Is the current developer-designed gate to pugging Tier 4 Fractals good enough?

[tethyr.6513]

There's just so many assumptions made on so many threads, that it's making my eyes bleed.

 

How many new people do some of you know (as-in 'we talk about the ins-&-outs of Fractals for longer than a single run')? I run T4 Fractals with PUGs daily and rarely experience the kind of trauma so many post about. I get LOTS of new people to start Fractals and join them for runs to ease them into it. No one just jumps to T4s after Istan farms. Most are reluctant to even run Fractals because it's intimidating for many to play 5-man content. The cost to achieve 150 AR instantly is also expensive.

 

That said, there are lots of players that aren't very good at mechanics, or come in geared with no survivability or mindfulness for group composition. Every now and again if I notice someone is horribly struggling, I'll do my best to kindly figure out what's going on and suggest a jaunt through SnowCrows. Every once and again I might get a 'I don't want to play a Meta build,' to which I kindly point out it's a starting point for making your own build that works. What they're doing right now isn't, and it's effectively wasting everyone else's time too.

 

The best barrier is already there. It's all of us acting as stewards to get people who are struggling to step it up. If they can't or won't, then that's what the kick button is for. I don't like using it either, but I will if I'm put in the position to do so. Tier 1-4 as it is now is perfectly fine. Usually when I have problems in Fractals, it isn't the new players that are the problem - it's the impatient, experienced (too good to help) sort that need to be kicked.

[phs.6089]

There is a simple tool 'kick' or 'drop'. Don't make it into something complicated.

[Veluna.7316]

> @"tethyr.6513" said:

> How many new people do some of you know (as-in 'we talk about the ins-&-outs of Fractals for longer than a single run')? I run T4 Fractals with PUGs daily and rarely experience the kind of trauma so many post about. I get LOTS of new people to start Fractals and join them for runs to ease them into it. No one just jumps to T4s after Istan farms. Most are reluctant to even run Fractals because it's intimidating for many to play 5-man content. The cost to achieve 150 AR instantly is also expensive.

>

> That said, there are lots of players that aren't very good at mechanics, or come in geared with no survivability or mindfulness for group composition. Every now and again if I notice someone is horribly struggling, I'll do my best to kindly figure out what's going on and suggest a jaunt through SnowCrows. Every once and again I might get a 'I don't want to play a Meta build,' to which I kindly point out it's a starting point for making your own build that works. What they're doing right now isn't, and it's effectively wasting everyone else's time too.

 

The most daunting thing coming into the game is the sheer amount of information needed to get going and the amount of information present on the screen. Doing fractals for the first time several mechanics really are not apparent or are very briefly shown. Some text is not described in the quest menu. Some is shown as white text over the upper part of the screen. Some is inferred from NPCs talking and some is needing to take the time to read the skills you randomly get and wonder where did that come from. Sometimes its not provided period. With more distractions of people in chat, looking at maps wondering what is going on, and trying not to die from terrain combat, looking at cooldowns, or getting used to finger placement still even after hours of playing.

 

The 2nd time through is usually much better and a 3rd time on a fractal of the same type there is at least in T1 there is really nothing new.