This guild is designed to help everyone presently participating in and applying for our Guild/Free Company. Being a hardcore mindset FC. I aim to explain to you what that means and what is desired of and expected of you as part of a Hardcore Static Raid Group.



What does it mean to be hardcore?

Many people around the internet will mistakenly define hardcore raiding as playing a certain number of hours per week (30-40+) however this is extremely wide of the mark. The reason this is so is because you can spend that amount of time playing any mmo and actually not step into any raid content (crafting/gathering, PVP, etc.,) and that is what being hardcore is about; accomplishing raid content in the most efficient way possible.

This is what really crystallizes what it means to be hardcore. It is a constant endeavor with the end goal to complete the hardest, newest raid content with the maximum amount of preparation, skill, gear and foresight into the content before attempting the content itself and then competing with other guilds/free companies for server first clears of content. This I think encompasses the entire mindset that is required and desired for any hardcore raiding guild. The amount of time spent in achieving this preparation is variable and determined only by what can actually be gained before hand by in-game mechanics (Gear grinds behind rep/currency/time walls. Relevant crafting leveling/gearing. etc.)

Now we might not be reaching for server first clears as of yet, but that doesn't mean we can't learn from the efforts of the people who have to our own benefit and use this mindset to make us better, more qualified players. For now just remember that the mindset and dedication to do the work comes first, victory in the raid content and swag loots will come from that.



My body is ready, what must I do?

For this we have to start at the beginning and work our way up, so that you can understand the fundamentals are most important, the intricacies that push your performance further come from a deep understanding of these core fundamentals.

Why do I have to join the FC?.

The purpose of joining the fc is to ensure to attract more, higher quality players. We cannot as a static alone or as a linkshell bring people in on anything other than our progression. If our progression is behind the only other way for us to attract people of a higher caliber is by our attitude, presentation and level of seriousness/professionalism. It also demands a certain commitment from the people joining the static not to stay until they get geared and then bail on us for a higher progression group, lastly it allows for static members to play together more often, to get to know eath other well enough that they can predict one anothers actions and better the group dynamic of the raid. Importatly too the end game progression is (Only seriously)tracked by the free company and nothing else. Seen Here for example. For those reason it is an absolute requirement. If you'll take a look at any other even mildly serious group, this is also a requirement for them, and for very good reasons.


Class fundamentals.

The importance of knowing and understanding your class, how it works and where it is best suited is of absolute importance. If you don't appreciate the importance of studying and researching about your class then nothing else you might learn will really help you. The majority of people that I come across are plagued with the fallacy that they know all there is to know about their class and so they make no effort to learn anything more about it. This is a fallacy because the nature of the class changes constantly not just by new gear and itemization, or how they must change and perform differently in new and different content but also by virtue of the fact that all classes have a wide array of abilities that are meant to work synergistic-ally with each other and that new, better optimized ways of using these classes are always being discovered.

The first and best way to learn about your class is to read and re-read both your spell/weaponskill descriptions as well as your talents. So often I discovered hidden nuances in some skill or talent that I never knew existed because I never bothered to look, and its discovery changed completely how I thought about my play style with that class. After you've read your descriptions it's important to take the time to think about how they might interact, think about this critically and from different perspectives about how these combinations of abilities might be optimized, used situation-ally or simply give you more bang for your buck. It's also important to think about how these might be used in conjunction with the abilities of your party members.

After this it's important to then search guides for your class and review them. Even if the majority of the information you find, you may already know, I guarantee that if you look you will discover new things that you didn't previously know about your own class, even if you've been using it for months or years. It's important to recognize that while we're trying to be the best we can at our own class, we are not the only one's doing so and that its only hubris that we don't make use of the benefits that other people have discovered and freely shared for us. Especially when it can potentially take us from good players, to becoming great ones.

Lastly it's very important to test what you have learned and to practice on a regular basis. Don't get suckered into the mistake of thinking that target dummies and parsers are a correct and relative to how you're truly doing. These are very good tools, but their results need to be taken with a grain of salt for reasons we will go into later when we talk about performing while in the content. However these are tools that can help you to hint at or figure out if something is wrong or missing from your performance. The best and truest test of your abilities, is to do it in content where circumstances are dynamic and mechanics are happening, especially content that is designed for your current gear level.


