Hello XIV community! I've been a long-time lurker ever since I first stepped foot into Eorzea approximately 4 years ago, right before the launch of Endwalker. With this post, however, I would like to break my silence in order to give you a taste of what progressing and clearing the last savage tier was like for me and my static completely blind! I believe it is the single most gratifying gaming achievement I've ever had, and I'd like to explain why so that some of you may join the wacky ride that is blind progression.
Now, when I say 'blind' I realize there may be some misconceptions to what I mean. I am specifically referring to clearing duties and in-game challenges while having no prior knowledge of them, and without using any third-party guides or pieces of information. This means no Hector Lectures, no Pastebins from week-1 groups, and no tidbits of advice from fellow Warriors of Light on how "they totally nailed this mechanic in the adds phase," etc. etc. Instead, our group solely relied on our own screenshots, recording software, raidplanner websites, MSPaint(underrated third party tool), and our own noggins to solve every mechanic, and clear each of the 4 fights of the Cruiserweight division. I would like to note that this is in no way required for a normal clear of a savage fight, and is a completely self-imposed challenge on myself and my fellow static members. We do it for the love of the game, and this in no way takes away from those who don't choose to go this extra mile in their pursuit of a savage clear. It took us just under 4 months (7/29 clear), but we accomplished our goal and cleared the tier (with many triumphs and hiccups along the way.)
But how did this begin? Well, I should probably give you a quick synopsis of myself: I'm an avid JRPG and puzzle gamer. I would rather spend my evening wracking my head at a tough logic puzzle than playing almost any other game, as I like the challenge and "cracking the code" for each problem a game presents me. I've always been like this, treating JRPGs, board games, Magic the Gathering, even my own math homework as a puzzle to be solved. It is truly my happy place, and nothing else compares to that feeling of finishing a long solution to a problem I've been working on for days. Now, when it comes to FFXIV, I only began savage raiding because I wanted to try each piece of content that XIV had to offer. This quickly led to me joining a "for beginners" static on the first savage tier of Endwalker, where almost the entire group accomplished their first ever clear of a tier, many of us having been complete beginners to savage raiding. After this I continued, clearing the next tier and the one after that, each time developing my own skills as a raider. I had a perfect knowledge of my rotation, a complete comfort in my class, and I was becoming.....a little bit bored with savage raiding. I realised that all we were doing, eventually, was trying to sightread some choreography and then perform it back in a synchronized Octet performance of some sort of "Violent Swan Lake." I wasn't really solving the fights, I was simply trying to perform the correct solution with a little bit of dexterity on my part, and a little bit of teamwork from all 8 of us. Raid nights started feeling a little too obligatory, when i knew 'my part' and was simply waiting for others in my group to catch up in practice. Around the time that our group was reclearing P8S for everyone's weapon that I remember talking to an in-game friend of mine, and they off-handedly mentioned a friend of theirs who had just cleared P7S in their blind prog static.
"Wait....what's that?"
"Oh, it's kind of like what we do except they don't use any guides. They just try and figure everything out themselves."
From then on, a seed was planted in the back of my head. When my static finally disbanded after our reclears of P12S, I knew I wanted to try Blind Prog, assuming it could get me to enjoy savage raiding again. To start with, I first needed to assemble a crew of like-minded gremlins who wanted to take on this extra challenge, and thankfully some members of my previous static wanted to give it a try! What we couldn't fill up with known friends and raid partners, we turned to recruitment discord servers, in-game advertisements, and even other websites (got one of our healers from Tumblr, no less.) This was my first time leading a static at all, much less for blind prog, so I came up with a fun way to trial new members: Jump into a Stormblood Savage raid that we had never completed before, and try to figure out as much as we could. It was a great way to see a player's ability to quickly adjust: to their kit at a lower level, to a fight they had never attempted, and to each other static member in regards to discussing strategies for a mechanic. I found some excellent players, some struggling players, and some players completely out of their depth, but the only ones I cared about were the ones who could keep the party alive as long as possible, and who could effectively communicate their ideas in a reasonable and respectful way. And boy, did we get some characters: A Healer/DPS couple who liked to joke around about committing violence against each other (lovingly!), a Cracked-out DPS player who had been playing since mid-Stormblood and who spoke very sparingly in vc, and a shield healer from Tumblr who had been playing since ARR but didn't really do much savage raiding. Raid nights were filled with jokes, strategy talk, crackpot theories, and many many sexual innuendos, but there was almost never a night where I was just.....there. Just running through the motions, collecting my paycheck (clear) and then clocking in again the next time. Each night I came to raid excited by learning something new, or confirming a theory on how a mechanic could possibly be solved and sometimes cheesed. This is what I was looking for: a chance to get to the clear with only our wits about us, as a genuine expression of our ability to solve the puzzle ourselves. This merry crew was enough to get there.
