Duty Finder – Page 2 – Aleczan's New Diary (FFXIV: ARR)

Day 1:
Lv. 16+ Roulette – Copperbell Mines (cap level 20)

Successful.

I ran into weird lag problem near the end. I kept seeing the tank and archer still standing at a treasure chest (frozen and when I targeted them, it says they were targeting the chest) and there were also 3 monsters staring at them and having names in orange (agro, but not claimed). While in reality, they already went ahead and killing next group monsters. When I caught up with the group, I saw the tank and the archer fighting with enemies, but I couldn’t target them either from party list or from on-screen mouse click. So before last boss room, I let the tank die, he returned and ran back.

We engaged the boss and started killing. I still had problem targeting the two of them. At times, I would be able to target the archer, and it would show that the archer was targeting boss with 0 HP. LOL!!! I had to rely on my faerie to auto cure them because I couldn’t target them. So I helped to nuke the boss instead. All the time, I was screaming about not able to target tank or archer. And I still got 3 commendations at exit. TAT Whoa, must be because of my dramatic screaming. Sorry guys, hope I didn’t annoy you with all my whining. That sure was a horrible bug to happen inside a dungeon!!!

Day 2:
Lv. 16+ Roulette – Sastasha

Successful. Very easy. I had Eos on auto, though. I ran around to try to shut the gate on the floor to prevent adds popping, but it got out of hands and near the end we had lots of adds popping up. The party seemed to completely ignore them so we just tried to kill the boss as fast as we could. I helped nuke while letting faerie cure LOL.

Main Scenario Roulette – Praetorium

Successful. Had another healer who was White Mage. So it was quite easy.

Lv. 50 Roulette – Pharos Sirius

Miserably failed. Details here : http://www.aleczan.com/FFXIVARR/2014/my-failed-pharos-attempt/

Day 3:

Lv. 16+ Roulette – Haukke Manor (cap level 31)

Successful.

I got in as a healer replacement while the party was about to fight last boss. The fight went well. I still had to keep Eos on auto-mode because the battle was overwhelming and I couldn’t keep up with manual mode. ><;;

Lv. 50 Roulette – Amdapor Keep

Successful.

I got into a party with 2 bards. One seemed to know a lot of shit and always went ahead to pull or activate stuff in order to speed up the run. They were nice and forgiving, but not quite communicative. I aggroed some Armor guy while they were fighting something else and they managed well and said np. They did very well and killed fast. Demon Wall was tough but with my Faerie on auto mode, I had a bit extra cure power.

I couldn’t keep up with the cure at Demon Wall, though, so the other bard died right before we won.

At start, I told them I never came here before and they didn’t bail, yet didn’t tell me anything either, LOL. Had to learn on the spot and kept dodging stuff which I see coming. Like the first boss with freaking huge hazard zone….I had to keep following the tank and hug tight when I saw the 2 bards came hug the tank. Then at Demon Wall, I had no information other than I had to stay in the middle of the bridge to avoid being knocked off into the cliff. So I learned to dodge shit by getting hit once. LOL.

ffxiv_01062014_191634

Anyway, at last boss, I asked and the tank said to follow the hax bard. LOL. OK so I stood where he stood, and moved when he moved. It went smoothly until near the end where I was targeted by the purple line, and then a globe of dark energy drew near. I dodged but didn’t dare to leave my spot because it was the safe spot for when boss did AoE. But I got hit and the party was in a very bad shape, but they killed the boss immediately after that.

So, I didn’t learn the mechanic of the last boss in AK at all. LOL. Gotta research some time later.

Day 4:

Lv. 16+ Roulette – Tam-Tara Deepcroft (cap level 19)

Successful.

Never had to switch Eos back to auto mode. Yay!~

Lv. 50 Roulette – Amdapor Keep

Failed badly.

I got in as a replacement healer when the part was stuck at fighting Demon Wall. Their healer seemed to have bailed because time was running low (about 25 mins left). We went and wiped. Then at next try, BLM got knocked off the bridge and we wiped. Not enough time, so everyone quit.

Lv. 50 Roulette again – The Wanderer’s Palace

Successful.

I did this dungeon in a daze, I don’t even remember now whether I had Eos on auto or manual. All I remember is that I told the party that I never came here as SCH before, but usually a WHM. They said good enough, and that it’s a chance I get to practice SCH. Right!! ^^ Then my Eos kept getting eaten by big bad Bob (Tonberry Stalker).

We won and parted happily. The tank was exceptionally friendly. He even asked how did I like playing SCH so far. ^^ Of course, I like it so much, but there is so much to learn.

