My First Party Finder Raiding Experience (I'm Never Doing This Again) | FFXIV

[@Canned_Corn_isgood]

PF isn't for the weak.

[@chicorypent]

Not that you don’t know this, but (using your own consistency of 95%), keep in mind that even if all 8 people are 95% consistent then at least 1 person will fail mechs 33% of the time. Add some uncertainty into the equation to account for the DPS check and it should be clear why a group of 8 random people will struggle

[@applepie3639]

what dps check lol

[@chicorypent]

@@applepie3639 Aitherea mentioned in the video that her parties were stuck on enrage due to earlier deaths. If there was no enrage then this wouldn’t be an issue for them. I understand that you can 1-shot every ultimate on release day, but at least spend 10 minutes skimming the video first

[@Aitherea]

@@chicorypent I always give it a few pulls for everyone to get on the same page, but even after that sometimes it's clear that people really can't do mechanics QQ

[@7RicolmE7]

@@Aitherea congrats! now you know the real reason why Blacklist and kick people out of the party are there

[@iHongster]

@@applepie3639find a group of noobie raiders who doesn’t know how to optimize their role, they’ll failed dps check.

[@CL180677]

Welcome to Party Finder ! Glad to hear others share same experience I had with it :)

[@joshuamaurer9784]

My M3S clear, one of the healers clearly didn't know what was happening on a clear group. Group leader stepped out of the instance real quick adter one pull, kicked the bad healer, got a quick replacement, and cleared two pulls later. It's really the luck of the draw (and being pragmatic).

[@joshuamaurer9784]

Honestly, m3s was way easier than m2s through pf. People cannot remember, even when you type it in chat, to pair or spread. Or bring appropriate gear, melds, food and pots.

[@Aitherea]

@@joshuamaurer9784 yeah m2s punishes you for fucking up as well, making the dps check harder. and pf is already bad at dps checks xD

[@7RicolmE7]

@@Aitherea Girl, didnt you said that is ok to be a bad player, and no one is forcing you to play with them? Just kick them or leave. Jeez

[@Aitherea]

@@7RicolmE7 Literally not the gotcha you think it is considering I also mentioned how as long as its NM i don't care, but that in savage it's normal to have expectations.

[@arjay69]

Pf is a next level challenge. Not for the casual minded or who rely on call outs.

[@pharys]

PF is a beast. It cannot be tamed. Instead it molds you into a beast fitting enough to brave it or it will break you. When you become a PF warrior you gain several benefits. But the worst thing is that you have to deal with alot of craziness. alot of it.

[@MinecraftMartin]

PF is fun when you're a healer. "If I can heal this guy, I can heal anything. Bring it on"

[@RicardoSantos-oz3uj]

Is not pf as much as the idiotic loot rules. And people throwing the fight because of the idiotic loot rules.

[@ShiningSpear]

@@MinecraftMartin Ironically, my biggest issue when doing PF as healer has been the other healers. I'll end up hitting a point wondering why so much of my stuff is on cooldown and the party is still hurting, and then I realize oh, the Sage or whatever hasn't been helping heal or mitigate this whole time.

[@MinecraftMartin]

@@ShiningSpear Haha true. I'm always self-concious about being that healer

[@NotTheWheel]

Sister same. But luckily I got friends who love the tier so much they are willing to do a temp static with their alts and it's been so much better. 💙 My golden rule going forward is if I do PF - it's with at least THREE friends. You need a light party of people you can trust who like to do high end content.

[@brookehawkins9526]

that's what we do. there is four of us and while we do have bad days we usually get pretty lucky

[@ravynx]

Girl, preach. Started in statics for Asphodelos, Abyssos, and Anabaseios but I ended up finishing all of them in PF. For DT I dove right into PF and I ran into the exact same issues you are experiencing here (stuck, in "clear" parties for 2-3 days). I've made it through M3S on Week 2 (barely) and not sure how fast I'll prog M4S whether I'll get it done Week 3 or 4. Best of luck and thanks for sharing your experience!

[@ruka9700]

And the funniest thing is this teir is the easiest and most lenient we've seen in a while.

[@Maax141]

A tale as old as time! I've been using PF for savage raids since Stormblood and I share your feelings and everything you said about PF. With time I simply got used to it and now I go into it knowing it's gonna require a looooot of patience.

[@VallThyo]

Honestly, PF has been fine for me, including this tier. It’s always going to be more challenging because people have less synergy and communication isn’t as good, but it’s really fun to join random groups, help them, and be helped in return. Learning every mechanic together and coming out triumphant has been my experience with M2S this tier, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. I’m sorry you had a bad experience, and if you decide to try again, I hope you have a better one.

[@hisoka8202]

yep PF was ok for me as well, except for M4S didn't kill m4s week1 coz i had rly bad players and instead i cleared it on reclear day having good rng with reclears the biggest issue is waiting for ppl and ppl proglying but now u can see with tomestome lying on prog is okay if u feel confident but ppl are too confident and then wipe, that's the issue also in PF u don't get guaranteed loot, i just got one upgrade for accessory while doing 7 runs (3 clears + 3 reclears + m4s) but it's only 7 runs

[@memestarroblox3894]

For someone who has been playing this game since 1.0. I am telling you clearing M1&M2 savage in the first week is very good using PF. PF will need time. Around 2-3 weeks for M1 & 2 , 4-5 weeks for M3 and 2 months for M4 😂.

[@smokeslayer420]

Prog points... if you see raining cats from the floor with 4 others dead with you that's not a prog I think that's what people do... seeing a mech when the rest is very scuffed. Isn't your prog point.

[@1braincellwhm]

It's an f-ing nightmare. Every of team is basically "how many people lied about their prog point". For every 3 hrs I put into prog, no matter how many teams, I only ever see the prog point for maybe 10 minutes. Reclear teams at least are decent.

