Griffith!

I would be more worried about you being a spy for just literally any other faction than for the one who's flag you're flying. I mean, you think it through, and the person with the Maelstrom barding is the least likely Maelstrom spy. Spies are supposed to blend, not ride around screaming "look at me, I'm a patriot for a nation that isn't yours!" Unless that's what you want them to think. But no, to answer your question, I've never had anyone call my out on my Immortal Flames barding. Someone did call me out once for riding a Magitek Armor. Called me an imperial spy. But as I wasn't in character (I was working on the relic quest), I just shot them a tell that I was OOC and left it there. If Marten were accused of being a spy? He'd laugh it off, especially if he happens to still be wearing the paladin armor. How are you going to accuse someone in the uniform of the Sultansworn of being a spy? I mean, it'd be like accusing an American Soldier, in a US army uniform, of being an American spy. It's the right ballpark, but the wrong field.

I always over-prepare - it's why I get insulted when somebody suggests I don't know my job. I know my job - I've already read three different guides and watched five videos from different perspectives. Trust me, if I mess up it's because I suck, not because I don't know my job. I use Spirits Within whenever it's up - I just kind of insert it into the rotation wherever I happen to be. Circle of Scorn has a 25 second cooldown, so I usually just use it every other full rotation - Fast Blade through Flash twice and then Circle of Scorn. In numbers, there's a 2.5 second cooldown on each of those skills, so it takes 20 seconds to get through a full rotation (give or take a second or two for discrepancy and player error). With the occasional Shield Swipe or Bash and the Spirits Within, it usually works out to about 25 seconds. I switch targets in large groups, though usually only after a full rotation (Fast Blade through Flash) on one target - in groups of just two or three mobs, I tend to focus on one target and only switch off if I notice enmity lagging or if the DPS is focused on a mob I didn't mark. But that's all more or less in theory. In game, there's add grabbing and positioning and canceling enemy attacks and dodging AoEs and those dozen other things you have to watch out for, so admittedly, I'm not always great. I panic and lose focus, or I get too tunnel-vision on one aspect and mess up another. Usual, panicky, by the seat of the pants stuff. My original rant wasn't really an accurate reflection of play, though - I was just citing the basic, barebones rotation and therefore, how often I actually flash (roughly once every eight to twelve seconds) as a counterpoint to the contention that I should flash more.

I was really nervous going into Castrum Meridianum and The Praetorium, but turns out I didn't have to be. The party just ran through the thing while I sat there watching cutscenes. They finished both dungeons before I'd made it all the way through the cutscenes. I never even saw a single fight. I actually feel a little cheated. I mean, my first time through both dungeons, the capstone to the MSQ in 2.0, and I didn't get to fight a single boss. I even told everyone it was my first time and I'd like to see the scenes. The other tank replied "just hit esc". Apparently, though, they didn't need me even a little. I almost never blame the healer. Usually, they're just doing their best and I don't always make it easy on them. In fact, when I'm handing out commendations, I usually give it to the healer. I think. I don't have the numbers to support that claim.

Marten wants to be a hero... sort of. He is good, noble, upright... y'know - "heroic." But it's not like he throws himself into fights that are beyond him or anything. He isn't about to pick a fight with an army, or tangle with a Primal. He's an adventurer, not an idiot.

I'll swing by. Why not?

The funny thing is, I don't get this anxious over tanking in any other game - although, admittedly, tanking was never my thing in WoW, where my focus was overwhelmingly PvP, and I was only ever occasionally a tank in FFXI (where I mained Samurai as soon as it became available.) I think I might level another class for awhile and see how I feel about DPS. It's just too bad the only sword classes are tanks. I suppose I could try rogue/ninja. The only problem is, how very low all of my other class levels are. I mean, I just got Paladin to a reasonable place.

Well, I'm free.

Marten could use a good info broker - he's been interfering with Monetarist business for a few weeks now, and he's looking to expand his vigilante enterprises. I'm actually setting up a linkshell with more or less that exact plot in mind - a volunteer vigilante militia (I read the first issue of We Are ROBIN a few days back - how great was that?). So someone who could provide information on monetarist or bandit movement would be indispensable to the group, and Marten especially.

Have you tried running as Administrator? Make sure you have an exception for FFXIV in your firewall. You should also try resetting you system settings - go to your config menu from the launcher and choose the 'reset' option. If that doesn't help the only other advice I have is try reinstalling or contacting Square-Enix through the website.

It's sad, really. I'm a little concerned for the direction of the company, too - he was the one behind the big push into mobile gaming. All those steadily improving versions of the 3ds? Dunno how much longer we'll keep seeing those.

This. I super hate this. I always take this as a sign things are going to go poorly.

Thanks for all the advice, guys. I do read up on the dungeons and raids before I do them - I actually check multiple websites before each one. That's one of those "I didn't really deserve to be an AP honor student" side-effects: I have a tendency to over-prepare. But, theory and practice rarely match up. I know the party is there to help me too, but the thing about anxiety? You never really know what's going to make you anxious. Knowing it's not all on me and feeling like it's not all on me aren't the same thing. It doesn't help that the classes I want to play are all tanks, with the exception of pugilist. But that's okay, because I'm not even a bad tank. My actual ability to preform my job isn't the problem here.

