For those who struggle with group content

[tinythinker]

There are many reasons people may struggle with group content, from limited play time to practice to issues with pattern recognition and prediction to social anxiety or whatever it may be.

If this is sounds like you, it's good to have things like duty support and the trust system for things like MSQ dungeons, but that leaves out most group content. Do you avoid such content, grit your teeth and plow through, or something else?

And does it affect how you see your character, the story, etc.? Not necessarily in a negative way, just without such an emphasis on such content?

What do you look forward to doing most in the game? What really draws you in and keeps you playing? There are so many cool things you can do solo or mostly solo. Which are your favorites?

[VelKallor]

I dont struggle with group content. I do it fine. As far as savage and ex goes, no thanks, I can do it anytime I want, I just dont do schedules, "be here at xxx time" no thanks, and also theres the given that savage and ex are using dps meters which are AGAINST TOS., yeah I did enough of that crap in WOW.

What draws me in? The fact I can choose from a variety of activities that dont exist in other games, where the meta is raid pvp or do m plus, little else.

[Seraphor]

As far as savage and ex goes, no thanks, I can do it anytime I want, I just dont do schedules, "be here at xxx time" no thanks, and also theres the given that savage and ex are using dps meters which are AGAINST TOS., yeah I did enough of that crap in WOW.

This isn't necessary at all, especially for EX. You can PF a group who are learning, and the most you'll have to engage with is chat, and even then you could just read and not respond.
Having never applied to groups, statics, schedules, etc. (apart from a limited time with my old FC) I've done almost every EX and a handful of Savages too.

[Renathras]

OP: I guess it depends. I'm sometimes nervous about groups, but I've also learned to sometimes throw caution to the wind and try stuff anyway. Not...always. But enough times, I guess. And for a lot of content, I play healer because I like helping people. That extends to healing people in Dungeons and Trials. And I'm fairly personable for an introvert, as it turns out. Typing isn't as intimidating to me as talking, I guess...?

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As a fellow hater of add-ons - "DBM or gtfo" as well as the damage meter e-peen flexing/berating people in WoW ruined add-ons for me for life - I did want to mention this:

As far as savage and ex goes, no thanks, I can do it anytime I want, I just dont do schedules, "be here at xxx time" no thanks, and also theres the given that savage and ex are using dps meters which are AGAINST TOS., yeah I did enough of that crap in WOW.

Extremes have been my "end game" since late Heavensward. I've never run an add-on in all my time in FFXIV, and never will. I've never had a Static, either. I run all of them via Party Finder practice and prog parties, and then farm parties once I've got enough clears I feel comfortable with the fights. It does mean I watch videos instead of going in blind (the only time I do blind stuff is if some FC people draft me to all go into something together, which is rare...and then I tend to watch a video after that to understand the mechanics), though you can absolutely make "blind" runs, just make sure to put that in your description. Extremes are kind of nice since they give good weapons for the patch ilevel and they all have mounts you can farm. They also drop tokens so if you get 99 of those (a lot of Extremes give 2 per run so you only need 50, but even the ones that don't...), you can buy the mount 2 patches later as kind of RNG protection/pity system. You can also buy the weapons the Extreme drops with 10 tokens at all times. (The only semi-exception is the two Extremes released with an X.0, one has a weapon and the other has right side accessories instead of a weapon, but you can buy all of those for 5 tokens each if you wish...though usually if you're farming it, it's better to roll for the drops and save the tokens in case you need to pity the mount later.)

It takes some patience and you can get a lot of people that are less than good, but it's entirely possible to do Extremes this way.

Savages I know less about, as I've only done three at level (P1S was my first, followed by P2S, and I did P5S this tier). I'm not as driven on those since I can get gear I need with Tomes other than the second ring slot (why I tried P5S in the first place, honestly). They CAN be done with pick up groups in PF. At least, the first one or two of each tier seem to be. The third and fourth ones tend to require a lot more coordination and people being willing to stick with it for the clears, so they may not work as well. But it IS possible to get some Savages in if you wish to.

