Solo duty: Taking a Stand

[Jeeqbit]

1 is single target. You use it on Bakool.

2 is AoE (multi-target). You use it when lots of enemies spawn, which they do later in the fight. If you use this only on Bakool, it is less damage than 1 and probably has no heal.

3 is heal.

4 is a ranged attack. Use it when bakool is too far from you.

5 is a gap closer. Use it if you want to get close to Bakool. Only if you think it's safe to do so.

6 is a limit break.

[Frizze]

One thing for sure if that generally I'm slow at reacting. But strangely, in that case, compared to the videos I watched, am rather pretty OK on that side at least.

@Frizze, there is one point not clear to me and I believe it relates to your point #3: In one video, the guy is spamming 1 madly. In another video, the guy does different. He seems to take his time, using 1 but not spamming it, then alternates with 2, then re-use 1. So I'm confused about it. What is correct? To click non stop and madly on 1, or to click 1, wait a bit, re-click it, use 2 once in a while...

My quote above said "hammering the 1 combo", which isnt inaccurate but is also a slight exaggeration. How much someone would gain by doing so depends on how often they would be hitting it otherwise. The fastest you can actually get the combo moves to activate requires one button press approximately every other second. Someone hitting the button once every 3 seconds loses 4 attacks per minute, one press every 4 seconds would be losing 9 attacks per minute. So the slower someone normally is, the more "overpressing" would help. But pressing the button 3 times per second gives no additional added benefit.

Ideally every time you press 1 you want to complete the three part combo. The only time i would press 2 is during the add phase toward the end, mixing it in to the middle of the three-step would be an example of the "combo interruption" i mentioned as potential problem #2 above. You should be able to hit the heal(3) without breaking combo, and i would guess probly the gap closer(5) too. In fact, using the heal in the middle of the combo might even make it last long enough that you get an extra boosted hit out of it.

[LuSnow]

Hello All

It has taken time for a reply because I have needed long to feel good enough to re-try the hassle. 5 minutes ago, I did it. Finally. In very easy mode. I need to share about my experience to get the nightmare off my chest and my mind.

In normal mode, I got slowly used to the first phase, biggest challenge being to keep the motion sickness under control. Then I died at the phase with the 3 x yellow columns spawning one after the other, simply because I'm too slow moving. No surprise.

I didn't give up and re-try in very easy mode. It didn't feel easier. There was no difference I could notice until the step with the columns, that I achieved to manage so they must have eased it somehow. I was glad. After that, I managed OK, apart from the motion sickness that kept increasing. Eventually I got rid of the step where we are chained and need the mad clicking.

I then thought I would be finally done: But no! There was more to come with tons of foes coming at me and AOEs in all direction. I got panicked, not understanding what is happening and at the top of it, the motion sickness by the time hardly bearable. Honestly, I was close to cry at the idea to fail it yet, because there would be no way I would redo that again.

I tried to take a deep breath and understand what has to be done with all those foes around. My bad really. I should have read about the full duty. Because I didn't, I thought that after the fight against the boss, it would be over. But no, it seems the struggle wasn't enough... I was so tired and hateful against the game in that moment...

Anyhow. So, I did whatever I found logic: I finished the boss first, but it didn't end the duty. I finished the illusion guy, but the duty kept going on. Since I couldn't cope anymore, I just tried to kill everything approaching me and eventually, at some point, the message spawn in middle of my screen: DUTY COMPLETED. I jumped off my chair to lie down on the floor to stabilize my stomach ROFL

You know, I don't even feel happy. I hated it all along and what I feel now is only relief. I can't even pretend I managed all of it, because toward the end, I just killed blindly without understanding what had to be done. I have been very - very - lucky that the duty ended as successful. It means I did the right thing somehow, but I have not a clue what it was.

I can't help the question: This game is supposed to be fun right? Why am I forced to something like that? It should be optional, not a road block to the MSQ.

[Frizze]

Im sorry it was so rough for you. If it were legal to just run these fights for someone else, id have volunteered to help you out. Take your time with it, relax and feel better.

With that said, congrats on finishing the fight! Right this minute its not much solace, but i dont remember another solo duty that you should struggle with. You mostly(only?) play as yourself going forward and the next couple that i remember are decently easy. I know it doesnt really mean much for someone else to say that a fight is easy, but i dont remember hearing about people struggling with the upcoming solo fights. So you should be perfectly fine for awhile. And hopefully you can get back to enjoying the game and the story as you move forward. When youre ready. No hurry.

