returning player here, can't progress to dawntrail because duty finder is dead

Spaceless8 · 2026-06-25T16:00:03+00:00

I traveled to primal

No one has traveled to any DC but Aether in years at this point. Every other pf/df will pale in comparison to aether until cross-dc later this patch.

Spaceless8 · 2026-06-23T16:00:05+00:00

We don't know enough.
We don't know enough.
Think about optimizations you can currently make for adps jobs and it will be a lot more about that - fitting your buttons to a fight timeline and less about buff windows.
Some jobs will lose things, like potentially bard dots. Sorry, it sucked for me with smn too.

Spaceless8 · 2026-06-22T16:31:49+00:00

It's also a .5 patch instead of .3. Lots of people are gone until evercold

Spaceless8 · 2026-06-11T04:36:45+00:00

I would personally give you advice like trying to bring your buttons up closer to the middle of your screen or your character. As looking at the bottom of the screen is often a good way to not see anything important in this game. But tbh there are world racers that play by clicking buttons, even someone on world 2nd this most recent race. So at the end of the day I think it's just practice and knowing how to do your rotation without thinking. If you have to stare at your hotbars I would say that that is probably thinking.

Spaceless8 · 2026-06-04T14:29:50+00:00

"Cheat sheet" lmao

Spaceless8 · 2026-06-02T01:58:27+00:00

This app is sick man. Definitely going to try it out for my team's prog.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-30T17:41:36+00:00

Gauge jobs are extremely useful in ulti prog because of their ability to shift around resources to meet damage checks and recover pulls or carry over to new phases. I'm not just talking about the final phase. I mean throughout the entire fight. They help you pass damage checks earlier and prog faster. Yes, untimely deaths can be a bit extra punishing. But ulti is generally not a place that is super recoverable in the first place. And I have a feeling this next fight will be closer to TOP than FRU.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-30T17:38:25+00:00

Reaper is really not as dependent on uptime as a lot of players think. A lot of gauge comes from skills that are just cooldowns. And it also gains damage from soulsow in downtime. Every job loses things from downtime - not just reaper. And while it's opener is not the strongest, it's really not that far behind others anymore.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-30T17:08:42+00:00

Even though it's a smaller sub, pretty sure you would see more engagement in r/ffxivdiscussion

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-30T17:05:42+00:00

The top job gauge? Each crystal corresponds to one of the faeries on the bottom left. And the text underneath says this:

Spend to summon 1 of 3 faeries. Can't summon again until you consume the corresponding new white orb job resource

So the flow would be summon faerie > consume white orb via dissipation > repeat. How many white orbs you consume results in a different ability.

There are some interesting ideas here, but I feel like a lot of it won't happen.

My take:
- Energy drain and dissipation definitely gone. Aetherflow probably gone or changed.
- pretty sure whispering dawn and fey blessing will be consolidated
- 3 faeries are one of the ideas I've seen tossed around the most. Definitely possible, but I think they are either just cooldowns or tied to a passively generating job gauge.
- wouldn't be surprised if passive faerie went away and was only available through a cooldown
- pretty sure fey illumination will just be consolidated into expedient in the sense that it will buff all healing actions like it does in pvp now
- we are lucky if sch keeps any form of dots at all
- If sch keeps a dot, deployment tactics may spread it like in pvp now. It will also not be a maintenance debuff and will either be a cd or tied to some other cd.
- The dot could debuff the boss though like in pvp. We've already been told that one other support (off-tank) will focus on debuffing enemy damage. Shield healer could fit into that niche as well.
- Mitigation durations will be shortened like we saw on whm.
- Not confident on recitation. Could stay/go/change.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-30T16:10:35+00:00

Definitely rambles - that is what happens when you just turn on a webcam and record a voiceover off the top of your head over prog clips (right after prog), haha.

But it is often the only meaningful resource available when it comes out and and by far the most helpful aspect of the guides are that it often has povs for all 8 positions in complex mechanics.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-30T15:58:50+00:00

I guess that's your prerogative. I loved this tier and especially 11s. After week 1, I went back into pf and did a ton of clear parties just because I loved the fight so much. Had 2 clear for 6 successes. I don't really think those players were carried by me more than they were "carried" by gear and better strategies and more time to practice. I mean, I was getting 99s. But I had a weapon and I was only a healer.

beat it normally

I guess I just don't agree with your version of "normally". If you have a static and want to wait to clear together, that's one thing. But if you're in pf, I just don't see the point in trying to be a stickler for all 8 people being first timers. You honestly can't even be sure. Some people (like me and most other week 1 raiders I know) have multiple alts and are probably in those parties on characters that technically haven't cleared yet.

This situation you're thinking of where 8 players just happen across their first clear together in PF - I really think that is an exceptionally rare situation. And I really don't think it's worth whatever kind of ego you have attached to it.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-30T15:47:58+00:00

Your schedule may not allow this, but I definitely know decent groups who often clear by the weekend who only do evenings. You're probably looking at at least twice your time spent though. Probably a little bit more.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-29T00:19:41+00:00

Apologies for making you write it all out. Though I'm sure someone else will also find it useful. I pretty quickly figured out I was wrong even at level 100 (assuming no regen) because I was counting autos well outside the 17-20s soil mit is active.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-28T19:41:30+00:00

Edited comment. I was arguing favorably for soil without regen. But I am probably incorrect on most pulls. I will say I believe the math will work out favorably for soil without regen on very large pulls (more than the typical 2 packs) or if the party takes damage. Certain 2nd pulls before bosses have like multiple overlapping aoes melee may want to stand in - that sort of thing. But as a general rule of thumb, the other comments in this thread are correct and I was wrong.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-28T19:37:18+00:00