But the Savages I have cleared I didn't have schedules or add-ons or DPS meters. I have read The Balance guides for my Jobs and read my tooltips, but I'm no master by any means. I just do my best, which is generally good enough once I've seen the mechanics, understand them (why videos are helpful), and then it's just a matter of getting 7 other people in PF that can do them all at once.

Once you get a clear, you can check the [Duty Complete] tag and join PFs for that encounter where you know everyone's cleared at least once. (Which...doesn't always mean they're good at it, but it DOES mean they've at least done it. )

Best part is ilevel inflation makes doing older ones easier, and people are always willing to do farm parties for them. Best time is prime time or weekends, of course, but you can get some nibbles other times as well for getting runs in.

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Obviously, you don't have to, but it's worth dipping a toe in from time to time. Or you can just solo the old ones. I know at level 80 I could solo some of the HW ones on a Tank, and you probably can come close to that for SB ones now. Some have mechs that require 2+ people, but some do not and can be soloed outright or done with smaller groups if you're running Unsynced.

[Amarande]

Once you get a clear, you can check the [Duty Complete] tag and join PFs for that encounter where you know everyone's cleared at least once. (Which...doesn't always mean they're good at it, but it DOES mean they've at least done it. )

Ironically, I usually regard this as a severe source of player anxiety, rather than a means of mitigating it.

Because of the ability to sequester a group behind a clear being required, people feel - and not without some level of justification - that the only hope to do on-patch content is to be there for the patch drop and back burner everything else if necessary to focus on the 8-man hardmode instance as top priority. Otherwise, enough people hide behind Duty Complete that the chance of getting a group that's not hopeless from the outset plummets, and because that's been a thing for such a long time, I've noticed that the casual EX crowd from later in patch cycles that I remember from early Stormblood has thinned out a lot: apparently, most people that can't or won't early bird rush simply accept that it's not happening at all that patch and wait for the next gear tier (or even settle for unsync ... which is a useful feature for farming, but takes a lot of fun out of the initial clear).

Worse, the closer you get to a clear, the more anxious you get, because if the people you're practicing with get just that one more onze of progress lead on you, they're no longer available to you, they're behind the wall now and you're basically (especially the way XIV mechs work) kicked all the way back to Fresh Prog.

And yet, the player culture will defend this practice as a good idea. In fact, they will defend it to the point that unlike other MMOs, there's heavy social pressure on group leads not to make exceptions: if you take off Duty Complete to invite someone who doesn't have a clear, that's apparently puppy-kicking levels of evil. (In fact, in general, one feels like the social pressure is that even as a group lead, you barely have any authority to decide things for your group, but merely act as an agent of the community who is expected to keep things "standard" as if PUGs were a meta-guild rather than a hodgepodge of individual groups.)

I have critiqued this for many years and it doesn't seem to effect change though - it seems that once games' hiveminds are formed, there is no changing the culture (and people think that's a good thing too).

[JamieRose]

Ironically, I usually regard this as a severe source of player anxiety, rather than a means of mitigating it.

Because of the ability to sequester a group behind a clear being required, people feel - and not without some level of justification - that the only hope to do on-patch content is to be there for the patch drop and back burner everything else if necessary to focus on the 8-man hardmode instance as top priority. Otherwise, enough people hide behind Duty Complete that the chance of getting a group that's not hopeless from the outset plummets, and because that's been a thing for such a long time, I've noticed that the casual EX crowd from later in patch cycles that I remember from early Stormblood has thinned out a lot: apparently, most people that can't or won't early bird rush simply accept that it's not happening at all that patch and wait for the next gear tier (or even settle for unsync ... which is a useful feature for farming, but takes a lot of fun out of the initial clear).

Worse, the closer you get to a clear, the more anxious you get, because if the people you're practicing with get just that one more onze of progress lead on you, they're no longer available to you, they're behind the wall now and you're basically (especially the way XIV mechs work) kicked all the way back to Fresh Prog.

