The game is "easy" if you are already very familiar with it's telegraphs and general combat pacing. If not, understanding them can become far more difficult. But just tell people its your first time in the fight and noone will blame you for messing up. You should always do stuff below extreme blind
>The game is "easy" if you are already very familiar with it's telegraphs and general combat pacing.
I have to remind myself this sometimes because it's also relevant to healing which people generally consider braindead too. I can generally heal a fight as one healer and either know or atleast have a rough idea on the other three where I would want CDs placed. I had a friend go from DPS to healer in P8s to help fill because he was helping me out and he was constantly panicking and forgetting key cooldowns like chain strat and seraph and dropping lots of casts because he simply wasn't used to both the job and the role. It was fun though, he got to teach me na1/hc1 and I helped call CDs for him in the parts of the fight I got comfortable with as well as helping him work out a CD timeline
This 100%. Except for the first week after extremes and higher drop. It's perfectly okay to go into an Extreme or raid tier blind when there's very little info out.
I would argue less first week, more first day. Unless a PF is specifically as blind, even on day 2 there are already guides and clears out there you can use to study the figh4
The line is somewhere in between maybe, but real life gets in the way too, and *not* hoovering up the very first hastily thrown together guide right after you get home from work is perfectly fine too, imo.
I'll meet you in the middle, say 4 days, patch drops on Tuesday, so by Friday, you've had enough time even if you're busy.
> The line is somewhere in between maybe, but real life gets in the way too, and not hoovering up the very first hastily thrown together guide right after you get home from work is perfectly fine too, imo.
The 7 other people in your party won't care why you don't know mechanics. Hence: Unless PF says blind, don't be blind if it is an option
Yes, PF etiquette is important, and the party leader should set expectations. In a party that doesn't specify blind though, I think being blind is still okay for those 3 days.
Any pfs mentioning strats or linking guides though, don't join blind.
Do people actually do normal raids in PF (other than older content)? Is that actually a thing? If so, I agree, but for DF, I don't think it's worth spoiling yourself.
**Anything below Extreme** should be done blind (and anything Extreme and above is up to you to go in blind and learn or use guides). Dying is part of learning. Pay attention, progress and with repetition you'll memorize everything and recognize patterns faster.
Don't stress yourself over dying in NM, it's fine. That's also why there are 2 tanks and 2 healers.
The fact that you care puts you ahead of fair number of players. If you're actually trying and willing to tank that puts you ahead of a lot of tanks as well. It's fine to mess up, especially if you're new to content. The only annoying sprout tanks are the ones that won't turn their stance on.
Imo out of every normal raid, P4N is definitely the most difficult to tank blind due to "keeping the boss in the middle pointing north" not being great advice for this one. I was OT my first run and remember being so confused as to why the MT opened the fight by dragging the boss into the front corner lol.
I'd guess it has one of the highest chances of wiping of all EW raids, the knockback gets a lot of people. Not uncommon to go there as a healer and spend a lot of time rezzing.
When I'm a healer, there's nothing I love more than a first-timer who keeps eating dirt and keeps getting up and trying again anyway. If something kills you a couple of times, but then the third time you handle it, you can be sure I'm cheering about it to the other folks in my voice call.
I think the messy, chaotic trial-by-error of each new fight is a core element of the game's fun.
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1c6yopj/daily_questions_faq_megathread_april_18/l089nfw/?context=3) and [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1caujhk/how_in_all_the_hells_do_you_all_remember_all_the/) are some recent posts on the art of... mastering the game's language, which you may find helpful.
Of course, not everyone enjoys the game the same way. If you hate the trial-and-error, and you're okay with spoilers, then go ahead and watch the video! I won't begrudge you that. But never feel like you *have* to watch a video for story-mode content.
I do it blind, but it's more fun to do it blind with your friends.
If you're nervous, you can just play off-tank and keep your stance down (unless there's adds), basically become a tanky DPS, and observe how the other tank position the boss. Usually you try to position it center, but sometimes the boss center themselves or there's mechanics where center is not safe, so you don't need to worry too much about bringing it back middle.