[@AdventStrife]

​@nowaynoways584 reclear parties are still a mess, took me 7 hours yesterday for me to get a honey b reclear. Simple mistakes costing us clears and pf players aren't pumping the damage, melee and tanks voluntarily taking unneeded downtime. It's an easy fight made hard by pf even in reclears.

[@spetsu1]

I put enrage prog to try for a clear, people join that can get past clones, I put blind prog out to just get warmed up before doing enrage prog and we make it to enrage. I don't understand why people join late prog when they don't know early mechanics.

[@1braincellwhm]

@@spetsu1 fresh teams queue up with purpose while clear teams attract hard carries.

[@spetsu1]

@@1braincellwhm I hate that people do that. I just hopped on the game an hour ago with the plan to do PF, but I haven't even posted a listing or tried to join one yet since I need to mentally prepare for the people I might encounter.

[@Calculusman1084]

Ive done UwU, TEA, DSR and P1S thru P12S in Party Finder. It takes a lot of patience, and u gotta remind yourself of the upsides. U raid on your time, you can always leave if Party isnt doing well, you Prog at your pace, etc. Tho having a GOOD Static is a game changer.

[@delimelone]

I JUST finished M4S and I am sooo burned out.. I spent 10 hours reclearing M3S this week and then started the 4th fight.. since I have time off at the moment I spent like 50 hours the last few days clearing the last fight. It was such a horrible PF expierence truly rivaling P8S or PS3.. If you wait more than a week to start raiding the quality of PF just drops so hard

[@scorpiowarrior7841]

Yeah and it's why I've given up. I tried to prog in PF but people can't even do fucking quad crossing on M1s. It's infuriating to understand evrey mech up to mouse 1, want to GO to mouser 1 to get past it and evrey group dies to fucking cardinals.

[@thenanoboost]

I run a FC on FFXIV and we do casual raid nights every friday! we just trying to prog to clear, not trying to reclear or get BiS, just want people to clear the tier

[@ItsZorroDood]

Committing to a trap party is always a mistake. At that point you're basically carrying 4 - 7 other people for no gain.

[@Erothaur]

My friend and I have basically the exact same experience as you with party finder. I even play Sage myself. If you don't use ACT yourself, you should ask your friend to look at the healing for you. I've noticed that I'm usually pushing double my pure healer's output. And my friend is on Dark Knight, in our M2S clear party today he literally ripped aggro off the Warrior via damage while actively shirking him on cooldown. It's brutal in here. I will say though, M1S went pretty okay for me. I got a decent party the first weekend and we pushed through. Only ever saw enrage once, then skipped the last mech on the clear run. You should NEVER see enrage in that fight. M2S is way tighter though, I saw enrage several times before getting the clear a couple hours ago today.

[@atwitchyferret]

M3S was the biggest hell for me on PF. I got to enrage after around 7 hours of prog and started joining clear parties. I took over 20 hours in clear parties seeing enrage 3 times total before I gave up and bought mercenaries at 1 mil gil per person. After that it was around 6 pulls to a win. So the moral of the story is, if you are having problems, pay people to get over it. Edit: Also waiting will only help at week 7 when everyone gets the tomestone weapon

[@7RicolmE7]

My advice? just join an any chest group for the first clear. The real issue here is that the players lie to themselves when it comes to prog.

[@chesssean]

Party finder is where dreams go to die.

[@kakuzu12345]

PF has been pretty chill so far. Fresh prog to clear on m1s in a few hours. Got to poison sting on my third pull of the bee and killed her before lockout in my second party. Honestly, whether you yourself are capable or not; PF is an endurance marathon. Not a race. If a few idiots who aren't consistent are all it takes to mental boom, PF isn't for you.

[@speleothem4682]

This tier has made me hate the average pf raider pretty much, I don't know what happened this tier but it's super obvious the average person doesn't care about others' time when they're running around in pf with dungeon gear, and even if they are running crafted they have no melds, where even using old EW melds would be better than nothing. It's so infuriating being held back when you're ready to clear but you get unlucky and have these players in your party. I've had to put up weekly reward unclaimed parties just to filter out said people to be able to clear and the fact I've had to do so is sad. I didn't need to do this in any other tier I've PFed, and I'm probably gonna join a static next tier just so I don't have to deal with people in pf

[@celfhelp]

it's probably because the world race was fast and *everyone* immediately started with the "this tier is too easy" takes PF raiders don't consider the fact that it was world 1st, top tier players, with active voice comms/callouts clearing it fast, not the average player, so it's this bizarro disconnect where they expect it to be objectively easy with minimal effort

[@hextorm2]

why are you so toxic bro, stop being so elitistic, let me have MY fun that is what you probably hear when you say somthing to them

[@richardwicker8456]

@@celfhelp I think it's also a case where they look at the world first racers and think to themselves that they could do just as well or better; these people aren't willing to accept that they may not be quite as skilled as they believe themselves to be.

[@Sillyroseayaya]

you are so real for this and i relate to you ,,the number of ppl ive had to kick because 0 melds is insane like plz you are committing to week 1 prog melds/food/pots is bare minimum .

[@Izanagi-Arsene]

​@@Sillyroseayaya no melds is the absolute worst, even if it's some lower grade one like the g10s and g9 the damage being left on the table is going to be a mere percent. without melds you're at the bare minimum 15% worse than you could be with them. food is of course essential in any raid type scenario no excuses really you get gil from running content in the game so there's no excuse for it either since there's other players in the community that will simply give a player some raid food if asked. pots are exclusively for clear/reclear runs, you're just wasting them on prog and learning groups.

[@brookehawkins9526]

welcome to pf... I feel your pain. For my few friends and I that do savage this way in pf, the clears feel pretty good after all the pain! :) Glad you got the clears. Maybe we'll see ya in pf one day.