Day 5:

Lv. 50 Roulette – Haukke Manor (Hard)

Failed.

ffxiv_01082014_130610

I got in when the party only had Black Mage and Dragoon left. The BLM was a screenshot enthusiast. So we took some pics before a new tank arrived. Then we had a pic with the tank as well.

The fight was so crazy and I also had to put my Faerie on auto (after a few failed attempts to manually control her). Even then, I still couldn’t keep up with healing. We didn’t have enough DPS to kill the maids, so the Rain something attack killed us every time. I also couldn’t dodge some of the AoE attacks. The party was often in bad shape. I and the tank didn’t know the fight and was our first time in Haukke (hard). We kept trying until we had 5 mins left. Then we stood and chatted at the entrance, LOL. We took screenshots until we got kicked.

Lv. 50 Roulette again – Copperbell Mines (Hard)

Successful, with a lot of wipes.

I got into a party full of French people. They were talking French to each other, probably discussing about battle plans and stuff. I relied mostly on my knowledge from previous run (using WHM) where I was just following the tank around, especially at the boss fight on wooden bridge, because he told me to always hide behind him.

We did very good this run, until the last boss. The BLM kept dying because he was on feeding duty, and whenever he got heavy debuff, he would get eaten. I wasn’t fast enough to run and cast Leeches (SCH’s Esuna) on him. They talked about plans and stuff in French. Then at one point, the BLM spoke in English telling tank to place the boss near the middle (on the rocks, not on sand) so that I would be in range to cure worm feeding person.

We did ok until BLM died XD LOL. Then on last try, which was the successful try, the BLM said we will get it this time, and my work will be lighter. I think maybe they noticed that I couldn’t keep up with the cure and debuff ; ;

I had my Faerie on auto mode on this boss (and also on the bombing bridge boss) because I couldn’t keep up with the hectic rhythm of the battle.

The monk managed to use Limit Break on the boss before dying. I raised BLM and they went crazy on the boss near the end. At one point I only focused on curing the tank and let them die, but we won just in time before something else worse happened.

>_<

Lv. 16+ Roulette – The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak (cap at level 27)

Successful.

My Eos was on manual mode full-time. ^^

We ran into a minor hiccup when my bro knocked on my door to summon me for a piece of pizza, and I left my chair, typing something like “BRB a sec, somsone knocked on my door.” I returned and saw that the party already went ahead and fought next group of enemies ALL BECAUSE I didn’t type in Party, but in Linkshell channel!!!!!!! TAT So the tank died and the Archer had to tank while I caught up with them and tried to cure. Then the Archer died while I was resurrecting the tank. Archer returned to run back, we killed a web what’s blocking the way and entered a room where the 2nd boss would pop. When the Archer arrived, he couldn’t enter the room! His character kept running forward, but was pushed by an invisible wall (he said it’s not invisible on his screen, but for me there was nothing! In the above screenshot, he was blocked out just before reaching the purple line.) I saw it. And he kept saying he can’t pass that spot. It was a bizarre glitch! Maybe it happened because we killed that web barricade while he wasn’t in the screen, so his system still thought there was a web blocking his way. TAT After a while he probably returned to the entrance and then came back again, then he was able to get in.

***************************

Right now I’m on a break, as I feel like I’ve been doing too much dungeon runs with strangers, it’s getting stressful, especially when the party keeps dying because I cannot keep up with the healing. It makes me feel bad about myself and I take some mental damage to my healer esteem. I also feel bad for being a hindrance for the party. I think I might have to start again from partying up with friends, so that if we keep dying, we can communicate and work on what I need to improve, or get some advice. Also it will not drag strangers into my practice so they won’t have to suffer my mess.

Problem is my friends are hardly online at the same time, as people have their own schedule in real life. And even if I only pair up with my tank friend and seek 2 random DPS from the Duty Finder, that would not serve as a practice run, as he is too good. He almost never died. So I won’t be able to evaluate myself whether I am doing good or doing bad, because he would just not die. ><;;

My other problem is I am not familiar with partying up with strangers. So when I’m in random party from Duty Finder, it’s a little stressful.

Ugh, I just need a little break. I’ll resume my training with Duty Finder soon….. Probably during this weekend.

My Failed Pharos Attempt

By Aleczan Knighthill | January 5, 2014 - 11:49 pm |January 10, 2014 My Blab, My Rants

1 Comment

My 5^th Attempt at Pharos Sirius. (Failed)

This might be considered a rant, but it’s not a rant against people or player, but about my own failure.

