Raids. You either love them, hate them, or can’t wrap your head around them. I firmly fall into the latter camp. I’d love to be able to raid properly — and what I mean by that is I wish I could raid without eating dirt every five minutes — but it seems I’m just not cut out for it. Like most MMOs, raids in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 14 reward coveted loot, such as gear, mounts, minions, and they also dive into some o🌼f the best parts of FF14 lore.
Fortunately for players like me, there are well-known raiders within the community who are more than willing to teach rookies the basics. Beyaca is a streamer and a role model in the BIPOC gaming community that focuses on teaching others about raids and how to play Monk in FF14. She started playing in 2015 and began streaming in early 2018, but it wasn’t💙 until Shadowbringers launched in 2019 that she became a firm Monk main.
“When I started streaming, I had no idea that I would become a known streamer in the FF14 community,” Beyaca tells me. “The only thing I knew was that I had a voice and that it would be heard whether people wanted to hear it or not. I think the fact that I am Black and unapologetic🧸ally myself resonated with a lot of BIPOC gamers in the community. I believe this even more so given how there were little to no other BIPOC streamers at the time, a lot less than the few BIPOC creators that we have around now.
For Beyaca, this mentorship beganꦰ during the summer of 2021, in a bid to bring more awareness to the fact that there are many Black gamers in the gaming community. “I understand that we are always looking for others to game with so I've promoted our community in an effort to get more Blac💙k gamers here and gaming together. I do it because I know what it's like to feel like you don't relate with most others that you interact with or to be perceived in a negative way when participating in normal interactions,” she says.
“I appreciate꧟ that people perceive me as a role model when it comes to creating an inclusive community and I plan to do more in the future to show that there are many of us and we can come togeಌther and maybe start our own traditions within the community — that's my ultimate goal at this point.”
Bec🔴oming a notable raid streamer within the FF14 community is not without its challenges. Beyaca often has to deal with trolls waiting to see her fail or people who target her simply because she’s Black and female. She often talks about her bad experiences on her streams to raise awareness to her viewers and encourage more inclusivity.
“It's honestly tough being🦩 a Black gamer in the public eye, especially one that makes noise if you know what I mean. It's also tough being a Black gamer in a space that's predominantly white. I've been a part of🐻 predominantly white spaces most of my life, whether it was where I went to school, playing volleyball competitively, or now playing FF14. There are not nearly as many of us Black and indigenous gamers in the FF14 community and there's a lot less in the raiding community and there's even less who can/will raid on the hardcore scene in FF14.
“As a Black woman in the raid community, I've learned over the years that most people that you raid with don't think you are capable, they don't think you can keep up wit🔴h the boys — as a woman — and a lot of people just assume I get carried an🎃d that's how I got to where I am,” Beyaca elaborates. Racism and sexism were rife in these spaces, and she recounted how she has been told she was too aggressive for simply trying to clarify a game mechanic. “I was told to check my tone and like anyone else, I would be frustrated/irritated by that. Internally, I was enraged because the guy tried to make a deal out of nothing simply because he was lowkey being racist. I proceeded to talk to him in a somewhat calm manner and removed myself from the situation and that group at the time.
“It's honestly hard to remain calm or settled in situations like this but when you deal with this kind of interaction and often, you learn ways to better handle things but you never get used to that. These experiences are not exclusive to the FF14 community, these are everyday issues that we deal with since birth so it's nothing new but it's super important to me to bring awareness to the community that these issues do exist and try to educate folks and even ꧒then bring about more inclusivity as a result.”
When it comes to FF14, endgame raids are arguably the most difficult content to master. Brutal bosses, complex mechanics, and of course having to work together as a team to overcome all of the obstacles that get th꧑ro𝓀wn your way. The idea of starting raids when you’re not confident in your own abilities is particularly daunting, as you don’t want to let your team down, but Beyaca is working to show players that anything is possible with a little hard work.
“Many people feel 🍌like a lot of the things that I do in raids are unobtainable because they don't play at a high level, or not to the level that they would like,” Beyaca explains. “I’m here to show FF14 gamers [that] you can start out as a scrub and develop over time so long as you have the right attitude and are willing to put in a little bit of work. I used to be awful at Monk and now I’m at a point where I’m teaching people to raid and play Monk, which is extremely fun and satisfying for me. And if I can do it, so can others too.
“The feedback from my guides and help videos has been well-received and most people seem🔜 to like that I can break things down in a way where anyone can understand and learn from. I honestly feel that my strong suit is that I can articulate concepts very well to the masses and that's something I plan to continue to do throughout my 🎐time as a content creator, I love it to be honest.”
It’s not just your own inability that can hold you back either. Gatekeep🧸ing is also at play when it comes to raids, as inexperienced players can often feel excluded by elite players who expect them to have a certain degree of knowledge of a raid beforehand. This can make it particularly difficult for newcomers to get started with raid content, as joining raid groups can often feel like a job interview where you need 20 years of experience to apply.
“I do understand that a lot of casual players are afraid to raid and I've even gotten that feedback in my own streams and often,” Beyaca says. “I've been in many dif♏ferent kinds of groups over the course of my five years of being a part of FF14's raid community and there is the one thing I always say to people asking for advice who want to get into raiding but are afraid of community backlash regarding gameplay. I always advise them to join a static group with peop🌠le who are as new as you or of the same mentality as you are. Not to say that this will guarantee zero bad experiences but speaking from years of raid experience, I can say you do tend to have better experiences when you raid with people of a similar mentality as yourself.
“For folks that aren't able to commit to a static, the only option seems to be party finder and I think we all know how great that place can be — sarcasm. You never know what you're going to get in the party finder but if you are brave enough to do it, that would be the route to go considering you aren't able to join a static [group] of like-minded indiv🎶iduals. There are chill groups in PF you just have to usually look for ones that say something along the lines of ‘🉐prog no salt’ — usually those descriptions are chill groups. You join those or put up your own PF with that piece added into your description and it usually attracts the folks who are more on the chill side.”
If you’re looking for tips on how 🀅to get into the raiding scene or play as a Monk, or you want to check out Beyaca’s work, you can follow her on or on .
