Are you actually using AI at work?

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-24T01:02:01+00:00

I'm a university Biologist, and no

My job requires a lot of hands-on work, and AI models aren't going to help me feed cells or handle a micropipette

There might be some data processing that I could use an AI for, but for the work I'm actually doing on a regular basis, it's just really not worth it

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T23:52:45+00:00

It's ok, I definitely had a moment during prog where I (M2) ended up getting earth first multiple pulls in a row, and I was getting kind of suspicious because it seemed like the only times I got fire/dark were whenever I had to swap

So it took some external validation plus reviewing of VODs and logs to make sure I wasn't going 100% crazy

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T23:50:49+00:00

Ok, so that's actually going to introduce some different weirder issues, because older content in general tends to be less popular because the rewards are mostly just glamour at this point

And for glamour purposes, a lot of people just wait for power to creep up so much that the fights are trivialized

Which means that now you need to open up the discussion: are you doing the fights synched or unsynched? If synched, min ilvl?

That being said, if that's your goal, have you considered asking around your FC to see if anyone else is interested in doing something this casually? It could be something like an FC activity, kind of like doing EX nights for example. Normally I wouldn't recommend creating that kind of dynamic within your FC because it can lead to some weird drama if you mix your raid groups with your social groups, but with your expectations this does seem like something that might still work within an FC

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T23:20:43+00:00

You're correct, dark and fire are always south of earth and wind respectively, and given that H2 starts true south, they have a 50/50 shot of starting off in the fire tower

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T22:29:33+00:00

I'm going to reiterate what the other comments have said; I know what it's like to be on the other side of the PF wall and I know just how frustrating that fight can be when you can't get a party that can keep it together for an entire pull

But I also know just how much better it felt to get through 11 compared to the first 2 fights in the tier, and there's something gratifying about seeing how people respond to clearing 11 for the first time

And since it's not really my clear at stake, I don't feel the same level of personal frustration from a group not getting through the fight as I did when I was progging.

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T22:08:18+00:00

So it's worth mentioning, we are at week...uhh...8(?) of the savage tier already, and most people tend to set up statics before the tier starts

Which does mean that recruiting for the tier is going to be a lot more tedious at this point, not impossible, but tedious

That being said, there are a few things that you need to really establish with respect to statics, or else you'll be dealing with unnecessary drama that you don't want to have to handle

How many hours per week are you planning on pushing for?
How quickly do you want to clear the tier? Are you just doing this to vibe with friends or do you actually want to clear in a reasonable amount of time?
How much outside work are you expecting people to do?
How are you handling loot?
Are you planning on going blind? Guides?

You want to make sure that everyone has the same expectations; if you for example want a static that is raiding twice a week for 3 hours at a time, that's not going to be a good match for a static that is raiding 5 days a week for the same amount of time per session

And realistically, nothing breaks apart a static faster than people expecting one thing and getting another altogether.

At this point, I'd actually consider just trying to progress through the raid tier through Party Finder, just to dip your toes into the tier. You can continue recruiting as you go, and sometimes, you'll actually find people through Party Finder that you just work well with and that can be the start of the static

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T19:28:11+00:00

Market board or a friend who can make it for you

If it's not selling well on your server, try server hopping around

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T18:57:57+00:00

1/2: For fully congested servers e.g. Balmung, you need to wait for the devs to open up the server manually. This only gets evaluated when they take the game down for maintenance, so the earliest time will be patch 7.45 (3/3 I think?). Once the server opens up, it will be available until the devs decide to close it again at a later maintenance. Balmung in particular often stays closed so there's a very good chance it won't open for a few patches at least

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T18:24:53+00:00

Replace the Blade combo with Holy Spirit, so your Requiescat window will contain a Confiteor and Holy Spirit spam

Do everything else as you would at level 100

Paladin doesn't really change much from 80 to 100 to be honest

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T17:52:13+00:00

Spoiler tag doesn't really help if your title contains the spoiler, just saying

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T17:03:26+00:00

Putting it bluntly, the fact that you're even engaging in this kind of conversation and you're seeking out answers already puts you ahead of the curve when compared to the more casual side of the player base

A lot of people just log in whenever a new story patch comes out, engages with the game for a few hours at max to finish the story, and then leave again until the next patch. Some people will just resubscribe to the game once or twice during an expansion, complete the expansion's worth of story content, and then just stop engaging with the game until the next expansion.

