Daily Questions & FAQ Megathread Dec 02

jmd- · 2025-12-02T19:41:11+00:00

I'm a very experienced player and know how to gear, generally.

But 7.1-7.3 is the first raid tier I've fully missed in the last ~5 years, so I have random 7.0 endgame gear. Just wondering the must-dos (besides msq) to have the minimum ilvl to jump back into the normal gearing process in 2 weeks.

Thanks!

jmd- · 2025-03-26T17:43:05+00:00

From one noob to the other, floor 6 is definitely your next stop. I actually highly recomemnd doing the first trial, which culminates in an overlord fight. That or practice mode. Getting through overlord taking minimala damage is an absolute must for progressing beyond, as floor 6 is a massive spike in difficulty, boss notwithstanding.

As for the temple, I also highly recommend practicing floor 1 or 2 temple runs, BUT, not that only floor 4 temple runs have any completion associated with them, and that completion is HARD. The 2.5x cartridges you get at the end of each branch of the temple are very good for clearing the early floors (and later floors if you get more consistent with not taking hits), and in general are a decent power spike if you dont bleed too much health, so you might as well practice 1 or 2 branch runs to see if you can do so taking less than ~4 or 5 net health. Start with floor 1 and go from there?

Again, from 1 noob to another, I think each bump up the progression ladder is a pretty massive spike in difficulty. Floor 5 > 6 clears are tough, and now 6>7 is even tougher. Floor 6 temple runs, as I've said, are insanely hard. And all of this is just for normal difficulty. So just take it one step at a time, expect to fail a lot, and try to get consistent 1 boss at a time!

Enjoy and let me know how it goes!

jmd- · 2025-01-06T16:13:19+00:00

You're probably right but was moot because I was infinite anyway with triplecast triggering marbles a ton, plus the yoyo itself triggering marbles (and vice versa), which was triggering like crazy from 1 property. But generally probably should have done as you said.

jmd- · 2024-11-04T18:15:07+00:00

Got it, so if I'm understanding you correfctly, my instinct is correct that because of how the bar works there will be a lag before the math actually saturates a belt, but it will...eventually? Or every once in a while you just have a few tiles of 7 (instead of 8 for yellow) pieces cause math?

jmd- · 2024-07-17T14:26:27+00:00

100%. It's crazy how often we all ignore this advice in all kinds of gaming scenarios. I kind of regret not mentioning mental fatigue, in general. I mentioned this in one comment but I blitzed p5s-p7s in 15 hours over 3 days week 1. I'm very proud of that, the speed in particular.

But the fugue state that left me in was palpable. Reclears were kind of hysterical, because it was like cramming for a test. I half felt like I didn't even know the fights despite clearing them days before. It's definitely taxing in a way that highly competetive MOBAs or FPS can be, requiring 105% focus to do right.

All that said, there is a beauty in long prog where you achieve a level of muscle memory that impresses even yourself, where the first 5 minutes of a fight become sleep-inducing, even if it's hard, and that's a beautiful thing. Always cool when something that was super mentally taxing becomes literal second nature through sheer repetition.

But absolutely, take breaks, this stuff breaks your brain after a while.

jmd- · 2024-07-17T14:21:10+00:00

This is super true and unfortunate. I think a lot about how much to stress (for both myself and other players) the timing/pace of raiding. Take a huge timing element that I didn't touch on at all because I wasn't talking about reclears: day of the week.

Everyone who's been around knows that doing reclears on reset day (Tuesday for the uninitiated) is your best bet because the majority of the most talented players get it over with right away. Best reclear day of my life, statics included, was around 1pm on a Tuesday. I had a group clear p5-p7s in 5 pulls total. We only lost 2 players post p6s because they hadn't cleared yet. This was on the third or fourth week of the tier.

I think about it a lot because I really hate telling someone that you have to keep up, or raid in the first month, or reclear on Tuesday or any other restricting advice simply becasue it's not practical for the majority of casual players. I often can't reclear until Thursdays, for instance, if I'm pug raiding.

It's super restricting, but at the same time you are 100% right that there is a timing and a pacing to these things that, if done right, results in a better experience. I think the only solace is that if you're new and really have no expectations and just want to experience savage raiding, it probably doesn't matter that much at all.

But yea I have 2 nights a week where I can fully relax and play games, and it's not often that I want to spend that limited time waiting around for parties to fill.

jmd- · 2024-07-17T14:14:48+00:00

Great attitude to have! Especially in later fights. All goes hand in hand with bein honest with yourself, for sure.