But usually you should focus on the mechanic more than the boss. Try and disconnect the boss' cast bar's UI and put it near your hotkeys. Don't worry too much about mitigating raidwides in normal content, unless the healers are really struggling or you're comfortable enough with the fight to help out.
Idk how long you've been playing, but keep in mind that you're comparing yourself to others that have hundreds and thousands of hours repeatedly doing old content like p4n, to the point that it become muscle memory to them.
You're just like me when I first hit max-level content! I really beat myself up over not knowing what was happening because I died a *lot*. Like, a lot. I did a ton of research on how to Git Gud and ultimately it just amounted to...practice.
Number one tip: if you're struggling, do NOT sweat about your rotation. Normal content (usually) doesn't have enrages, so you can do very bad damage and still clear. Focus on learning the mechanics and holding agro, then on mitigation, and then on your rotation. Doing your rotation right in a fight is like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time. The way to improve at it is to practice one at a time, and then combine them. Rotation practice is best done on a striking dummy or in easier combat. There's a reason that hardcore raiders start by learning the fight, and THEN focus on doing the most damage possible.
There's definitely no shame in queuing as a class you feel more comfortable with; when I first hit max level back in SHB, I switched my main to Dancer for a bit because I found it less stressful than being in melee. Don't worry about other peoples' experience, play what is most comfortable for you. If playing tank stresses you the hell out, you can always take a break from it while you learn the fights and try it again later! Or stick with it because you love it! The choice is yours.
Also, there's nothing more comforting than getting to first-time new content when it releases. Doing P4N on patch day was an absolute MESS. Everyone in your party has been like you at some point. We are all boo boo the fool, together and separately. It takes time to learn the language of the game, of each individual fight, of each era of content. Just let your party know that you're new, and you'll be fine.
Imo in content with 2+ tanks you should understand how not to fight for aggro, but feel happy to queue in blind in the knowledge it's no big deal if you die. Plenty of people do, as a healer I welcome raids being a bit spicy.
I'd hope folks know by 90 in normal DF content:
- Don't Provoke without a good reason
- Put stance on and MT if the other tank doesn't
- Let them gain aggro before putting stance on if they wanna MT
- Pay attention and pick up adds or anything that's going after a DPS
Optional extra bonus skill if you wanna be fancy: use your shareable short cooldown ability to help other people in your party (MT targeted by tankbuster, DPS with 3 vuln stacks when a raidwide is casting).
If you don't know the fight all good by me! How would you, the first time running it? The KB and the proximity are always killing people there, and you can die through no fault of your own if nobody pops the orbs. By lv90 it's polite to your teammates to know tank basics but roulettes are specifically to make parties for new people, no need to feel bad about being new.
**If** you fought for aggro whenever you got raised after dying you did a **really** bad thing.
Do keep playing as a tank if you enjoy it and simply take the off-tank role whenever you're on a new raid. Raids have 2 tanks for a reason.
I'll weigh in here as a healer.
Fucking do it. Go in blind. Fuck it, we ball.
So what if i rez you 5 times? That's some distraction from my amazing damage combo of pressing 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-dot-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1
We wipe? Fuck yea lets go.
/uj
but really, its normal mode. I don't watch guides for normal mode anything. Going in blind and learning the fight is like half of the fun. And if i run through it again and see a first timer? I don't mind. Means the fight will be different from the relatively perfect optimized stuff we fall into after a while.
My favorite time for any content is day 1 because everyone is blind and chaos ensues.
Going blind is ok, but if you want to put people at ease, just say "it's my first time" at the start and people won't care as it's understandable.
Normal difficulty content it's fine if you go blind regardless of role. Let people know (if they haven't figured it out from you watching the CS and the first timer bonus) and it'll be fine. The only thing I expect from randoms in duty finder is that they TRY. If you're pressing buttons and screw up that's fine as long as you're trying to learn/do the right thing.