[@puptaco8100]

OMG you echo my sentiments on raiding. I absolutely loved my old static but had to drop because my other KZbin channel (it’s a Vegas travel channel which requires hours of editing every week) took up way too much time for me to keep up with the game past just for fun casual EX farms and MSQ. I did the PF grind for P3S and it was hell and by the time Abyssos came out I grinded P4S in Crystal PF and we never hit phase 2 😭 - I had a static for Abyssos and Anabasieos but with my KZbin channel I just couldn’t make the time commitment and even though I’m on Aether now, I just do not have it in me to go into PF and try for the clears. PF is a huge time commitment because progging Savage in PF is hell. I have literally done that song and dance you described in the video so much and at this point… I would love to play these fights for the experience because they are fun, but I just don’t have the time commitment 😢

[@bicks4436]

I escaped PF but from when I did it, I remember a few things I realized pretty quick in tier 1 of EW. - advertised prog point is always 1-2 mechanics past what the actual consistent prog point is, people get to a mech one time completely scuffed and say hey that's my new prog point so you join ahead not matching your consistent point - the three wipe rule sounds harsh, but at some point you have to value your time. If a group is not getting to their (low bar) prog point in 3 pulls, it's not worth it just leave - if you feel confident flexing positions ask if the other person in your role wants a specific one, I wouldn't be surprised if half the reason people suck ass is because they can't flex and learn mechs at the same time but have to since they cycle parties unlike a static - if you aren't clearing turn 1 and 2 week 1, 3 in week 2, and 4 in week 3 it's only gonna get worse and worse because all the good players are in reclear groups so probably just give up at that point

[@iPlayOnSpica]

I relate to this suffering, Aitherea. I cleared M1S after a full day of people not learning, and the pf I finally cleared in, three of us (myself included) hard carried the dps while we struggled so much overcoming enrage. The other five hard grey parsed (0-11th percentile) and we needed melee lb3. I felt so done; I felt like I allowed 5 players that shouldn't be touching savage yet, clear savage.

[@Sairagna]

They need to make the stone sea sky striking dummy mandatory to enter savage.

[@FutayuriShironeko]

That's regular PF experience. It sucks, but that's why people who clear every tier in PF, they have my respect for their patience.

[@Dracounguis]

I still don't have the mounts from Shadowbringers yet. 🥺 (Or obviously Endwalker)

[@Madoyon.]

This expansion is also my 1st true PF experience, and to say I've been held back by 7 randoms starting from the very first EX1 is to say nothing. I probably managed to clear both extremes in PF as a WAR only because I was lucky to stumble upon statics that lacked 2-3 players. Everything else was just me having to reset because my party kept dying in the same mechanic in duty completion PFs for hours or straight up griefed by doing some weird patterns instead of HTTH from the PF description, chasing people to stack on spreads, running away from me straight into the party with a tether that I need to take on EX2, greeding on out of melee etc. At least farm parties are somewhat capable with a "duty completed" requirement, but people manage to throw even in log runs anyways.

[@Borthralla]

I relate to this a lot, I finished endwalker right when abyssos came out and jumped into that savage tier as my first time doing any kind of high-end content. Doing p8s in pf was definitely a character building experience for me as it took a tremendous amount of time and frustration on my part. I also found a static via pf like you did that was slower to progress then I would’ve liked, which is why I did it on my own time in pf. In Anabesios I rejoined that group since they were fun to hang out with, but I came to regret it since I really wanted to progress a lot faster. I cleared p10 and p11 in pf week 1, and I regretted not having more time to go hard on p12 as well. I ended up being honest with the group and leaving, and they didn’t take it well. I ended up meeting another group doing p12 in pf and joined their static initially as a sub, and then fully fledged for reclears. That group was refreshing for me because those players were squarely around my skill level and despite taking the fights more seriously, they also had a good attitude and communication. I did arcadion savage with some members of that group and it was my first time clearing a tier week 1, which was great (definitely felt like a walk in the park compared to p8s in pf)!

[@Tyvexel]

Was in a M1S reclear party and somone on mouser 2 threw themselves into the tile that the party was stacked on. We disbanded after

[@Althea_Iryut]

classic heh

[@praisethewhiterabbit5112]

What really is exhausting about PF is the transition from prog into kill party cuz lots of stupid people who don't know the mechs tag along hoping the rest will carry them and end up ruining the whole run instead

[@Verpal]

As a PF enjoyer since Shb, there is something odd with this tier. I already know that usually at expansion launch there are a lot of casual that join savage at a whim, and that's okay, usually they will just dip into first turn, realize savage isn't for them, then quit. However, this tier, other than M3S, all have very lenient DPS check at launch, in fact, I started the tier slightly late, and by the time I clear M1S and M2S, in both turn I carried multiple 0-10 parse player forward. Situation in M3S isn't any better, I still have to actively shop around to find a good group. However, thanks to a somewhat better dps check filter in M3S, M4S experience is arguably better than M3S, and week 1 clear is relatively easy. My recommendation on improving PF experience is either host your own party and use blacklist very liberally, or shop around different PF aggressively, yes, even in Crystal, I raid in Crystal PF too.

[@TenzieTV]

sooo i feeel this so hard. even finding a full party honestly takes forever. me and a friend of mine have been PF raiding. but through PF we met some cool people and have been slowly putting together our own static. tonight we get to put that static to the test as our first official "static" raid lol. which sounds amazing hahaha. I want to raid savage so bad, i even want to get my feet wet in ultimate just to say I TRIED, even if i fail. but PF is sooooooo awful honestly, and 90% of people don't even want to join a VC / discord which drives me insane!!!!!!

