duty roulette – The Fanciest Pants

UNSTOPPABLE
Sometimes, Google search shows you the truth.

I am one-third of the way to getting 300 commendations! Hooray!

I think I’ve gotten most of them as a healer. People always view healers in a positive light when they don’t die, which is good, since my general goal is “TOP OFF THE HP AND NOBODY DIES.” For the most part, I’ve found healing to be easy. This may be at least in part because the Duty Finder has a tendency to drop me into low-leveled dungeons where really all you need to do is cast Protect and Cure (which are, quite frankly, also the only helpful spells you have access to at that point).

But then came the day when I queued like normal with the Duty Finder and ended up healing a Titan group. My only past healing experience healing Primal fights at that point was Ifrit. As long as the tank points Ifrit away, the tank keeps aggro and people kill the adds, Ifrit’s not that bad. But Titan’s like … one of the toughest ones I’ve unlocked thus far even when things go right. The sheer amount of damage! The knockbacks! The gaols that imprison a party member at inopportune times!

Healing Regular Dungeons Be Like: Tralala! Do a little deeps! Do a little heals! Get down tonight! Get down tonight!

i hate my life lol
what have i done

Healing the Titan Fight Be Like: HOLY SHEEYIT THE DAMAGE O JEEBUS TAPDANCING CRIPES THE TANK’S HP! MY HP! EVERYBODY’S HP! WHY ARE WE ALL DYING!? DEAR GAWD WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!? MANA! MANA! MY KINGDOM FOR SOME [BLEEPING] MANA! WHAT THE HELL WHAT HAVE I DONNNNEEEEEE oh I just stood in that and died. Well, crap.

We eventually succeeded after I started freaking out only half as bad (helpful if you want to avoid getting knocked off the damn platform like a doofus) and after I radically reinvented the way I was healing. Forget Stoneskin – doesn’t last long enough to make a damn bit of difference. No more costly single target heals all the time. REGEN IS MY FRIEND. REGEN ON EVERYBODY, ALL THE TIME. Use small heals when possible and let Regen take care of the rest! Speaking of taking care of the rest – the DPS are just gonna have to survive long enough for Regen to pick their HP back up, because Dear Lord Gawd help me the tank is getting smashed to pieces!

How I Picture It Going if I Have to Heal Again
Not well. Not well at all.

Since then, I’ve been a little scared to queue for Duty Finder as a healer again. And can I just say that the idea of healing hard mode dungeons* kinda freaks me out a bit now? Hard mode + me healing = WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE.

So I’ve been deepsing it up. Sure, the queue’s longer and I don’t get as many commendations in general, but it’s strangely satisfying when you get all three possible commendations as a DPS. The tank loved you. The heals loved you. Even your fellow DPS loved you! EVERYBODY LOVES YOU!

*Whoever composed the music for Haukke Manor’s hard mode needs to rethink his artistic inspirations, because that song makes me want to punch things even though I’m playing as ranged DPS.

Tonight We Dine in Hell
That moment when you expect something easy like Tam-Tara and get Ifrit with a noob tank instead.

Once I was told that I could get a pony with a free stabbing attachment if I leveled conjurer to 30, I started running dungeons quite frequently. While soloing as conjurer is doable (I can do pretty much anything until I run out of time, mana or both), healing your average low level dungeon run is easy. Well, mostly.

Much like WoW, FFXIV has various means of finding other people to run through content with. I’ve been using the equivalent of the dungeon finder, in which you queue up and the game finds you a party made of strangers.

Despite the similarities, there are some distinct differences between running dungeons in the two games. The first is that FFXIV parties use one less DPS, which seems neither here nor there until you realize that if you fail to keep up, there’s one less soul to blame it on!

What’s most surprising to me is how the game actually notifies people that there are noobs in their midst. My WoW training has caused me to dread being called out for any reason, because nine times out of ten it’ll end up being keyboard warrior drama over some stupid sheeyit. In WoW, you couldn’t necessarily tell for sure who was the nooblet until the action began (and as a nooblet, you could often figure out what to do as you did it), so generally it behooved you to keep your mouth shut. In FFXIV, you know from the get-go who said player is because they’re viewing a cutscene and the party is prevented from going anywhere until they’re done with it!

The True Evil in Copperbell Mines
A DK who’s a little fast on the elevator switch.

Still, being publicly declared a baby hasn’t been awful. This is most likely because FFXIV rewards the rest of the party for escorting the wee little player along their newest adventure. Weird, right? Be nice, get nicer EXP!

I have had to swear off Copperbell Mines through the fault of no noob, as my luck there seems to be almost catastrophically bad. Yes, I should’ve been paying attention. No, I should not have been standing in those bomb blasts. Yes, if I were still alive, I could be healing at this very moment. No, I’m not a miracle worker – even if I were still alive, you stood in all the bomb blasts too!

Back to the idea of being nice – there’s another huge difference between WoW and FFXIV dungeon runs: FFXIV encourages players to give a commendation to a member of their party (as long as the person is not a member of their own free company/guild). That is, if you want to thank this person for being good, fun, or even not sucking as terribly as you thought they would, you can give them a note of recognition. You are rewarded for giving and receiving sufficient commendations – EXP bonuses, achievements … even chocobo ~~dressup clothes~~ barding and a mount.

Good Healers are Hard to Find
But apparently I’m one! Yay! /spams Cure

My goal is to receive 300 commendations. Once I’ve hit that key number, I can get a crown for my chocobo. My bird has no brains, so it needs to compensate for that lack somehow, and I’m thinking snappy bejeweled outfits are just the way to go.

I’ve noticed that so far, I get commendations most frequently as a healer. As a result, I’ll likely continue leveling conjurer/white mage from time to time, even though I have little interest in the class. My other healing-type options would be to level arcanist so I can unlock scholar (this would require me undoing my bonus points since arcanist also leads to summoner), and to unlock astrolo-whatevers. I have gotten commendations as a DPS, though not nearly as often. (When I do, I feel all special. It’s like they noticed me for not screwing up!)

I’ve tried tanking once so far, failed horribly at keeping mobs off everybody, got no commendations for it, and decided that yeah, that whole melee thing is still not my style.