this is purely my OPINION and a RANT, these came from the last 2 years of static hopping and experiences from friends
(you should come pf on light please i need content)
source
this is purely my OPINION and a RANT, these came from the last 2 years of static hopping and experiences from friends
(you should come pf on light please i need content)
source
Thought I would share my opinions on PF from the perspective of a PF degen (wall of text incoming)
For a little bit of backstory I started raiding in early EW initially in a casual static, but ended up clearing most of the tier in PF, except for P4S p2 (for which I ended up finding a static in PF who happened to be at the same prog point). I tried doing the second tier in a static as well, but because life is a thing and shit happens it ended up disbanding in P8S p1. I ended up clearing the tier in PF and did the entirety of the third tier in PF at my own pace. In terms of ultimate raids I started uwu in a static, but ended up doing ultima onwards in PF. I attempted DSR and TOP in statics, but one static was a complete distaster and the other one didn't quite work out as well due to schedule memes. I ended up getting KFF'd in both after progging the majority in PF. I did the entirety of TEA in PF. I think it's also worth stating that I did TEA, DSR and (to some extent) TOP before it was actually a thing in PF, so my opinions are maybe slightly altered by that.
I think I personally don't fit well in statics, as I want to play whenever I want for however long I want, so I will not talk about statics from my perspective, but just highlight some of my opinion on PF.
Firstly, PF is an incredible way of progging fights. You can literally just open a party for whatever prog point, and you will eventually fill and be able to play. You are fully responsible for learning the mechs yourself, don't rely on other people's callouts, and can take the fight at your own pace. If you want to send 20 hours a day you can do that. If you want to play a couple hours a day you can do that too (even tho you might have a hard time filling parties if you are tight on time).
There used to be a wide-spread misunderstadning (at least on light DC) that progging/clearing ultimates in PF was impossible outside of UWU and UCOB, which has fortunately been misproven. Every fight in the game can be progged and cleared in PF from start to finish, without exception.
You can prog some fights incredibly quickly if you go about learning/preparing properly and efficiently. That being said, that doesn't always happen and chances are you will have some bozos in your parties (especially when you are far ahead in prog relative to the majority of PF). The problem with progging fights quickly, at least when content is fresh, is that it will take ages to fill a party that doesn't consist of prog liars. I've had days where I had to wait upwards of 8 hours just to fill a party (DSR and p8s specifically). I think this is probably not as much of a problem now that PF is more accepted and fights are no longer "impossible in PF". Nevertheless that is a part of progging in PF you gotta accept, and you don't have the same guarantee of even instancing in at any given time, unlike you do in statics.
You have to be incredibly motivated/wipe resistant in PF because people tend to mess up more, especially as you go in with different people each time. I've found that progging stuff in PF is incredbly taxing mentally, especially when you don't make prog at the same pace as usually. That being said it makes it even more rewarding for me when I finally make prog/clear content. If you want to effectively prog in PF you have to become really conistent at mechanics, and have to be decisive to remove bozos from your PFs.
Talking about bozos, there are insanely many fake proggers who will join parties that are several mechs or even PHASES ahead of their actual prog point. It happens all the time, but you learn to identify these people really quickly and can just BL them and move on. That being said they still take a big chunk of time away from your prog and it can be really irritating. Sometimes you even just have to accept taking fake proggers with you just to be able to play due to the time it can take to fill parties when you are further into the fight. Some people are just overconfident in their own abiltiies, but some people just expect to get easy fast prog by wasting other people's time, which I find insanely sad, but it is what it is. You will also run into people with the most cursed gear sets in existence, pushing questionable damage numbers.
PF drama is also a thing, but it's honestly not even interesting 99% of the time, and is usually just people having their ego hurt of whatever, but I guess it can be content sometimes. PF communites tend to be pretty toxic, in a way that isn't too obvious with people perma shittalking others etc., in order to boost their egos or whatever. It's good content for a while, but that can also get pretty taxing mentally, especially when it's people that are progging (It's like shittalking someone at the gym who just started working out, cringe). Then there are also mentally ill people who think that others in PF are out to get them, grief them , run them down or whatever (basically mentally ill people). Even tho such people aren't cut out for PF content imo, they are still part of it and we have to live alongside them.
A major downside to PF however is gearing. You can be lucky and get the loot you need early on into the tier (important for people who plan on doing ultimates). HOWEVER, you can also just get absolutely fucked and it can take ages to even gear up. This is only an issue for on-patch content tho, and even then you have to be insanely unlucky to not have enough gear (but it can happen).
I met some incredible people in statics, some of which are some of my best friends now. But for someone like myself, statics just don't work, and then having something like PF is really a saving grace kinda, even with all it's rough parts. I've had a lot of success in PF, clearing all the content I am interested in (savage tier and ultimates), and will be sticking to PF moving forward into Dawntrail. I would also personally recommend people who had mostly bad experiences with statics to just grab a friend or two and grind out the content in PF. Many people will probably be surprised how much success they can have in PF.