[@Aitherea]

It's funny because the way I originally found my prior static was PF. They were like 6/8 and the only ones advertising discord, which was the exact reason I chose to join that party. I wanted to be able to discuss mechanics/ask questions and actually talk with people as opposed to silently staring at my pc screen. Luckily, they ended up being super cool people! Gz on finding some decent people to raid with, I hope it all works out for you c:

[@TenzieTV]

@@Aitherea omg the amount of people who don't want to interact with people is honestly mind blowing! go play FF7 for that amazing single player experience hahaha Also THANKS! hoping for just a fun time. even without any clears just a fun raiding vibe of people honestly trying their best is all i ask for

[@DriftingArctra]

Always always always take whatever prog point the PF says its at and remove at least 1 mechanic back from that. Unless its a clear/enrage party then those are always prog parties for the first mech of a fight.

[@vespi57]

I raid on PF on my alt, but I also have a static for my main. And I can't ask for a better static. All the people there can be themselves, we study the mechanics together. If we fail at something we laugh about it, analyze what went wrong and go again. We're not hardcore, all of us have a life, but we usually can still make time to raid 2-3 times a week. The best feeling is that I can do these fights with my friends that I also know in real life. When I take my static experiences to PF with my alt, it's totally different. Some things I do with my static I can't do in PF, it's a matter of adapting. But it does help to learn the fight in my static and then see if PF can do better. Often it can't.

[@LerThiL]

PF is wild, as a fellow sage I understand, yet it was a journey that made me a better sage, I found crazy people and amazing people, but that is reality, maybe a static really is better for you but its a decision you need to make and commit. Good Luck

[@IsabelleFyrebrand]

I just finished my 2nd 2 week prog break this tier, it’s worse than it’s ever been 😢. ACT is a blessing and a curse, it’s nice to keep tabs on party dps, but I almost cried during our deathless, heartless M2s run when we engaged at 2% and I was 7.5k dps above our pictomancer. My old friend from stormblood had a static looking for a healer 2 weeks ago, and I was blessed to only spend 1 PF night on fusefield before I progged enrage with them! We didn’t have good schedules to prog the last 2 weeks, I tried party finder, but randos getting past EE2 is like trying to swallow a watermelon 🥲

[@Convii]

This video coming out only a few hours after I was having the same issue in PF atm is just what I needed. I'm still on M1S trying to get a clear and I'm near the tailend of clearing I just know but I run into parties just like you mentioned: "Mouser 2 prog onwards" for example only to have people dying to THE FIRST MECHANIC. Its just annoying. I know as a somewhat newer raider I make mistakes and own up to it but theres a difference between making mistakes and just straight up PF idiocy.

[@Borthralla]

For this particular tier, callouts via voice chat are incredibly helpful for all the fights, there are a lot of otherwise tricky mechanics that are trivialized by good callouts. For example in m2s, having someone just yelling “spread!” or “pairs!”, or in m1s people calling out which marker the clones mechanic is going to be at. It’s just as big of a help in m3s and m4s as well. My honest advice is to try hosting your own groups in pf and inviting people to join a voice channel. Or even making macros to say “spread!” Or “stack!” In the party chat. About dps issues, not much you can do about other people unfortunately, but I will say that I don’t think tinctures are as big of a boost as most people think. It’s so much more important to just not die to mechanics and keep your basic gcd’s rolling.

[@behrad766]

The same thing happened to me on M2s, spent 6 hours today aiming for the clear and man it feels bad to be held back every-time in a CLEAR PARTY. Soo i begged a pf with people who alr cleared to let me in and guess what, I CLEARED. Its just frustrating because pf drains my time and mental.

[@hakune4724]

T_T many people can't do True North man! I am struggling with M1 because of that

[@Sojuski]

Just face camera north??

[@kahl9670]

TN is fine, but as a melee that needs positionals, BR is soooooo much better.

[@snizzle6174]

​@@kahl9670for M1s? I'm just hitting true north, honestly. Screw trying to read the clones BR, it's awful But normally I'm also all for BR

[@kahl9670]

@@snizzle6174 idk, I just find BR to be braindead. All I have to do I look at the bosses left fuzzy butt check. My camera is always oriented to where I am looking at he backside,, so if she is looking south, I have to go opposite or flip my camera to the north. Just feels like extra steps to me. I can do both and do both being in two statics with different preferences, and in my exp, BR just feels better to me. Also, should note that in the BR group, the tank faces the boss in the direction that the clone will be facing when it moves.

[@snizzle6174]

@@kahl9670 That's normal BR, which is fine to me. The reason it sucks in M1s is because of the clones. you have to look at the clones doing the clocks for BR while the boss is also on top of the clone for uptime and the circles are over top of each other, and from a distance, since you need to be where the clone is going to jump to. I guess you could just do it relative to the boss itself, but then you're relying on the finnicky boss movement in this game, when there's perfectly good floor markings for the positioning.

[@NotGuy64]

I understand the frustration, I been a PF roamer for a decent chunk of time now. the thing you learn pretty quickly is that you are going to get bad Parties through PF. sometimes throughout all of your attempts you can either give up and complain about it. or accept you got a bad party and try again later.

[@idno4856]

This video was funny cause Aitherea thinks PF players know what prog points are... But this is essentially why I solo/duo stuff for mounts. Great vid as always

[@ColbyGonzales30]

You definitely gotta know when to leave a pf as well. If it’s the 5th pull and you’re not seeing the advertised prog point it’s time to go I feel. And a LOT of people will lie about their prog point which is very frustrating. Hopefully you find some better parties or can continue the tier at a later date

[@crossdaboss8914]

I want to raid in a static so bad just for the voice chat alone having raid call outs and verbal explanations of accounts helps soo much

[@mocmeo4425]

i have cleared every tier since Asphodelos in PF and my advice is the earlier you prog the quality of PF will be better, like i cleared both 1s and 2s this tier on day 1 with relative ease, while my friend who progged on Saturday was stuck in m2s for 15 hours because people could not stay alive/not pressing their buttons, its just the reality of things. Other than that it's really more of an endurance test and a huge time investment, PF is basically just rolling the dice for either a good party or a bad event happening, and a static just minimize the chance of that bad event happening.

