"Taking a stand" quest

[moahrs]

I understood your point of view, but I don't agree... In the fight against the king, it wasn't easy, but it was the first time, I didn't even watch videos on YouTube to learn, it was kind of natural. Now with a job that you don't know, in this case simplified warrior which is even worse. I don't know her gear, if she's a warrior, she would have to have all the skills, which I think include protection, power increase and everything else, but there are 6 buttons, 2 warnings on the screen, 1 of which I haven't yet I know what to do, along with a lot of things popping up in the fight, and her life drains quickly in the fight, I don't even have a miserable healing potion... I saw videos, they help, but not that much...

[Fae_Valwynd]

I finally got through the instance thanks to some help from a commenter on a YouTube video!

Therefore, I wanted to post this here since it may help others as it did myself. Also, I'd like to say that advice like 'One key gives us heals, one does damage, and one does AoEs', again is NOT helpful. Most of us know that, but which one does what, and some buttons are more helpful than others as many will notice below in the explanation that a kind-hearted individual gave.

Anyways, onto what I hope will help people. First off, once again I'd like to say this is from a person on YouTube who was kind enough in the comments to explain the mechanics and how they worked best.

1. Before you even start, press the green button. it increases your max HP by 20% and restores it. Use this IMMEDIATELY and EVERY time it comes up, keep an eye out for it.
2. Spam only Tail of the Bra'ax, over and over again because this combo helps raises your HP. If you are too far away from him to do Tail of the Bra'ax, like running away to dodge an AOE, throw in some Beak of the Lautena, it does ranged damage.
3. When he raises his arms and has red flames around him, use Run of Rnoneek to jump him. It is the purple button with the three charges, also get behind him. Make sure to keep using Tail of the Bra'ax to get the combo and keep restoring HP.
4. When all the orbs start to light up, and you see a green one, run toward it, this little area will always be a safe Zone.
5, Dodge all the fire attacks by running around and using your AOE.
6. When he brings up the clones, he is the one with raised hands and on fire. Get behind him and keep spamming Tail of the Bra'ax.
7. Use your limit break EVERY time it comes up and do it IMMEDIATELY. Do this and spam spam spam Tail and use Laweteena pulse, your green button, EVERY time it's available. This is very important!
8. When the pillars come up out of the ground. Run to the one he created first, pay attention to the order they pop up, and run to the next two to decrease the damage taken.
9. When his thugs come in switch to the Turali Judgment instead of Tail. Just spam this over and over and over again. Make sure to use the heal button whenever it comes up.
10. After this is over, there is a timed event, and you will need to spam quickly the O button when it comes up.

[moahrs]

Thank you very much for the text.. why doesn't square explain the fights like that? We need angels like you working there...

5, Dodge all the fire attacks by running around and using your AOE.

AOE is the second button, right? But is its area large enough, or is this for the clone phase? In the phase with just him, from what I understand, just use the 1st button, and the 2nd for the clones phase, that's it?

7. Use your limit break EVERY time it comes up and do it IMMEDIATELY. Do this and spam spam spam Tail and use Laweteena pulse, your green button, EVERY time it's available. This is very important!

The only thing I still don't understand... is this limit break... I understood that in the second message that appears on the screen (in green or blue), I click on the sixth button, which I don't remember what it is, but In the first message he says to use something, but doesn't explain what... I couldn't even see it in the youtube...

[Fae_Valwynd]

Let's see if I can be a little bit more helpful, I'm on a controller so bear with me since I've done the instance and can only remember which keys were which.

From Top to left... The top is the normal AOE. The right button is the Tail of the Bra'ax, and the bottom key is the other AOE that is used when the big group of thugs (not the clones) comes out at the very end. The left key is the Green Key (heals).

Now, in the next part of button placement, there is a purple key with three numbers. That is the one you need to use when you're jumping him. The limit break is not visible and only comes up when it's available to use. It is actually underneath the purple key. That's why the user that I got this from said to pay attention to it. It's not visible until it's available.