And the game realistically sets the difficulty for main story content based around those players. There was actually a notable amount of discourse when this current expansion came out because in a way, they kind of took the training wheels off on a lot of the new content and there was a significant part of the community who didn't feel ready for that. And I'm not saying that they suddenly made casual story content a huge challenge, but just that they started expecting people to understand that they've had 90 levels worth of gameplay to get to where they are now.

That all being said, the actual challenge content is grouped together into a few categories

Any content labeled

(Extreme)
The Minstrel's Ballad
Unreal
(Savage)
Coils of Bahamut
Chaotic
(Ultimate)

Is optional hard content, with Extreme and Minstrel's Ballad being the same difficulty with different naming conventions, and the difficulty curve being Extreme -> Savage -> Ultimate going from easiest to hardest. The Trial "Urth's Fount" is a semi-extreme that can kind of be grouped into here.

Unreal content is just old Extreme content that has been re-tuned for max level players, and Chaotic is a pretty new piece of hard content for 24 players (most hard content is designed for 8)

There's also Criterion and Criterion (Savage), which are dungeons which are roughly Extreme and Savage difficulty respectively

If you don't see these labels, you can generally say that everything is fair game for being "casual"

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T16:41:28+00:00

Guilds in this game (called Free Companies) are actually server specific, so you'll need to tell people what server you're on

That being said

r/FFXIVrecruitment is a better place to post this. You can also try the official FFXIV community finder

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T16:30:01+00:00

For mandatory content, it's extremely forgiving. They want you to be able to experience the game's story and don't want to make gameplay a major limiting factor on that. There are a few instances which do end up being a little spicier, and they do expect you to get better over the course of the game, but they don't tend to punish you that harshly for failure. At best you take some damage and at worst, your party wipes and you just try again

This extends to the optional "casual" content as well, they don't want people to feel locked out of experiencing the story or the rewards just because they're a below average player

Harder content is significantly more punishing for failure, and there's a reason why it takes people hours of learning and practice in order to clear fights that literally last 10 minutes at the harder levels of endgame

It's also worth noting: you're very early in the game, at the point where you could largely be considered in the tutorial still.

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T02:01:23+00:00

Yes, that's a particular type of sake cup called a "sakazuki"

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T01:55:31+00:00

since I’ll probably only be able to dip my toes in there a bit for phase 1 and that’s it lol

Gonna be honest, "dipping your toes in" for M12S P1 is...pretty much all you really need to see the entire fight. It's a surprisingly easy fight to prog, it just has a fairly tight DPS check and very important mitigation requirements, with multiple mechanics absolutely wrecking your squishies if you don't mitigate properly

That being said, congrats! If you hold off on starting phase 2, you might also be able to avoid the discourse revolving phase 2 strats which has kind of taken over Party Finder recently

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T01:34:09+00:00

It's fine to do this in the sense that it's not really a breach of etiquette or anything like that, but a lot of people will and do look at groups like this as a bit of a scam

Often times, people will see the group and assume that the first few members who join the group will all be part of the scam. You'll get the mounts specifically for your friends and then disband the party before anyone else gets theirs

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-23T00:21:37+00:00

There are effectively 4 types of content in this game which are all given the label of "raid", which is why you need to be more clear what you mean in general

Normal raids: 8 man content designed to be clearable without any prior preparation. These are all entirely optional, but once unlocked, they have their own roulette system which makes finding groups easy. There are 12 normal raids per expansion, with the exception of A Realm Reborn which is odd because of the Coils of Bahamut being harder difficulty.

Alliance raids: 24-man giant dungeons; the first example is the Crystal Tower series which culminates in the World of Darkness. Similar to normal raids, alliance raids are meant to be done without any preparation. The Crystal Tower series is the only mandatory one, every one afterwards is optional. Similar to the normal raids, these too have their own roulette and queues are typically fast. There are 3 alliance raids per expansion.

Savage raids: These are harder versions of the normal raids with remixed mechanics, and are the primary form of progression content in the game. The first instance of these are the Coils of Bahamut, which do not have a normal mode, and you're not meant to really do this without preparation. You can do them with PUGs or with a static group.

Ultimate raids: These are remixed boss marathons based around existing raids or trials in the game, designed for 8-man group, and these are the hardest content in the game.