[@Dracounguis]

I find it hard to believe any streamer would have trouble getting a team together. Whether the team is good or not is a different question! 😆

[@MagicFanatics-l8b]

Due to static shenanigens I ended up having to pf the last fights of Abyssos and Anabaesios. That is the only time I've not had fun playing FFXIV and is the closest I have ever been to burning out. Your skill doesn't matter, you only get through pf with sheer determination.

[@Yokai_Yuri]

PF is another world. Someone described it perfectly by saying that PF it's like flipping a coin multiple times in hopes you get the proper party. PF also has a general strategy that they use for PF, mostly Hector, but you will find other people with different methods and those who refuse to adapt and use a guide. In a static, if the majority of the group doesn't like a guide, that's fine, everyone agrees to use another and you don't change just because. You do in PF.

[@JB0007]

Former Balmung native here, when they split the DCs I hopped on Aether bc I'm just a raider. I knew where this was going when Crystal was mentioned. I know ppl raid over there still, but I'd say the serious ones keep to their groups. Using DC travel could help, hop on over to other DCs, and get stuff done. PF is still PF, but there should be less trouble with dps checks, hopefully.

[@JuanSolos]

holy, you just explained how ive felt about raiding in games in general lately so perfectly. i like the challenge but i dont like the commitment

[@denairwalkerrr33]

Just wanna share my story that might motivate you. I joined in SHB and occasionally tried PFing couple tiers in late SHB and EW but never got past 2nd fight due to not enjoying it that much and having much more fun stuff to do in game. Now I ran out of most of side content and decided to go hard this tier. Joined midcore static (cuz have 0 logs for a hardcore one), prog was a slog and we killed M1 only on Saturday of week 1 and I felt them on good terms. On Sunday I watched M2 vid, got it to almost enumerations and just started joining clear parties cuz I was confident in that mechanic so I didn't feel a need to prog from there to enrage. In total took me only 4 hours and I got a bit lucky to clear with 0 parse SCH. I took my break on monday, only watched M3. Recleared M1/2 without much issues in two days and hoo boy... M3 had like 3 diff strats in PF running at the same time. I got all of them down. I prog to last mech of the fight and had same issues as you. Not a single "clear party" knows how to do SIMPLE mechs after first half of the fight. For 3 days and over 70 pulls total. It was absolutely miserable and I had friends help me clear with no loot. Then I had 2 days left for M4 until lock today. Same deal as M3 but this time "clear" people troll the very last mechanic in the boss. It is 12mins into fight. I died to it like at least 10 times after learning myself cuz people think they can join "clear" parties over "last mechanic prog to clear". And then it finally clicked. I just went and joined a party that said "troll that last mechanic - kick". WE KILLED IT IN A SINGLE FREAKING PULL! It was truly amazing feeling beating my first ever raid tier this way in under 2 weeks. (you can also just ask one friend to make yellow c41 party if you are confident in your fight execution) But ye I personally won't have pushed so much if I didn't like the fights that much cuz I think they are very engaging. I kinda had same mentality in terms of not doing content cuz no loot but learned to just enjoy doing mechanics like a robot haha and reward is mostly the feel after the clear. But I am either finding static aiming to clear week 2 maximum or will just PF next tier from day 1 hard after that M3 slog. Hope this might motivate to give this tier another shot, I do think it's really good to get into raiding!

[@Aitherea]

When I raid in pf, the clear feels like a relief rather than a victory that I am excited about. I also just dont like all the hours it takes. It really isnt worth it for me, it's nothing but frustration xD

[@denairwalkerrr33]

@@Aitherea absolutely! I quite a few years ago decided for myself that in video games I play things only as long as they are fun to me personally. PF certainly broke that mold to a degree for a change haha. Just recleared M1-3 today, felt pretty good because after so many trap parties I am almost on autopilot now.

[@Jahkrel]

These fights require more from people than erich and hippo did. Also you are right prog lying is rampant since endwalker started. static up and dont even think about it again.

[@ToxicFume]

Definitely would suggest a mid core group, 2-4 weeks clear, and are fine with not going for bis for everyone. (meaning everyone rolls for their bis not just dps). Usually unicorns to find, but they're out there. Hope this isn't doesn't end up souring Savage raid for you, they're usually a blast to run in pf once you can join clear parties. (Though the mileage still varies.)

[@rafacastillo9611]

It took you 4 months to clear a whole EW tier with a casual group running 4 hours a week? You had it good, my static with that time took a year, it was pain

[@goliacktheshyguy9293]

Honestly, I am not surprised. It is the first time I do extreme sync, and as much as it went fast, I had a feeling savage would be another story. I thought maybe to give it a try once I reached BiS outside of Savage Gear to see how it would go, but I'm not so sure anymore ^^'. Perhaps I would stick to extreme. I'm on Crystal as well, and I always heard or saw memes about Crystal Data Center being bad for raiding, but I was surprised at how well the extreme was going, especially for a first-timer like me. Maybe that is not much, but perhaps clearing the training fight in Stone Sky Sea could be a requirement to check if the person is capable of pulling the DPS needed to clear? Of course there is a difference between Stone Sky Sea and the actual fight with the mechanics. But that could help. Sadly for the other part of the issue, I don't really see how to deal with it. I've heard for a long time people lying on their actual point of progress of a fight just to join a party and kind of ruin everything for everyone. If we could filter more, maybe that would solve, but that would be hard to do. Raiding in PF as always seems for me to be a shore or be extremely lucky with a good group. I only see maybe a static can save some sanity at the cost of commitment, but neither of them sound fun to me. There is other thing I prefer to do in game, like getting that damn mount from bicolor gemstone 😁.