Today my lv. 50 Duty Roulette decided to be mean to me and sent me to Pharos Sirius again. Let’s see, 1^st time to 4^th time, I was in there as a WHM. Today I got confident in using my Scholar, as I did well in Praetorium as a secondary healer, and I wanted to practice more SCH, so I hit lv. 50 Roulette with SCH. And yeah, it threw me inside Pharos Sirius again. How brutal!!! T.T

Brief review of my previous Pharos runs,
1^st – Didn’t get past first boss (the pirate) but I learned about the stacking debuff and the explosion. Kept dying, pretty much because we couldn’t dodge well while dealing with adds until tank and bard bailed.

2^nd – Got in as a replacement when party was at Siren. Wiped once, then router died. Got so mad ; ; Sorry, strangers. Terribly sorry.

3^rd – All members are quite new to Pharos. Great party. They were willing to communicate and to keep trying. Here, I finally learned that not only boss AoE attacks that give debuff, but the dog’s attack also does it! Wiped once, then won. Got to Zu, but kept dying until bard had to leave the house. Got a replacement bard who knew the fight and educated us to kill only the hatching eggs. Still wiped. New bard bailed. Disbanded.

4^th – Got in as a replacement during first boss. Party didn’t communicate but they seemed to know the fight. However, the adds (dogs) swarmed around me and ate me. Was going to retry but bard bailed. BLM commented that the bard wasn’t helping to kill the adds and just left like it was our fault. LOL. Tank said sorry, last try, then we got a new bard, but we still died. So everyone disbanded.

Today we got in and the tank named Snow Winter was being honest and said it’s his first time in Pharos. Someone immediately left, so we had tank, me, and Zambari Amari (BLM) when Fureya Jhamei (BRD) joined as a replacement. I am naming them here in hope that they will see this entry and hear my apology. T.T

This team got to Zu, and nobody knew the true trick of the fight. That is, to kill the hatching eggs but NOT ALL of them. So, I’ve been shooting the damn eggs when they were threatening to hatch, and the Zu got enraged and used stun AoE that’s brutal on me (and anyone near me) then used wing attack AoE to kill the back-row people. I am so sorry I made you guys die multiple times.

Zambari had enough deaths, so this BLM left and we got Misha Lune, a very patient BLM who stuck with us until the very end. I can’t remember when, but the bard also left, and we got a Summoner named Cyber Impact as a replacement. I was killing the eggs in this round, too. So Misha spoke up and said to leave eggs to him/her, otherwise the Zu kill us. Misha kindly explained that killing the eggs will stack buff on the boss. So, eventually, we won and it realized it was ME who’s been making us fail repeatedly at Zu!!!!

So, sorry again, Fureya and Zambari. It was all my fault.

Then, we got to 3^rd boss, which was pretty quick and easy. Misha announce the strategy which cracked me up XD “(Misha Lune) ok here burn the boss fast before healer dies” and then explained that I will have to kite all the adds while party kill boss. But in reality, I couldn’t attract the adds, so Snow got them all, but they killed the boss very fast and without any problem.

Then, the damned lady of the ocean, Siren, was our roadblock. We kept trying until SMN had enough of it (sorry, Cyber T.T I kept screwing it up by getting caught by the crawling zombies). Then in the last 10 minutes of the timer, we got a bard named Swift Claw as a replacement. I learned JUST NOW that to dodge the AoE charm, we hide under Siren. I’ve been running away and hugging the room’s wall to avoid it (my dodge failed once and succeeded twice) because Misha screamed that the tank must also hide UNDER Siren, or face the charm spell.

However, when she picked one random target to charm, if it was me or the tank, I always failed to heal up. Damn me. I got so mad at my lousy skill at playing SCH. I even had the help in curing from my faerie, Eos. Yet I still failed to top up my own HP or tank’s HP when charm landed. So, of course, we wiped twice and that’s it, out of time.