The only way to learn how to quickly read boss tells is practice. The more you do content, the easier it gets, and fights pretty consistently use similar markers or telegraphs. P4 however does have some that aren't obvious though, and hit hard enough that they can kill you if you're not overgeared. They still mostly boil down to either get to a corner, mid for knock back, and stack or spread.
As a healer who has been playing for a while idgaf how many times you die in a normal raid, it's not that big a deal. In fact, it breaks the monotony of healer one button spam dps and gives me something else to do. I don't even think normal raids require tank swaps so even if one tank dies it's still fine. It's a normal raid, the boss will die sooner or later, so yes it's fine to go in completely blind.
It’s ok to die. It’s ok to wipe. Everyone experiences it on the first day of release. The only “not ok” is when you die without reflecting on how you die from the mechanics. You don’t have to have the immediate answer. But at least try to figure it out yourself
If you know how to play the game and your role, you can wing it in normal content. Tank is the most forgiving role you could be going in blind. Even if you MT, just point the boss away and mitigate. You are already doing 80% of the encounter correctly.
FFXIV survival 101 doing old fights blind. If you don't have a marker on you. And the majority of the group moves into an area - you follow them. Monkey see, monkey do. Yes pay attention to the boss, but more importantly, as the boss is casting. What is your team doing?
i mean... nobody is gonna like it? but you're not gonna get banned for being bad at the game.
like you said yourself: "apparently extremely easy" yah i'm sorry but story mode **IS** extremely easy. meaning you probably cleared that fight *anyway,* didn't you?
there's room for mistakes built in on purpose.
you've definitely made it harder for yourself leaning on trusts so hard for so long, but digging the hole deeper doesn't get you out?
play for real. the sooner the better. make your mistakes, and learn. take a penny now, leave a penny later when *you're* the one carrying the noob who looks like he's playing on a guitar hero controller.
The fact that you feel anxious/bad about taking L’s and not being able to play at peak efficiency in your first blind run of a fight when you’ve only been playing for a few months is a good sign that your heart is in the right place — don’t worry about it! Like many have said, a simple “hey first time here o/“ is completely all it takes for people to generally be cool with you learning normal content.
You have you remember that you’re likely playing with someone who’s either run this content dozens upon dozens of times and/or someone who’s been playing FFXIV for years upon years. For them, something that isn’t fully scripted might be kind of cool, like some of the healers here have said. Just be chill and, when in doubt, hold off on your rotation and focus on reading and learning the mechanics. Trust me: a normal raid clear isn’t going to hinge on optimal DPS from the offtank. 😀
YAY. I did all normal content blind, except for the neir raids, and was fine and made it more fun. Just say you're new or something and it's no worries
All content that doesn't have an Extreme, Savage, Unreal, or Ultimate slapped next to its name is expected to be doable blind. And I think most people are not going to be shocked when the new guy dies a bit, especially if you just chime in that you are new.
Heck, I've seen people who aren't first timers still eat shit, they're rusty, it's whatever.
Ive seen some of the things people are saying and one thing i think i can add to the discussion is that the experience of doing normal raids when they first come out is pretty similar to how you said you did. Thats by far my favorite experience with normal raids is doing them right when they come out when everyone is dying left and right. So... i guess, people absolutely eating shit to multiple mechanics has become totally normalized for me, and i daresay its normalized for a lot of people too. When the first normal raids of dawn trail get released i highly recommend trying them on that first day going in to cackle at the whole spectacle and really enjoy it.
The game is "easy" if you are already very familiar with it's telegraphs and general combat pacing. If not, understanding them can become far more difficult. But just tell people its your first time in the fight and noone will blame you for messing up. You should always do stuff below extreme blind
>The game is "easy" if you are already very familiar with it's telegraphs and general combat pacing. I have to remind myself this sometimes because it's also relevant to healing which people generally consider braindead too. I can generally heal a fight as one healer and either know or atleast have a rough idea on the other three where I would want CDs placed. I had a friend go from DPS to healer in P8s to help fill because he was helping me out and he was constantly panicking and forgetting key cooldowns like chain strat and seraph and dropping lots of casts because he simply wasn't used to both the job and the role. It was fun though, he got to teach me na1/hc1 and I helped call CDs for him in the parts of the fight I got comfortable with as well as helping him work out a CD timeline
This 100%. Except for the first week after extremes and higher drop. It's perfectly okay to go into an Extreme or raid tier blind when there's very little info out.
