Roulettes / Dungeon: I'm down

[LuSnow]

For the first time today, I tried to participate into a roulette dungeon.

It was a very bad experience, reduced to a 5 minutes run at light speed, during which I was just jogging behind the others to try not to lose them. Since moving interrupts my skills and they were always moving ahead, I don't even know if I did contribute in any way.

I hadn't the slightest chance to say hello, I couldn't inform I'm new and also not ask what to do... I skipped all cinematics because afraid to be a bother for the others. There were several help windows popping up during the run, that I would have loved to read especially the one explaining how looting works in that place, but it was impossible and I saw chests but didn't' loot anything.

Outcome of the experience: Since I want to stay polite, I will not tell what spontaneously comes to my mind. But in the end, I don't' know where I was, I wasn't able to do anything there and I don't know if I earned anything (XP points? currency?...).

Is that what roulette is? Or was it bad luck?

Is there a way for me to find out in what dungeon I have been? That I know at least that? How can I see if I earn/win something?

Thanks for help on those last questions and also, if you could explain to me if Roulettes are really always like that or not?

[Supersnow845]

You need to be assertive

If you were brand new and wanted to read tutorial messages then you needed to stop and tell them that’s what you wanted to do. The fact you skipped cinematics means everyone else assumed you weren’t new.

People will wait and go slowly but they need to know that’s what you wanted. If you skipped the cinematics then ran behind them silently skipping everything thinking they were judging you then how were they supposed to know that you wanted to go slower

[LuSnow]

I tried to tell them I'm new at the beginning. I typed in chat, but there was no reaction.

Well, next time (if I dare to retry), I will let the cinematics go, as you suggest. But will that not be a bother to the rest of the team? They are forced to wait right?


Edited for an info:
OK, I retried, this time a dungeon hard mode. The experience was the opposite: A real good one! Guys were nice, they knew I'm new somehow, they read what I typed in chat, and I could skip cinematics without it being a problem for the next steps... It went smooth and trouble free.

WOW! Two tries and the two were so different... I guess that's at matter of luck.

[Eastwall]

You should just have watched the cinematic anyway. I was a story skipper, so when l was redoing the story, some arr dungeons have really long cutscene. Well, l kept watching the cutscene anyway when they pulled. I am done watching, and they were all dead because l was healer. Too bad. Ain't my problem if you don't want to wait and can't handle the fight.

[Kuroka]

...worst case grab some friends to ask someone from the forums, like me lol, to tank so no one can rush ahead that easily.

They get an bonus if youre new, the least they could do is spent that extra minute.

[Frizze]

So lets answer some questions.

As you saw in attempt two, that was a little bit of bad luck. Most people will default to going fast if they dont have a reason to go slower, but theres fast and then theres fast. And it sounds like group one was the later.

You can see which dungeons youve done on the duty menu. Theres a checkmark on the ones youve done at least once. So if the roulette put you in one that you hadnt done yet for story, you can look for the checkmarks to figure out where you were. Failing that, if you remember the setting/bosses im sure someone here could help narrow it down.

As for loot, in any dungeon every chest opened adds items to the loot pool. For mundane items(think animal skins, etc) those are randomly assigned to someone and dropped right in their inveontory. For more valuable items(including gear, music scrolls, etc) this will open a loot tab on your screen. You can open the loot window itself either from the tab, or by interacting with the chest. For gear drops, if your current class can equip the item you will have the options to Need, Greed, and Pass. People who cant equip the item currently only get Greed and Pass as options. Community etiquette is that if you want the item roll for it. If you have the choice to take it(rolling Need when no one else in the group can) that is valid, regardless of which reason you want it(wear, glam, sell). If you want something you cant just take, asking for it is also valid(though people have the right to say no). In my experience, most people will pass on most items in lower level dungeons(and some will always pass on any item regardless of dungeon). If you dont roll, the game treats it as a "Greed" when the timer runs out. If you leave before loot is distributed, the game treats it as a "Pass". So with that said, you might have won some gear. I believe the game defaults to putting it straight into your armory chest(theres a setting to go into general inventory instead), so check your stuff and see if you got anything new. If it was a leveling dungeon you for sure got at least one thing, as all of those award one piece on final boss completion directly to your inventory(50, 60, 70, etc dungeons are not considered leveling dungeons and dont have an automatic award, anything below 50 and anything above that isnt a multiple of 10 is considered leveling).

