One of FF14’s most prolific creators of raid guides is a science professor, whose 'Hector Lectures' were made using an app during his time 'teaching on the internet during the pandemic.

If you have been raiding in Final Fantasy 14 via party finder, you've probably heard the phrase "Hector strategies" more than once. Hector Hectorson, also known as Hector Lectures, has a YouTube channel that features guides that receive hundreds of thousands of hits per video. These guides are often released just days (if not hours) after the raids have been released.

According to a recent interview he did with FF14’s official community team he has always enjoyed creating guides, but only for real-life students who want to learn about the mechanics of the world, not how to do a limit cut for the nth or nth time.

"I am a science teacher in a UK inner-city school. I began playing FF14 with a friend at the beginning of Shadowbringers, and fell in love pretty quickly."

The first guides he created, private ones for his raiding stats, were made "using a Chalkboard app that I had used while teaching online during the Pandemic... Over time, they evolved into fully-fledged Hector Lectures that I would record and make just for my static." Square Enix has shared a few pictures, courtesy Hector.

"Because I raided so casually, I would make these before my group even stepped foot into the fight. It was fun to create the guides and it helped my group understand the mechanics better. But mostly, it was a great way to get everyone on the same page. I made the guide as a tool to help me with my static. It was so useful that it cleared the fight within 45 minutes.

"I realized there were no other guides for the fight available yet, so I made it public on YouTube in the hope that someone would find it useful. Since then, I have shared all of my guides with the community because of the overwhelming response.

Hector creates them in Keynote, Apple's version Powerpoint. He has custom assets that he captures with his raid buddies. Each guide takes 15-30 hours, depending on the fight.

"At some stage in this, both my static and myself actually DO the fight but oddly, I find that this is one of the least important parts in the process."

Even the easiest content of FF14 is a challenge when you play with complete beginners. This means that the game does a good job at getting you up-to-snuff by itself.

Most of the telegraphs for savage content are either obfuscated, or completely hidden. As someone who cleared a whole savage level last expansion (please hold your applause), I've used his tutelage several times. I think I would have scored higher on my science GCSEs if I had a Hector Lecture at hand.