#if anyone wants to level by dungeon spamming please hit me up

[its-fjori]

I took a break from MoP Remix but I'm back, babyyy. Officially collected 100% of the items available from achievements and vendors!

The absolute very last thing I need to do now is level a few different race/class combinations in preparation for any future mythic+ meta.

Here are some of my faves:

Chen Stormstout's Bamboo Hat

Halfhill Farmer's Backpack

Title: Paragon of the Mists

Toy: Cherry Blossom Trail

Goodbye MoP remix, you were a fun little time waster

[tigerkirby215]

5e Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Suke “hugehugesword” Su. Made for Riot Games.)

In my constant and continued effort to deny Ezreal’s existence I finally had to get around to building him. Again it’s not that I don’t like him... I mean I don’t. But I kinda forgot what I was going to build him as. Lol.

Dorans & Dragons also made a build for Ezreal back in like... early 2020. Christ that’s before the world went to shit, ain’t it? Well regardless they also made their build before Tasha’s Cauldron came out and I think I can make a build that is different enough to warrant my build existing alongside theirs.

In short: this is an elaborate excuse for me to make another Artificer build.

GOALS

Gawk at this! - We need many a glowing projectile to spam at foes before blowing them up. Ezreal isn’t the type to just autoattack.

I always know a shortcut - Flash on a 15 second cooldown is nice. We’ll need to be able to blink around constantly throughout the entire fight.

Time to show 'em who's best - Nothing’s more dangerous than a well-placed Trueshot Barrage sniping through the entire enemy team.

RACE

Back to good ol’ Variant Human. As a Variant Human you can increase two of your ability scores by 1: increase your Intelligence and your Charisma, to be the hot smart twink you are. You also learn a Language of your choice along with a Skill of choice. You spent plenty of time studying The Void so Abyssal would make sense as a language, and for your skill Perception would help you spot traps or incoming ganks... as long as you remember to ward.

For your feat we’re going to be grabbing Arcane Shift as fast as possible with Fey Touched so you can start Flashing. (Not like that!) You can increase your Intelligence score by 1 and also learn the Misty Step spell. You can also add a Divination or Enchantment spell to your list and a little Heroism never hurt anyone. You can cast both of these spells once without spending a spell slot, and can then spend spell slots on them after the fact.

ABILITY SCORES

15; INTELLIGENCE - Archeology is a lot of history and facts... If you do it the boring way, that is!

14; DEXTERITY - Repeat it after me: “something something Medium armor.”

13; CHARISMA - You’re a pretty boy twink who got at least two girls on the Rift to fall for you.

12; WISDOM - Traveling through ancient temples and traps takes a degree of common sense. Not necessarily common sense you have, but a bit of boost never hurt.

10; CONSTITUTION - You’re an ADC, which means you’re squishy.

8; STRENGTH - Twink.

Feel free to swap Constitution around with another stat for better health but worse roleplay.

BACKGROUND

“Archaeologist” is just the nice way of saying Tomb Raider, which is the mean way of saying Adventurer! You get proficiency with History and Survival (hey you’ve gotta tough it out in the desert sometimes!) You also get proficiency in a language of your choice (I went for Dwarvish because Dwarves seem to have built most ruins) and proficiency in either Navigator’s Tools or Cartographer’s Tools... “Who needs a map?”

You spent enough time in ruins to pick up some Historical Knowledge on ancient dungeons and temples to know who made them. And if you find anything that belongs in a museum you know how much it’s worth to the museum!

(Artwork by Sangsoo Jeong. Made for Riot Games.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - ARTIFICER 1

Starting off as Artificer to “borrow” a few inventions. But also because you get training in Arcana to know your magical artifacts, Investigation to find said magical artifacts, and Calligrapher’s Tools to slay Ascended and Darkin alike in one blow. You also get Magical Tinkering to wave that gauntlet of yours around on some Tiny objects, making them glow or play sounds or do all sorts of things that Prestidigitation would probably do better. But at least you can play your own theme music too!