[@awesty536]

M2 got me to the point of not wanting to raid like nothing has before. With my static we did over 120 pulls week one, and at one point we got to 0.1% hp. But of course, week two comes along and we clear on pull two. M3 was such a refreshing breath of fresh air and much more fun, but maybe thats because it hasnt traumatized me yet.

[@rtbear674]

Cleared P8s 7 times in a week in pf, just because the gear was cool and the weekly limit was unlocked. But p12s though... Nah, 8x is more than enough. probably 3-4 hours each day after work. M1S : Wednesday prog, thursday clear M2S : Friday prog, saturday clear M3S : Saturday prog, Sunday A2C, finally Clear 6 days later. I became so good that it would be very rare if I made any mistake. M4S P1 : Saturday prog, "Ion cluster" prog for 2 days. reach P2 on sunday night. M4S P2 : Sunday night start, Monday night A2C. If you are unlucky with pf. And TBF, most people forgot the m1s again next week. But before you did in 3 ish week. You haven't even reach 3rd week yet at this point. But nah, once you geared up enough, it'll be easier.

[@SayuIchi]

Not getting to the prog point or clear really is frustrating, but what was even worse imho was the god aweful wait time. This will be a small tell/rant, probably a longer comment. I raid with my FC, but we have to fill with party finder. We are 5/8, with 1 healer, 1 tank, 3 dps. Well now 2 healer, 3 dps. We cleared M1 last day on week 1 after much of the same problems u describe. So many people have problems doing the baits, I don't understand. We had not that many rude people, i remember one, when we search from start (a fc member that didn't join day 1 joined us) and get to/past Clones in 2-3 tries and they go with a comment saying "didn't know this was blind prog". Like.. ok. Recleared tuesday, was okay. Managed week 1 and 2 dps checks with a couple seconds, but close. Started M2S afterwards. What I remember M2 prog was still fine. Hitting the DPS check was a bit trickier, especially due to Alarm 1's randomness in killing or not killing a dps or two. Which would make us unable to beat the dps check. Managed M2S and started M3 around the weekend. Fusefield is a wall in that fight, after that its not really that hard. Fusefield is just really punishing though if someone dies right before. Which, interlude, is the main issue with PF i think. There's tons of spots in a fight where a single messup causes a wipe. The mechanics shouldn't be boring, but it would help PF a lot if they were recoverable to a certain degree. The dps check only gets harder with deaths anyway. From my experience raiding with pf/lfg in Guild Wars 2, thats a mostly unique issue to the way Final Fantasy Raids are designed. There are spots, roles and mechanics that will kill your run in GW2, but 80% of the fights you can recover if someone crucial messes up. (If you lose a dps its a whatever tbf, dps creep just got that bad nowadays). Okay, my FC mate spend 8-10 hours on monday, way into the night, after other members went to bed already, and cleared M3S week 2. At least a third of those 8-10 hours were spend outside the instance. M3 is were the pf started to really dry up. Its week 2. I cleared it with them, but had a 2,5h "break" inbetween.. raiding in GW2. Did the reclears in 2 evenings iirc. I think we searched for Reclear even with our fc mates that did not clear. As mentioned, after Fusefield its not really anything major, and we did not want to have people fail at every other mechanic again. The dps check here, in both clears, was tight. The big enrage cast was already on its way. One of the two kills we had no 10 seconds to spare. Party finder dries up, an interlude. Again, an issue created by design. With the loot lockout and the punishment for bringing people that already cleared, theres really no reason to keep playing after you did your reclears. For fun? God forbid. No fun in Savage Raiding! To practice certain mechanics again or another role's positions? Then you might end up griefing others loot. - I left a M2S group once the first person jumped, since I couldn't clear before I do with my FC for the week. They were "[Practice] from start" but we saw past 2nd beat almost immediately. Aside from a friend of the leader nobody was at a "start" prog point. - My first M3S was kinda griefed by someone that way. I didn't see the notification in the middle of the night, being tired. The AST we had, who btw failed the most out of the group, already had cleared that week. GW2 doesn't have that many open pfs.. partly probably because they fill. And is less restrictive about what exact classes can fill a spot. We often need to search for 1-2 replacements due to people not making it in our static. We very rarely have to wait >10min. Usually

[@JJMomoida]

"I would rather be doing literally anything else." To be honest that's part of the reason I don't raid savage/ultimate in XIV. I've heard so many horror stories of PF at this point, and while I'd love to be in a static, my work schedule shifts quite a bit.

[@eternalsummer8409]

Welcome to party finder, the junji Ito style raid due to how insane it’ll turn you

[@jjjooommmill3347]

This was my first savage. I don't play other MMO's really at all. I cleared after 12 hours on WHM with tome gear, not fully materia'd and parsed a 51. My experience was incredibly similar to this. I haven't even attempted M2S because of my experience in M1S. Haven't been able to reclear M1 either yet... people still messing up pre-nailchipper in clear parties... its nuts.

[@filipvadas7602]

PF either blesses you with the CLEANEST runs you'll ever get or complete insanity. There is no in-between. Only the strong can endure it.

