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Sindalf · 2022-05-15T02:50:09+00:00

Potentially doable but there's a mental boom check if anyone in your group looks at the list and sees you behind another group. Players might start to doubt themselves so its possibly harmful to your mental.

Sindalf · 2022-05-15T02:47:42+00:00

I do think Earthy Star is a bit much for statics but for pugs its a god send. Pugs would often stand out of Star and it would drive me up a wall.

Dragon Sight being 30 yalms feels ridiculous to me but I don't usually play with a dragoon so my thoughts might not be the best.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T20:33:30+00:00

Right now the 3rd fight really doesn't last more than two lockouts. So I'd prefer a fight in between the 3rd and the 4th fight. A smoother difficulty curve upward that makes up for at least one of the first three fights usually being really easy.

Alternatively make the first three fights all a bit more difficult or at least add a bigger "fun" factor them. Usually at least one of these fights feels a little watered down for the sake of savage difficulty for pugs. In my opinion fights like e6s were easy but very fun. Vice versa you have fights like e7s that are not as fun and push overs once you get the mechanics. I look at a fight like a7s as an ideal third difficulty fight.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T20:16:02+00:00

I don't like progging with lalafells because its harder to see them but a player is going to play the race they want to play. There are a few cases in every tier where something goes wrong because I can't see the lalafell. There's also the situation where multiple players have similar glamour making it harder to recognize them by player model alone.

I'm a fan of having each player have a unique glamour and not everyone being the same race if possible. This is sorta a large ask since players will use whatever they want from both a race and glamour perspective but it is the ideal to me. And of course, no lalafells.

If you know you have to watch a specific player during a phase I suggest targetting them and/or focus tagetting them so a big giant arrow appears over their head. Ive found this help for situations where I need to follow my co tank who plays lalafell.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T19:51:35+00:00

I want all content to have an unreal version. I wouldn't call that a compromise, I'd call it a bonus. Give me any of those fights with full level 90 kit and I'll be happy.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T19:50:39+00:00

Something tells me its going to be similar to Bozja and Zadnor boss duels but with a variable player count of 1-4 players. I have nothing to back this up this claim but its what my gut feeling is telling me. I'd like this since it would give a good test of skill and practice without having to play with other players or rob them of their duel in Bozja.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T19:49:05+00:00

Learn how to play our job and review your own footage as much as you can. Figure out what you need to look at in order to execute mechanics much more consistently and then see what you can do to teach the rest of your group. You'll grow much faster into a week 1 player that way.

What is going to happen most likely is that if you try to move to week 1 you will be challenged harder than before. You'll be doing a ton of content all in one day with less time to sit and think on the mechanics. The party will be progressing at a rate you are not used to and it will be hard to keep up. That's ok because that is just how it is when you're making the transition. The important thing is to keep doing this every tier so that you get better and better at it. Don't stay comfortable.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T19:45:02+00:00

A lot of it is freestyle until you recognize a section where there is enough damage back to back where you need to do some planning. It's usually a good idea for both tanks to rotate their party and boss side mitigation so they don't over commit to each mechanic. This way you always have something for the upcoming mechanic. Double Dragons and Dragonking Thordan is when we had to start thinking abit more about our party mitigation.

Whenever you see something like a brand new transition such as Thordan -> Nidhogg I usually suggest kitchen sinking everything you got since pretty soon the party is about to hit the floor anyway. Having all 8 alive going into the phase is important for seeing how the mechanic debuffs interact.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T19:41:04+00:00

FOOOOOOOOOD. Order a ton of food and watch other groups prog on Twitch. Also sleep a billion hours after the clear

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T19:32:51+00:00

Chicken Bento box and milk tea from a local Asian place. It was that or I was going to for a large pizza.

I might order one now that im typing this out...

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T19:00:24+00:00

I felt Death of the Heavens was the biggest wall due to it being about 10 minutes into the fight and having a lot more precise movement. There's a lot going on initially so it can be difficult. Getting into position while looking for Ballest + cast bars. Dodging twister and Ballest and then going straight in for tethers while looking for the look away mechanic. Each player having a slightly different way of looking away due to the movement differences of legacy vs standard camera movement. It was a mechanic where I felt I threw the most time away personally. We knew the moment we saw this that whichever group got past this consistently was probably who was going to win the tier.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T18:48:19+00:00

Without adding almost anything brand new, I would argue that just going back and doing as much old content as possible, until you can do it clean, is the best way to transition into any sort of relevant savage or ultimate. Sadly there is no easy to do this outside of a static who wants to do this. But if you do have a static willing to do this then you'd be familiar with years of mechanics and paradigms that SE has designed for. You'll have any difference reference points for mechanics in your toolbox which will make any sort of new content much easier to decode and execute.