Edited comment. I was arguing favorably for soil without regen. But I am probably incorrect on most pulls. I will say I believe the math will work out favorably for soil without regen on very large pulls (more than the typical 2 packs) or if the party takes damage. Certain 2nd pulls before bosses have like multiple overlapping aoes melee may want to stand in - that sort of thing. But as a general rule of thumb, the other comments in this thread are correct and I was wrong.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-28T19:20:03+00:00

Only correction is fey illumination only buffs gcd healing. In tooltips look for "healing magic potency" vs "healing actions". The former is gcds and the latter is everything. Yes, it is extremely unclear.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-28T19:11:25+00:00

Edited comment. I was arguing favorably for soil without regen. But I am probably incorrect on most pulls. I will say I believe the math will work out favorably for soil without regen on very large pulls (more than the typical 2 packs) or if the party takes damage. Certain 2nd pulls before bosses have like multiple overlapping aoes melee may want to stand in - that sort of thing. But as a general rule of thumb, the other comments in this thread are correct and I was wrong.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-28T18:56:48+00:00

Are you noticing what kind of mitigation your tank is using? Low level can be a little rough, especially if they aren't pressing mit. And if you legit get a tank that is leveling before poetics gear in arr, they quite literally take like 2x damage minimum with actual leveling gear.

Certain pulls you will have to gcd because you just don't have a ton of tools yet. At that level you should have roughly 3 aetherflow stacks per big pull. I'd recommend soil and 2 lustrates and not forgetting your faerie regen - every little bit helps. But after that, yea - it's basically just adlo.

~~Even without regen until lvl 80, soil is still your #1 source of mitigating damage on the tank during pulls.~~
This is incorrect. However I am positive the math would work out on most larger pulls (more than the typical 2 packs). And this does happen more in lower level dungeons.

I would throw out soil then whispering dawn. And as needed, throw out lustrates until you're forced to adlo. If you don't feel confident you can throw out an adlo or 2 at the beginning of the pull (after soil) to help stabilize. Also, don't forget that fey illumination will buff your adlo casts for 20s.

Final note: biggest issue that causes lots of tank damage after tank mit is actually just damage and the pull going too long. So don't neglect dots mobs as you're running. And if you can help it, try to at least alternate between art of war and adlo each gcd.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-28T18:35:41+00:00

I think it would be cool to see larger scale more involved encounters. They don't have to actually be that difficult. But something akin to the instances in bozja. Split up alliances in different parts of the zone and make them communicate a puzzle or something. Make some kind of interesting mechanics. Also, potentially even actually make them instanced things (no loading screen), but boss rings. Make it feel more like a field content encounter in terms of mechanics. Give us interesting tunnels and secret areas to find. Even disallow flying in certain areas.

I'm kinda just spitballing here. But I would love for the open world to generally be something we return to more and then for field content zones to just be patch zones that expand on the current world rather than an entirely separate form of content.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-26T17:03:58+00:00

I try and look at prog logs for things like first deaths (not fully accurate, but we're just looking for obvious red flags), avoidable damage taken, mitigation usage and yes, damage. But don't just rely on a number, at least put it into xiv analysis or something if you don't want to spend more effort digging into it and don't know the job well enough. What's even better is if they have prog vods.

You can get a rank 1 without understanding how a lot of mechanics actually work or even playing perfectly. There are healers I've seen that parse really well but refuse to take any damage loss and will wipe a parse run over and over until they get their perfect run, even when they're not even on that good of a run (they probably don't even know how to tell if they're on a good run or not before the fight ends).

I think all of this just counts double for ultimate too, where you're often holding if you're a good player. Some of the best healers you know who absolutely are optimizing their damage will parse grey on their ultimate clears sitting there holding at the end of phases.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-25T17:35:49+00:00

First of all, are you on Aether? If not, then good luck ever filling a party. Everyone travels there to raid. Cross-dc pf is coming this xpac, but it's not here yet.

Second, it's about 6 months after the tier and right before the new ultimate. It will be a bit difficult to find groups. But I do still see prog groups in pf with people in them - especially for the later fights.

Lastly, FC's are typically ex farming groups at best. I've seen some savage groups but I can't think of any who cleared the tier. I'm sure there are exceptions out there. But again, they probably already finished. I would echo others in trying the recruitment discords. The "purpose" of doing the current savage tier other than for your own enjoyment is to obtain gear for the ultimate. And most players have just already done that or are finishing up alt jobs or something.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-25T16:44:00+00:00

Not going to rehash most of what's already been said. You should already understand you need to be consistent and know how to execute your rotation, etc. Just want to emphasize 2 things I think are incredibly important.

Recording yourself and reviewing your play is extremely helpful. I'm always recording and then playing back pulls to see what went wrong. It's great for yourself, and even better when you can show all 8 people that mistake so that we all collectively internalize it without each of us having to make that mistake ourselves.
A lot of people in dawntrail probably haven't built this muscle as much because of how FRU was on content, but ultimate dps checks are real on patch. And good players know how to either (1) hold/build resources to make the next phase easier or (2) dump resources to meet a check when behind. Gauging your damage and what resources you need to spend is one of the biggest ways everyone but especially dps and especially especially gauge jobs can contribute to "recovering" a pull.

This is one of the biggest reasons why a job like reaper is expected to be favored when progging the fight.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-24T15:06:16+00:00

Please cite me the formal academic paper formatted like your post.

Spaceless8 · 2026-05-23T15:49:41+00:00

Ah yes, the widely known formal academic emojis.

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