My Whining – 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.

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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.

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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.

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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 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. ><;;