[Priddy]

Since the beginning of Stormblood, Square Enix has forced us to play as an NPC character in an MSQ event. In my case, it's always been a class/job that I never wanted to play, have no interest in playing, and have no experience playing.
This game is supposed to be fun, not an opportunity for some sadistic moron game designer to frustrate players needlessly.
Well, "Taking a stand" is the worst of all, IMHO. I'm sure that some players enjoy this sort of thing, and that's fine, keep it in the game. BUT DON'T MAKE IT PART OF THE MSQ!
I have tried multiple times to pass this, and failed each and every time. I am unable to discern ANY difference in difficulty between the normal mode and what is laughably called "very easy." It's not at all "very easy," as my repeated attempts and repeated failures evidence.
I find the mechanics difficult to understand and difficult to counter; I lose health for no apparent reason. In the end, I die, and I never know why. It's impossible to learn when I never know why.
This is the sort of idiotic game design that will chase casual players away. It should either be nerfed or removed.

There is a certain bare minimum expectation of skill that is requested of the player in any video game. I do not say this to condescend, but if you are struggling to complete this duty on the Very Easy difficulty, you are overwhelmingly below your average player's skill level. I promise you can beat it if you give it any semblance of an effort. Yes, maybe it will take you a few tries. That does not make it bad game design.

EDIT: All that being said, I see no harm in them making the 'Very Easy' setting so monumentally easy that the game literally makes it impossible to lose, for the people who want that. I'm just a bit baffled at how somebody could struggle even half as much to do this on the easiest difficulty as some people in this thread are making it out to be (physical/mental disabilities aside, of course)

[Post]

I'm coming away thinking sometimes from these threads that some of the players that struggle with these types of duties are just fundamentally focused on things that don't matter, like worrying about whether or not they're experienced as whatever class they're being or what Wuk Lamat's gear is.

The things that do matter continuously go unnoticed to the point where they seem invisible and so it really is so frustrating that many feel their only recourse is to go somewhere they can vent about it.

And, it doesn't help that often in these venues we can't share what the struggles or questions are specifically. That would really help, and taking the time to break things down like moahrs and Fae_Valwynd are doing is very time consuming, so it's easy to see why it doesn't always shake out like that.

From my own experience, I remember one of my good friends playing this game and me having trouble understanding why he was struggling with some stuff in the game (he's very good at video games in general, he just hasn't played this one as much as I have). When I visited him at some point, I realized that his UI was TINY, so it made sense that he'd constantly be missing really vital information like a boss' cast to know when the AoE is going off or when it's safe to move into the ground telegraph.

Stuff like that isn't easy to explain to people that don't already know to look for it. Like, tethers in this game, no matter when the show up, are meant to draw your eye to the other end of the tether. This is especially important when they go beyond the arena, because that means that something's going to happen from that area beyond the arena, whether it be Sophia's scales rocking you that direction, or a crystal exploding from over there, or even just the boss is looking that direction. But, if you've never noticed the tethers, or if you did and didn't make that connection, then it's just useless noise and it will never be anything but that.

I also think that the ground-aoe 'flashes' that are common now might be doing more harm than good for some players, too. Like, if a boss shoots a rocket at you and it has a big visual explosion and you get hit, sure, it's obvious you got hit, but if it shoots a rocket and you DON'T NOTICE and then suddenly the whole arena flashes red for half a second (battle designers trying to say, 'this is how big the rocket explosion is' or maybe 'just so you know, you were supposed to move earlier'), you might come away thinking that you're supposed to dodge the red flash and it seems impossible to avoid and you have no idea how or what hit you and it's incredibly frustrating.

[Sacae]

You've mentioned "healing potions" several times.

Healing potions have *never* been a viable form of healing in any level of content aside from levels 1-10, maybe. I have no idea what you are even talking about here.

[Sacae]

There is a certain bare minimum expectation of skill that is requested of the player in any video game. I do not say this to condescend, but if you are struggling to complete this duty on the Very Easy difficulty, you are overwhelmingly below your average player's skill level. I promise you can beat it if you give it any semblance of an effort. Yes, maybe it will take you a few tries. That does not make it bad game design.