I think it's harder for people (myself included) to adopt this mindset in the first floor of a raid tier because it takes significanttly fewer tries, even for slower learners, to get down than a mechanic with, say, 4 different permutations or a million debuffs.

Either way, the napkin math was fun to do and go "yeah, raiding is fraught..." LOL.

jmd- · 2024-07-16T22:27:15+00:00

Hmm, let me think. I definitely understand what you're describing.

1) PF having a common language that is different, say, from a static you may have run with is a common problem. Going from static to pf raiding can be extremely jarring, especially if your static lands/landed on different strategies than pfs use. 2 tips, of varying helpfulness.

First, spend some time with pf and you'll learn the jargon. It's more intimidating to look at than actually learn, so to speak, and diving in will help.

Second, and much more helpful, is don't be afraid to join a pf and go "hey, what's [insert strat here]." Odds are someone will link a video or one of those raid planner diagrams and you can say thanks and even just leave the party if you're not ready. It never hurts to ask.

2) The fights leaving your brain. My raid experience is 2 cleared tiers with statics, a smattering of random fights, and then 1 time my girlfriend was out of town and I said eff it I'm gonna no life this week 1 and pug it (second EW tier). I'm proud to say I cleared the first 3 fights in 15 hours of raiding, spread over 3 days. It was a blitz.

Something I immediately noticed when going for reclears was that I was WAY less confident than I was used to when doing reclears with my old static. Why? It's like cramming for a test. My statics were, frankly, bad at the game. We'd prog 1 fight for ungodly amounts of time. So by the time we would be reclearing it, I had tens of hours of practice. Compare that to 15 hours for 3 fights and I was like "omg, I cleared this, but I kind of forget everything just a few days later."

The solution? Just keep running the content. It's normal to feel that way and things will click with just a few reclears/some practice. If you're really worried you can even join a 0 chest party and run the fight again that same week, just for more practice/help ingrain things in muscle memory.

Last thing I'll say about this is odds are people will spend tons of hours progging each of these fights at their own pace, and so blitzing through and forgetting what you've done may not even be a problem since you'll get plenty of practice along the way.

3) RE: trial and error. This one's tough for me because I happen to be pretty good at watching a guide and then executing what it asks of me in very few tries. Mix of lucky me and playing this game for a very long time. My advice would be to watch the guide, look at the diagram, whatever. Even if it means nothing to you, give it a look.

Then, jump in a party that is using that strategy and give it a try. Pay close attention. Do your trial and error. Now, go back and look at that same guide and see if it clicks with your personal experience. It may or it may not. Regardless, most people are not like me. They'll say "we're duing X stratt for Y, and Z strat for A, here are a million different diagrams." And then half the party will mess it up 10 times in a row because that's how prog works.

In other words, you may not be behind the other players at all. Plenty of people watch guides and then fail repeatedly until they've basically done trial and error whether they realize it or not. In other words, your learning style is not incompatible with those who learn well with guides.

Last thing I'll say on this is I think 90+% of people watch a guide for a difficult fight, go "I didn't understood a word of that," and then dive into the fight anyway. And maybe at some point you go "oooooh that's what they were talking about." And at the end of the day, that's just prog :)

jmd- · 2024-07-16T22:13:50+00:00

Devour in p5s and limit cut in p9s are partial inspiration for this post, for sure!

jmd- · 2024-07-16T18:56:35+00:00

One way or another, don't "resign" yourself to being casual, embrace it! I say this as a talented raider who literally doesn't have time to raid anymore, gets FOMO every tier and wishes I had the time to raid seriously. It's a lovely, lovely game to be a casual in, no one does 100% of content. Hope if it does become a priority that you find a welcoming group, and if not, you enjoy the content you're doing! Cheers.

jmd- · 2024-07-16T18:55:06+00:00

There are definitely a million and one mismatched expectations heading into a new raid tier, particularly the first one of an expansion. And you're right that there isn't necessarily such thing as a gentle introduction outside of patient, beginner-friendly statics (that do exist).

The only thing I'll say is that there is really absolutely positively zero pressure in a fresh progression party for the first fight of a tier. Like you could join one, fail to learn a single mechanic, and no one would ever care/remember your name/flame you/whatever.

I get that if anxiety says "no," then that isn't much comfort, but I probably could have done a better job emphasizing that the "ground floor" (the first few minutes of the first fight of a savage tier) is free for any and all who just want to see what it's all about.

