How useful is Stone, Sea, Sky?

[Dottoman]

I'm interested in trying out the Savage Alexander content, but didn't want to jump into it blind because Savage is supposed to be legit srs bsnss. Stone, Sea, Sky has target dummies for the content but I have no idea what good it is beyond affirming that I can press my buttons in the right order.

Obviously faster is better, but is there a benchmark I should be aiming for? I get around 1:45 (1:15 left on the clock) for Fist of the Father as a bard.

[Your Mom's Oshi]

I think there's a calculator for that somewhere. I just base my improvement on how much faster I can clear it from when I started.

I got major gains out of SSS when I was progging E9S. Just spending an hour practicing my optimal rotation (from balance discord) with GNB gained me about +3k dps before I cleared it. (I don't parse but my static at the time did for raid.) I'd say it is definitely useful for Savage!! But yes, it's all about you hitting your buttons in the right order/timing.

[Isildun]

If you can beat the dummy before 0:00 it means you're able to pass the DPS check of the raid. If you're killing it with over a minute to spare then you're significantly above the check.

That being said, trying to do savage Alexander synced is going to be a tall order. Most people unsync it meaning they go in at max lv (80) and destroy it effortlessly. It won't be _impossible_ to find people to run it, but not many people are going to be doing so. Maybe on Blue Mage... but if you aren't done with MSQ yet, don't waste time on Blue Mage.

if you just want to savage raid go get to lv 80 and finish all MSQ. Then you can start your raid journey in the current raids E9S-E12S, which people are still starting fresh all the time. You don't have to beat E1S-E8S to do E9S (and in fact you'll run into the same problem of not many people running them) but you do need to beat 9-12 in order.

If you're serious about doing Alexander savage, make sure to use Party Finder (NOT Duty Finder which is the standard queue for dungeons system), indicate you are running synced, and prepare to be patient. In fact, use Party Finder for anything that says (Extreme), (Savage), or Minstrel's Ballad.

Addendum:
Just in case the jargon is unclear, A = Alexander, O = Omega, E = Eden. The number is the number of the fight. And the final letter is N or S for normal or savage. So A1N is the first Alexander normal raid and E4S is the fourth Eden savage raid.

[Om3ga-Z3ro]

You forgot T for Turns in the Coils of Bahamut raids. Which they are by far way more difficult even after they got nerfed and Second Coils being nerfed multiple times but still being difficult synced.

[chipofsalt]

It's not anything more useful than a normal striking dummy with a rotation reference. Many of the SSS dummies are very poorly tuned, and give a subpar view of how good your damage is. Someone suggested using the SSS calculator to see what your DPS is, and that is probably the best use for SSS. The dummies have fixed HP pools, and it tells you how long it took to kill it, so you can calculate your dummy DPS that way.

[chipofsalt]

Oh, and killing a dummy < 3 minutes isn't a full rotation for many jobs. DRG for instance needs 6 whole minutes for it to go full circle.

[Lusus Symphonia]

People overestimate the importance of DPS in savage content rather than experience, unless you're going for raid time, most clears can be done with 2 utter ♥♥♥♥♥ DPS players.

Overall though, you'll want everyone in the party to have average knowledge of their rotation and full knowledge of the raid mechanics.

[chipofsalt]

Originally posted by Red Monk:

People overestimate the importance of DPS in savage content rather than experience, unless you're going for raid time, most clears can be done with 2 utter ♥♥♥♥♥ DPS players.

Overall though, you'll want everyone in the party to have average knowledge of their rotation and full knowledge of the raid mechanics.

You can teach people fight mechanics in a matter of minutes to hours depending. You can't do the same for damage output mid-encounter. Don't be that heavy-gamer expecting the other damage dealers in your party to carry you. FF14 has way too many of those types.

Besides, if you only do "average" damage after obtaining "full knowledge" of mechanics, you're the problem.

So yes, please ignore this response. Establish muscle memory on a dummy, maybe do some extreme trials, then hop into savage. The DPS check for the first floors isn't hard, but bringing your group down for something that should've been improved on your own time (damage) is no bueno.

[Lusus Symphonia]

Originally posted by chipofsalt:

Originally posted by Red Monk:

People overestimate the importance of DPS in savage content rather than experience, unless you're going for raid time, most clears can be done with 2 utter ♥♥♥♥♥ DPS players.