EDIT: All that being said, I see no harm in them making the 'Very Easy' setting so monumentally easy that the game literally makes it impossible to lose, for the people who want that. I'm just a bit baffled at how somebody could struggle even half as much to do this on the easiest difficulty as some people in this thread are making it out to be (physical/mental disabilities aside, of course)

At least someone is saying this. This is level 100 content. There has to be some level of skill check, otherwise you're not playing a game, you're reading a visual novel.

[Fae_Valwynd]

I'd like to point out that, I understand there is a certain level of ability expected if you've been playing the game for x amount of time. However, some people leave the game for a month, or two, or half a year or more. When they come back, it may not be as intuitive for some as it was before. A lot of gaming is also muscle memory, and knowing where the buttons are and what they do. Also, some people have trouble adapting to new things and/or situations, including playing a different job class.

Furthermore, everybody learns differently. I say this as somebody who was a teacher and did a lot of tutoring for people who had trouble learning the 'conventional' way.

I still say that people need to be more patient with others and understand that not everybody plays the game the same way others do. Yes, there might be people who play Final Fantasy for the story only, and they could care less about the mechanics involved in dungeons or job classes, etc. And that is okay... Other people play the game for the extreme/savage content or PvP only. A friend of mine is a huge raider and runs through the MSQ every single time, while it takes me longer to get through it because I am enjoying the story and the side quests.

How either of us play is inconsequential, it's about enjoying the game and all it has to offer. I love crafting and Gathering, and decorating houses as well. The nice thing about Final Fantasy is that there is something for everyone, and situations like this instance shouldn't bar people from continuing to enjoy the game, that's why I'm in the camp of making Very Easy, so easy you can't die or allowing people to skip it all together. I am even of the mindset that there should be a super-hard mode for those who like more of a challenge. Heck, it might keep my partner from racing ahead of me through the msq! LOL

Anyway, that's my two cents on the whole thing. And to be honest, Square has already been accused of dumbing down the game so it can be more accessible to the masses, what's one or two things more in the greater scheme of things?

[LibitIncarne]

You've mentioned "healing potions" several times.

Healing potions have *never* been a viable form of healing in any level of content aside from levels 1-10, maybe. I have no idea what you are even talking about here.

A skill that the roleplay character has that's intention is to heal you, and actually heals you.
Notable examples are:

STORMBLOOD
Emissary of the Dawn - Alphinaud is literally a healer
The Will of the Moon - Y'shtola has Cure II to heal herself
A Requiem for Heroes - Hien has Second Wind, and will be healed by Yugiri periodically

SHADOWBRINGERS
Full Steam Ahead - Thancred literally has a HEALING POTION to heal himself
Vows of Virtue, Deeds of Cruelty - Estinien also literally has a HEALING POTION to heal himself with, in phase 2 his main damaging skill heals quite a bit.
Death Unto Dawn - Alisaie has Vercure, Urianger is literally a healer, and G'raha has both Cure II and Medica II despite acting as a Black Mage.

ENDWALKER
A Frosty Reception - Thancred doesn't have a healing skill here due to this being a stealth mission and combat isn't the focus. You have more than enough health to survive a single encounter if you keep attacking, and just wait till you autoheal for the next one.
In from the Cold - You don't have on-demand healing to show how weak you are when you're a standard garlean soldier. You can find a few medkits around the map though.
As the Heavens Burn - Alphinaud is literally a healer, Alisaie has Vercure again.
An Unforseen Bargain - Zero has Bloodbath to heal with by dealing damage, and heals at a more potent rate and with a shorter cooldown than its standard effect.

DAWNTRAIL
Taking a Stand - Wuk Lamat has... a renamed Thrill of Battle with a 60 second cooldown. That's a 20% heal. She can't have Equilibrium (A skill which is literally just a HP infusion like everything mentioned other than Zero's Bloodbath is), because... She just can't, okay?

You clearly haven't been in any deep dungeon, ever. Sustaining/Empyrean/Orthos Potions are literally mandatory to get solo clears on any job unless you are clinically insane and playing Sage specifically in PotD, and even clearing in a party is nearly impossible without them.