With cutscenes, as a new player i say watch them all*. Dont feel pressured to skip. The other players are getting a bonus for helping a new player, which is perfectly fine as compensation for a little bit of waiting. They will have signed up to run a roulette(or they will have qued directly for whatever dungeon, which probly means theyre also new), and they will understand that might mean a new player and some scenes. Dont worry about it.

As for the roulettes themselves, the reason people run them is either for the rewards or for some random easy content to do. They all give some bonus exp(leveling, pvp, main scenario, and alliance tend to give the most), and they all award currency if you run them at a high enough level(including endgame currency if you run them at max). The bonus exp and currency is only once per day per roulette. In addition helping a new player clear gets you a bonus of currency, and 2nd chance khloe point(lvl 60+ content). And finally, each roulette(other then pvp) has a rolling bonus offered to certain classes to keep ques moving that is mostly in gil. New player and adventurer in need bonuses are paid out any time they are qualified for, even repeatedly throughout a day. Roulettes exist to help fill ques for people who want to run content, so the bonuses and payouts are set accordingly.

Any other questions, im sure someone here is happy to help.

*If you want. If you dont care about the cutscenes you arent obligated to watch them of course.

[LuSnow]

Thank you All!

I have one more question: How can people be so fast at checking on chest content and clicking need/greed/pass? When I respawn after a boss fight, what is almost instantaneous, everything is already assigned! Crazy how fast it goes.

At the top of it, I need to check on each item to know if it's for me or not, but there is no time for that, it needs to go ahead... So I always just ignore chests for now. Hmmmm... Room for improvement LOL

[Jeeqbit]

I hadn't the slightest chance to say hello

I usually say this while it's loading. So while the screen is black, it says "light party" and the blue ring appears around everyone. I type / to open the chatbox, then type /p Hello! If using a keyboard, you can press Num Lock to run forward automatically - this gives you chance to type /p Hello!

reduced to a 5 minutes run at light speed, during which I was just jogging behind the others to try not to lose them.

This is done by the tank pressing Sprint out of battle. It lasts for 20 seconds if not used while in battle, otherwise it only lasts 10 seconds, so they press it immediately after the enemy packs die. You find Sprint by typing /actionlist then going to General. Drag Sprint onto the hotbar. Personally, I /keybind the hotbar button it's on to R.

Typically this causes a dungeon to last about 16 minutes, but some of the level 50 or lower dungeons can get as low as 9 minutes, while more recent dungeons often last 12 minutes. NPCs on the other hand make dungeons last 30 minutes, because the developers don't want them to be "better" than players, so that's an intentional design choice.

Since moving interrupts my skills and they were always moving ahead

If they keep moving ahead, then you aren't meant to attack yet anyway. Keep moving with them until they stop.

I couldn't inform I'm new and also not ask what to do

They most likely are aware you are new, as I mentioned in a previous post. They can see the sprout icon, and the "first time bonus" message, and the "Viewing Cutscene" that displays over your name when you load in for the first time. All these things make it very obvious to them that you are new.

Personally, I don't tell anyone what to do or not to do. This is because some new players do not want to be spoiled and want to guess what they should do. If you want to know in advance what you should do, one option is to watch YouTube guides. MTQCapture made these guides since the game started, although some of the older (level 1-50) ones have been revamped and may not be as relevant now: ARR, Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, Endwalker

I skipped all cinematics because afraid to be a bother for the others.

When you load in, the game won't let them move until the cutscene is over. 99% of cutscenes at the start of the dungeon are short and just pan through the dungeon. Players are used to waiting for this, and it's actually the time when they say "Hello", so skipping it actually makes them feel they have no time to say "Hello".

There were several help windows popping up during the run, that I would have loved to read especially the one explaining how looting works in that place

That would be Active Help. It appears when you first see a feature, so that's it's more intuitive. You can access it later via /activehelp

Essentially loot works like this. Need is only available if the gear is wearable by your class. Greed is what you should pick if you don't absolutely need it but might find a use for it later (if even 1 person Needs, they will get it instead of the Greeders). Pass is what you pick if you don't want/care for it, or if someone else respectfully requested you pass and you want to do that.

in the end, I don't' know where I was, I wasn't able to do anything there

It's a first time experience. You'll get used to it if you do it more. It's a bit like riding a bike. Maybe your bike falls over and you don't get anywhere the first time. But that doesn't reflect what it's like when you have got used to it.