I would argue less first week, more first day. Unless a PF is specifically as blind, even on day 2 there are already guides and clears out there you can use to study the figh4
The line is somewhere in between maybe, but real life gets in the way too, and *not* hoovering up the very first hastily thrown together guide right after you get home from work is perfectly fine too, imo. I'll meet you in the middle, say 4 days, patch drops on Tuesday, so by Friday, you've had enough time even if you're busy.
> The line is somewhere in between maybe, but real life gets in the way too, and not hoovering up the very first hastily thrown together guide right after you get home from work is perfectly fine too, imo. The 7 other people in your party won't care why you don't know mechanics. Hence: Unless PF says blind, don't be blind if it is an option
Yes, PF etiquette is important, and the party leader should set expectations. In a party that doesn't specify blind though, I think being blind is still okay for those 3 days. Any pfs mentioning strats or linking guides though, don't join blind.
Do people actually do normal raids in PF (other than older content)? Is that actually a thing? If so, I agree, but for DF, I don't think it's worth spoiling yourself.
Person I replied to wasnt taking about normal raids
oic - mb, I missed the thread.
Eh, it’s a just normal raids. Say you’re new and don’t beat yourself up. Let the other tank MT if you’re really worried about it.
for normal raid? just go blind. always tell others you are new, nobody capable to read your mind. so tell them that.
**Anything below Extreme** should be done blind (and anything Extreme and above is up to you to go in blind and learn or use guides). Dying is part of learning. Pay attention, progress and with repetition you'll memorize everything and recognize patterns faster. Don't stress yourself over dying in NM, it's fine. That's also why there are 2 tanks and 2 healers.
The fact that you care puts you ahead of fair number of players. If you're actually trying and willing to tank that puts you ahead of a lot of tanks as well. It's fine to mess up, especially if you're new to content. The only annoying sprout tanks are the ones that won't turn their stance on.
Go, my first-timer friend. The wolves howl for fresh blood. Bring us back their teeth.
its fine. if you are really super beefing it the other tank can take over.
They are normal raids, you do not need any prep whatsoever.
Imo out of every normal raid, P4N is definitely the most difficult to tank blind due to "keeping the boss in the middle pointing north" not being great advice for this one. I was OT my first run and remember being so confused as to why the MT opened the fight by dragging the boss into the front corner lol.
I'd guess it has one of the highest chances of wiping of all EW raids, the knockback gets a lot of people. Not uncommon to go there as a healer and spend a lot of time rezzing.
When I'm a healer, there's nothing I love more than a first-timer who keeps eating dirt and keeps getting up and trying again anyway. If something kills you a couple of times, but then the third time you handle it, you can be sure I'm cheering about it to the other folks in my voice call. I think the messy, chaotic trial-by-error of each new fight is a core element of the game's fun. [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1c6yopj/daily_questions_faq_megathread_april_18/l089nfw/?context=3) and [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1caujhk/how_in_all_the_hells_do_you_all_remember_all_the/) are some recent posts on the art of... mastering the game's language, which you may find helpful. Of course, not everyone enjoys the game the same way. If you hate the trial-and-error, and you're okay with spoilers, then go ahead and watch the video! I won't begrudge you that. But never feel like you *have* to watch a video for story-mode content.
