I love astro healers, I'd just never want to be one. Working out the whole cleric stance thing is hard enough for me. I have mad respect for anyone who can juggle cards on top of that! Also balance cards make me happy. Also, based on a convo I was having with my FC today, what are you guys' biggest hits with all of your buffs up? Obviously not counting LBs. Mine's around 10500 with jump.
I dont really find it too hard to manage my cards/buffs/shields/regens and cleric. Especially when I know an instance well. Idk get 14k deathflare crits on occasion but I dont really pay attention much to numbers because they'd drive me nuts and im personally against any form of parsing in general. except maybe for pure curiosity once in a blue moon. Somewhat unrelated but I know some people have a problem with this, but I don't really have a problem with high-low to low -med dps because those people tend to get better with support or advice. And they dont normally get the party killed. BUT THERE WAS THIS ONE BISMARCK HM RUN I HAD WHERE PEOPLE COULDNT GET THE CHITIN DOWN MORE THAN 66% BEFORE HE STARTED TO SHAKE. I DIDNT EVEN KNOW THAT HE SHOOK. IVE NEVER HAD THAT FIRST PHASE TAKE SO LONG. I really needed that 14k deathflare then. lmao. ...I'm a mentor and I have the patience and fortitude of a brick wall. And that tested me. So much. and they had the audacity to ask me, the i270 mentor summoner, if I was keeping up shadowflare instead of asking if the at level newbies knew the instance. -_- had to rant. im still salty about that run a week later.
So... in the middle of glad-for-provoke hell and I got Sastasha as my leveling roulette (of course), and both dps desperately tried to test my patience. The monk kept on running ahead with no concern about not being a tank, face first into groups I was trying to skip and seemed intent on always being the first to a group even though I was AT MOST half a second behind him so it's not like I was moving slowly. I had to beg him to please stop running ahead (mid fight because there was no chance I could type and still keep up with him otherwise) and he only really bothered following that for bosses. Also, on the last pull before the last boss, he ran ahead to force the cutscene mid fight, taking the THM out of the fight entirely because he was stuck watching it... then had the fucking gall to say 'brb' right before the boss. Then there was the THM. I had less issues with this guy but holy shit, he was the master of splitting dps. And I'm already fighting the monk for threat considering the facepulling so guhhhh. I'm not very good at glad because flash is certainly not overpower, so the whole thing was just... super infuriating. And no chance to say anything because the monk was insistent on flying through the instance at a million miles an hour. And I think the healer was mocking me at the end but it was hard to tell. The most bizarre thing, though? All three of them were running to turn off ripples on the last boss. I feel like this run was me getting trolled. Getting 2 comms actually did nothing to make me feel better. Fucking 'brb'. Fuck you, buddy.
Hobo, let me tell you a story. Was WoW, not FF14, but. A friend of mine asked me to come join him on a thing. Why? Because he had a group bad enough that a very overleveled healing-spec healer was not able to heal him, and he was sorta overlevelled, so he asked me to bring my lowish-level priest to fix things. What ensued is one of the most fun things I have ever done in any MMO. It. Was. Amazing. There were two people in the group who were so bad that I genuinely could not tell whether they were demonstrating clever strategy or total incompetence. Like, this was back when the high-tier warlock summon would turn on you after a while. Warlock would constantly send his pet after groups we weren't fighting, then call it back. I think because of the voice-acting/sound effects. Anyway, he sent a high-tier summon after a group at a point when I would have expected it to be about to turn on him, and it engaged and got killed. Intentional and clever? Incompetent and lucky? WE WILL NEVER KNOW. And what I learned from this, and it is super important and has made everything better: There are no bad groups. There are only good groups and funny groups. I have since then actively sought out groups full of incompetent people because they make the best stories.
I don't know, seebs. I find it easier to appreciate stupidity when I'm doing something because I want to, not because I'm obligated to play a class in order to play a completely different one at a reasonable level. If this was a genuine alt situation (or I wasn't playing a tank), I think I would be less annoyed, but since I hate playing gladiator and am only playing it in order to get taunt on the tank class I actually want to play, it's basically just taking a stressful situation and making it even more stressful. Plus, imo WoW is less of a PITA re: instances with dumb people, like... I know I find it more facerolly and easier to work around other people doing dumb things than FF14, though that might have something to do with playing it for around 11 years straight. In other news, just ran Ifrit and god damn this archer also loved facepulling. First pull was a clusterfuck (I let him die because I am sick of that shit after Sastasha), but Ifrit ended up chasing the healer around the arena before I was finally able to get aggro back (no provoke ;3;), then we died because ofc the nail didn't get down. Second pull was fine, except the archer ignored our advice to dps the nail and we died again. Third pull, he only started dpsing the nail right before it blew up and killed us all. Fourth, I asked everyone if they had issues with me pulling Ifrit to the nail so I could help DPS so we ended up doing that and winning. Good work team. Still less frustrating than Sastasha, even though had 0 wipes or deaths in that instance. Christ. Good riddance to this awful, awful class. I got spoiled by leveling MRD first. I'm just going to do some leves to get to 22. Can't wait for Stormblood so we can all say goodbye to necessary cross class skills.
