Raid Terminology
Every game/community develops their own terminology that may be foreign for newer players, yet alone terms in another language.
| Progression | Positions | Loot |
|---|---|---|
Progression
Endgame raids are difficult enough that players will typically need more than a single lockout to clear the encounter. As a result, there’s a need to recruit players that have made it to similar parts in the encounter, or “prog points”.
Generally, PF recruitment will generally follow the following progression:
First time/初見
As the name implies, this comment indicates practising from the start of the encounter.
This can be further subdivided into:
-
Blind/初見未予習: This implies no preparation, i.e: watching guides or reading up on the fight prior to joining is not expected.
-
予習済: Prior research is expected.
Prog/Practice/練習
“Prog” here is just short for “Progression” (e.g: “P2 Prog”). You will see a mechanic listed, although 前半 is also common (“first half”). The focus is on learning and practicing that mechanic.
You will often also see:
- 1 Food Ready Check/1飯ごとRC: Every 30 minutes (1 food duration), the party leader will initiate a Ready Check to see how many people want to continue (継続RC). If anybody replies “No”, the party disbands.
Stabilize/安定
This is an extension of practice, except you are expected to have reached the mechanic before and the aim is to resolve the mechanic consistently.
You may also see “Skillup/練度上げ” parties- these are typically parties that have cleared, but would essentially like to “stabilize” the clear. These are not parse parties.
Aim to clear (A2C)/クリ目
It is expected that you have made it to enrage at this point, and know all the mechanics.
When it comes to Savage, because having cleared players affects loot, it’s a good idea to clarify whether helpers are welcome:
- 未 (not yet): e.g: “未消化” = “not yet done weeklies”.
- 済 (already): e.g: “クリア済” = “already cleared”, or “済×” = “no players who have cleared for the week”.
- 手伝いさん (helpers): e,g: “お手伝いさん大歓迎” = “helpers welcome”.
Clear for one (C41)
This is a subset of Aim to clear (A2C) parties. In this case, only one player in the party has not cleared the encounter, and the party leader is explicitly looking for players who have cleared the encounter to help.
Reclear/Weekly clear/消化
These are not practice parties. You will typically be expected to have cleared the fight before, although sometimes parties will accept players who have seen enrage (you’ll need to talk to the party leader).
You’ll often see additional stipulations, like the party disbanding after three wipes, or after 30 minutes.
- 3滅解散 (disband after three wipes): As the name implies, if the party wipes three times without clearing, it’s assumed that the party cannot clear and disbands.
Parse/(火力)詰め
These are runs that aim to get a good parse for FFLogs. BiS (Best-in-slot gear is typically expected) and you are expected to be comfortable with the fight.
Positions
Once the party has been assembled, players will choose their position in party chat. Some players have a preference to a specific position, which should be mentioned in the search comment. Japanese PFs will often use the 〆 symbol to indicate a taken position (e.g: D1 taken/D1〆).
Tanks
-
Who MTs (main-tanks) and who STs (sub-tanks) generally follows this order:
MT : WAR > DRK > GNB > PLD : ST
- A note on tank swaps: Sometimes, the “MT” position refers to the original maintank, and sometimes “whoever happens to be tanking the boss at the time”. As a general rule, if where the boss faces is relevant, then “MT” will refer to whoever is currently tanking the boss.
- Other regions (NA/EU/AU) will call the ST the OT instead (off-tank).
Healers
- H1 is the “pure healer” (WHM, AST).
- H2 is the “barrier healer” (SCH, SGE).
DPS
The standard composition consists of one melee, one physical ranged, one caster, and one flex DPS (typically a second melee/caster).
- D1 is the melee spot (SAM, DRG, MNK, NIN, RPR, VPR).
- D2 is the flexible DPS slot, and is typically a second melee or caster.
- D3 is a physical ranged (BRD, DNC, MCH).
- D4 is a caster (BLM, PCT, RDM, SMN).
Loot
Savage loot is restricted by a weekly timer. As a result, it’s important to specify how the party will distribute any loot that drops.
L>R/取り抜け
This means “take loot and drop”, and is typically seen in Savage weekly clears.
This is the most common form of distributing loot. Everyone takes turns rolling on loot one at a time. Anyone who wins an item then drops from the instance to ensure they cannot loot on something else. As a result, everyone can only gets 1 item at most.
Oftentimes, this is 左から取り抜け (take loot from the left and drop), but it’s also common to explicitly list out an order for the 4th floor raids, like “Weapon > Weapon coffer > Body coffer > Others” (武器＞武器箱＞胴箱＞他).
While it is not enforcible that players don’t just loot on multiple items, doing so would almost certainly get you blacklisted, and is a reportable offense.
FFA/フリロ
“FFA” stands for “Free for All”. The Japanese フリロ means either “Free-lot” or “Free-Roll”.
Everyone rolls Need/Greed on the items that drop, just like in dungeons. If someone is lucky with their rolls, they can win all the loot.
This is more typically practiced when doing Savage weekly clears via the Raid Finder.
Rounds/周
How many clears everyone is expected to stay for (e,g: 3 rounds/3周). This will most often be seen on farmable encounters, like EX trials.