Custom CC Games are way better than Ranked

[gidsonBrand]

Hey yall, I was in on a call with team leaders and other high-end players last night discussing the current meta and we all came to the same general conclusion:

Ranked is a bit of a mess, but custom matches between premade teams feel pretty good so far.

This is because of rolling damage and burst. Rolling damage, where a team focuses light attacks on a target to get the enemy team to waste resources like Paladin Cover or Astro heals, is required in most games to make any progress. Burst damage is exactly what it sounds like: everyone throws big damage attacks at a single target to one-tap kill them.

This is most teams' solution to the game, and is impossible to implement in solo queue. Nobody is coordinating rolling damage vs. burst damage, and thus the game trends towards classes that can parse better with damage or heals.

However, I'm again going to stress that the game gets way better in custom games. With 5 people in voice we can effectively communicate our defensives, light/heavy damage, game plans, positions, point discipline, etc. The game just gets so much better when playing with and against an actual team.

I, Gidson Sanders, am once again asking for your financial support.
If you are tired of games with little structure or focus, come play custom games.

[gidsonBrand]

Where to play custom games:
Rising Stars: -- Moderate Skill -- find/form a team, ping @24/7 to get a custom game 24 hours 7 days a week, talk about team play/strategy in chat
https://discord.gg/kBETuEf7

Temari's Customs: -- Casual Skill -- Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday at 7pm EST we do chill custom games with new and experienced players
https://discord.gg/eXpvZADc

PvPrimal's Tournament -- Closed Entry sorry -- Saturday/Sunday November 23rd/24th at 6pm EST, come watch goodish players beat the crap out of each other
https://twitch.tv/pvprimal

[Mawlzy]

I mean, it's a variant. Of course skill expression is going to be higher when you have 5 on voice. But this isn't how the vast majority of players engage with the mode.

[gidsonBrand]

But it should be. The best analogy for it would be fighting games:

Online play and ladders are fine and all, but participating in your local community events and going to regional tournaments -- where you're engaging with people and forming friendships/rivalries -- that's the best part of playing a competitive game. Your team, your familiar regional faces, that one person you lose to so hard that you make a goal out of beating them, it's all the best part of playing seriously.

If you're dedicated enough to come to a forum for FFXIV PvP and discuss it, you're dedicated enough to find a community to play the game in.

[Loggos]

Some people don't want to play in voice chats/discords/communities though and whatever their reason it's perfectly legitimate and doesn't go against "how it should be".
Whether it's being self-conscious, not speaking a language very well, privacy concerns, not being comfortable to talk to strangers on the internet, not being a people person in general, or just not wanting to talk because you can't be bothered right now. All fine.

Also, communities aren't always peaceful and dramafree. If you look at PvE raiding and statics you'll find your fair share of really questionable experiences, incl. voice-chat specific experiences. This can happen in any community, incl. pvp. So if somebody doesn't join online communities/voice chats because they personally weigh the risk of drama/weird experiences as higher or more impactful than the potential positive experiences they could make then that's up to them and also fair.

[gidsonBrand]

Funny enough, the PvP community has historically had less drama than the club scene or Ultimates.
Sure, there's teams blowing up due to differences in skill/mentality/results/etc. but generally we love the game enough to bounce back and shut up about it.

And while I respect anyone's wish to be anonymous or silent in VC, we have plenty of people who are mute. Just listening to a shotcaller in VC or adhering to a game plan is more than enough to earn respect and be part of the community!
There's a will and a way for everyone. On the whole, these communities are great and I encourage everyone to join them.

[Mawlzy]

But it should be. The best analogy for it would be fighting games:

Online play and ladders are fine and all, but participating in your local community events and going to regional tournaments -- where you're engaging with people and forming friendships/rivalries -- that's the best part of playing a competitive game. Your team, your familiar regional faces, that one person you lose to so hard that you make a goal out of beating them, it's all the best part of playing seriously.

If you're dedicated enough to come to a forum for FFXIV PvP and discuss it, you're dedicated enough to find a community to play the game in.

I respect what you're trying to do, and as I've mentioned elsewhere, some prominent Discord members have worked incredibly hard (e.g. Primal's efforts with RW should give some of those guys lifetime free subs). But given the clout-chasing, padding, parsing garbage exhibited by some in Discord, they will never be a community I wish to join. Just an insular bubble dislocated from the real PvP community.

[Mawlzy]

Funny enough, the PvP community has historically had less drama than the club scene or Ultimates.
Sure, there's teams blowing up due to differences in skill/mentality/results/etc. but generally we love the game enough to bounce back and shut up about it.

And while I respect anyone's wish to be anonymous or silent in VC, we have plenty of people who are mute. Just listening to a shotcaller in VC or adhering to a game plan is more than enough to earn respect and be part of the community!
There's a will and a way for everyone. On the whole, these communities are great and I encourage everyone to join them.

Honey, with respect, that is a really low bar.

[gidsonBrand]

they will never be a community I wish to join. Just an insular bubble dislocated from the real PvP community.

And attitudes like yours are exactly why we have to tell people that the PvP community is worth engaging in. Why we have to explain ourselves and invite them out to fun events despite people like you naysaying and thinking there's a villain around every corner of the community.

Yall, we are not insular, we are not some hidden illuminati gang deciding who gets top 100 or who gets to have fun in your Frontline roulette.
I have laughed and enjoyed my time in FFXIV more with the PvP community than every other form of content this game has to offer. That's all I'm trying to promote and yet you consistently show up to try and put a damper on the party for some imaginary resistance.

Don't listen to folks like this. Come hang out, watch what we do, and be a part of the community.

[Mawlzy]

And attitudes like yours are exactly why we have to tell people that the PvP community is worth engaging in. Why we have to explain ourselves and invite them out to fun events despite people like you naysaying and thinking there's a villain around every corner of the community.

Yall, we are not insular, we are not some hidden illuminati gang deciding who gets top 100 or who gets to have fun in your Frontline roulette.
I have laughed and enjoyed my time in FFXIV more with the PvP community than every other form of content this game has to offer. That's all I'm trying to promote and yet you consistently show up to try and put a damper on the party for some imaginary resistance.

Don't listen to folks like this. Come hang out, watch what we do, and be a part of the community.

Oh dear. Look. People decide whether PvP is worth engaging in irrespective of the presence of self-aggrandizing sub-communities desperately trying to become Twitch partners. They will find your events and engage with them if they find them fun. And clearly some people do. That's great.

But I invite you and yours to purchase a few mirrors, so that you might discover why the broader community reacts to you somewhere on the spectrum between apathy and hostility.

Where are you in the discussions of job balance? Of pressuring the devs to do better? Absolutely bloody nowhere.

You want respect? Work for the greater good. It's very simple.