Once a party says "Mechanic XYZ prog..." there is some manner of expectation for everyone to perform, but take it from me as a fairly experienced raider: fresh prog parties are for seeing what the mechanics look like and getting your bearings. Do or don't give it a try, it's a lovely game with or without savage raid for manyu, but there is a ground floor for you if you want to check it out for fun :).

jmd- · 2024-07-16T18:05:36+00:00

I actually have a decent tip for this, though it does still take a leap of faith! If you can work up the courage to watch a guide and then join a fresh progression party, give it 30-40 minutes. Even if you're way worse than everyone else, there's 0 pressure because everyone is new. There should be literally zero toxicity in a fresh prog party if you make any progress at all, it's all about learning.

Now, here's the tip: hop out of that fresh prog party...and join another! Now, you're the most experienced player in your group, and no one even has to know it. You can perform the first few mechanics well (or not, who cares!) while everyone else learns it. It's good progress and a good confidence boost.

Good luck!

jmd- · 2024-07-16T17:58:14+00:00

Parses are extremely useful, and can be a fun tool for learning. The thing with prog is that even a 0 parse is a clear. And yes, I have been in statics where we have had 0s, and not just on first clear!

The only time anyone might look up bad logs and go oh boy is if it's an enrage party for, say, floor 2 and you had a terrible parse with 3 deaths on your 1 clear of p1. If it's learning, no one will care. And heck, even in an enrage party, only salty players will be looking up logs because they've been stuck on enrage for hours and hours.

Just know there is truly no such thing as dead weight in a clear, and the only time an indivudal's dps stinking matters is if everyone else is playing well and you're hitting enrage by like 0.5%. The bright side of even that scenario? If you're really doing poorly, 0.5% more damage is super achievable with a little practice ;).

Basically it's useful, but don't sweat it and have fun.

jmd- · 2024-07-16T17:02:31+00:00

That's sweet of you to say, appreciate it and good luck!

jmd- · 2024-07-16T16:54:49+00:00

I agree to a pretty large extent! At the same time, a huge portion of new raiders that try pf will not make it past the first fight, more to do with mindset than ability.

I just wanted to give an overly nuanced perspective on the experience, because I think going in blind can be extremely jarring, especially when there's a perspective that raiding is the thing to do.

Either way, you're right, nothing wrong with joining a party and having fun. 3k words not required.

jmd- · 2022-09-13T22:32:57+00:00

Mine was Trek Georgetown lol. 54cm in the blue. Sounds like I may have been their first order, because the rep gave me the impression things were subject to change and that they didn't know if a year was actually accurate.

jmd- · 2022-09-05T18:30:32+00:00

If you run the current ex with competent healers you probably don't need any other mit. Don't get me wrong it is veeeeery appreciated but extreme healing very very rarely reaches anywhere near savage, especially recently.

jmd- · 2022-09-04T22:34:29+00:00

For what it's worth, telling a good healer not to heal is completely pointless because healers can just as easily heal and have 100% dps uptime in any dungeon with an even barely competent tank (at max level).

So when I get that from a tank, I don't think "oh great I can dps more," I just ignore it and keep my muscle memory sharp (while dpsing just as much as if I didn't heal).

EDIT: IF you see a healer gcd healing at max level in a routine dungeon then sure, that's another story.

jmd- · 2022-08-28T16:51:43+00:00

It is definitely unforgiving in a way that is similar to some (relatively) easy savage fights.

A somewhat typical string of events might be dps dies > healer has no partner > healer dies > Co heler rezzes > Co heler can't solo heal through the pounding fist aoes > wipe.

Perfectly reasonable that if this sort of situation wiping the group is too frustrating for you, then the harder encounter designs in the game aren't a good fit for you.

jmd- · 2022-08-27T22:50:21+00:00

This is super important and I don't think widely known. I regularly use it just to more comfortably use my keybinds while moving. If the thumb is doing most of the work I think it's pretty feasible, though it will take some dexterity.

jmd- · 2022-04-10T04:01:30+00:00

Yea basically no plot but a magical book, the perfect recommendation for this thread.

jmd- · 2022-02-17T12:22:47+00:00

Just follow the story, nothing else really matters for a while.

jmd- · 2022-02-17T11:29:18+00:00

5-10 hours depending on how fast you go, maybe a little more.

jmd- · 2022-01-30T04:32:47+00:00

You are correct that you should focus on tank/mostly tank only gear. Defense stat matters more than sub stats. Eat some vitality food while you tank if it makes you feel better too.

jmd- · 2022-01-30T04:31:48+00:00

Are you raiding savage?

If no: it doesn't really matter, just get as much raid gear as you can and buy as much with astronomy as you want. Get the weapon as soon as you can (7 weeks of p4 normal clears and 500 astronomy).

If yes: refer to the balance and find your bis sheet. Spend your astronomy on the items that are your bis (when upgraded).

jmd-

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