I want to say sorry to all these people, Snow Winter, Misha Lune, Swift Claw, Cyber Impact, Zambari Amari, and Fureya Jhamei. And special thanks for Snow and Misha for the patience to stick it out to the end. Also thanks to Swift Claw for being energetic and positive even when we were running out of time. Again, thanks Misha for teaching me a lot of things to watch out for on each boss fight. As for me, I still am not confident enough in my SCH to say I will beat Pharos the next try. L Lots more to practice. I always have my faerie on auto mode. People said it’s better to manually control the faerie for MP conservation. Yep, I always have MP issue. SO I think that’s where I need to practice. ><;;

Connection Lost (Rant)

By Aleczan Knighthill | December 23, 2013 - 7:46 pm |December 24, 2013 My Rants

3 Comments

So I just got home and logged on, trying to do Duty Roulette for extra 40 M Tomes. I got into Pharos as a replacement, the party was at last boss. We went in and wiped once, while we were running back to the boss room, my freaking Wireless Signal died on me and I got kicked off the server. By the time I got back into the server, all 3 members already left. Time was about 6 mins left. T.T I thought I could try to be useful in Pharos for once….but nope, stupid router had to ruin my day.

Well, it was my 2nd time in Pharos, and on the first time (my yesterday’s roulette) we didn’t even beat the first boss. Not sure if 6 mins was enough for last boss or not, but I feel very sorry to those 3 people. :( I’m sorry I gave you false hope of getting a new healer and then crushed that hope when time was running out. I don’t even remember anyone’s name. T.T

Duty Finder: DPS Not Cooperating

By Aleczan Knighthill | October 23, 2013 - 12:03 pm |October 24, 2013 My Rants

2 Comments

Again, this is my lengthy rant about some lousy player in random Duty Finder party.

I was unable to write this right after the incident, because I had real life time pressure and had to leave the house shortly after. I was also too furious to organize my thoughts. But now, as I am no longer angry about it, I want to write it down in my journal so that people may know, or that person might even stumble upon this entry and see how ridiculous I think they were.

This is a Dragoon person, and I will have no shame in naming them here, as I secretly wish they would find this entry, or that someone who knows them will see it and tell them about it. The name is Lordin Edenfall.

We were in The Wanderer’s Palace to farm some Tomestones, and among the 4 random parties we got, this one was the one where I was most furious about, as the person wasn’t performing horribly out of the lack of knowledge or experience, but purely out of their own rebellion and probably the need to show off and seem superior. They also refused to work as a team and when the tank said something, they had the nerves to reply with an answer that obviously show that they had no intention to cooperate with the party.

First, I noticed Corn (the tank) started using number sign on the mobs, this was because the DRG just attacked whatever they wanted and didn’t assist the tank and other DPS in killing the mobs one by one. However, they continued to disobey the number signs and kept attacking what the hell ever they want, drawing enmity from the monster that tank wasn’t focusing on, and getting their ass kicked. This resulted in my trying so damn hard to keep up with all the cures.

At first I didn’t notice what was going on, I thought he was just one of those lazy DPS who would just stand there and eat AoE attacks instead of dodging them. WRONG. They intentionally take one monster away from the tank and fought solo. I might have drawn enmity from DRG’s mob and got whacked a few times, but I don’t really remember. But I did notice that the DRG’s Stoneskin would disappear very fast after I applied it, and I had to throw Regen and Cure on them very often.

At the skeletons room with a switch, I finally noticed what was going on. I saw the DRG fighting a Skeleton away from the group, taking a lot of damage from it. Then Corn commented on it in Linkshell. Then, while fighting other group of mobs, the DRG did it again. They intentionally attacked the other enemy.

Then, at the last room before Tonberry King, shit kind of hit the fan, and the DRG got chased by Tonberry Stalker because they didn’t group up with us. They ran away, and they returned to join the fight, still attacking the non-focused enemy. Then Corn finally spoke up, trying to be polite and not cursing the hell out of the person, I imagine. He probably didn’t say anything before because the number signs are obvious and most people would have cooperated by following the numbered order, but this person just wouldn’t be a good team member.

(Corn Muffin) patience please
[1]<Corn Muffin> that is not what i wanted to say lol
(Corn Muffin) Defeat this one first!
(Aleczan Knighthill) focus target
(Lordin Edenfall) what?
[1]<Corn Muffin> get me out of this hell hole
(Lordin Edenfall) nah
(Lordin Edenfall) if i focus i lose a ton of dps
(Lordin Edenfall) i wanna rush this dungeon, not babysit it
(Corn Muffin) its ok alec
(Aleczan Knighthill) But you are MP sink because I have to heal you a lot :)

(Lordin Edenfall) omg
(Lordin Edenfall) gl
(Aleczan Knighthill) O_o
[1]<Aleczan Knighthill> He shuts himself out lol?
(Lordin Edenfall) i believe in u guys

What happened here was that the person got locked out of the arena. It was either an accident because they were too busy trying to talk back, or was intentional out of spite. I have no idea which was the cause. So we fought with 3 people, and died because I couldn’t keep up with the cure while spamming Holy.

