As someone who never played during an expansion launch, how hard are the latest Savage raids? I’ve been afraid to try them, I don’t have an active FC so I’d be queuing and I don’t want to be a burden. I can run the normal raids and not die or even get hit by the mechanics the whole run, but not sure how big of a jump up in difficulty they are mechanics wise.
Savage is definitely a lot harder than normal raids, but it’s a lot of fun to work together to learn the mechanics, and slowly learn how to play your job well throughout the fight!
If you’re interested in doing savage raids by finding groups in party finder, there’s a few things you probably will want to do before you jump in.
First, you’ll want to look up a guide to the first fight (search “m1s guide” on youtube and take your pick), and watch the video a few times through (or several different videos for more perspectives and strategies) to get an idea of the difficulty of the raid, and try to memorize how to resolve at least the first few mechanics of the fight.
Second, savage raids have enrage, which is a DPS check; if you don’t clear by the time the last mechanic is over, then you wipe. This means DPS is important (though, in this tier, it’s relatively forgiving). As such, make sure you know how to play your job fairly well! You aren’t expected to play perfectly by any means, and can definitely clear even if you stumble often, but doing more DPS (even as healer and tank) makes a big difference on how likely your party is to clear the fight. The Balance is a great resource for learning optimized strategies!
And finally, when you’re ready to jump into a party finder group, look for one with the [Practice] tag, and read the description to find out how far into the fight the group expects you to be (usually, they mention a specific boss attack). As long as you stick to groups that are roughly at the same point in the fight that you are, just jump in, and try to relax ^^
You’re all there to have fun and learn together, and if someone gives you a hard time for messing up (which is unlikely), then you are free to leave at any time and find a nicer group. Most groups, especially ones that are at an early prog point, are super easygoing in my experience, and they’ll be happy to have you fill up their party and learn with them!
If you want to give it a try and want more info, I’d be happy to give more specific tips/lingo/strategies to help you gain some confidence and jump into it! It’s a super fun and rewarding aspect of the game, and nothing is quite as satisfying as clearing a fight for the first time!