But of course the main appeal of being an Artificer is the Spellcasting. You can learn two cantrips from the Artificer list like Message to coordinate with your support and Guidance to help yourself find treasure! (Or help others I guess.) You can prepare a number of spells equal to your Intelligence modifier plus your Artificer level (rounded down.) Cure Wounds will let you summoner spell Heal yourself or your Support. Faerie Fire will serve as a more basic version of your Essence Flux, making an enemy easier to hit (therefor making them take more damage!) And Feather Fall is always useful in a pinch!

Also yes you don’t have your gauntlet yet so you’re going to have to use a Light Crossbow for now. Feel free to take a combat cantrip if you want but you don’t really need it.

LEVEL 2 - ARTIFICER 2

Second level Artificers can make Infusions, special definitely-not-stolen magical treasures that make them more awesome than everyone else. For a little more AD an Enhanced Weapon is useful to have. You can also put those goggles on your head to use by making Goggles of Night to see with your dumb human eyes. A Mind Sharpener may feel like a cheat, but I’m not going to say no to keeping Concentration in check. And for your final infusion? A Rope of Climbing might be useful? Honestly the more impressive stuff comes after you’ve done a bit more exploring.

You can also prepare another spell like Alarm, just in case someone’s planning to steal your... legitimately earned treasure.

LEVEL 3 - ARTIFICER 3

Third level Artificers get to choose their specialty and Armorers don’t have to wear an entire suit of armor; just a gauntlet! Along with proficiency in Smith’s Tools you can turn any suit of armor you find into Arcane Armor. The armor has a variety of benefits: no Strength requirement, the inability to have your armor removed against your will, the ability to take it off or put it on as an action, and some replacement limbs. But notably it works as an Artificer spell focus!

There’s two different Armor Models and we’ll be going for the Infiltrator variant for a Lightning Launcher. This makes your Gauntlet a weapon that deals a d6 of lightning damage, with a regular range of 90 and a long range of 300 in case you want to go for long ranged snipes. Additionally once per turn you can pop Essence Flux to do an extra d6 of damage on hit! And I didn’t even mention the best part: this works off your Intelligence! So no more need for the crossbow.

You also get your boots for Powered Steps, increasing your movement speed by 5 feet. And thanks to your Dampening Field you can hide in bushes with free Stealth advantage! I’d recommend trying to get a Breastplate because that’s the best armor you can get that doesn’t also impose stealth disadvantage, but even with Half Plate you can still be sneaky! Heck, you can even wear Platemail if you want! "And my boots are not waterproof. Fantastic."

Oh and you get some Armorer Spells! Magic Missile will autoaim for you like your Arcane Shift projectile, and Thunderwave is helpful for some self-peel.

LEVEL 4 - ARTIFICER 4

4th level Artificers get an Ability Score Improvement: seeing as we have uneven Intelligence take the Observant feat for +1 Intelligence and a boost to your passive Perception and Investigation to watch the minimap for people to snipe! Additionally you can spy on the bad guys if you want and read their lips to gain knowledge of all their secret plans!

More Intelligence does also usually mean more spells prepared but I’m going to wait for...

(Artwork by Xu “Crow God” Cheng. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 5 - ARTIFICER 5

5th level Armorers up their Attack Speed with Rising Spell Force, gaining an Extra Attack with the attack action!

You also get Mirror Image and Shatter added to your list of Armorer Spells, and can prepare spells like Rope Trick for a safe place to rest for awhile, and Heat Metal to really lay in that Essence Flux.

LEVEL 6 - ARTIFICER 6

6th level Artificers get more Infusions which is what I was waiting for! A Radiant Weapon is all the fun of an Enhanced Weapon but it also doubles as a flashlight for your dumb human eyes! And Boots of the Winding Path will let you Arcane Shift back to safety in case you accidentally run into danger.

Feel free to swap some of your old infusions around too. A Lantern of Revealing or Cloak of Elvenkind would be helpful... and Gloves of Thievery never hurt anyone.