There are probably more things to mention about PF but I cba thinking any more, thank you for coming to my ted talk
You make some very interesting points, my opinion on PF changed quite drastically after I recently progged TEA to clear in 2 weeks. Admittedly, I curated some of the best players I met in Light PF into a cross-word linkshell to accelerate prog, but generally things went very smoothly and we progged at quite a rapid pace 😄 After my success with TEA I feel like I seriously underestimated both the flexibility and general skill level of PF, I’m progging TOP next as my fourth Ultimate and I feel like I have a dilemma as to whether I approach it with a static or try it out in PF, don’t get me wrong though it’s a good dilemma to have, having more options when it comes to making solid prog can only be a good thing 😄
I agree with most of what you say in this video. I guess some of the points feel a bit weird. How and why do you join so many statics that seem so suspect? Ones that have immediate warning signs of impending issues. 7/8 arrab? A couple that doesn't join voice? Do you not read lfm posts? People having different expectations can be an issue, but a VERY easy solution to that is communication… Information about expectations, boundaries, clear priorities, etc can all be easily mentioned in lfm posts or even in meetings between the statics. Drama does not happen in every single static, that is extreme hyperbole. I have seen more drama in pf than statics (I pf ultimates and do savage in a midcorestatic) it just blows up on social media more often when it's a world progging static or a streamers static being dumb. TOP plugins and RIN/Dice's ridiculous healer situation for example.
About prog skipping, I view it as a necessary evil. There are extremely difficult mechanics for pf to get past in every single ultimate. Mechanics that I have spent upwards of weeks (months for ucob and then clearing in a single weekend after skipping) trying to get through the "proper" way. Heavensfall, all of LL/LC to prog bjcc, titan gaols, and now I am finding the same issue with p3 in dsr. I have needed to prog skip in each of these ultimates I've cleared through pf and without issue. (Usually due to pf walls and having a hard time finding people that are able to consistently get over the wall in pf) Skipping most of ultima > One shot suppression to clear in uwu, eventually skipping heavensfall prog parties straight to octet > then oneshoting octet to clear in ucob in a single weekend after a LONG time hardstuck in heavensfall parties, and most recently prog skipped all of alex prime > then oneshot wormhole to clear in tea which took about 7 days in total. This was without making a single mistake in the clears. I'm going to do it in dsr as well. I think you undersold the insane amount of traps in pf that you have to deal with. The points you brought up about one or two people holding you back I feel are magnified in pf because it's so common. I don't think everyone is 'prog lying', I think they're just inconsistent and/or relied on someone giving callouts.
After all of my experiences with raiding in this game I have walked away with the on the fence position of there are pros and cons to each. Very heavy pros and cons. It depends on what you're looking for and I recommend everyone make the decision for themselves rather than listening to someone and blindly agreeing with them. I know many people that did this same thing for abyssos, left their tier 1 static for the greener grass of PF and have since gone back to a static for anabaesos tier because it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. It all depends on your needs and what you desire
unfortunately primal is as dead as chaos these days on NA 😢
Brother, write your ideas down on a notepad before starting a video. The amount of pausing and jumbled ranting makes your video almost impossible to watch.
PF for me is honestly a godsend even in tiers where I am in a static. Prog too slow in the static? As long as the static isn't within clear range or all sessions are done for that week I can just prog as far as I want in pf.
Are there clowns? Sure. But clowns also mean more pulls and more chances to understand a mechanic. And if you many clowns you dip and try the next party.
Am I the clown? That is also okay. I can go smash my face in pf until I understand the frame perfect timing and be better the next week.
I think the only thing I can say I hate for sure is blind progging. Been through two blind prog statics, never again. It's different if it's week 1 and no one knows anything since you can check other vods, povs, ideas. But if it's just listening to two people argue hours on how to optimize a simple strat or needing to do some special snowflake adjustment because someone refuses to use their eyes, I would rather play in pf with a blindfold. And it is the worst because if there is a vacancy, you can't prog that week unless you're sure that you can explain whatever horseshit strats you made to a pf rando.
So at this point I will go in a static if I like the people and feel like I can trust them enough to take prog seriously but not be an ass about it, but if not I am fine to explode in pf forever. PF is the better raid experience imo.
Chaos resident here and yes the difference is absolutely staggering. I joined a casual static and honestly progging has been incredibly slow but fun. Anabaseios is my first tier and I find myself learning faster than my team mates…but I'd take them over the pf any day. prog pf around this time is absolutely horrible.
It seems like this guy just wants to complain about statics lmao. I have never heard such a bad take. Bro if your statis constantly suck you need to start doing a better job at being more selective and more importantly join higher tier circles.
Been a raider since, Stormblood as a casual raider then became a hardcore raider in Shadowbringers. I started being in statics around, the end of shadowbringers. I've been around, a total of 4 Hardcore Week 1 statics and 3 ultimate statics.
I've already had my fair share of elitism too the point of being gaslighted, used and mentally screwed for 2 weeks from a raid leader who was the top 10 warriors in fflogs but also was a complete fken psycho and stealing my loot as a DPS just to parse as his warrior during a week 1 then got kicked because he had a Physical Range Friend that his static went down south and I got removed.. I still hate him. I also had one where 1 of our static leader was in a relationship with one member which lead to favortism and we failed week 1 bc it took 6 hours for her to understand 1 mechanic.
Only 2/4th of my HC statics were every good and I'm happy with and the others I'm surprised I didn't quit the game bc the experience of being in a bad static leaves such a terrible taste in raiding. You wouldn't imagine if a new player were to join one of those groups then end hating the entire content because of that group. That's why usually being in PF can be more time constrained but at the same time it's better than dealing with a dice roll of a static unless you know a friend that can vouch for it.