[1]<Corn Muffin> come to mid and holy
[1]<Corn Muffin> cure
[1]<Corn Muffin> just ignore them
[1]<Corn Muffin> and lets finsih
(Lordin Edenfall) nice try tho
[1]<Corn Muffin> just let em go please
[1]<Corn Muffin> or im gonna explode
[1]<Aleczan Knighthill> ; ; pat pat
[1]<Corn Muffin> you know what else loses a ton of dps. running your mouth isntead of entering the arena lolol
[1]<Corn Muffin> oh well
[1]<Aleczan Knighthill> lol

Then, we retied with 4 people, and once the boss died, that person spoke again.

(Lordin Edenfall) he died too fast…

I really wanted to say “He died fast because no dumbnut got locked out this try.” But I didn’t want to interact with the person any longer, so I just exited without saying anything.

Furious was I, though. I actually wanted to say more stuff than my “you are MP sink” but there was no time for a lecture in there. I also didn’t have the patience and effort to type too much when angry. But here, I will rant about it.

Quoting, again:

(Lordin Edenfall) if i focus i lose a ton of dps

What kind of lousy excuse is that? I haven’t played level 50 DRG since the big skill revamp in 1.0, so I might wrongly be unaware of any DRG ability that makes you deal more damage when you are being attacked, but the damage output should be about the same even when you attack the same enemy as the tank.

(Lordin Edenfall) i wanna rush this dungeon, not babysit it

This is even more stupid. If you follow proper strategy, like focusing on one target, the enemies die faster, one by one. This does not only make one enemy die faster, but also decreases the burden on the healer, as they don’t need to split their attention to save your ass. You don’t have as high defense as a PLD, so when you get hit, it means more HP for me to cure, and thus I have to spend more MP than I should. This “attacking what the hell ever I want while ignoring the number signs” is not rushing the dungeon, but rather hindering the party.

In the other random party earlier, there was someone among the 2 DPS members who secretly marked the mobs with number. The order was accurate, and everyone focused their attack on them in order. So the mobs died very fast and I had easier time curing, having no extra burden to keep alive, as no one strayed and got their ass kicked. We blew through the dungeon very quickly and without any oh-shit-moment.

However, that was not the case in this party. By the Dragoon’s soloing without having a tank and having their ass kicked by the enemy, I am the one who was babysitting them! It was I who had to cast spells and spend my MP to keep them alive. They were the hindrance. They were my burden.

I repeat: Lordin Edenfall, by not cooperating, you are the hindrance to the party. And that is not rushing us, or you, or anyone, through the dungeon, at all. Brainless brute force might achieve something in some situation, but not where strategy is important like in FFXIV dungeons.

(Additional text, edited to add on 24 OCT 2013)

If your targets were not attacking back, splitting force and defeating them in unorganized and unfocused order will achieve the same result as defeating them one by one. But that is not true in the situation, as all of the enemies were attacking back.

I’m going to write a simple, idiot-proof, explanation here.

If there are 3 enemies, and if you kill 1 enemy within 20 seconds, 3 enemies will take 1 minute to die.

If you focus on 1 enemy and kill it off, from 21^st second to the 60^th second, you will only have 2 enemies beating on you. Then, if you keep killing one of the two enemies, by the 41^st second, you will only have 1 enemy to deal with. There is 3 parts of this battle. First part, lasting 20 seconds, you get bombarded with attacks from ALL 3 enemies. Second part of the fight, however, you will only have 2 enemies trying to kill you. Then last part, the last 20 seconds, will be the easiest, because you are fighting 1-on-1.

On the contrary, if you spread out your attack, after 20 seconds you will still have all 3 enemies whacking on you. On the last part of the fight, you will have 3 enemies, all with only 1/3 HP, still trying to kill you. Then, you kill them off at the same time after 1 minute time ends. But what about your own HP that was taken by the enemies? Of course, you lose much more HP with this strategy.

You might not realize it, because you weren’t the one who took the burden of keeping yourself alive. It was me and my MP. And since your defense is inferior to the real tank, when you tank an enemy on your own, it increases the work load for healer. I HATE YOU FOR THAT.

(End of the additional text)

If I had heard this “babysitting” smartass answer earlier in the run, I would have let them solo the mob as they wanted, and wouldn’t have cared to throw them any Stoneskin, Regen, or Cure. I should have let them die fighting the enemy with wrong order.

Some people are just horrible like this. I need a break from random Duty Finder party for a while, a long while.