[@Choji2011]

Now im scared if this is how it is with M1-4S are. Im having this issue with the party finder just for Valigarmanda EX and trying to farm wings but for the past 4 days ive been joining clear parties but we can't even get passed fire spots or fire phase. And im thinking ok maybe its me but its not when ive ran it so much that i have 50totems and all the weapons, barding and trophie from the feathers. I mess up here and there but i seen it due to players that dont even learn the mechs or explain so i get stuck for hours with toxic or bad parties. Idk if i should keep trying or give up

[@YabbyUra]

As someone that’s been around for a while, I will say that if you can do an EW fight or are pretty decent at the current Extremes, Light-Heavyweight Tier Savage isn’t that much of a step up. You’ve got this ^^

[@shioya7570]

PF sounds like an absolute nightmare. I've been playing for just over a month and I'm already up to M4S. I agree on M2S being easy, and this is coming from someone who still had a sprout going into M2S prog. Dodged a bullet on deciding to never do the raid without my static it sounds like

[@irisheartt]

My experience with EX trials in PF has been terrible enough, I dare not try savage. I literally had to pay 7 other people to help me clear Zeromus EX because I got tired of meteor memes. Just hours and hours and hours of random idiots wiping the party. After I got my clear and went into farm parties it got so much better. It's such an easy fight, just goes to show that a significant percentage of PF warriors share a single braincell.

[@ultimateshowstopper7524]

One of the often overlooked benefits of being in a static is "frustration mitigation". Raiding with people that you know and like makes the raid time more fun, and it's easier to brush off mistakes. When I'm in PF and some random dragoon fails a mechanic, then of course they're the worst dragoon I've ever seen and they're stupid and ruining my party. But when in a static environment and the static dragoon is messing a mechanic up, it's not a big deal. Sure, a little grumbly, but this is *your* dragoon. You've cleared fights with the static dragoon, you know they understand the mech and are having a bad day, you've cleared UCOB with them, it's not a big deal. And it's so much easier to humanize and empathize with a static member, which can keep you from tilting at randos.

[@Avocado-O25]

Just cleared M2S last night. So far it’s taken a week per floor and many many parties. Half the people aren’t really progging what they put, they are progging the mechanic before it. Raining Cats was really Clones prog, Beat 3 prog is really beat 2 prog, and clear parties are really Beat 1 prog 😂😂😂

[@thebulardman]

I did PF this tier and cleared week 1 as WHM but it was definitely a challenge. Reclears were shockingly long especially at M3S and this was even just the day of reset. It is def a mixed bag. That being said I have also met some really great people…also some of the worst.

[@packoNewportonrs]

general rule for party finder is that if people say they are at mechanic X, they are really 2 or 3 mechanics before mechanic X.

[@NovaVor4380]

To be honest, at this point im just far too used to PF being.... PF, more often than not, im just getting through the fights on sheer determination (and spite, of course). Still i have made tons of friends through pf, and im not alone since i have a pf bubby to suffer with me 😊

[@SuperTwoU]

I hear you so much on how terrible Party Finder is, I'm also sadly on the Crystal Data Center which is well known to be one of the Data Centers with fewer Savage clears. I've joined so many Mouser 2+ parties that can't consistently make it through the very first mechanic. Party Finder just can't agree on if we should do same-baits or different baits, people forget their clock spots, or they go to the wrong position for the light party stack when that 1st mechanic comes up again. I just hit lvl 100 on an alternate character I made on a Japanese Data Center and am hoping to see what it's like playing over there.

[@toscatattertail9813]

I tried party finder once, got a group that took offence to me being a lala, a dancer, not appreciating overtly bad sexual jokes and not having savage level gear.

[@4NSW3RM3]

The few raiders I know (personally) went to Aether the second they got their armor and didn't come back to Crystal until weekly reset, so not really surprised that Crystal PF was worse. Feels like the majority of experienced raiders did something similar.

[@Aitherea]

From what I understand, it's not actually possible most of the time to even travel to Aether due to the new restrictions, so beats me how they did that xD

[@4NSW3RM3]

@@Aitherea It was available for the first hour, and then DC travel just stopped working for nearly a week. Half the reason one of my friends stayed in Aether was because she didn't want to risk getting stuck in DC travel back

[@INeosIRex]

That's a typical week 1 in pf. For the first week you have to clear at least the first 3 fights in the first few days. If u don't you end up with the players who are just not good enough to clear without better gear. And the players who are good enough don't run the fights again for the rest of the week and mostly do only reclears from the next week. Wait a few weeks until ppl get better gear and try again it will be better. And try to go for clears the first few days of the week because same as before. The longer you wait the less competent players are around.

[@xkarna]

I started raiding during this expansion through PF. Did Ex1 and M1S so far. I pretty much have it all down. I'm a solo guy since none of my friends want to try FFXIV so I don't mind using PF. One thing I want to improve on is my damage/rotation.

[@naota909]

That's why you need to week 1 clear the tier if you're going to do it in PF w1 PF players are much better M1S - clear in 4-7 hours (super important b/c this allows you to use M1S as a gate/wall against the bad players) M2S - clear on day 2 M3S - clear on day 3 or 4 (ideally day 3) M4S - clear by day 6 (ideally 5 to avoid the bad PF players) all in PF

[@WolfmanXD]

"I'm not being nice anymore." Yeeeeeeesssssss, join the dark side. Let the anger flow through you. To be fair, and I'm not making excuses for anyone, especially pf, but ironically R2S has the potential to have the hardest dps check in the tier, due to the potential of failing the hearts. My group got to enrage twice last night. One of those, we got to engage at 4% hp. And the worst part about it is that we got 4 stacks of her buff during hearts phase (1% hp, not 2% btw). So we SHOULD'VE had her down on that attempt.

[@xkey_blade9558]

It’s my first savage experience I have cleared m1 and m2 in the first week with pf. And now i am at m3. It’s so frustrating when a clear group die on the first mechanic‘s many times and I always wanna be nice and wanna try many runs because I don’t wanna quit a group fast 😅. It bothers me how people who also cleared M1 and M2 have still problems with the mechanics 😅. I did need 3 hours for black cat with clear/reclear groups on my reclear I did not expect that at all 👀😵🥺.