And finally you can prepare Aid, as your natural awesomeness rubs off on your allies. "Oh, please, don't die. I can't lose a sidekick. Not again."

LEVEL 7 - WIZARD 1

You didn’t think this would just be a pure Artificer build, did you? Even if that would’ve been stronger I’m legally obligated to needlessly stick multiclass levels into all my builds. And Wizard is definitely a good multiclass for more slots to do Spellcasting! You learn 3 cantrips and six leveled spells as a first level Wizard:

CANTRIPS

To help your allies land their shots take Mind Sliver to weaken an enemy’s saving throws.

Prestidigitation will let you do a bunch of simple magic, and if you want you can have your own hero music too!

Finally Friends is good to make friends you don’t mind losing after they tell you where the ancient ruins are.

SPELLS

I basically just took everything with the Ritual tag. Alarm (yes you have it as an Artificer spell but you can swap that out), Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Identify, Tenser’s Floating Disk... and sure why not Find Familiar too? Seeing as you can ritual cast at will most of your early level stuff is going to be reserved for Ritual Casting, as you’re probably going to be spending most of your first level slots on Magic Missile and Faerie Fire anyways.

You also get Arcane Recovery, letting you recover spell slots equal to half your Wizard level (rounded up.) So right now you can get a first level spell slot back at the end of a Short Rest! And later on you can get more!

LEVEL 8 - WIZARD 2

Second level Wizards get to choose the school that their parents left them in before disappearing in the jungle, and the School of Evocation has a surprise tool that will help us later. Along with being an Evocation Savant (allowing you to copy Evocation spells into your spell book with half the time and cost) you can Sculpt Spells so that they only hit the bad guys: when you cast an Evocation spell (from any class, not just Wizard!) you can choose a number creatures equal to the spell’s level + 1. The chosen creatures automatically succeed on their saving throws against the spell, and they take no damage if they would normally take half damage on a successful save. This will be really useful when we get our (pseudo-)Global ultimate; wouldn’t want to fry your pals now would you?

We may as well grab some of those Evocation spells, right? Earth Tremor will let you hit an AoE Mystic Shot because Riot decided that Tiamat should have a cleave I guess, and I mean... Shield is never a bad thing to have?

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 9 - ARTIFICER 7

Back to the big brain plays: 7th level Artificers can make the biggest brain plays thanks to Flash of Genius, letting you boost an ally’s skill check or saving throw with your own natural perfection. The boost is equal to your Intelligence modifier and you can use this reaction a number of times equal to double your Intelligence modifier.

LEVEL 10 - ARTIFICER 8

8th level Artificers get another Ability Score Improvement? Well seeing as Intelligence still controls just about everything we do it would do good to increase that by 2! That does mean you can prepare more spells (both as a Wizard and as an Artificer) but I’m going to wait for...

LEVEL 11 - ARTIFICER 9

Every ADC dreams of being six-slotted; now you can be with Armor Modifications! Your Armorer armor counts as 4 separate items for the sake of your Infusions: the chest piece, boots, helmet, and the armor’s special weapon can all be infused. Far more importantly however you can have two extra infusions! Those infusions have to be on your armor, but you can put the Radiant Weapon (weapon) and Goggles of Night (helmet) onto your armor and save your other infusions for your allies! Or for yourself; yourself works too.

And we can’t forget the third level spells! You get Hypnotic Pattern from your Armorer Spells for an AoE stun, but far more importantly you get Lightning Bolt which will serve as Trueshot Barrage! And since you’re an Evocation Wizard you can shoot past your friends without blowing them to bits. "Oh, a plan. Yeah, I totally have one of those."

You can also prepare spells like Haste for more DPS (just don’t get stunned), Blink for some Duskblade invisibility, and replace Alarm with Revifify... Ya know: just in case.

LEVEL 12 - ARTIFICER 10

As an ADC it would be good to get six-slotted, and Magic Item Adept lets you get your 4th Legendary item! That’s because you can now attune to 4 magic items at once! (And can also craft Common and Uncommon magic items more easily.)

