My experience, which is limited to pre-60 on my warrior because I'm not confident queuing exp as a tank yet (plus I still need light on my drg), is that it's really about getting a sense of what your group is capable of before starting to speed run. Sometimes you can sort of instinctively know when shit is a bad idea (two dragoons, ugh), but most of the time it's better to just do the first pull as normal and see what people's DPS is like or how the healer holds up, then make your decisions from there. It helps being a warrior when it comes to speed runs, though. Overpower is OP (groan). Also I'm of the opinion that people really shouldn't even be starting to think about speed running shit until the mid 40s, minimum. I know dragoons don't get aoe until that point, and I'm assuming it's similar for other classes that aren't black mages. I'm alright with speed running in general, though. Just not forced participation and the fucking attitude people get about it (looking at you, dickhead WHM who didn't like that the tank was pulling one group at a time in Sohm Al hard so decided to go back to the start of the instance and idle until we were finally allowed to kick him. Sure saved yourself a lot of time, douche).
Yeah it's like...is taking the 30 minute penalty really going to save you time in the long run? lmao.
I really dislike full-on speed runs as a tank just because it's a pain keeping ahold of everything and not getting murdered by AOEs. Like, if I'm in a group with good AOE DPS I'll frequently do two pulls at a time instead of one, especially if they're small pulls, but yeah. Not a fan of full-on pull-to-the-boss speedrunning. It's honestly not even that much faster most of the time.
As DRK I tend to double-pull most of the mobs in Sohm Al HM, but DRK has a set of cooldowns that make it really advantageous for them to have a large number of enemies clawing at them to trigger Blood Price and Dark Arts/Abyssal Drain off of -- in the right circumstances you do metric shitloads of damage, piles of hate and you're back to full health and MP despite eating an alpha that'd have splattered lesser beings...
I had a tank try to pull entirely to the first boss in...I think I was Amdapor Keep? With a new fresh 50 monk on dps. Needless to say, we wiped, because the pull went on long enough that I literally couldn't cast fast enough to keep him alive after blowing all my cooldowns. TBF he DID ask if he could pull big and I said yes. But I was expecting 2-3 groups at MOST, not...6. When I told him this, he whined about how he'd 'done it before' but I can't help think he was thinking of UNSYNCED. And yeah, DRK at 60 is pretty well built for big pulls, if you can get good at it, it's like. >[insert dramatic evil laughter here] I HAVE THE POWERRRR (I tend to panic a little and lose control of my MP so I'm still working on that.) Apparently the strat for Paladin is Flash until half MP, Riot Blade combo to build it back up, rinse repeat. I tend to rotate thru putting the Goring Blade DOT on each enemy in reach. Usually a good time for Bulwark also. But while it's doable its...really really boring? I'm hoping the thing shown in the SB Benchmark was a real honest to god AOE that does damage because. Flash, u make me cry. I know nothing much about WAR, tbh. I leveled it almost entirely in Palace of the Dead. Edit: I switched to DRK main for a while but I realized I dislike giving up Paladin utility esp in raids. Healers busy rezzing? Throw out a protect and Stoneskin on people with weakness. DV before group wide damage. Etc. I've gotten my confidence back and now I'm pretty good with tanking 24 mans. Admittedly it was accidental because I started going into Dun Scaith hoping to OT just to get credit for my anima but then the MTs were consistently terrible enough that I'd have to take over so. Trial by fire I guess. My one gripe is no one likes to stack on the MT during Diabolos second phase like...ever. I've gotten in the habit of saving Hallowed Ground for that if I can, if you time it right it'll carry you through 2 of those tank busters.
Yeah, I have a really hard time choosing between PLD and DRK... whenever I'm on DRK I miss having off-heals and Hallowed Ground and knockback protection, whenever I'm on PLD I miss having Salted Earth and Plunge and actual damage skills.
live letter increased my hype by like 5000% i'm glad they're making this game a bit more accessible i'm dreading balmung launch day queues tho related since they locked the entire realm i'm really considering like.. relocating. it just sucks because balmung is where everyone i know is and legit just joined a guild a few days ago here. once the boosts come out i think i might drop the money to make an alt + boost the alt + unlock all the story for the alt and try another realm for a while, leaning towards cactuar or faerie
I'm pretty firmly entrenched on Cactuar, but I'd be more than happy to play with anyone who ends up there. :)
I think most of us are on Adamantoise/Cactuar/Faerie? Also we have the discord chat for coordinating cross-world parties. (Can poke me anytime for an invite and I'll PM ya) When SB hits I'm probably going to level a healer alongside PLD so if people need help with queues I can do that for sure. Also >PLD >New AOE Combo
Consider yourself poked. >_> I'm going to have to try to scare up some writing commissions so I can afford SB, hopefully by the time it comes out. If I can, then same re: healing and possibly tanking.
Keitaro Tokage has arrived in Ul'dah on Cactuar! He's not interested in any world-saving unless there's money and/or hot ladies involved.
i was going to roll on cactuar anyway because i have a few other pals there... when trying to decide on a race the name FASHION BABY popped into my head for a lalafell and to my delight it was NOT taken so i am Fashion Baby on Cactuar now
I am sad because Little My has the form of a valid name, but lalas don't get that tight pulled-back bun as a hairstyle.
THAT LV 45 DRK QUEST O_O I don't care if I have to burn through every leve allowance I have and end up hating the world after, I'm going to get to lv 50 tomorrow and see what happens because I can't stand the suspense.