That's p much why I ended up doing most of my levelling in Palace of the Dead. Spamming floors 1-10 over and over gets you about a level per floorset up to level 25. Boring? Sure, but then all those hoards give you materia and shit to sell. I guess from 15-20 with newbie exp ring, level roulette is more efficient but probably more frustrating depending on the group... @seebs yeah, I'll bitch about bad runs but ultimately it does keep you on your toes...tho I can see some of Hobo's frustration in this instance. My starting class was gladiator and its really tough at low levels because your aggro management skills are kind of shit. So if your party is messing with you while you're trying to learn, it can be rough. But it can be hard to tell when someone is trolling or generally just not that good, or learning themselves. Since I've got a mentor crown on I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, I feel like it's my responsibility. (I haven't really played WoW but according to friends tanking is much easier in it? In FF14 each enemy has an aggro meter, and you have to use certain moves to constantly keep that meter up. Anything your party members do, healing or DPS, will fill up THEIR meters so you have to basically fight them for aggro the entire time.) That said: I had a Dun Scaith run the other day where dps was just. Godawful. My co-healer was a Scholar so I was stuck in Diurnal Sect the whole time to avoid overwriting her shields, which I hate (Noct all the wayyy) and she died to pretty much every single mechanic. Still, somehow we had no wipes. Last two bosses were clutch victories, I lost count of how many Healer LB3 I did, but we managed to pull it off and everyone in my party was commenting on how chill everyone was about the whole thing. They thanked me for not being a screaming rage monster and I left with several comms and honestly? Was I frustrated and swearing out loud the whole run? Yeah. But that victory felt really good, and so did being able to part ways in a friendly fashion. I know not everyone wants to type or can't (because PS4) but I feel like communication and attitude are the things that make the game a lot. When people won't talk to you or ignore advice and do stupid shit, it is frustrating as hell, but I'll put up with someone who's a shitty player if they have a good attitude. Idk I'm rambling. But I keep remembering that one Scholar we got in Antitower that was SO MAD that I wouldn't speed run with a newbie in the party, bragged about out-dpsing said newbie and *made an alt* to follow Aki onto our server to yell at them when they wouldn't take her crap, and think "thank god I don't take the game THAT seriously."
To be totally fair, im glad they chose to harrass me instead of our newbie. Because my immediate reaction is to go "what's the most legal way to make your life hell?". Just report if you have a reason lmao. Other people would get flustered at that kind of harrassment. It's my job as a mentor to make sure this game is friendly to people who are learning and to help them learn.
FTR Enzel, tanking in WoW is easier but the mechanics are much the same (minus the bullshit of provoke/taunts being linked to one class only). And everyone gets the equivalent of defiance in terms of an enmity+ stance early on if they're playing a tank spec. It's just easier in the sense that... either the DPS has to be REALLY trying hard to fuck with you (like using enmity+ abilities on purpose) or you're only using abilities once a month in order to lose aggro. I'd argue tanking was harder in vanilla WoW than it is currently on low level GLD, but since... at least the Wrath expansion, it became exceptionally simple to do. It also helps that mods are hella legal in WoW (and almost a requirement) so finding ones that tell you exactly how far above everyone else you are in enmity is really helpful and easy. I don't really like how FF14 only does the 'do you currently have aggro' thing, since it doesn't really tell you if you're about to lose it until you already have. It's more helpful to DPS and heals than it is to tanks, imo. Also yeah, fuck the enforced speed run BS. We had a healer in Sohm Al hard recently who was completely fucking furious at the tank for not mass pulling and ended up letting her die after the second pull (leaving me to tank as a DRG '_,) and then returning to the start of the instance to AFK and waste everyone's time until we were finally able to kick him. Guhhh. I hate that shit. I mean, personally? I'd rather have been speed running too, but it helps no one to act like such a petty asshole about it. You can ask, but if they say no then just let people do what they're comfortable with unless they're actively making the instance harder on everyone. Kind of hypocritical to pull that sort of shit and waste everyone's time for so long (including your own) when you're upset about the tank not running the instance slightly faster than single pulls allow. Edit: Spoiler: reaction
I guess there is a way to tell if you're losing aggro but it's only on the enemy you're targeting...which is a bummer. They'd have to overhaul the UI to put something like that in but maybe they will for SB? Hmmm. If you're ever feeling masochistic, Awareness (nullifies enemy crits) is lvl 34 gld, but so far Diabolos Hollow has been the only fight I know of that it's super useful for. (In his second form every hit of his crits until you destroy his stoneskin. I've seen so many tanks go down to that phase like wet paper bags.) I only just learned how to manage big pulls as PLD (thanks to some advice @Akiv'a found) since i get self-conscious if i lose even one enemy to the dps. But it's taken practice and I'm still uncomfortable doing it in a group of strangers. I'd really rather run EX Rou as DRK because Baelsar's Wall is a nightmare as PLD but I'm still on condensation/light phase of my PLD anima and I badly need the credit... (cries) I don't mind the cross-class system so much but the fact that Mantra requires lvl 42 pugilist is like. Y you do this to me. Also some of the things you can cross-class are flat out useless. (Why would you ever need Cure as Scholar? Why would you ever need Ruin on anything? Just why?) So I'm looking forward to what they do with the overhaul. I love utility so I always feel obligated to get all my cross-class skills on alts and its a huge pain...
