Does the average XIV player know how to play their jobs?

[DixieBellOCE]

Just a question that came up today.

With all the talk of Addons/Parsers, somebody today asked what my thoughts were on the average casual player actually knowing how to play their job correctly.

Immediately i said no, the average player most likely does not realize that they are holding back groups by playing badly.

This is just based on experience in Dungeons/PF, but some people are completely clueless when it comes to actually PLAYING the game..

This bought up a second question: What can the game do, to TEACH people to play properly.

Should the game teach people about Melding Gear, Rotations, Openers and other things that will help them in the Endgame?

Any thoughts?

[MistakeNot]

The average player knows how to play their jobs. Perhaps not perfectly, but more or less anyway.
The stupid players don't know how to play their jobs, and they are often too boneheaded to be taught. Luckily they are a rather small minority.

[DixieBellOCE]

The average player knows how to play their jobs. Perhaps not perfectly, but more or less anyway.
The stupid players don't know how to play their jobs, and they are often too boneheaded to be taught. Luckily they are a rather small minority.

I guess that's a fair way to put it. XD

Some people will feel like they need to improve, and find the information to do so, others just don't care enough.

[jameseoakes]

I don't see how the 'average' player can be holding people back they're the benchmark

[Vahlnir]

I think the average player is usually exactly that. Average. Some are above, some are below, but I think most people are average. They at least know the basics of their job. Does that mean they know it well or play it well? Not always, but very rarely is one person a hindrance, or even 3-4. Most content gets done regardless, even if it takes a couple of other people dragging them across the finish line. Obviously, this gets more complicated in higher end content where everyone is expected to pull their weight, but we have the PF to help sort ourselves out should the need arise. It's not foolproof, and it can take a lot of patience and time, but when the right group does get together, some truly magical things can happen.

[Dhalya]

I don't know how bad the average currently is, but there definitely should be some rotation help system in game.
You often see people pressing the wrong buttons especially on less intuitive jobs like black mage.
Weaving oGCDs and having GCD uptime is also something newer players often dont figure out by themselves.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

If we mean average in terms of skill level ranges - yes. Average is as described above.

If we mean average skill level relative to population - enough that dungeons don't take 40min, but otherwise they are seriously underchallenged and hardly know how to play their jobs right. The majority of players are below average.

This isn't meant to bash people, but rather highlight that there is minimal to no reason to improve this as most things just get the job done. People would lose their minds if anything in normal or medium difficulty had anything akin to a DPS check.

[Iyrnthota]

Depends on what you mean by "knowing how to play their job". What's your criteria? Being able to 1-2-3 single target and AOE on mob packs or being able to consistently hit the optimal rotation for that job?

I feel like the answer is somewhere in the middle, but the details matter, and will vary from person to person.

[TAS]

It depends on the individual, but on the whole, I think the average player knows or has the capacity to learn how to play their job. However, that only applies to their knowledge of their role and rotation in a no stakes situation like hitting a striking dummy. Most of the content leading into endgames doesn't really help the average playerbase bridge the gap between knowing their role/rotation and performing in a high level and mechanically heavy encounter. (E.G. Uptime, downtime, aligning buff windows, knowing when to hold your burst, dodging AOES and knowing when to mitigate.)

[Payadopa]

I don't see how the 'average' player can be holding people back they're the benchmark

Yeh. Typical forum take. Either live on the Balance discord or you're a filthy casual. lol