I don't know if I earned anything (XP points? currency?...).

You will have. It says at the end when you exit what rewards you got in the chatbox.

Is there a way for me to find out in what dungeon I have been?

Type /contactlist and you will see a list of players you recently were playing with, and what dungeon it was in.

Roulettes are really always like that or not?

Players don't always rush through dungeons, but often they do. If they do, they will speed through them as fast as they can. This entails using the "Sprint" ability and pulling as many packs of enemies as possible, then killing them all at once with AoE (attacks which affect multiple enemies). It's much faster than killing one pack of enemies at a time. At your level, AoE is Outburst, Precious Brilliance, Energy Siphon, Painflare and your egi Summons (some may not be available due to level sync).

As for why they rush, allow me to offer a tank perspective. If you do not rush as a tank, then the party often runs ahead or sometimes is not happy with you (although them being rude is reportable). If a tank always rushes, either people are happy, or they are neutral. So the most logical thing for a tank to do is to rush, because it seems to be what the majority are happy with - they like their time being respected.

[Voryn]

It’s great to hear your second experience was a good one. Usually people are pretty chill, although on occasion there’s people who either don’t read the chat, or don’t pay attention to if others are keeping up, or if you’re really unlucky you’ll get some outright rude people. But usually people are nice.

Most of the time people will wait while you watch cutscenes, the exception is generally if a tank forgets that there’s a first timer.

Since moving interrupts my skills and they were always moving ahead, I don't even know if I did contribute in any way.

A thing humans generally do differently in dungeons than trust NPCs is that they often fight two groups of mobs at a time, since we generally have enough healing and mitigation to manage. Then they might keep going until a “wall” stops them. It’s good to use Sprint before the combat starts (so it lasts for 20 seconds) and then keep in mind that there will be a point where the tank stops and then everyone will just AOE all the mobs together. Some tanks will try to sprint so they take less damage while they drag the first group to the second.

It might be helpful to mention that you’re new to playing with other humans, so your teammates can let you know if there’s things you’re unaware of.

I have one more question: How can people be so fast at checking on chest content and clicking need/greed/pass? When I respawn after a boss fight, what is almost instantaneous, everything is already assigned! Crazy how fast it goes.

At the top of it, I need to check on each item to know if it's for me or not, but there is no time for that, it needs to go ahead... So I always just ignore chests for now. Hmmmm... Room for improvement LOL

If a piece of gear suits your jobs you’ll be allowed to roll Need for it, and the list of jobs on that gear’s info will be written in green. Since you’ll do many dungeons over the course of playing the game you’ll just naturally get used to that menu, but there’s no need to rush. Also keep in mind there will be a loot prompt on your screen you can use to open menu instead of having to actually go up to the chest itself. I personally like to roll while we’re running between mobs.

[Frizze]

Good catch on Jeeq for remembering the contact list when i had forgotten it.

Thank you All!

I have one more question: How can people be so fast at checking on chest content and clicking need/greed/pass? When I respawn after a boss fight, what is almost instantaneous, everything is already assigned! Crazy how fast it goes.

At the top of it, I need to check on each item to know if it's for me or not, but there is no time for that, it needs to go ahead... So I always just ignore chests for now. Hmmmm... Room for improvement LOL

So this will be my personal perspective, other players might do things differently. Anything level 60 or lower i will usually pass without even looking at. Over that, i tend to hit greed for everything. So i dont have a thought process for loot, i already know every roll im going to do when i load into the zone. For larger raids i will pass on any end-of-raid non-gear loot i already have(cards, music rolls, minis, etc), but since the run is over i have time to look at them and determine if ive gotten them yet or not. But thats today. Very early in my playing days i would do item comparisons while fighting(being a black mage, i often had a second or two between actions) or while running to the next fight. Later on, i settled into just hitting greed for all items and sorting them out after the dungeon. That would sometimes mean i had an upgrade i wasnt using yet for a fight or two, but i never came across a situation where the difference was super large so it was fine. Then my gear would be up to date the next instance i ran anyway.

Bonus loot tip. If the other players are ignoring chests and i think i want a drop from the instance i will just follow and keep up. When the dungeon is over, you can use your "Return" spell to go back to the entrance. Then run through the path back to the end opening the boxes and automatically getting everything along the way.