If you care about the story of the fight, ill do the shorty recap here. With spoiler block, because why not.

As the fight starts, Bakool Ja Ja is not just confident he is OVERconfident in his ability to defeat Wuk. During their super brief encounter at the reed parade he not only deflected her best shot, but cracked her weapon in the process and with little effort on his part. He sees her as unworthy of ruling, she isnt a threat. During the kidnapping episode after the rite of pots she isnt the threat, its her friends and allies. He also takes a fairly damaging shot(both physically and to the ego) from Zoraal Ja during this timeframe. He causes mischief, but doesnt directly partake in the fights around Valigarmanda instead seeking to weaken his opponents through the attrition of the turaal vidral. Fast forward to now, and he has arranged for this to be a fight she has to do alone to negate the advantage from Wuk's comrades. The fight begins, and he throws everything he has at her. She is behind, but he isnt quite able to overwhelm her. As she pushes back more and more, as she deflects avoids and survives his best moves, as she just doesnt give up he starts to lose confidence. At the same time Wuk is gaining more and more confidence. This petty bully cant push her around, shes learned too much from her friends and family. In the last third of the fight, Bakool's followers start to interfere in the fight. They are convinced(its essentially their religion) that he must win and start to gang up on Wuk, ignoring Bakool telling them to stay out of the fight. This further loss of authority, along with the large number of followers you drop dooms him. The little girl who he thought was beneath him isnt folding, his people arent listening or following his orders, and the biggest threat of all is just sitting there watching. He was supposed to be the chosen one, but he cant do this. Its too much. And of course, him running off seemingly in terror after the fight confirms this.

[LuSnow]

Thank you for your kinds words Frizze. In the mean time, I discovered a beautiful zone and completed one more solo duty in normal mode, on own class, that was a piece of cake in comparison to previous nightmare. So it helped me reconnecting with the game a bit.

I also enjoy lazy times with my alts, what helps to get the fun back. However, lesson is learnt: I will not push any of my alts up to that solo duty. I don't want to redo it ever.

Generally, I believe that the main story of a game is the base game content and should be entirely do-able by ALL players, no matter if they are casual, good, weak, whatever.
This is especially true for games with a monthly fee: all customers pay the same and are entitled to the same main content.

Unfortunately, the way FFXIV works doesn't allow that. This hard duty for example is discriminating players who can't manage it, because the sanction is that they're kicked off the msq (main content) that they can't finish. It should not be possible.

That's why I prefer the concept of other games (like GW, GW2, ESO, ...), where the higher difficulty activities are separated from the main story and optional. That way, the base/main content can't be blocked.
The high level activities bring superior rewards and side zones, that can't be obtained/visited by those not doing them. So it's also a discrimination of course, but a fair one because based on a choice made by the player him/herself, without loosing the main content.

[Shistar]

I'm glad you managed to do it, great job! I hope you enjoy the rest of the MSQ!


One thing I have to say is I do not think the devs deliberately made this specific duty more difficult than the rest, and they seem to not understand why some players are having such trouble with it. I think at some point, if you fail it too many times, it should allow you to skip it or watch an NPC run it for you (or better, allow a friend to run it in your stead without being against ToS). But MSQ is the base difficulty of the game and we had a lot of complaints about EW being excessively easy... what I mean is, yes I agree all players should be able to get through MSQ, I personally don't care for "playing as NPC" duties and could do without them or turn them into cutscenes, but I can't help but fear what kind of message the devs are getting from this. They almost always manage to misunderstand what the playerbase is telling them.

[LuSnow]

The devs are probably highly skilled players, who are good at all classes and at everything generally. For players like them, it can be quite difficult to understand how it is for players who are not equally skilled/talented or/and with whatever health troubles or simply slower because older, where the concept "learning by doing" will reach its limits.

It would certainly be a good idea to have a "helper" or a "joker" concept so that all players can finish the main story.

My impression is that the devs love their game concept and strongly stick to 3 specific points of it:
- Everything is locked behind MSQ.
- A player must be capable to play all classes.
- Lot of solo duties.

Probably their idea is that either players like it as is or leave it. And that will probably last as long as there are enough customers to sustain the game.
I can understand how difficult it must be to set in question points of the concept that are the original essence of it.

For Guild Wars for example, they did "bypass" the problem by bringing a new game: GW2. That was for them a way to bring a new concept without changing the original one (there were also technical reasons though).

For me, playing since decades, it's very interesting to see how the games I know are compared to each others and how they evolve over time.