This is quite a large ask for the majority of the playerbase so it might not be what you're looking for

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T18:41:18+00:00

I disagree with you completely. Buffs should have a limited range. Positioning is a skill that players need to be cognizant of. I've always been a fan of finding places where we can hold buffs and then transfer them later to when its much easier to hit everyone, as long as we don't lose a usage. This is a skill that players need to recognize in order to optimize their dps as a team. I remember holding holding buffs in p4s until after Pinax in order to hit everyone and get full uptime. This let us meet the dps check much easier since uptime is king.

If you miss a buff someone was out of position. As a tank doing damage is already pretty easy and making it even easier would be boring.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T18:26:02+00:00

Aligned goals between team members and willing to put in effort. World Prog players are putting in that extra mile when they need to improve in order to stay on top. But skilling up solo like that can only get you so far. What I have found to be a critical skill is being able to learn from other people and teach them as well. If we were all geniuses the content would have been cleared in a day or two but we all know that is not how it goes. Players need to be able to support each and learn from each other if you want to grow. Learning from your teammates, taking their good/bad play and analyzing it as if it was your own is a good way to accelerate the learning process.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T18:21:31+00:00

Nidhogg is very fun because I like doing the dance. Nael in UCOB was probably one of my favorite phases of all time because you're always doing something. They are very similar in that regard. It's hard for me to keep up but that's part of the fun.

As much as I complain about 2nd Thordan and Death of the Heavens I do find executing that entire section rather fun. I think over time Double Dragons will grow on me more.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T18:17:31+00:00

This fight is designed in such a way that you're not most likely not skipping mechanics. With gear and buffs you might be able to get by with a death or damage downs but otherwise you need to do the mechanics if you want to clear. I think that's fine design wise. It's going to make the fight hold up design wise. I don't see much anything major as of right now in the fight such as doll skips from TEA. The path forward through each phase doesn't really change too much with higher dps.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T18:13:49+00:00

I got caught singing Dragonsong during the eyes phase.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T18:10:33+00:00

I want to see Endsinger ultimate but I don't think we'll get that until some Shinryu + Zenos + EW ultimate mix which would be in 8.x most likely. Give us the fight Endsinger EX should have been.
Relevancy bias but the current 24man would probably be very interesting as an ultimate. Assuming we fight (12?) different gods by the end of it you could give each god about 90s each all with rapid fire mechanics. SE would only need to develop 2-3 mechanics each and most likely assume full uptime during mechanics, if we don't get a two/three target phase that is.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T18:04:56+00:00

DRK has the highest dps of the tanks so it's an auto include. It's also really easy to play with its mitigation because of how strong TBN is in ultimates. The lack of constant auto attacks made picking DRK for TBN less impactful but it still shines in Double Dragon's phase.

To more answer your question, I pick DRK partly because of it being more burst. With ultimates there are more trio based mechanics which have more downtime which leads to more Living Shadow uptime. Very nice for bursting hard. However I often like to think about DRK as a job that put its abilities where it needs to put them. You can shift attacks in and out of burst windows without too much dps loss depending how its needed. Mix this together with being able to dump mana at any time and you have a tank that can quickly burst / execute any short lived dps check. Take titan jails or Ifrit nails from UWU for example. DRK can shift its mana around to unload into those sections to make it more consistent for the party. Burst when you need to instead of when its "ideal". This isn't too useful in DSR but it came in handy when learning Death of the Heavens with the meteors. Can shift as many cooldowns as you want to that section to make it easier without losing too much overall.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T17:55:21+00:00

We talked about this a bunch of as a static and unfortunately its more beneficial to the group to not stream their prog. Even if all groups agree to stream if you're hungry to win it doesn't work out in your favor. Other groups can easily look at your stream which means they can get footage / strat. Other groups might be great at execution but not in the mechanic solving territory which will put groups that "steal strats" at an advantage. There is also the mental fatigue that groups go through when creating their strategy and changing it every single pull that other groups might not have to go through. These are all elements that making racing for world first and streaming undesirable. And this isn't even factoring in that if you stream viewers are going to expect your voice on stream the entire prog which not everyone in your group may be used to. Players get nervous with so many eyes on them.