Now gushing is nice and all, but why would you want to do Blind Prog when it'll just take longer than a normal clear? Here's a couple moments that I think highlight the benefits for those who aren't getting as much out of savage raiding. This'll also be a fun place to highlight the wonderful moments that happened in our group as we progged through each of the 4 fights.
Point #1: You can truly break down a mechanic when you aren't given a "braindead" strat for solving it. This was such an important thing to happen for members of our static, because a lot of them realised that they relied often on being told where to go, and shown only the "final area to stand" rather than being explained how to figure out how they got there. In M7S, trying to figure out the various "seed"- related mechanics, or vine tethers during the last part of the fight had us making so many diagrams and having so many discussions, people developed a knowledge of the mechanic so intimate, that they were able to visualize better and more effectively because of that. As opposed to relying on markers, people suddenly started piecing together how the positioning of themselves and the rest of us could effect the "safe zones" on any given mechanic, or how damage might relatively effect where they put which skills in their rotation throughout that mechanic. We even had someone weaving movements for mechanics in-between ticks of the Damage-over-time caused by the tethers. It just made people better players, thinking more deeply about their rotation and its relation to the mechanics instead of just following a POV-clear or rotation guide tailored to the fight.
Point #2: You will find new, inventive solutions to mechanics that PF would never dare~. This is so underrated in the minds of many a savage raider, but finding your own way to solve a mechanic is so much more satisfying than solving the accepted strategy for your role. It often involves adjusting to the needs of someone in the moment: Either they can't figure out their lefts and rights quickly, or they need to use markers for a position they will always go to, or they just need a verbal reminder when the mechanic begins. These adjustments to issues people were having led us directly to our solution for Arcady Night Feverin M5S, where after reviewing the logs and trying to figure out how to help us solve that mechanic, I discovered that there was a pattern to the protean AOEs. Each player targeted would be alternating DPS > Support > DPS > Support, etc. They would also be target in such a way that the 1st person hit and the last person hit would share a debuff timer, and the second person and second to last person did as well, etc. Through finding this, we decided our solution to the mechanic would be to sound off our number in order of who got hit. As each of us got hit by our respective protean, we called out our own number as we counted to 8. Each number pair was assigned a given safe spot for the following half-room cleaves, and no one had to ever look at their debuff timer as it was counting down.
Point #3: Things go wrong sometimes, and immediately go so right. Our best example of this was on our first clear of M8S, in which we discovered that the final stacks of the enrage targeted a random player on any platform. We had figured out that tanks could invuln the stacks, so we developed a mitigation plan that allowed our WAR to use their invuln on the second stack, and me (PLD) to use my invuln on the 4th stack, and split up the rest of our healing and mit cooldowns across each other party stack. However, we would start the stack on our first platform targeted, then move clockwise until we reached the third platform allowing our WAR to take their position on the second platform. And what do you know, the WAR gets targeted! Second platform is fired on and then destroyed. We come to the party on the third platform, smoothly surviving the damage. Then finally I direct in vc:
"Alright, Left-left-left! Everyone go another to the left, and I'll stay here-"
And then suddenly, the boss lurges past my character and stares directly at the platform the party is teleporting to, targeting it with the 4th stack meant solely for me...
"WHY?"
"Oh F*** move move move-"
"Oh it targets a random player-"
And like a miracle, our whole party teleports back, and I teleport over in time, just pressing my invuln as the first shot hits me. I join them on the last platform, and after some solid heals, a melee LB3, we get the clear before the final enrage cast finishes. 4 months since the savage release. 3 nights per week, 3 hours per night, and it finally led us to a clear. Our very own clear, which we only have ourselves to dedicate to. What a triumph!
Over all the nights of anguishing over our strategies, night spent unable to find a way to just see further into a fight, it was all worth it to finally show that yes, indeed, we can solve the puzzle. Thank you so much to my lovely static (D and the B, you know who you are~), and I'm so excited to see most of you at the upcoming Fanfest in Anaheim! Much love, and if you have any questions or thoughts about Blind Prog please feel free to respond.