And yet, the player culture will defend this practice as a good idea. In fact, they will defend it to the point that unlike other MMOs, there's heavy social pressure on group leads not to make exceptions: if you take off Duty Complete to invite someone who doesn't have a clear, that's apparently puppy-kicking levels of evil. (In fact, in general, one feels like the social pressure is that even as a group lead, you barely have any authority to decide things for your group, but merely act as an agent of the community who is expected to keep things "standard" as if PUGs were a meta-guild rather than a hodgepodge of individual groups.)

I have critiqued this for many years and it doesn't seem to effect change though - it seems that once games' hiveminds are formed, there is no changing the culture (and people think that's a good thing too).

That's pretty well spot on, and another big reason I dropped out of savage raiding.

[MegaOddly]

Ironically, I usually regard this as a severe source of player anxiety, rather than a means of mitigating it.

Because of the ability to sequester a group behind a clear being required, people feel - and not without some level of justification - that the only hope to do on-patch content is to be there for the patch drop and back burner everything else if necessary to focus on the 8-man hardmode instance as top priority. Otherwise, enough people hide behind Duty Complete that the chance of getting a group that's not hopeless from the outset plummets, and because that's been a thing for such a long time, I've noticed that the casual EX crowd from later in patch cycles that I remember from early Stormblood has thinned out a lot: apparently, most people that can't or won't early bird rush simply accept that it's not happening at all that patch and wait for the next gear tier (or even settle for unsync ... which is a useful feature for farming, but takes a lot of fun out of the initial clear).

Worse, the closer you get to a clear, the more anxious you get, because if the people you're practicing with get just that one more onze of progress lead on you, they're no longer available to you, they're behind the wall now and you're basically (especially the way XIV mechs work) kicked all the way back to Fresh Prog.

And yet, the player culture will defend this practice as a good idea. In fact, they will defend it to the point that unlike other MMOs, there's heavy social pressure on group leads not to make exceptions: if you take off Duty Complete to invite someone who doesn't have a clear, that's apparently puppy-kicking levels of evil. (In fact, in general, one feels like the social pressure is that even as a group lead, you barely have any authority to decide things for your group, but merely act as an agent of the community who is expected to keep things "standard" as if PUGs were a meta-guild rather than a hodgepodge of individual groups.)

I have critiqued this for many years and it doesn't seem to effect change though - it seems that once games' hiveminds are formed, there is no changing the culture (and people think that's a good thing too).

It's rare but people do still run the raids still with practicing tag in the lower tiers but they are more common on the weekly reset.

[AwesomeJr44]

If you take off Duty Complete to invite someone who doesn't have a clear, that's apparently puppy-kicking levels of evil.

Question: As a party lead, why should I take a chance on someone who doesn't have a clear? Why should I risk ruining my reclear party by bringing in someone who probably isn't capable of clearing? (and if you're capable of clearing, you should be able to get one without needing a reclear party to carry you) That's not only unfair to me, that's unfair to the other 6 people who joined the PF expecting a reclear with people who know what they're doing. If you know the fight and you're capable of clearing, go earn a clear and then you're welcome to reclear with Duty Complete groups.

[CaptainLagbeard]

Question: As a party lead, why should I take a chance on someone who doesn't have a clear? Why should I risk ruining my reclear party by bringing in someone who probably isn't capable of clearing? (and if you're capable of clearing, you should be able to get one without needing a reclear party to carry you) That's not only unfair to me, that's unfair to the other 6 people who joined the PF expecting a reclear with people who know what they're doing. If you know the fight and you're capable of clearing, go earn a clear and then you're welcome to reclear with Duty Complete groups.

Because you can kick them out if they are clearly incapable of doing the fight in question.

Getting the first clear is often somewhat challenging because 99% of the players who can do the fights are entirely behind Duty Complete requirements after like the first week, or even earlier. So you have to get lucky to find 7 other people who can do the fight.