Overall though, you'll want everyone in the party to have average knowledge of their rotation and full knowledge of the raid mechanics.

You can teach people fight mechanics in a matter of minutes to hours depending. You can't do the same for damage output mid-encounter. Don't be that heavy-gamer expecting the other damage dealers in your party to carry you. FF14 has way too many of those types.

Besides, if you only do "average" damage after obtaining "full knowledge" of mechanics, you're the problem.

So yes, please ignore this response. Establish muscle memory on a dummy, maybe do some extreme trials, then hop into savage. The DPS check for the first floors isn't hard, but bringing your group down for something that should've been improved on your own time (damage) is no bueno.

What are you even replying to? Carrying? You don't need top DPS to complete savage runs, nothing to do with being carried 😂
If you enjoy smashing a dummy for hours on each job OP, then do so, just don't burn yourself out stressing about doing top DPS in a raid when you can quite easily complete it with a group of mates who are terrible.

But please do "ignore" my response.

[chipofsalt]

Originally posted by Red Monk:

Originally posted by chipofsalt:

You can teach people fight mechanics in a matter of minutes to hours depending. You can't do the same for damage output mid-encounter. Don't be that heavy-gamer expecting the other damage dealers in your party to carry you. FF14 has way too many of those types.

Besides, if you only do "average" damage after obtaining "full knowledge" of mechanics, you're the problem.

So yes, please ignore this response. Establish muscle memory on a dummy, maybe do some extreme trials, then hop into savage. The DPS check for the first floors isn't hard, but bringing your group down for something that should've been improved on your own time (damage) is no bueno.

What are you even replying to? Carrying? You don't need top DPS to complete savage runs, nothing to do with being carried 😂
If you enjoy smashing a dummy for hours on each job OP, then do so, just don't burn yourself out stressing about doing top DPS in a raid when you can quite easily complete it with a group of mates who are terrible.

But please do "ignore" my response.

Found the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

You're literally telling this person to do research on fights to make sure they know them beforehand. How is that any different? If you join a group with friends, that is a different story. But for someone just starting out, this is absolutely terrible advice to give them. Do what you need to do to give your party the best chance they have at clearing will open doors to finding those kinds of groups in the first place. Also, you'd be surprised. Get a party of 3-4 people with this mentality and suddenly e10s becomes a wall.

And hours on a dummy? Please. Muscle memory comes pretty quick. A good 45 minutes to an hour playing around with your rotation is all you need for that. I still beat up dummies while waiting for things to fill.

[Lusus Symphonia]

Originally posted by chipofsalt:

Originally posted by Red Monk:

What are you even replying to? Carrying? You don't need top DPS to complete savage runs, nothing to do with being carried 😂
If you enjoy smashing a dummy for hours on each job OP, then do so, just don't burn yourself out stressing about doing top DPS in a raid when you can quite easily complete it with a group of mates who are terrible.

But please do "ignore" my response.

Found the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

You're literally telling this person to do research on fights to make sure they know them beforehand. How is that any different? If you join a group with friends, that is a different story. But for someone just starting out, this is absolutely terrible advice to give them. Do what you need to do to give your party the best chance they have at clearing will open doors to finding those kinds of groups in the first place. Also, you'd be surprised. Get a party of 3-4 people with this mentality and suddenly e10s becomes a wall.

And hours on a dummy? Please. Muscle memory comes pretty quick. A good 45 minutes to an hour playing around with your rotation is all you need for that. I still beat up dummies while waiting for things to fill.

Again, what are you replying to? Do research on fights? What are you talking about, experience comes with failure. Hardest part of raiding is finding a group of people who are on the same page as you.

Knowing the fight is more important than being a good dummy smasher as you naturally start to know burst zones when you get comfortable, allowing extra room for carry spots.

But again, keep smashing your dummy instead of enjoying the game or waiting on monster hunter world while you wait for the group to join discord.

[Dottoman]

Sounds like what I really need to worry about first is finding a good stable group. Everything else sounds like it can be ironed out once that bridge is crossed.

Kinda strange that SSS is relatively useless, but I guess it's better to have it for people who like to gauge those things than not.

Thanks for the advice, everyone.