Anyone else just really dread the roulette queues? I don't know what it is - the idea of a bunch of strangers relying on my ability to keep them alive, maybe - but I absolutely hate running dungeons. Sometimes you get a real friendly party, y'know? They're polite and nice and give you non-confrontational tips as you go. And then sometimes you get horrible parties full of assholes who just tell you how to do your job every time you lose enmity for half a second. And there is just no way of knowing which one it's going to be because you don't know these people, and it's not like there's an in-game "I think I'm better than you at everything" flag. It's the pressure. I know it's a game, and there's not supposed to be that much pressure, and if it were just me, alone, there wouldn't be. But it's not. It's me and a bunch of people relying on me. I have to preform well, or it's not fun for anyone. It doesn't help that some people wait in queues for half an hour at a time (but not tanks, haha ha... ha). And now I'm at the point in the game where people are starting to take their dungeons very seriously. The dungeons I'm starting on now are harder and people have thus far been less forgiving of mistakes. And it's just not cool when you have to pop an ativan in the middle of a dungeon run because you're starting to have a panic attack. It's rough, man. Anyone else have similar feelings about dungeons, or am I the odd man out?

Marten is pretty much uninterested in romance or even in purely physical relationships. It nets him nothing, gets him no closer to his goals, and is only a momentary distraction that actively hinders his progress. That being said... Physically: Small people, here referring specifically to Lallafell, Miqo'te, and Au Ra women. He's more attracted to people bigger than him, especially physically imposing women, like Roegadyn or Highlanders. Mentally: He doesn't like weak people - not referring to people who lack physical strength or martial skill and ability, but rather people who don't help themselves. People who lack the will or ability to struggle against circumstance. Other than that, it doesn't matter to him. Though I have stated, in character, that the only person that could stand next to him would "have to be my equal in every way" (because I still can't get over Griffith and love to steal his lines), so it's safe to assume that unless you're at least a match for him, he isn't interested. Ideally, his partner would be better than he is.

I love how in-depth people go. In a lot of the other MMOs I've RPed in - Matrix Online, City of Heroes, WoW, even FFXI - characters always seemed like asspulls, made up out of thin air everytime you RP. There was rarely any sense of consistency or resources to draw upon. Even if they had write-ups or character sheets, they were generally on fifty different websites, each one requiring different accounts and memberships just to read. Everyone around here, though, has thus far been much more consistent. There's a character wiki, and people you interact with are basically the same characters day to day without any of them suddenly developing sudden traumatic histories in the middle of RP. I also like the focus on story-line and lore in the FFXIV community. I saw a ton of lore-breaking characters in Matrix, COH and WoW. Not so many on here. In fact, most people go out of their way to make sure they aren't breaking lore, which I think is pretty awesome. And friendly? We've had some heated discussions in the weeks I've been a member, but nobody has started a flame war or gotten pissy about. It's a nice change from the horribly flammable communities I'm used to. So I guess what I'm saying is, it's a maturity thing. As for the RP itself... well, personally, i like that there's always some going on. I rarely have to look very hard to find some quick RP. It's all over the place - on Balmung anyway. The most common response to looking for RP on other servers is "Go back to Balmung."

I'm a little disappointed on some points, but then, I'm selfish. I was hoping the Ishgard wards would be out soon, and I'm still hoping for Samurai at some point in the 3.x chain - I mean, we got Ninja in the middle of the 2.x didn't we? But I guess we'll see.

I thought the same when I saw it in the char creator. I like that one too.

See, there's the problem. I haven't leveled any DPS classes. I pretty much play tank all the time. I've seen the xenophobia. Gridania seems a little too insular for my tastes anyway. Besides, i never liked the whole "at one with the forest" vibe.

Marten is a geologist and an adventurer. He was a gladiator, became a soldier, started training as a paladin, and never finished. So, I usually keep him in his paladin job, because it's more convenient that way. On occasion, I'll switch to lancer or marauder, just to carry a different weapon, but IC he prefers the sword anyway.

I knew about Merlwyb, but the Gridania stuff is news to me. I vaguely knew about the caste system, but the rest I hadn't seen. I should pay more attention.

Yeah, alright, chocobos. But what have they done for me lately? I guess I'll just have to wait it out then, and see it for myself. We've talked a lot about Ul'dahn politics, but are there similar issues in Limsa Lominsa or Gridania? I thought they were pretty cut and dry.

I dunno. Ul'dah is my favorite city because everyone there comes off as playing you. Gridania is my least favorite, because "'cause the elementals say so" is the weakest motivation. And I hate Ishgard on principle, because the entire culture comes off as paranoid and fanatical, which as a Jew I've already had plenty of in real life. I swear, they treat suspected heretics like my family treats goyim. Y'know, just push 'em off a cliff. :thumbsup: Seriously, where's the good in Ishgard? I mean, every nation has good and bad as presented in the Lore, but Ishgard just irks me so much. I'm also still a little hazy on who the bad guys are supposed to be - Ishgard or the dragons. Because they both come off as assholes to me.

It's in my comments, because I'm not adverse to walk-ups. I'm also not a big instigator, so I don't initiate a lot of walk-ups myself. That's not to say I never do, just that it's rarer. I'm not that outgoing a guy. I don't like bothering people. So I put it there to show I'll RP back if someone walks up, not to indicate that I'll walk-up and start RPing. Pretty much just that.

That works for me. I don't have any work scheduled till the end of the month anyway.