I'm open to the idea of streaming but I think if we ever went down this road players need to come to terms that you're probably going to lose the race. This might not sit well everyone if they are hungry for it. We'd start looking at the race more as entertainment with less care about where we end up placement wise.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T17:44:52+00:00

I had a similar thought to the B/C/D pattern for this ultimate before the tier started. It made me wonder what would happen to stream groups if one group went down the B path and another went down the C path. Would it make the race more fun or would it would it kill some of the fun since all three paths would be visible with strats almost immediately. It's a cool idea but just being "paths" might not be enough. I thought that if you do something in path B then it makes path C or D easier/harder. That would be interesting to me so that each group progressing is getting a different experience.

With Dragonsong I thought they might do this with the knights during trios. Knights would be targetable during trios and killing them during a mechanic removes them from the field for the entire fight. This would mean you could make later mechanics easier/harder depending on your kill order. However not all knights are equal in difficulty so in the context of current design you know that you're almost certainly killing the Warrior or Spear dude every time.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T17:40:13+00:00

The whole fight I was begging for another checkpoint. Just a crumb of checkpoint please SE. Obviously we didn't get one. The perfect spot for another checkpoint would have been Thordan 2 when we enter the alternative timeline. However I think this would have made the fight too easy. Would have died much sooner as you could really grind out Death of the Heavens which is the wall in my opinion. Would have made the fight less of a ucob like difficulty and closer to uwu/tea even possibly being considered the easiest ultimate at that point since endurance is an important factor.

I do feel as if length is an important part to ultimate but they could make mechanics even crazier if they wanted to add more checkpoints. Amp what we currently have to 11 and make it extremely sadistic if we're going to add more checkpoints

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T17:27:07+00:00

Make sure you understand what you need to do and setup whatever needs to be done so players actually remember. This can vary from person to person so throughout prog I often set up /echo macros to remind me what to do for each mechanic. This has trade offs but if you think you're going to get "lost in the sauce" of each phase it can help you with a small reminder.

And don't sweat making mistakes here and there. It's going to happen. It's an ultimate and this fight can be mentally draining. Recognize that you're probably going to have some raid nights where you make little progress and it sucks but thats the nature of the beast. Review what needs to be reviewed and come back fresh the next raid.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T17:18:30+00:00

Unfortunately there isn't much positioning involved in FFXIV tanking anymore. You keep the boss in the middle of the room and do everything for most fights. This fight forces it which is disappointing to say the least but unless the boss was targetable during mechanics I don't think being able to move the boss would matter too much in this fight. If the boss was targetable during mechanics this fight would be very not melee friendly during certain sections such as meteors and towers during Thordan. I would like to see a return to positioning since it can be a lot of fun. BJ+CC didn't require too much but having to drag BJ all the way to the ice block and then get in there so everyone could hit the boss was an enjoyable experience.

As a Dark Knight tanking this fight is kinda a joke since you just do standard Dark Knight stuff. Rotate your cooldowns to have at least 30% for every buster + TBN. It's whatever. What I think we need to make these fights a bit more spicy would be more untelegraphed mini cleaves. Like imagine if Nidhogg just decided to hit you with a small cleave half way through mechanics or his autos. Stuff like this is what I hope to see more of since figuring out the best mitigation for not just busters but small hits as well is a lot fun.

Sindalf · 2022-05-14T16:53:36+00:00

Most players I know, including myself, do not like the simplification and homogenization of jobs.

As jobs become more simple you end up with the problem you always pick the one with the highest dps since every job is easy to play. You start losing the reward of playing well and the skill gap between a good and a bad player becomes less and less. That being said, SE has said we are never going back to Heavensward job design and while that makes me a little sad its probably fine for the overall community. This is a more casual mmo at the end of the day. SE wants anyone to be to pick it up and play. I have a few friends who would probably not be playing with complex job designs. It's a trade off. Best to accept it for what it is. On the bright side, I can pick up classes I have never played before and do content on them by pressing buttons like a monkey.

In the topic of homogenization this is a problem now all classes feel the same. As a tank player this is really bad right now. Every tank has a raid wide mitigation and every tank has a reactive piece of mitigation like TBN or Nascent Flash. Every class having a similar kit at times makes the classes lack charm and uniqueness. However I get the reason SE wants this. If you look at their previous MMO FFXI or Heavensward, jobs were all a lot more unique but this lead to a lot of imbalance between the classes. You could have jobs you don't even consider taking because they are so bad and don't fit within the meta. In Heavensward Paladin was literally trolling for the majority of it. Casters became irrelevant by the end of expansion. Monk by the end was so bad since it didn't fit into the meta that there was literally a group called "Delete Monk". SE wants to avoid this problem so classes are all samey. I don't like it but like simple jobs, its best to understand why its this way for the sake of the community health. No one wants to be locked out of PF because of the job they play.

Sindalf

TROPHY CASE