Speaking of Infusions, we can make more of them, such as a Cloak of Protection or Winged Boots! These are just generally useful but not really Ezreal specific; they’re mostly for your allies. "The gauntlet's for show... the talent's all me."

You can also prepare another spell like Fly which is just universally useful, and holy shit you get another cantrip. Take Mage Hand and maybe try to be a little more cautious when tomb raiding?

(Artwork by Bo “chenbowow” Chen. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 13 - ARTIFICER 11

Do you want a lot more Mystic Shots? 11th level Artificers can make a Spell Storing Item and put an Artificer spell of first or second level inside. What’s cool about this is that anyone can use it, allowing them to cast the spell as if they were you!

My recommendation? Give them Mirror Image. It’s an amazing buff that doesn’t require Concentration. Even a low DEX Paladin will appreciate the chance to not be hit, and a high DEX ally can really get value out of Mirror Image. Yeah the Barbarian technically can’t cast while raging, but they can use this before going into a Rage to be very hard to hit!

And speaking of spells you can prepare another one, so how about you grab Create Food and Water to keep yourself sated on longer archeological trips. "Why didn't I eat before I got here...? Ezreal, why?!”

LEVEL 14 - ARITIFCER 12

12th level Artificers get another Ability Score Improvement... we got all we need in terms of stats (Intelligence lol) so now it’s time to really make some impressive trick shots: the Sharpshooter feat will let you attack at long range without disadvantage and ignore cover bonuses, but most importantly you can take a -5 to your attack roll for a whopping +10 to damage! Don’t use this on high AC targets obviously but if you think you’ll hit why not go for the one-shot? "No applause, please. ...Okay, maybe just a bit of thunderous acclaim. ...A little?"

LEVEL 15 - WIZARD 3

I do still want more spell slots, as well as more spells known! Truthfully there isn’t too much I want from second level, so take Locate Object to find hidden treasure and Augry (added to the Wizard spell list thanks to Tasha’s!) to know what to expect in the next dungeon... sorta. "No plan survives first contact with me."

LEVEL 16 - WIZARD 4

4th level Wizards get an Ability Score Improvement: we got all the abilities we wanted really, so why not Get Lucky? The Lucky Feat will give you a bit of anime protagonist power to guarantee that you make the perfect daring escape. Feel free to take Warcaster or just increase your Constitution however; by this point Ability Scores don’t matter too much.

You can also learn two more spells like Melf’s Acid Arrow for another Essence Flux-esque DoT ability and See Invisibility, in case you need a Sweeper Lense to deal with any clowns.

LEVEL 17 - WIZARD 5

Ima be honest I kinda just wanted third level for Thunder Step to get an Arcane Shift that does damage. Artificer 18 / Wizard 2 (or even just Artificer 20) would’ve been a fine build for Ezeal too, if you don’t think this one spell is worth a 5 level class dip.

Anyways you also learn another cantrip and I mean... you may as well take Shocking Grasp for some defense up close? You also get one other spell and I’m gonna suggest Galder’s Tower this time which is like Tiny Hut... but awesome. And really small. This is mostly just a way for me to talk about a fun spell and also recommend my homebrew fix for it.

(Artwork by Alvin Lee. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 18 - ARTIFICER 13

You got third level spells as a Wizard, you can now prepare 4th level spells as an Artificer! Fire Shield and Greater Invisibility are both available as Armorer Spells, one of which is far more useful for you than the other one. Bro imagine how crazy Evelynn would be with Evelynn’s passive. But yeah feel free to swap around your prepared spells a bit for more 4th level spells, since you definitely have the slots to do so.

LEVEL 19 - ARTIFICER 14

14th level Artificers are Magic Item Savants who can attune to 5 magic items at once, meaning that along with your boots which are technically magical but whatever you can finally be properly six-slotted! But far more importantly you can attune to any item, regardless of any class or race restrictions tied to the item!  "I can't get hauled into wizard court again. Technically I don't have a permit for the gauntlet."