[@carneliansweetness]

I spent 3 weeks for p3s because my static could not clear and pf was bad on end sun-monday. I spent 3 lockouts in pf and cleared M3S from fresh to a2c lol. If you want to clear this tier, you need to push to clear during reset. This tier is super easy in damage checks so you lose experienced people later in the week. Honestly if the party keep dying to mechanic, repf already and blacklist the people who keep messing up.

[@eugenides04]

The rule of NA PF is that the groups are always labeled as being (at least) one prog point further than they are. Mouser 2 prog? That's clones prog. Clear party? That's Mouser 2 prog. Reclear party? That's somehow still just a Clear party.

[@novosiffxiv]

a major difference between party finder in extremes and savage, there's no loot lockout in extremes so you get a wider mix of skill ranges in the party. In savage though if you are in a pf for enrage, those players are actually generally at the skill level of a a group that struggles on the enrage.

[@Aitherea]

I didnt think of that but youre SO right! theres no reason for skilled players to hop back into pf once theyve cleared cuz they cant get loot anyway. It also means that, in a way, people get less practice because its not something theyd really be farming multiple clears of per week.

[@novosiffxiv]

@Aitherea if it was possible to just help after you cleared, people would, and they do now for no chest runs, but if even 1 person in the party has cleared that week you go from 4 pieces of loot to 2 and 4 cleared people means no loot. Party descriptions don't get that desperate until late in the weekend

[@mapleXIV]

This is my first savage tier. I think M1 suffered badly for many reasons. Lots of people new to high end content, undergeared, not making genuine efforts to mitigate, can't adjust to the various strats or different positions, lying about prog, etc.. I try to give everyone the benefit of doubt since I am also not a great player, but it does seem like some people are not willing to give their best.

[@edwardhernandez8774]

I’m opposite of perfectionist, I’m come prepared with job buff, food, strength potion, willing to communicate every 2hr, and downtime. But when comes to actual fighting I can’t dodge aoe and always lost or die a lot.

[@alexander3283]

So i got a week 1 clear in pf, it was HELL, i was really doubting all my life choices

[@KnightYemy]

I hope you don’t burn yourself out of FFXIV with PF, I did with UCoB and had to take an extended break once i cleared twice, because I never listened to the warning people gave about UCoB being the hardest thing to PF in the game and I paid for it. 😭 Pls prioritize ur sanity over silly armor, PF is a goddamn demon and will only get more insane as the player count grows

[@xxomega702buzzalini8]

PF is hard mode. I have the problem of not lying and joining a prog point where I am at and join 2 mechanics ahead cause if the prog point is stated in PF it's 2 mechanics behind

[@LukeBBert]

M2s is certainly a pain. I have cleared in both weeks but if feels like the fght is more rng than skill. Even as someone who cleared, reclear took me lile 4 hours. Perhaps you have already heard this but i will say again m3s is much better. Play the way that makes you happy, but i think if you stick it out it will be worth it in the end. I am sure you can find people to help you get a clear. I am gonna help a friend do a book run this weekend

[@jessea9744]

I am so tired of being ripped to shreds.

[@Zyphel]

Thing with this tier is that a lot of stuff happening inside a fight is random and cant be coreographed. So when people arent being told where to stand on 100% of the fight, they die cause they arent skilled enough. PF in general has always been a challenge but this tier basically put a spotlight on people that dont really know how to play.

[@KogasaYosikage]

party finder really is a gamble, half the people don’t even use pots. But, imo still not worse than p8s in pf, but I feel your pain

[@Izanagi-Arsene]

11:24, they changed it over to the braindead MTTT strat that only requires the groups to bait for the first 2 and then have the tanks invuln the last two while baiting the in and out stacks... they still mess it up b/c they keep flip flopping which stack party is in and out confusing everyone and never stop to correct it. then they cannot adjust to other strats b/c it's not the strat they used.

[@Forrest477]

I feel like you got so unlucky. I scraped together a bunch of bored ERPers and some rando signups on Balmung at like 3AM and we pretty much got through it all without any sort of like discord or callouts. I dunno if they were secret hardcore players or something, I dont log or check people's logs, but we just bought some gear and stuff and loaded in and it wasnt that bad. This has kinda been my PF experience in general, so I don't know how some people are magnets for people who can't play the game.

[@Ilposeidonll]

This raid tier has no dps check. Which were very grateful for since it allows alot of newbies to come and try savage for the first time and not have to go through the nine rings of hell. Buuut PF is helluva thing it's a gamble.

[@sladevalen]

I have yet to try doing end game content in this game because i dont have confidence in what im doing. Doing dungeons and normal trials as healer is trival to me but the savage look intimidating to understand. Am i overthinking it?

[@highlordalcadizakyr1479]

your pf experiance is describing my static, they can not execute any mechanic clean. we had 4 raid-days and we never saw enrage in m1s, meanwhile on my alt i cleared m4s week one in pf and recleared it this week. i never go static again. dunno whats going on in US-pf but EU feels like mostly chill

[@stephensparkman6115]

12:58 now you know why so many people get frustrated with savage content. I usually get the envy’s faster than most prog parties and then you get held back over and over by people. it’s the worst part about it. I actually like prog, because when you get further and further you feel good, like “oh i got this it’s easy i can do this in my sleep now” then you get another party and it’s “omg how are we failing this”. it makes you resent people and it’s frustrating

[@blackhavoc3075]

I didn't even know M1 had a theter mechanic

[@Aitherea]

imagine skipping tethers T_T

[@Earthbound12]

Been pfing this tier and it has been pretty brutal so far. Though, the worst groups imo are people that leave in 1 or 2 pulls. And so many times where I've been doing all the mechanics correctly, but i wipe the group once and then people leave. Very frustrating at times.