A Stone Vigil Victory - A Tale of Patience, Learning, and Kindness

[Kagato]

With all these stories of bad experiences flooding the forum, I figured I could break things up with a story of a good run with good people.

Last night, I was going slowly going through the storyline missions set in Coerthas. After going through the deceptively good mini-storyline of Coerthas Corruption (and finally flailing my axe into a certain Elezen jerk in the end, which was personal satisfaction for me), I finally gained access to the Stone Vigil.

This was my first time, but it was late at night (2AM for me) and I decided I could at least attempt the Stone Vigil through a random Duty Finder. I got paired up almost immediately and I was set to go.

Our party turned out to be a Hyur Warrior (Me), Male Miqote White Mage, Male Highlander Monk, and Female Miqote Bard (though it may have been elezen. I didn't get a good look at her). This was the first time for everyone except for the White Mage, as we all found out. We all said our hellos and I made a point to say that this was my first time and if anyone knew of anything I should be aware of to please let me know as they happen. The White Mage was kind enough to volunteer to walk us through everything, and he did so with a smile.

We actually wiped on one of our first engagements, but not a single person got upset. We just got up and tried again as we were more prepared on what to expect and we were able to proceed. I thankfully had my enemy marks on macros so while we had some hiccups and a wipe here and there, we proceeded quite well. But despite any wipes we might have had, not one person got angry or called anyone names. I even stepped up to say that it was a learning experience and we're only getting better from our deaths, as annoying as they were. The White Mage never got frustrated and kept a smile.

This happened throughout the dungeon. A wipe here and there but we often bounced back hard. However, the White Mage gave us good boss instructions for the 2 mini-bosses and the main boss. I often like to repeat the strategy I'm supposed to follow to make sure he and I both knew I understood my role and we didn't wipe against either mini-boss.

The main boss, however, we were very close to winning, but our White Mage got taken out by the Dragon's flying ice bombs from above. The dragon was at such little health left so I tried my hardest along with our Monk to take him down after the Bard died not long after the White Mage. It didn't work and we wiped.

Nobody got angry.

In fact, the White Mage was so upset at his death that he was apologizing a lot, but no one got angry at him. I even told him not to sweat it and we'll try again because we almost had him! We obviously knew how the fight worked. We just needed to try again, though the timer was running out.

Our Bard then said she needed to take a short break to let the dog out for 8 minutes... we were sitting on 18 minutes left in the dungeon. We were nervous, but we didn't yell at the Bard and remained patient. She came back a little sooner than expected and we ran in, knowing this is going to be our last try.

Unfortunately, once again, the White Mage got taken out, but we were in a great position as the boss had a sliver of HP left. After the White Mage died, it took off into the air which game me time to pop a potion and get my buffs ready. I expected to have to land a few hits more, but after the Dragon landed, I hit it once... and it died. HA! Nothing to be worried about!

This was obviously no speed run and it was the first time for 3 of us, myself included... but with a team of patient and understanding allies as well as a patient White Mage who walked us through the whole experience... and not to mention the countdown cutting it close as we had to fight the main boss twice overall, no one got upset and we made it through.

This is a testament on how even total strangers can band together and complete a task without any trouble, arguing, or rage as long as people keep a level head and help one another. It was honestly the best Duty Finder dungeon run I have ever done so far.

So to those of you who try and rush people or refuse to be nice, patient, or helpful... you're doing it wrong. This is what we need to see more of.

[Kagato]

Yikes. Guess this story wasn't as successful as my previous one.

[Jormunyr]

Dont sweat, most people tend to navigate towards the negative stories (see any news channel, rehardless of city/state/country). I for applaude your tenacity, too many people give up on wipe one ot immediately start with the personal insults, which is sad to say, part of the social stigma of gamers online. But good job anyway!

[Tercino]

The Stone Vigil was a bit of a surprise for me too - as a healer, everything hits like a truck! The last two pulls were not easy - the second to last me and the tank weren't prepared and we wiped. The last one we knew what we were getting into, I popped all my cooldowns and I'm sure the tank did too, and we made it through. Throughout this everyone stayed calm and kept going, like your party. There are plenty of good people out there (I've kept full parties right until the timer ran out in Cutter's and Qarn, and twice for about 20 Ifrit wipes when I was trying to do it for two SMN), it's just we only ever hear the bad stories.

[ShinrinCole]

I haven't had any trouble with other players yet, one dungeon I did with 3 other players i didn't know stayed until we beat the boss. It was nice to see some people not complain about the other players in the group and stick though it til the timer almost ran out.

[roarich]

Great summary of what it is like to use the duty finder. I too have had good experiences like this. Thanks for sharing!

[Kolobo]

Had a very good party of all first timer last night for that, was going good till the last third ish ( we decided to skip the last treasure room with the 4 pull due to timer) and beat it with less that a minute to go... So satisfying. Too bad those guys were all from different servers and we prolly wont run into each other again.

[LunaRhiki]

Great story, and just goes to show what patience and working together for a common goal will do. And congratulations on your win!

[Raeletta]

The negative stories always get more attention.

I had a damn good Stone vigil myself, despite the horror stories I'd been fed before hand. We won after 5 or 6 wipes and with 00:00:15 on the clock x) So I know how good it feels to have a group of non-evil bastards.

[Velveteer]

OH MY GOD
I just finished a Stone Vigil run! And.... of course we failed. BUT IT WAS FUN! I had a blast!
It was me and a summoner from our server + 2 others from different servers via duty finder AND WE DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING.
We pretty much just tried our best despite the fact that we wiped alot!
What made it so cool is that we learned from our mistakes and we when we were down we got right back into it.
Especially the part with the second dragon boss, we wiped several times before I noticed we had to use the cannons to deal with that troll of a dragon.
We pushed onwards until the very last second! It was just a great feeling!
Nobody was exceptionally rude, but I guess I was just lucky.
But still, it was awesome and the next time I try again, I'll know what to do.