Parties as a disabled gamer.

[Lilymew]

I played FFXIV before and love the crafting and many of the side activities. In the past because of my disability, I used the story skip to unlock most of the game. I've been away for a couple of years and with the duty support system I have decided to try playing through the story from the start and seeing how far I can get. I have noticed there are sometimes grouping is required still from what I can tell.

My question is when I get to the group required fights would it be better to set up a party finder stating I have a disability or just do a pug and hope the random party doesn't mind a "bad" player. Sadly, it's not a matter of learn to play I do the best I can and try not to drag others down.

Thanks for your input and time reading my question.

[Canadane]

I would imagine most people aren't going to care deeply as there isn't a high skill requirement for most MSQ duties. You actually trying your best already puts you ahead of a good chunk of players we'll encounter randomly.
If anyone happens to be having a bad day they're going to be just like the people who are having a good day and forget you by the time their next instance rolls around.

So imo don't worry about it and go for it and have fun. At the end of the day it's about having fun.
Perhaps do use PF for harder content, but that's usually not required content.

[LilimoLimomo]

Broadly speaking, most players will be more than happy to carry strangers through MSQ content. They're just there to get their tomes and get out, and a bad player couldn't meaningfully affect that process even if they were genuinely trying to. I sometimes PuG normal content with a friend who is a lovely person and one of the worst players I've ever encountered, and it's rare to see any criticism of their play.

But on occasion, it does happen. Sometimes folks are probably genuinely trying to be helpful, while others are more insulting. Like any community, you will find bad eggs.

That said, I've never seen any hostility towards a disabled player who announced their disability at the beginning of a run. Whether you PuG it via the Duty Finder or make a Party Finder, if you are transparent about having disability, then it is incredibly unlikely that you will run into any hassle. Both are equally valid.

But also, even on days when you don't feel like talking about your disability, you'll probably have a fine time in the Duty Finder; it's really all about whether you run into a bad egg or not.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

(And for what it's worth, doing dungeons solo with the group of NPC's they give you is often more difficult than doing it with real players, because when you're the only real player the game tends to target you with every single mechanic.)

[Bun_Vivant]

Broadly speaking, most players will be more than happy to carry strangers through MSQ content. They're just there to get their tomes and get out, and a bad player couldn't meaningfully affect that process even if they were genuinely trying to.

Not quite true. I had an Aurum Vale pug once where the tank ran around the first boss room, kiting Locksmith and eating the morbol fruits as fast as he/she could -- leaving none for anyone else. Whether that tank was ignorant or trolling I don't know, but it made it impossible to defeat Locksmith. It's the only duty I've abandoned since Endwalker launched.

That said, I've never seen any hostility towards a disabled player who announced their disability at the beginning of a run.

I've never had anyone announce their disability, and wouldn't care if they did.
Anyone putting in an effort is fine with me; we were all new and needing to "get gud" once.
It's only the people who queue into Alliance raids and then do literally nothing that annoy me.

[SannaR]

If you feel the need to announce it then I doubt many will still care. The only time I had a problem was a long time ago during an Aurum Vale run where the tank was very hard to heal due to a lack of defensive buff use. They said they only used them on bosses due to how they had to hold their controller due to their disability that made their hands hurt if they had to switch their cross hotbars too often. Yet they kept on insisting on the big pulls while blaming my healing. This was back around Heavensward or Stormblood. MSQ only you'd only have to worry about the trials. Otherwise all other MSQ dungeons are able to be done with duty support. Lilimo is confusing squadrons npcs with duty support as squadrons is the only time the game sees you as the only "non pet" npc and thus would target you with all of the mechanics. Just know that with duty support if you die they won't raise you. The npcs also have their own quirks and personalities.

[Lilymew]

I have played other games where players got quite upset with me being slower than most. I have reduced vision and slow reflexes and I know in some games the communities are quite hostile to non-perfect players. Sounds like that is not the case here. Thanks so much for the information it gives me hope that I may have found a long-term gaming home.

[LilimoLimomo]

Lilimo is confusing squadrons npcs with duty support as squadrons is the only time the game sees you as the only "non pet" npc and thus would target you with all of the mechanics.

Just to be clear, I'm not confusing the two; I've watched my spouse do Duty Support multiple times a day for years now, and those are the NPC's I'm talking about. From what I've seen, it seems like any non-CC mechanics that is capable of targeting the player will target the player. So if you're not at the top of the aggro list then the tankbuster isn't going to target you, but if there's a non-CC ability that can target any character, it will target the player 100% of the time. (CC abilities would be like when a player can't move or act because their teammates have to break them out; these don't target the player when possible, presumably because they want you to do the breaking out part)

And as you mentioned, the player's death ends combat with no chance to revive, so that's another extra layer of difficulty that comes from doing it solo.

Thanks so much for the information it gives me hope that I may have found a long-term gaming home.

I hope you've found a home here as well! Welcome!

[Rongway]

My question is when I get to the group required fights would it be better to set up a party finder stating I have a disability or just do a pug and hope the random party doesn't mind a "bad" player. Sadly, it's not a matter of learn to play I do the best I can and try not to drag others down.

You don't have a responsibility to disclose disability to the people you play with, and every story-required duty in the game can be cleared with whoever the DF matches you with randomly.

[SannaR]

Just to be clear, I'm not confusing the two; I've watched my spouse do Duty Support multiple times a day for years now, and those are the NPC's I'm talking about. From what I've seen, it seems like any non-CC mechanics that is capable of targeting the player will target the player. So if you're not at the top of the aggro list then the tankbuster isn't going to target you, but if there's a non-CC ability that can target any character, it will target the player 100% of the time. (CC abilities would be like when a player can't move or act because their teammates have to break them out; these don't target the player when possible, presumably because they want you to do the breaking out part)

And as you mentioned, the player's death ends combat with no chance to revive, so that's another extra layer of difficulty that comes from doing it solo.


I hope you've found a home here as well! Welcome!

Could you give an example of this? As the only time I've ever been hit by something that normally wouldn't hit me as the role I'm on is when I'm running a dungeon with my GC squadron. I have trusts all to 90 and ran every MSQ dungeon more than once with duty support while leveling up classes and to see different comments they make. It's how I know Alphinaud is the only one to cure you of misery when running Gubal Library. Or that the npcs will Aoe just not as often as most would prefer. And why I'm sad that Urianger doesn't whip out death in Endwalker.

[LilimoLimomo]

Could you give an example of this? As the only time I've ever been hit by something that normally wouldn't hit me as the role I'm on is when I'm running a dungeon with my GC squadron.

I think that's where we're miscommunicating; I'm not talking about moves that normally wouldn't have any chance of targeting you. I'm talking about moves where if you were in a 4-player party, there'd be a chance of a move either targeting you or not targeting you. When you're in a Duty Support, those moves will always target you (again, as long as the move doesn't result in other party members needing to break the player out).

EDIT: My spouse told me I'm wrong about this, so it sounds like I've either just been "lucky" when watching her fights, fallen prey to confirmation bias, misunderstood something, or perhaps all 3! But regardless, I was wrong, and I wanted to make sure to clarify that.