FFXIV: Impatient Tanks & Chrysalis Fail
I really haven’t done a lot of FFXIV gaming this week since I’ve been involved with both Sims 4 and 7D2D. I also haven’t done much blogging this week due to trying to keep up with my word count for Camp NaNoWriMo. Sadly, I’ve been struggling a LOT with getting any sort of fiction on the page, so I decided to blog a bit today to warm up.
Impatient Tanks
I wanted to touch on a topic that bugs me a little – impatient tanks in FFXIV.
Now, disclaimers before I start:
- For the most part, the FFXIV community is a good bunch. But things seem to change with end game story scenarios and hard mode dungeons. Must be the Poetics runs?
- I’ve run across impatient players of ALL classes. So, yes, I know it’s not just tanks that can be this way.
- I respect good tanks for the job they do. I leveled PAL to 50, and while I haven’t done any higher level content yet, it’s not an easy job for me to play.
That being said, there are also jerky tanks and people who only seem to tank not because they want to help lead a group, but because it gets them that insta-queue. This sort of tank will bail the moment it seems like the dungeon or instance is going to take longer than they’d like. I’ve seen it too many times.
I even see tanks bailing in the queues themselves. As a DPS, I’ll sit there for 40 mins only to watch the queue rotate through tanks (and sometimes healers). I don’t know if it’s true, but it sure seems like a tank will hit the queue, in three to five mins, if it doesn’t pop, they drop and probably queue up again to find something faster. That’s the life of a DPS.
Chrysalis Fail
Syn and I were trying to tackle the Chrysalis for the first time last night for our story progression. We were already somewhat un-enthusiastic about trying it, but we swallowed our nerves and did it anyhow. I watched the queue tank juggle for over 20 mins until we finally got two who would stick.
A few of us were new, though Syn and I watched videos before we went in and had an idea of what was going on. Naturally, we wiped on the meteor section the first try, but I thought that we had a pretty good grip on what to expect after going through it the first time.
Somewhere during the second round with the boss, we lost one of our DPS. It looked like a net drop or something, because they didn’t just up and leave, we had to eventually vote dismiss them. While we did a lot better on the meteor phase the second time, because we were down a DPS, we wiped again – frustratingly with the Tear just having a sliver of life left to it.
We were very close to beating that phase, and the team seemed to have a good grasp on what to expect now, so we dismissed the DPS, hoping to fill that spot with another. What happens then?
One of the tanks drop. >:(
I couldn’t help but feel somewhat annoyed about it at this point, though I know it’s a fact of MMO life. Still, in the end, the time was ticking down, we were down a tank and a DPS, so after waiting a bit, we chose to abandon the instance. By that time, my sister was texting me for a 7D2D run, so it was a fail night for us in the progress department. At least we know what to expect next time.
Anyhow, that impatient tank was really a letdown to the party who was honestly giving it their best try and learning from mistakes. Those tanks who seem to think insta-queues are the Seven’s gift to meat shields better enjoy it for now. Come Heavesward, everyone and their grandmother seems to be wanting to roll a Dark Knight. Let’s see how you like the queues then! 😛
(No, I’m not a bitter DPS who has seen over an hour queues for something I really needed to pass. Not at all…) XD
On a more positive note, I earned enough Tomes to pick up Tai’s tanking chest piece. However, this thing is HUGE on him – the armor is like two sizes too big and just looks rather strange on a fairly lean-built character. Not a fan of the design or the color… but I guess all this will be replaced eventually, anyhow. XD