[Discusion] I'm afraid

[LilSpark]

Hello friends! I'm new to FFXIV Online!

As the title says, I'm afraid of certain things from End Game. I'm afraid of raids.

I'm afraid of raids because FFXIV Online is my first MMORPG that I want to play seriously and I found my refuge in it after so many competitive games I've played that made me ''burnout''.

The thing is that I'm more afraid of the fact that I have to stay on discord with the people from the party because I don't speak English very well.
I know that raiding, from what I've seen, requires very good coordination, and I'm afraid that maybe I'm not understanding what I'm being told.

I'm asking you for help with any site or where to find guides for raids, what potions I should need, a site where I can learn the rotation of the Job I'm going to play, the mechanics that are in the raid, things like that.

Thank you for taking the time to read what I wrote! And excuse me for the grammatical mistakes that I must have made!

[Jeeqbit]

Hi, so I've played for 10 years and can say there's nothing to really be afraid of. But reading is wise to make sure the people you are raiding with don't seem toxic. There are two ways to raid and one of them is looking at /partyfinder. In there, the party description should be read. If the person says "this/that or kick" then obviously it's a pretty toxic person and I'd personally not join it. If someone actually says something rude that hurt your feelings, in most cases you can report it. The GMs can't tell you if they took action, but you can be confident they usually do, since they don't want their players to make eachother feel that way.

In Party Finder:

• [Practice] = a practice party. They are not there to clear, but rather to wipe and die to mechanics. You're all in this together, so it's usually pretty chill and friendly. Read the description to make sure you are up to the stated phase, unless it's fresh prog.
• [Duty Completion] = they have all practiced to near the end of the fight, or already cleared, and intend to clear in a few tries. Only join these if you can consistently do most of the fight (it's alright to be a bit sloppy on the last few mechanics).
• [Duty Complete] = you cannot join this unless you have cleared before. But reading between the lines, they expect you to be able to do the mechanics consistently. If you cleared but aren't consistent, it'd be better to join [Duty Completion] or [Practice] parties until you are.
• [Duty Incomplete] = Only used on patch release day/week. Does not let people join if they completed the duty. Used for blind runs
• [Loot] = Farm party

You don't really require discord to raid and many people do it without discord, especially in the EU region due to the language barrier between countries. When you do join discord, it can just be to listen only.

Although fights involve coordination, they are mostly scripted (with occasional random elements). So think of it like rehearsing a play, a song or a dance. Eventually you can do it in your sleep. There are some common things that make coordination simpler as well:

• Healers usually get the stack markers.
• Mechanics are usually role-based (tanks, healers, melee DPS, ranged DPS).
• Mechanics are often all-tanks/healers or all-DPS, so you just always pair a tank/healer with a DPS.

Often, you will see things like "X strat" in Party Finder. This is usually referring to a YouTuber who posted a video of a certain strategy, so I recommend looking up the content creator or strategy name on YouTube. The current "PUG strat" is typically listed on https://www.thepfstrat.com.

Some YouTube channels I would recommend for raiding are (check their playlists to see lists of certain raid guides, otherwise you might just see recent discussion/drama videos):

• MrHappy
• Xeno
• MTQ
• Joonbob
• Hector

When watching a raid guide, I also recommend looking for "(Raid Name) clear, BRD PoV" on YouTube but replace BRD with your job's acronym. It can show you someone else clearing it in real time, which is useful to see.

For learning basic raid optimization and rotaton stuff, I recommend The Balance who also have a big discord.

As for common mechanics in this game, the latest patch released an updated Hall of the Novice. I strongly recommend checking it out, because it explains a lot of basic mechanics used in raids (sometimes they won't be telegraphed, but the concept remains). Mechanics are often named by players after the name they had when they first appeared in a raid.

It will also help to understand the concept of snapshots. Mechanics register when the cast completes or the red area disappears. The effect of those mechanics doesn't apply until the animation happens (so even if you stand in a red area, you can run around for a while before it kills you). This means trying to heal or protect yourself after a cast completes is useless - if it's going to kill you, it's already set in stone. In the same way, if you apply a Damage-over-Time, it snapshots your damage buffs at the time of application.

Some useful settings for raiding are to go to /characterconfig, Control Settings and set it to Legacy Type with auto-fly disabled. And to arrange the /hudlayout so your target, map and status effect bars are at the bottom, so your concentration is not divided between 3 areas of the screen. I'd also suggest clicking the lock icon on the minimap to make sure North is locked so you don't get disoriented.

[Connor]

Hello friends! I'm new to FFXIV Online!

As the title says, I'm afraid of certain things from End Game. I'm afraid of raids.

I'm afraid of raids because FFXIV Online is my first MMORPG that I want to play seriously and I found my refuge in it after so many competitive games I've played that made me ''burnout''.

The thing is that I'm more afraid of the fact that I have to stay on discord with the people from the party because I don't speak English very well.
I know that raiding, from what I've seen, requires very good coordination, and I'm afraid that maybe I'm not understanding what I'm being told.

I'm asking you for help with any site or where to find guides for raids, what potions I should need, a site where I can learn the rotation of the Job I'm going to play, the mechanics that are in the raid, things like that.

Thank you for taking the time to read what I wrote! And excuse me for the grammatical mistakes that I must have made!

I feel like you’ve maybe misunderstood the difference between the ‘normal’ raids and the ‘savage’ raids.

‘Normal raids’ are like a ‘story mode’ version of the raid content that can be done by anyone in duty finder. These raids are generally easy enough to be done in one clear and a total party wipe there is very rare (in my experience). The only thing you’ll maybe need for these besides appropriate Ilvl gear is food, but even then many people don’t even bother with that.

‘Savage raids’ are the more traditional ‘raid content’ you’d expect from an MMO (I think?). These raids are the ones that have a difficulty that requires party coordination, good execution of job mechanics, etc. While not a ‘requirement’, having both the best gear you can get as well as taking whatever the ‘best’ substat options on said gear is usually recommended. As you say, Discord is generally expected by the community to be used for this.

What’s important to note is that ‘raids’ you engage with by signing up through Duty Finder will always be normal mode. To do Savage, you’d have to actively go searching through party finder or try your luck with raid finder (which I don’t think even works tbh lol). Many people go through the game only ever engaging with the ‘normal raids’, so there’s not any requirement to start doing ‘savage raids’ unless you personally wanted to challenge content of that difficulty. You can still experience (almost) the full raid and storyline by doing the normal version.