Speaking of more attunement: more Infusions. An Amulet of Health will let you boost your bad Constitution from a 10 to a 19, giving you a solid 76 health boost near max level! Other than that more movement speed is never a bad thing, and Boots of Speed may give you more value than your other magic boots.

But holy shit forget all that because you finally get your 4th Artificer cantrip! Grab Mending because somehow we don’t have that yet; gotta keep your outfit in check! Oh and you can get around to preparing another 4th level spell! Truth be told though the 4th level spells for Artificer are kinda... bad? But at least Tasha’s gave us Summon Construct which is a surprisingly strong summon!

"Last time I was in Shurima, I decoded some glyphs. Something about a jackal head... End of times... The usual. All I wanted was this ruby scarab. It looks great on my mantle."

LEVEL 20 - ARTIFICER 15

Our final level is the 15th level of Artificer for the Perfected Armor Armorer capstone. When you shoot an enemy you mark them with Essence Flux, giving them disadvantage to hit you. In addition the next attack (including your own I’m pretty sure!) has Advantage against the enemy while they’re marked with  Essence Flux, and if they’re hit they’ll take an extra d6 of Lightning damage!

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Blast 'em, gauntlet! - With your capstone ability you do 4d6 + 10 damage with your Lightning Launcher, and that’s before using Sharpshooter. Even without your capstone 3d6 + 10 is still really good damage output, especially when you can cast spells for big bursts of damage.

See if you can handle this! - Speaking of spells your slots go all the way up to 7th level, and while you’ll mostly just be upcasting a 12d6 Lightning Bolt is nothing to sneeze at! Not to mention other options like a 7d8 Fire damage Heat Metal or +30 HP Aid.

If anyone asks, I didn't see any of these priceless artifacts for sale - It goes without saying that having two more attunement slots than the average character is massive, especially when you can stick infusions onto your armor to maximize the amount of treasures on your person.

CONS

I wasn't strong enough? - Investing fully in INT gives us maxed out combat stats but it leaves a lot of our other abilities lacking. We’re nowhere near Charismatic enough to sell (somewhat) illegitimately gotten gains, and while Infusions can help augment our health (and even our Strength if you grab a Belt of Giant’s Strength) your Wisdom and even your Dexterity are rather mediocre, which is bad for both skill checks and saving throws.

Impossible comebacks are sorta my specialty - Most of your coolest stuff is tied to spell slots and other Long Rest dependent mechanics, and while you have a lot of spell slots (as well as Arcane Recovery to get some of them back) they are still quite limited. You’re perfectly viable as just an auto-attack and Q spammer, but who doesn’t want to shoot lasers and explosions, ya know?

Never met a problem that I couldn't blast away with magic... that I don't even understand - 5 levels in Wizard give us big spell slots but that’s about it, and yeah a 7d6 Lightning Bolt (that won’t hit your allies) is nothing to sneeze at but for the most part you are more of a Martial character. Just saying that level 18 of Artificer would’ve given you Magic Item Master for a whole 6 attunement slots! And level 20 of Artificer would’ve given you Soul of Artifice, essentially operating as a +6 to all saving throws and a 6 time use Guardian Angel.

But if a teamfight breaks out you’re more than a capable ADC. Artificers are the masters of magic items and it doesn’t matter if you make them yourself or “borrow” them from an ancient tomb; you can be the hero mom and dad always wanted you to be! Just concentrate on your farm in the early game and don’t take unnecessary risks. You may be the perfect man of magic but you’re not immortal, despite what the ADCs I’m forced to support always seem to think.

(Artwork by Jennifer Wuesting. Made for Riot Games.)