TL
R I love to clear fights when I think of them as more of a "puzzle" and less of a "choreographed dance." I think you might too!
submitted by /u/heughcumber
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...
Now, when I say 'blind' I realize there may be some misconceptions to what I mean. I am specifically referring to clearing duties and in-game challenges while having no prior knowledge of them, and without using any third-party guides or pieces of information. This means no Hector Lectures, no Pastebins from week-1 groups, and no tidbits of advice from fellow Warriors of Light on how "they totally nailed this mechanic in the adds phase," etc. etc. Instead, our group solely relied on our own screenshots, recording software, raidplanner websites, MSPaint(underrated third party tool), and our own noggins to solve every mechanic, and clear each of the 4 fights of the Cruiserweight division. I would like to note that this is in no way required for a normal clear of a savage fight, and is a completely self-imposed challenge on myself and my fellow static members. We do it for the love of the game, and this in no way takes away from those who don't choose to go this extra mile in their pursuit of a savage clear. It took us just under 4 months (7/29 clear), but we accomplished our goal and cleared the tier (with many triumphs and hiccups along the way.)
But how did this begin? Well, I should probably give you a quick synopsis of myself: I'm an avid JRPG and puzzle gamer. I would rather spend my evening wracking my head at a tough logic puzzle than playing almost any other game, as I like the challenge and "cracking the code" for each problem a game presents me. I've always been like this, treating JRPGs, board games, Magic the Gathering, even my own math homework as a puzzle to be solved. It is truly my happy place, and nothing else compares to that feeling of finishing a long solution to a problem I've been working on for days. Now, when it comes to FFXIV, I only began savage raiding because I wanted to try each piece of content that XIV had to offer. This quickly led to me joining a "for beginners" static on the first savage tier of Endwalker, where almost the entire group accomplished their first ever clear of a tier, many of us having been complete beginners to savage raiding. After this I continued, clearing the next tier and the one after that, each time developing my own skills as a raider. I had a perfect knowledge of my rotation, a complete comfort in my class, and I was becoming.....a little bit bored with savage raiding. I realised that all we were doing, eventually, was trying to sightread some choreography and then perform it back in a synchronized Octet performance of some sort of "Violent Swan Lake." I wasn't really solving the fights, I was simply trying to perform the correct solution with a little bit of dexterity on my part, and a little bit of teamwork from all 8 of us. Raid nights started feeling a little too obligatory, when i knew 'my part' and was simply waiting for others in my group to catch up in practice. Around the time that our group was reclearing P8S for everyone's weapon that I remember talking to an in-game friend of mine, and they off-handedly mentioned a friend of theirs who had just cleared P7S in their blind prog static.
"Wait....what's that?"
"Oh, it's kind of like what we do except they don't use any guides. They just try and figure everything out themselves."
From then on, a seed was planted in the back of my head. When my static finally disbanded after our reclears of P12S, I knew I wanted to try Blind Prog, assuming it could get me to enjoy savage raiding again. To start with, I first needed to assemble a crew of like-minded gremlins who wanted to take on this extra challenge, and thankfully some members of my previous static wanted to give it a try! What we couldn't fill up with known friends and raid partners, we turned to recruitment discord servers, in-game advertisements, and even other websites (got one of our healers from Tumblr, no less.) This was my first time leading a static at all, much less for blind prog, so I came up with a fun way to trial new members: Jump into a Stormblood Savage raid that we had never completed before, and try to figure out as much as we could. It was a great way to see a player's ability to quickly adjust: to their kit at a lower level, to a fight they had never attempted, and to each other static member in regards to discussing strategies for a mechanic. I found some excellent players, some struggling players, and some players completely out of their depth, but the only ones I cared about were the ones who could keep the party alive as long as possible, and who could effectively communicate their ideas in a reasonable and respectful way. And boy, did we get some characters: A Healer/DPS couple who liked to joke around about committing violence against each other (lovingly!), a Cracked-out DPS player who had been playing since mid-Stormblood and who spoke very sparingly in vc, and a shield healer from Tumblr who had been playing since ARR but didn't really do much savage raiding. Raid nights were filled with jokes, strategy talk, crackpot theories, and many many sexual innuendos, but there was almost never a night where I was just.....there. Just running through the motions, collecting my paycheck (clear) and then clocking in again the next time. Each night I came to raid excited by learning something new, or confirming a theory on how a mechanic could possibly be solved and sometimes cheesed. This is what I was looking for: a chance to get to the clear with only our wits about us, as a genuine expression of our ability to solve the puzzle ourselves. This merry crew was enough to get there.