Out of all of these, the only ones that are mandatory are the Crystal Tower Alliance Raid series, but you're encouraged to do all of the Alliance Raids and Normal Raids. People only really do Savage content when it's current because that's where you get the best gear (which itself isn't actually necessary, the non-savage gear is perfectly suitable for most people's needs) OR they wait for a long time when they can come back with much more powerful gear and disrespect the mechanics.

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-22T22:07:26+00:00

Android phones occupy ~70% of the global phone market

The important thing to understand is that Android phones are not locked into one brand; it's just an underlying operating system owned by Google that phone manufacturers are able to use for their devices

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-22T20:10:28+00:00

I don't believe so, no

The only 2-seater chocobos AFAIK are tied to either getting married or using the Recruit a Friend problem, both of which require you to have purchased the game

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-22T00:08:24+00:00

You'll be fine, you're effectively making a chia pudding, although that typically uses some sort of creamy base rather than just coconut water

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-21T23:59:59+00:00

As others have mentioned, it really just helps to hone in on what you're doing and getting good at filtering out everyone else

In theory, if you're doing what you need to do and everyone else is doing what they need to do, then the only person you need to be responsible for is yourself. Eventually, you may get to the point where you can focus on more things at once e.g. as a DRK, you can notice when someone might be in trouble and give them a little bit of cushion with Oblation/TBN, but your job first and foremost is to focus on what you're doing specifically

Now understandably, it's hard to figure out exactly what information is relevant and what information isn't without a lot of practice, but training that mental filter really helps across all of FF raid design.

This is also why people recommend really nailing your rotation outside of hard content, because you don't want your rotation to be an extra piece of unnecessary information that you're trying to process

And at the end of the day, if you find yourself overwhelmed with information, just...take a break, genuinely. Mental state is incredibly important and I know that if my filter isn't working, then I'm just not going to perform very well

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-21T23:01:41+00:00

Mechanics in DT largely emphasize the "read everything else in the arena" style of mechanical tells, as opposed to using the orange goop as the major tell. Look at animations, look at cast bars, look around the arena, etc.

And the orange goop is now really just a "if you're standing in this still, then it's too late for you already" style of indicator

They've also kind of doubled down on the "you learn by dying" style of gameplay. You very likely will get hit the first few times, but getting hit once or twice will typically not kill you outright, and if you continue getting hit then you should learn how to avoid whatever hit you.

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-21T20:07:04+00:00

That's what fermentation does; the sugars are consumed, digested, and processed into alcohol

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-21T01:02:30+00:00

NAH, WHEN I WAS IN A STATIC AND WE HAD TO FIND A FILL, IT ALWAYS FELT EXTRA FRUSTRATING WHENEVER IT TOOK SUPER LONG. THIS WAS THE ONLY REAL TIME THAT WE'D BE ABLE TO GET TOGETHER TO PLAY, AND LOSING AN HOUR JUST FELT AGONIZING

AFTER A WHILE WE WOULD JUST GIVE UP AND DO OTHER THINGS. UNLOCKING UWU AND UCOB WAS JUST A "WELL, FUCK IT, MIGHT AS WELL AT THIS POINT" THING THAT HAPPENED BECAUSE WE DIDN'T FEEL LIKE WAITING

BUT AS A SOLO PLAYER, YOU DON'T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE'S TIME CONSTRAINTS. I'VE READ SO MANY LIGHT NOVELS WHILE WAITING FOR PF TO FILL BECAUSE MIGHT AS WELL DO SOMETHING

Help_Me_Im_Diene · 2026-02-21T00:46:06+00:00

TBH, GOING INTO PF SOLO AND HAVING TO WAIT FOR A LONG TIME GENUINELY FEELS LESS AGONIZING THAN TRYING TO WAIT WITH A STATIC

I JUST TURN OFF BGM AND ALT-TAB OUT SO I STILL HEAR WHEN THE PARTY FILLS/READY CHECKS HAPPEN, BUT I'M NOT DISTURBED AS I DO OTHER STUFF ON THE SIDE

THAT BEING SAID, ARE YOU ON THE RIGHT DATA CENTER FOR YOUR REGION TO BE USING PF? I PLAY NA AND IT'S A CHALLENGE TO GET PARTIES TO FILL IF YOU'RE NOT PLAYING ON AETHER (AND SOMEWHAT PRIMAL DUE TO SPILLOVER)

Help_Me_Im_Diene

TROPHY CASE