My friend was trying to tell me that Awareness is 100% necessary and I have to get it if I want to tank. I had Words with him. I think at this point I am probably not going to do any other cross class stuff unless I really get into leveling conjurer (or scholar?) and therefore need to get swiftcast to avoid being called out, tbh. I'm of the opinion that anything that requires more than level 30 for cross class is completely fucking obscene to expect out of people. Mantra will never stop being offensive to me for that reason. I feel like I'm being mocked by SE or something when I see it considering every other cross class skill from PUG is 12 and below. Who allowed this? And on that note, who thought it was a good idea to put abilities like Stoneskin and Blood for Blood so damn high?
I tanked raids for a while and I never used the nullify-crits power. I think I eventually just took it off my bar. There was just no point.
Ugh, yeah. FWIW: http://www.l2pnoob.org/ This is the thing I always link people to when they are angry about how I play in an MMO. :P
Yeah, I use it as PLD because it's There but I don't think I actually have Awareness cross-classed to my other tanks. >.> to be clear, I was mostly joking, it's pretty optional. I've just ended up picking up the final boss in DS off the MT's corpse enough times because they're some gung-ho WAR who thinks they don't need cooldowns to take a bunch of auto-crits to the face. Why is it always Warriors? (No offense, Hobo.) Stoneskin and Blood for Blood are the bane of my alt-loving existence because they're so useful...but so annoying to get...
https://gyazo.com/fa7019ae29a7bffb1c3addab919ea1cc On a scale of 1-60 Punch I am become 10 Punch! That didn't take long at all! EDIT: https://gyazo.com/317d2aef6892e65c2953a468df6f16a7 Crafting with no pants on. I can only assume this was intended.
There are separate clothes to use for crafting. I think in Ul'dah you want to talk to the Battlecraft Armorer, under "Purchase Field Gear".
I managed to craft my way into some fresh duds! And right on past my actual Pugilist level. My Goldsmith level is now so high I can accept quests I can't actually finish as a Pugilist. Whoops. I've also joined a Free Company?? Doubt I'll stick with it, since some rando throwing an invite my way without a word doesn't exactly sound like the makings of an adventuring career, but hey might as well try something different than my usual strategy of "Put off joining any sort of guild and ultimately never do it then quit the game because I'm not making any friends"
I don't need bad runs to keep me on my toes! I'm a new WHM who still struggles to remember to turn cleric stance off, keeping up with the mechanics alone is already stressful enough for me. Veteran players trying to speed run on me and then getting shirty at me for not knowing mechanics or for struggling to keep them healed while they do dumb things because they're clearly used to an overgeared veteran healer being able to keep up with it just make me feel like a fuckup. I'm lucky that the friend who got me into the game also got me pulled into her excellent FC, because they've saved me a lot of stress by doing dungeons and trials with me and reassuring me that I'm not a fuckup of a WHM. My luck with all-random groups has only gone downhill since I hit 30 (I'm 52 now), so having a competent FC mate or four along with me eases the pain a lot, especially since they're all skilled players. (One of them frequently runs AST and as far as I can tell is brilliant at it.)
Re-reading older parts of thread now that I do not need to fear pre-HW spoilers and holy crap. JP Hauchefant plz. I thought you were my bro.