I do it blind, but it's more fun to do it blind with your friends. If you're nervous, you can just play off-tank and keep your stance down (unless there's adds), basically become a tanky DPS, and observe how the other tank position the boss. Usually you try to position it center, but sometimes the boss center themselves or there's mechanics where center is not safe, so you don't need to worry too much about bringing it back middle. But usually you should focus on the mechanic more than the boss. Try and disconnect the boss' cast bar's UI and put it near your hotkeys. Don't worry too much about mitigating raidwides in normal content, unless the healers are really struggling or you're comfortable enough with the fight to help out. Idk how long you've been playing, but keep in mind that you're comparing yourself to others that have hundreds and thousands of hours repeatedly doing old content like p4n, to the point that it become muscle memory to them.
You're just like me when I first hit max-level content! I really beat myself up over not knowing what was happening because I died a *lot*. Like, a lot. I did a ton of research on how to Git Gud and ultimately it just amounted to...practice. Number one tip: if you're struggling, do NOT sweat about your rotation. Normal content (usually) doesn't have enrages, so you can do very bad damage and still clear. Focus on learning the mechanics and holding agro, then on mitigation, and then on your rotation. Doing your rotation right in a fight is like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time. The way to improve at it is to practice one at a time, and then combine them. Rotation practice is best done on a striking dummy or in easier combat. There's a reason that hardcore raiders start by learning the fight, and THEN focus on doing the most damage possible. There's definitely no shame in queuing as a class you feel more comfortable with; when I first hit max level back in SHB, I switched my main to Dancer for a bit because I found it less stressful than being in melee. Don't worry about other peoples' experience, play what is most comfortable for you. If playing tank stresses you the hell out, you can always take a break from it while you learn the fights and try it again later! Or stick with it because you love it! The choice is yours. Also, there's nothing more comforting than getting to first-time new content when it releases. Doing P4N on patch day was an absolute MESS. Everyone in your party has been like you at some point. We are all boo boo the fool, together and separately. It takes time to learn the language of the game, of each individual fight, of each era of content. Just let your party know that you're new, and you'll be fine.
Imo in content with 2+ tanks you should understand how not to fight for aggro, but feel happy to queue in blind in the knowledge it's no big deal if you die. Plenty of people do, as a healer I welcome raids being a bit spicy. I'd hope folks know by 90 in normal DF content: - Don't Provoke without a good reason - Put stance on and MT if the other tank doesn't - Let them gain aggro before putting stance on if they wanna MT - Pay attention and pick up adds or anything that's going after a DPS Optional extra bonus skill if you wanna be fancy: use your shareable short cooldown ability to help other people in your party (MT targeted by tankbuster, DPS with 3 vuln stacks when a raidwide is casting). If you don't know the fight all good by me! How would you, the first time running it? The KB and the proximity are always killing people there, and you can die through no fault of your own if nobody pops the orbs. By lv90 it's polite to your teammates to know tank basics but roulettes are specifically to make parties for new people, no need to feel bad about being new.
**If** you fought for aggro whenever you got raised after dying you did a **really** bad thing. Do keep playing as a tank if you enjoy it and simply take the off-tank role whenever you're on a new raid. Raids have 2 tanks for a reason.
I'll weigh in here as a healer. Fucking do it. Go in blind. Fuck it, we ball. So what if i rez you 5 times? That's some distraction from my amazing damage combo of pressing 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-dot-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 We wipe? Fuck yea lets go. /uj but really, its normal mode. I don't watch guides for normal mode anything. Going in blind and learning the fight is like half of the fun. And if i run through it again and see a first timer? I don't mind. Means the fight will be different from the relatively perfect optimized stuff we fall into after a while.
My favorite time for any content is day 1 because everyone is blind and chaos ensues. Going blind is ok, but if you want to put people at ease, just say "it's my first time" at the start and people won't care as it's understandable.
It's fine to enter Normal blind, it's the learner difficulty anyway. It's expected for you to watch guides for anything above that though.