Stats

This is perhaps one of the simplest and yet most misunderstood aspects of understanding your class and enhancing your performance. Statistics in general for each class have a specific set of priorities that they want to achieve by the mixing of gear with those stats. For example all DPS (Damage Per Second) and Tanks require a specific amount of Accuracy in order to not miss in each primal and raid content. This stat is extremely important for these roles to meet the minimum requirement, however too much accuracy above the minimum cap are wasted stats which could be placed into another stat of a higher priority. You will be expected to know how to itemize your character appropriately with the most desirable stats for your character, this does require some level of research to find out the best balance for your class and play style


Encounters

In FFXIV each encounter is different and dynamic, even to the simplest of daily dungeon runs are dependent upon a variety of factors including the ability of your party members. For this reason mastering your class mechanics is not enough to facilitate success, you must develop situational awareness and the ability to react and adapt to changing situations at all times. The mark of a truly great player is the ability to adapt to a situation in such a way that they can compensate and optimize their performance regardless of what is happening. The simplest way to achieve this is to at every moment be asking yourself; "What is happening right now? Am I in the best position? Is there something else I could be doing to be doing better DPS/Healing/Tanking? Is there anything I can be doing right now to enable the other people in my party to do their jobs better?" This last question is essential to the overall success of the group and its in being able to answer these questions that enables one the nuances that takes an average performance to a great one. It's not enough just for you to understand and anticipate the mechanics of any encounter, you must also be able to think critically about and act using the tools available to you towards helping the entire group towards success in the most efficient way possible. It is for these reasons that target dummy/parsing cannot determine your overall quality of a player alone because these developed skills can't be quantified mathematically, they can only be done in practice.


Gear

Having mastered all of the above, the last and least important aspect to maximizing your performance as a hardcore raider is to be attaining the best possible available gear for your main class, as much as possible in between your raid days. This tends to be the largest time sink for which people criticize hardcore raiding as a con, in that many mmos have a very large time investment for attaining the best possible gear that you can attain before or in-between raid times (Novas weapons, for example.) However this is expected of you to maximize your gear on your own time. While it's true that no amount of gear can compensate for lack of skill, it is also true that superior skill and mastery of your class with also the best possible gear is the best and most desirable combination for a hardcore raider, and is expected of you to be fully prepared in this manner.


Consumables

The majority of players vastly underestimate the importance of raid consumables or worse yet don't use them at all; High-Quality food with the proper stats for your class, Potions like potent poisoning potions ect. While it might not seem like these seemingly small amount of stats can make any sort of difference, believe me that they make an immense difference over the course of an encounter. You're expected to have these pre-prepared before the Raid time and know how and when to use them. We have many craters in our free company who can help you with this if you need it.

Community

This is another aspect of huge importance that people underestimate, talk to your team mates!! Outside of the raid speak with your team mates, brain storm with them how you can help each other in your different roles and make each others life easier. You will be surprised the amount of synergies between classes that can be used together for mutual benefit and the benefit of the raid. If you don't talk about these things, or think about it however it's a wasted opportunity. (An example is a DRG Disembowel debuff on the boss lines up with a BRD using their raging strikes. Stacking these effects will greatly increase the overall dps of the BRD, and there are a huge amount of other examples.) It's very important to begin a dialogue with your team mates, learning about their skills, talents and what you can do to help each other. Moreover it is of absolute importance that you talk to your team mates in raid, if something is happening to you, you need to let people know, if you are doing something to try and aid someone else and enhance their abilities, you need to let them know about it. Communicate with your team mates, especially if you have a partner in the raid like another tank or healer, if you aren't communicating then you are doing it wrong! It is a requirement that everyone have Teamspeak ready to go and pre-configured to work properly before the raid.

Lastly its important to realize if you are not taking the time to do all of the above, If you are not being on time or worse yet not showing up at all. You are not only wasting your own time, but you are wasting the time and patience of everyone else in your static by not performing to the best of your abilities or having your own shit together. Don't be that guy. Seriously. While we understand that real life issues will crop up making you unable to attend from time to time, it is your responsibility to manage your own real life circumstances to mitigate that from happening as much as possible You are expected to show up to the pre-agreed to raid times consistently and without issue save only for serious and considerable circumstances.

If you are unable to follow these guidelines then unfortunately you'll need to be replaced with someone who can.



I hope that this guide will help everyone to understand what is expected of them and how they can achieve them. In closing I'd like to tell everyone, don't get intimidated by all this, while it is a lot to do and may seem overwhelming everyone in the FC are here to support and help you. There's no reason to be shy if you're at a loss to ask myself, one of the other officers or anyone else in the fc to help you understand what the best guides are to look at, helping in understanding anything about your class or about content. Even anything as simple as farming materials for your consumables. We are all here to help and support you, but we can't if you don't ask for help! The Free Company is here as a support group to help you with any need you might have, and to facilitate your success as a Ballin' Hardcore Raider!