'll die instantly - which I did many times. Since I'm a healer, it's kinda bad I was dead half the fight.

If you don't know what's going on, just ask. At worst, no one answers. At best, someone puts in a couple of sentences about the key mechanics. Few people are going to proactively explain everything, especially when perfection is not required to avoid wiping.

Keep in mind that given the total number of dungeons and trials in the game, it can be difficult to recall all of the mechanics, or even a majority of the mechanics. What typically happens is that people will recall a fight's single gimmick, and adapt on-the-fly to the rest as they pop up.

This guide to makers is… a bit much for my tastes, but it gets the idea across that fights tend to be built up from standard(-ish), recognizable building blocks, which is why perfect recall isn't necessary. Later fights also tend to have a "learning phase," where mechanics come out one-by-one, and a "let's have fun phase," where the mechanics start getting piled on top of each other.

[Yeastyloins]

Honestly, just watch a video for said dungeon or raids before you do it. Done. You know what mechanics come up and thus leaves you time to focus on what buttons you need to hit. Trials though have cool set pieces and story moments built into them so I'd say keep those blind if you care alot about the story. But most guides even then will not spoil big story pieces.

[Tiramu]

Honestly, just watch a video for said dungeon or raids before you do it. Done. You know what mechanics come up and thus leaves you time to focus on what buttons you need to hit. Trials though have cool set pieces and story moments built into them so I'd say keep those blind if you care alot about the story. But most guides even then will not spoil big story pieces.

I dont think most players want walkthroughs, might as well just install one of those where to stand mods and be done with it. They want a quick explanation of something that makes no sense. Some mechanics are quite abstract and new players can be stood scratching their heads wondering what the heck just happened.


Anyhow, running content for the first time will be challenging and sometimes dense. That feeling of lostness can feel exaggerated when running content with people who have done it many times before. But, thats quite normal and dont feel bad if you die, someone else dies, or arent keeping up with a synced level 90 in endgame raid gear. You just... wont.


As you play through content you will start seeing variations of the same mechanics over and over. Also, as you level other jobs you will repeat the same content over and over which helps cement mechanics and stuff in your mind.

At times players can start to forget that they've probably ran the same dungeon 30, 40, 50, 100 times over. So if anyone is rude, ignore it but look inwardly as to how you could do better.

[Besame]

I'm a new player who just beat ARR. I've noticed whenever I enter a dungeon, a message pops up that says a new player has joined and there is a bonus for completing the dungeon quickly but the same message doesn't appear if all players have completed the dungeon before. This is backwards.

My first class is a white mage. Even after beating ARR, I know very few of the mechanics in dungeons because no one takes the time to explain them to me. They're so focused on getting through the dungeon as quickly as possible that I'm just frantically chasing and healing the tank while knowing nothing about the boss fights or keys I need to pick up or whatever.

It's especially important for new players to understand the mechanics and to have a casual experience in dungeons. I did Crystal Tower recently and I know ZERO mechanics. I announced it was my first time and no one said anything about what I'm supposed to do or avoid and in those fights you HAVE to know mechanics otherwise you'll die instantly - which I did many times. Since I'm a healer, it's kinda bad I was dead half the fight.

This severe lack of knowledge became painfully apparent to me when I tried doing a Command Mission. I'm solely responsible for doing the entire dungeon myself and yet I had difficulties with the very first one because I didn't understand mechanics.

This should be easily fixed by simply flipping the reward system. Don't give a bonus for a new player going through the dungeon as quickly as possible. Give a bonus for the fact a new player is in the dungeon without a time limit. Then if the entire party has gone through the dungeon before, give a time completion bonus.

Agreed and that is why I do not dungeon unless I abso lutely have to (msq) or really want that shiny enough to be miserable hehe.

[SannaR]

If it's an MSQ dungeon then they are slowly adding duty support to each one so you can go at your own pace and learn the fights. They also are making it so that once you see a certain marker or aoe style that it won't change somewhere else down the line. As a few others have said if you want to know how a fight is done just ask. We're not mind readers. We don't know if that new player really is a new player or someone on an alt. People don't give boss mechanics because they've been yelled at too many times for doing so. Or the boss has already gotten pulled before someone is even able to type in the mechanics. Heck some bosses have enough mechanics that it's hard to just give the cliff notes about them. As not everyone wants to or will read a "short" paragraph about how to do a boss. Even then there are things people could tell you that make no sense until you're actually at that point. If a wipe happens then just ask the party why did you wipe or why did you die or why did Jimmy keep on getting all that candy er vuln stacks and thus dying.