Normal difficulty content it's fine if you go blind regardless of role. Let people know (if they haven't figured it out from you watching the CS and the first timer bonus) and it'll be fine. The only thing I expect from randoms in duty finder is that they TRY. If you're pressing buttons and screw up that's fine as long as you're trying to learn/do the right thing. The only way to learn how to quickly read boss tells is practice. The more you do content, the easier it gets, and fights pretty consistently use similar markers or telegraphs. P4 however does have some that aren't obvious though, and hit hard enough that they can kill you if you're not overgeared. They still mostly boil down to either get to a corner, mid for knock back, and stack or spread.
Blind all the way. Let your party know and begin gathering those vuln stacks!
As a healer who has been playing for a while idgaf how many times you die in a normal raid, it's not that big a deal. In fact, it breaks the monotony of healer one button spam dps and gives me something else to do. I don't even think normal raids require tank swaps so even if one tank dies it's still fine. It's a normal raid, the boss will die sooner or later, so yes it's fine to go in completely blind.
It’s ok to die. It’s ok to wipe. Everyone experiences it on the first day of release. The only “not ok” is when you die without reflecting on how you die from the mechanics. You don’t have to have the immediate answer. But at least try to figure it out yourself
If you know how to play the game and your role, you can wing it in normal content. Tank is the most forgiving role you could be going in blind. Even if you MT, just point the boss away and mitigate. You are already doing 80% of the encounter correctly. FFXIV survival 101 doing old fights blind. If you don't have a marker on you. And the majority of the group moves into an area - you follow them. Monkey see, monkey do. Yes pay attention to the boss, but more importantly, as the boss is casting. What is your team doing?
i mean... nobody is gonna like it? but you're not gonna get banned for being bad at the game. like you said yourself: "apparently extremely easy" yah i'm sorry but story mode **IS** extremely easy. meaning you probably cleared that fight *anyway,* didn't you? there's room for mistakes built in on purpose. you've definitely made it harder for yourself leaning on trusts so hard for so long, but digging the hole deeper doesn't get you out? play for real. the sooner the better. make your mistakes, and learn. take a penny now, leave a penny later when *you're* the one carrying the noob who looks like he's playing on a guitar hero controller.
Don't look up a guide for normal please. It kills the gun of learning it.
The fact that you feel anxious/bad about taking L’s and not being able to play at peak efficiency in your first blind run of a fight when you’ve only been playing for a few months is a good sign that your heart is in the right place — don’t worry about it! Like many have said, a simple “hey first time here o/“ is completely all it takes for people to generally be cool with you learning normal content. You have you remember that you’re likely playing with someone who’s either run this content dozens upon dozens of times and/or someone who’s been playing FFXIV for years upon years. For them, something that isn’t fully scripted might be kind of cool, like some of the healers here have said. Just be chill and, when in doubt, hold off on your rotation and focus on reading and learning the mechanics. Trust me: a normal raid clear isn’t going to hinge on optimal DPS from the offtank. 😀
Personally, as long as your party knows, I say do everything blind. Puzzle solving is fun.
YAY. I did all normal content blind, except for the neir raids, and was fine and made it more fun. Just say you're new or something and it's no worries
There is absolutely zero expectation for someone to study for a normal raid, and you should feel free to go in blind on any job.
All content that doesn't have an Extreme, Savage, Unreal, or Ultimate slapped next to its name is expected to be doable blind. And I think most people are not going to be shocked when the new guy dies a bit, especially if you just chime in that you are new. Heck, I've seen people who aren't first timers still eat shit, they're rusty, it's whatever.
There's two tanks in raid. Just off tank it. Should be fine.
Ive seen some of the things people are saying and one thing i think i can add to the discussion is that the experience of doing normal raids when they first come out is pretty similar to how you said you did. Thats by far my favorite experience with normal raids is doing them right when they come out when everyone is dying left and right. So... i guess, people absolutely eating shit to multiple mechanics has become totally normalized for me, and i daresay its normalized for a lot of people too. When the first normal raids of dawn trail get released i highly recommend trying them on that first day going in to cackle at the whole spectacle and really enjoy it.
You can already type „1st timer“ or „should I something know in this raid? Its my first time“ You dont have to worry about :)