[benevolentgodloki]

Darkest Marvel Dungeon

It begins! I have enough of you signed up to get started and have poked a couple of people who may be able to fit the last slots as/when those characters show up in the game. If you don’t want to see me spamming about this over the coming days, blacklist the tag ‘Pirate plays Darkest Dungeon’. Those signed up so far:

1.   Abomination – Bruce/Hulk @marvelousxmuses

2.   Antiquarian – Slot pending 

3.   Arbalest – Clint @heroesbeyondtheninerealms

4.   Bounty Hunter – Tony @brokencraycn

5.   Crusader 1 – Steve @marvelousxmuses

6.   Crusader 2 – Steve @heroesbeyondtheninerealms

7.   Grave Robber 1 – Emily @the-renegade-child-of-time

8.   Grave Robber 2 – Slot on offer since this was a popular one. First choice goes to someone who hasn’t got involved yet. If you’re already involved (just the once) and have a muse that could fit, I can squeeze you in but you’ll be bumped to lower priority if someone new wants the space.

9.   Hellion – Valkyrie @valiancedefined

10. Highwayman – Natasha @lokislittlespider

11. Houndmaster – Kili @alwaysxinxtrouble

12.  Jester 1 – Loki (me!)

13.  Jester 2 – Kurt @bamfxblue

14.  Leper – Frank @moonbeammuses

15.  Man-At-Arms – Thor @araedi

16.  Musketeer  –   Toni @geniusbillionairephilanthropist

17.  Occultist – Stephen @surgeonofthemysticarts

18.  Plague Doctor –  Rocket @rr-89p13

19.   Vestal 1 – Frigga @aesir-modir

20.   Vestal 2 – Ashley @soulstcne

21. Free slot for anything not doubled up already above

Anyone else interested please feel free to hit me up, even once everything’s underway if you like what’s happening and want to be part of it. I’ve only played about 11 hours of my first campaign so I’m super noob and will likely get all your loved ones murdered frequently. I believe it starts off with a Crusader and possibly only two randoms so it will take time for me to have all of you in the game, plus it’s a randomised occurrence what heroes show up for me to choose. The more I play, the quicker I’ll get you all in.

Warning: DD is a horrible game. Heroes die frequently. They contract horrible afflictions that make them do awful things. Your muses will not at all behave as you would like, this is just for fun. If your hero dies, I will treat them as if they are respawning/re-rolling their character sheet and grab them the next time I see their class on the roster.

We can have some fun with competition e.g. who has the most terrible quirks, who gets the highest level first, who dies first etc. You can also feel free to comment on my posts if you’d like me to prioritise getting rid of certain bad things your muses have. It costs gold to stick characters in the Sanitarium so I have to be sparing. Hopefully this’ll be entertaining XD

[thessalian]

Thess vs Sword & Board

I have had a revelation:

I ... can actually tank.

Look, this may sound like an obvious thing to anyone who’s watched me play Overwatch and seen me bully-bulldoze my way around as D.Va. However, just to give you an indication of what I’m up against here, a story that some of you have already heard / read, but it bears repeating.

Once upon a time, in the wonderful world of Azeroth, there was a blood elf paladin named Missandei. I loved my belf paladin. Thing was, I wanted to experience everything the game world had to offer, so I got myself invited to a quiet little guild that didn’t ask a whole lot of me. In fact, most of the time I forgot I was even in one. Until one day when someone asked me if I wouldn’t mind tanking Gnomergan. I said, “Sure, as long as you don’t mind that I am really really new at this”. They said they didn’t, and off we went.

And everyone was spamming their heaviest damage spells. Even the healer. Holding hate was nearly impossible. And after every pull, I got yelled at. Not because I’d lost hate. Because I wasn’t doing nearly enough damage according to their DPS chart. Which they posted after every pull.

I WAS THE TANK. Doing all the epic damage wasn’t in my remit. My remit was to light up the room and yell, “HEY, ASSHOLES! FIGHT ME!” while everyone else hit the mobs. Which didn’t work very well when they were making sure that mobs weren’t going to be looking at anything but the thing hitting them that fucking hard, but there you go. I wasn’t doing enough damage, therefore I was to be yelled at. Because of course that’s all dungeons are - doing damage.