Now gushing is nice and all, but why would you want to do Blind Prog when it'll just take longer than a normal clear? Here's a couple moments that I think highlight the benefits for those who aren't getting as much out of savage raiding. This'll also be a fun place to highlight the wonderful moments that happened in our group as we progged through each of the 4 fights.
Point #1: You can truly break down a mechanic when you aren't given a "braindead" strat for solving it. This was such an important thing to happen for members of our static, because a lot of them realised that they relied often on being told where to go, and shown only the "final area to stand" rather than being explained how to figure out how they got there. In M7S, trying to figure out the various "seed"- related mechanics, or vine tethers during the last part of the fight had us making so many diagrams and having so many discussions, people developed a knowledge of the mechanic so intimate, that they were able to visualize better and more effectively because of that. As opposed to relying on markers, people suddenly started piecing together how the positioning of themselves and the rest of us could effect the "safe zones" on any given mechanic, or how damage might relatively effect where they put which skills in their rotation throughout that mechanic. We even had someone weaving movements for mechanics in-between ticks of the Damage-over-time caused by the tethers. It just made people better players, thinking more deeply about their rotation and its relation to the mechanics instead of just following a POV-clear or rotation guide tailored to the fight.
Point #2: You will find new, inventive solutions to mechanics that PF would never dare~. This is so underrated in the minds of many a savage raider, but finding your own way to solve a mechanic is so much more satisfying than solving the accepted strategy for your role. It often involves adjusting to the needs of someone in the moment: Either they can't figure out their lefts and rights quickly, or they need to use markers for a position they will always go to, or they just need a verbal reminder when the mechanic begins. These adjustments to issues people were having led us directly to our solution for Arcady Night Feverin M5S, where after reviewing the logs and trying to figure out how to help us solve that mechanic, I discovered that there was a pattern to the protean AOEs. Each player targeted would be alternating DPS > Support > DPS > Support, etc. They would also be target in such a way that the 1st person hit and the last person hit would share a debuff timer, and the second person and second to last person did as well, etc. Through finding this, we decided our solution to the mechanic would be to sound off our number in order of who got hit. As each of us got hit by our respective protean, we called out our own number as we counted to 8. Each number pair was assigned a given safe spot for the following half-room cleaves, and no one had to ever look at their debuff timer as it was counting down.
Point #3: Things go wrong sometimes, and immediately go so right. Our best example of this was on our first clear of M8S, in which we discovered that the final stacks of the enrage targeted a random player on any platform. We had figured out that tanks could invuln the stacks, so we developed a mitigation plan that allowed our WAR to use their invuln on the second stack, and me (PLD) to use my invuln on the 4th stack, and split up the rest of our healing and mit cooldowns across each other party stack. However, we would start the stack on our first platform targeted, then move clockwise until we reached the third platform allowing our WAR to take their position on the second platform. And what do you know, the WAR gets targeted! Second platform is fired on and then destroyed. We come to the party on the third platform, smoothly surviving the damage. Then finally I direct in vc:
"Alright, Left-left-left! Everyone go another to the left, and I'll stay here-"
And then suddenly, the boss lurges past my character and stares directly at the platform the party is teleporting to, targeting it with the 4th stack meant solely for me...
"WHY?"
"Oh F*** move move move-"
"Oh it targets a random player-"
And like a miracle, our whole party teleports back, and I teleport over in time, just pressing my invuln as the first shot hits me. I join them on the last platform, and after some solid heals, a melee LB3, we get the clear before the final enrage cast finishes. 4 months since the savage release. 3 nights per week, 3 hours per night, and it finally led us to a clear. Our very own clear, which we only have ourselves to dedicate to. What a triumph!
Over all the nights of anguishing over our strategies, night spent unable to find a way to just see further into a fight, it was all worth it to finally show that yes, indeed, we can solve the puzzle. Thank you so much to my lovely static (D and the B, you know who you are~), and I'm so excited to see most of you at the upcoming Fanfest in Anaheim! Much love, and if you have any questions or thoughts about Blind Prog please feel free to respond.
TL
R I love to clear fights when I think of them as more of a "puzzle" and less of a "choreographed dance." I think you might too!submitted by /u/heughcumber
[link] [comments]
Continue reading...