(Jackasses.)

Anyway, point being that halfway through, they disbanded the party, reformed without me and took off, leaving me alone in the middle of Gnomergan. This was not an instanced thing, so... Yeah, anyway, point being that they just left me there because they were so focused on DPS that they forgot why tanks are a thing. So I was convinced, deep in my heart, that I was a bad tank and gave up the whole thing as a bad job.

I have no idea why the hell I decided, “Hey, why don’t I at least try Sastasha?” after we’d done the leveling roulette. Honestly, I dunno. Maybe it was the pain meds. Maybe it was the need to do something different. Maybe it was just some weird brain-fart I should stop trying to make sense of. Whatever the reason, I swapped to Gladiator and we hit Sastasha.

Aaaaaaaaaand holy crap I can actually tank.

We ran two more dungeons and the only time I really struggled to hold hate was this one BLM in Halatali (last dungeon of the night) who was obviously way higher level than me, thus better geared than me, damage-spammed like there was no tomorrow and didn’t focus fire at all so I couldn’t even tug-of-war him on the hate. I kept having to Shield Lob things just to get them back from where he dragged them over to him, and I spammed Flash so hard that I ended up really low on MP a time or three. We also had a Conjuror on console in Copperbell who couldn’t figure out how to use Protect ... or role abilities ... and somehow had managed to get Paladin to level 53, so I have no idea. And also in Copperbell, a Summoner who took several minutes to listen to us when we asked him to please put Titan-Egi away and replace him with something that wasn’t going to pull hate off me.

So anyway, I tank now.

[alechoney]

Healer bashing...

Today was my first solo in DF party after like … forever? … Lately I haven’t done battle content except when I’m tagging along with friends. I wanted some Tomes of Creation, so I queued for the 3 level 70 dungeons that give 50 Creation each. And it puts me in Temple of the Fist.

First pull was weird. Usually the tank pulls to the dead end and fight there, wait for adds to pop, kill them all, and then proceed. This tank pulled to the dead end, killed the blockade, and proceeded to next group, with original mobs and the newly popped adds tagging along, eating the BLM and the MNK. I followed in panic and somehow miraculously managed to keep everyone alive. Used a few Holy as well.

It was scary as hell.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

After the first boss, the tank pulled a shit ton of mobs… But I couldn’t keep up with the healing and we wiped. I got harsh comments from the PLD and the BLM. They told me to use Holy. But honestly, I didn’t have a chance to. I couldn’t even keep up with the heal. They told me my fault was using Medica II instead of Cure II.  Okay….

Next try, everyone got hit with the wind AoE from the giant Zu, so I used Medica II again. And we wiped, again. Note that after the wipes, the party still kept trying to pull everything. I tried. I swear I tried my damnedest. I still couldn’t keep up. I spent my Benediction during the first wipe and it was still not ready. This time, they got angry with me for using Medica II again. They asked if I even knew the basic…

Well, the basic I know is that if I use Medica II and Regen on the tank, it could help retain the tank’s HP while I am busy casting Holy. But I didn’t have time for a Holy in this party. The mobs were just too much for me. (By the way I am i316, in case anyone wonders.)

Third try…. we wiped in the pink foggy room where there was also a Coeurl. The whole conversation since start goes:

[1:38] Me> Hello! Good evening! [1:41] Me> orz [1:44] BLM> HolyPlease use it. [1:44] Me> Sorry. Too busy healing. [1:44] MNK> +1 [1:45] MNK> -1 [1:45] BLM> Imagine if it stunned enemies meaning less healing [1:45] PLD> too busy healing to stun the mobs  for more healing leeway [1:45] PLD> :thinking: [1:45] Me> But I didn’;t even have the time to start casting holy. [1:45] Me> Even spent my Benediction [1:45] BLM> :deepthonking: [1:45] MNK> You used med 2 [1:45] MNK> Its a you prob [1:46] PLD> another medica 2, nice [1:47] PLD> very effective single target throughput that one [1:47] BLM> All I want for christmas… is a whm that can heal in a dungeon [1:47] Me: Perhaps your play style is beyond my capacity. [1:47] BLM> Its a dungeon [1:47] MNK> +6? [1:47] PLD> perhaps you should use cure II instead of medica II [1:48] BLM> How do you not know the basics of your class at level 70, in a dungeon [1:48] BLM> Its like me saying “how can i use fire spells” [1:48] PLD> +234 [1:48] MNK> # 9days [1:49] Me: In my defense, I haven’t met a tank that pulls as many mobs as you. [1:49] PLD> i have never done a run where the tank didn’t do that pull [1:50] Me: In my experience average party pulls 2 mobs [1:50] PLD> please tell me you are joking [1:50] Me: I am dead serious. [1:50] MNK> Tank main gate to gate since 310 [1:50] PLD> pretty sure that stops being acceptable after level 22 [1:50] BLM> agreed [1:54] MNK> Sorry bad monk lol [1:56] PLD> why are you not casting on GCD? [1:56] PLD> like that’s not a playstyle that’s just wrong [1:56] BLM> Seriously, what are you doing Aleczan? Are you constantly going afk or something? [1:57] Me: Sorry.  Benediction landed like 1/10 second too late. [1:57] BLM> You are literally going afk between pulls [1:57] Me: Nope. [1:57] Me: ANd what’s casting between GDC? [1:57] PLD> why are you waiting like 2 seconds before casting another spell? [1:57] Me: I was dodging AoE [1:58] Me: Did you not see? [1:59] PLD> all i see is my HP getting deleted on normal pulls and never going back up mate [2:00] Me: Yeah I stood too close in the mobs  and had to run away from AoEs

It hurts. It hurts so much. Even when, even if, it’s my fault for wiping the party, it would be nicer if they give advice, or reprimand me in a less negative/sarcastic tone. I do appreciate feed backs, I really do. I want to improve. But it’s hard to keep my chins up when people are bashing harshly. 

My errors, from the experience in this party today, were that I used Medica II instead of Cure II (or Cure III, when everyone needed cure). And I didn’t keep Tetra for when I have to dodge AoE and cannot cast. I spent my Tetra too early in the pull. I also didn’t land Benediction when I should. (1/10 second too late, as usual). What else? IDK. Maybe everything?  

Frankly, I kind of know that I am not that good of a healer. I was pampered and spoiled by having a super tank as static tank. Corn and Dew seemed much more sturdy than most tanks I met in DF, so I never learned to try harder. What I said in the party was true, at least to me. Most tanks pulled 2 groups. Corn sometimes pulled 3 groups, which was already too much. I sometimes accidentally let him die when my Benediction landed 1/10 second too late. This tank seemed to have pulled 4 groups. Meaning he pulled 1 group more than Corn when he did super pull. It was just too much for me because I’m not accustomed to speed run…

Also, I rarely had to dodge AoE when it was time to spam Holy, because Corn would use Hallowed Ground and then Cover me, so I could stand in the AoE. Today I had to dodge the AoE in pink foggy room and couldn’t keep up with healing, resulting in the wipe that pissed them off so much.

IDK. I feel like whatever I do is wrong for this party. Maybe my rotation/spell selection is wrong? I’ve been with friends who always tanked for me too much and got accustomed to their pace/tactic/play style that I’m not adapting to other “normal” tank??? 

It’s just depressing.

In all my WHM career, I have never been bashed this bad before. 

Perhaps other WHMs who are accustomed to speed runs can help me by giving me some tips? 

I’m crying here, feeling worthless and desperate. 

Any advice/input is welcome. 

Edited - adding screenshots links https://imgur.com/tiQA0NN < 1st pull (no wipe) https://imgur.com/a3us4C9 < 2nd pull (1st wipe) https://imgur.com/NNdGO75 < 2nd pull’s 2nd try (2nd wipe)