what I wish this game had...Follow

Maybe because it's because theoretically it's easier to make plumes smaller or landslide cast time longer or something than it is to get all the servers better optimized for everyone? Tweaking fight mechanics is something they could do right now instead of waiting for the mythical "someday" when servers issues actually get resolved.

How would anyone be inconvenienced? Because they made something more forgiving for a big chunk of players, and slightly easier for everyone? Oh no! Heaven forbid players actually are able to complete the content in the game! It's not like they need to water down the newest and toughest content. Let the hardcores have their T6-10 how it is now. Just tweak some of the older stuff... you know, like how they already did with the echo buff. Or is the echo buff a terrible thing too because it "watered down" the difficulty?

Also, how would the game still be a chore if they made it more forgiving? It would be LESS of a chore for those people, who now would have a bit more leeway if their connection or the server hiccups on them.

Edited, May 28th 2014 4:03pm by BartelX

I don't really have a problem with having difficult fights in the game. Considering that players can challenge these fights an infinite number of times, I think the bosses themselves work well enough as their own "training mode." As with many difficult video games, if something is overly challenging, you learn by getting your butt kicked until you're the one doing the butt kicking.

Although while I don't have a problem with the current primal difficulty (I'd prefer if the fights were more dynamic rather than being a set script, because I think it'd be much more fun and exciting than "watch out, he's going to use plumes next!" every time but that might be getting a bit off topic), I think the game would be helped tremendously by some real alternative end game content that's actually inviting to new players. Primals and coil both have a "don't join if you can't keep up" mentality. Whether it's your internet connection, your inexperience, or you're just not as good at executing higher tier boss mechanics as others, this type of content can be stressful for some players. Even CT, which is supposedly designed to be the casual content, has been a giant troll fest since day one, where the minute anything goes wrong an entire alliance starts bickering with one another and pointing fingers at everyone else.

SE's previous MMO, FFXI, had plenty of content like this. Sky, sea, limbus, dynamis, ZNM, even abyssea down the line just to name a few. Not all of this content was similar to each other, but something they all had in common is that inviting new friends is almost always a benefit and not a burden. If you wanted to do any one of these events, you could easily ask your friends and be met with a "Sure, I'll come along!" rather than have them biting their finger nails thinking "I don't know, I haven't watched any videos yet and I might make mistakes, and I don't want the others we have to pick up to get mad at me for holding us back" or "My internet connection isn't the most solid right now, I'd probably just slow you down," etc. As long as each and every major end game patch is "More coil, more CT, more primals" we're going to see the same mentality in each and every bit of legitimate end game content. Give people some legitimate alternatives and those who want to enjoy end game without all the baggage that comes along with their current style of end game can start having fun.

This is an excellent post and I agree with everything you said, especially the last paragraph. I feel like a lot of players are turned off by the current content because one small slip up causes a wipe and then everyone gets pissed about it and bails. I'm also quite tired of the same stuff just recycled with new models... literally every update just adds a primal, some hard modes, more CT, or more Coil. How about some alternatives? How about some completely new forms of endgame content with a different design approach? I'd love to see more open world content, where you have to navigate the map through enemy strongholds. I'm tired of instanced boss battles... heck the open world stuff can drop the same gear that the instanced stuff does, maybe at a lower rate or something to give people alternative methods of gearing than just mashing DF roulette... just my opinion obviously.

Edited, May 28th 2014 4:59pm by BartelX

Actually no, even in the ffxi era i was against the experience loss. Especially since i played smn. Keeping exp capped in campaign got pretty boring eventually. Nothing made me cringe more than watching both tanks, 2 DD and a healer level down to 74 and having to stop killing sky gods (we were low manning).

I think the weekness and loss of mp (which can be pretty substantial) is enough right now.

I don't really see the point of weakness outside of solo play. In a group setting, you're likely to spend that much time getting back to a boss and trying to amend your strategy. Solo? Why are you dying when you can just leash the mob back to it's spawn? Even if you did die. Go refill your frosty mug of [insert preferred beverage here] and you're right back in there.

No reason to get defensive. I said they should design encounters to account for the server instability. Nowhere did I say all content should be designed that way. Hence, you made an (inaccurate) assumption. It's not a big deal, it happens. I thought it was pretty much common sense that I was talking about stuff like Titan EX and Twintania, stuff that has been out for a few months... since I specifically mentioned them in one of my earlier posts as a reference to the type of content I was talking about.



Apparently I was mistaken and wasn't clear enough for you, so hopefully now you comprehend what I was talking about.



Well, since you have absolutely no proof of what you're saying, and I have no proof either, this argument is pointless. In my opinion, you would lose that moderate sum of money, but then again, your claim of "not numerous" is so vague it wouldn't really matter. In the end, it's all opinions, and in my opinion, you're dead wrong on the number of people still having connection issues. But like I said, that's just my opinion and there's no way to prove either side so why don't we just drop it.


Edited, May 29th 2014 9:10am by BartelX

You made an assumption, based on you thinking my posts were too vague. It was the wrong assumption, and that's completely ok. Like I said, I thought it was common sense since I mentioned specific examples but clearly you thought I was implying all. It doesn't change the fact that I wasn't, which I even stated specifically in the post before you tried to call me out on it. You're trying to argue over a point I never made and that's the bottom line. Chalk it up as a misunderstanding and move on.

That would actually be amazing

You don't have to have to have tons of mobs in each wave. There is no reason why AoE would rule the day. For instance you can have mobs have ranged attacks and have leashes to certain areas. This means they'd be out of AoE range. Or they could have a mechanic that reflected AoE spells. Or really whatever the designers wanted to do.

But this also solves the progression perception problem. As long as you get another monster in you'll always feel like you're doing more.



Edited, May 29th 2014 3:31pm by baelnic

This is kinda like what Behest was in 1.0, and it was fun. It was actually one of my favorite activities in the game. I'm really not sure why they canned it tbh.

Here's the conclusion I can come to after reading most of these posts:

Titan Ex should have been gated much more heavily than it was. In fact, all of the extremes probably should have. They are not meant for the 'casual' playerbase, no matter how you look at it.

Titan Ex should have been the final primal in the set of three like he was in the hard mode versions. They only did this to change it up...but it back fired on them.

These fights are extremely unforgiving. If you haven't done your research, if you haven't come prepared, and if you cannot see 4 steps ahead of you, these aren't the fights for you.

Dodging is very much a skill but I think some of you fail to realize why it is such. This game rewards you for preparation and foresight, for raid awareness, and accountability for your own actions (namely, rotations and job-specific roles). You may think that the ability to dodge is pretty simple to master...but how are you with multitasking? I'm guessing many aren't very good at it. When you have to be fully aware of what is going on, know what is coming well in advance, and have to perform your rotation flawlessly, it seems dodging is not such a simple skill after all.

Heck, turn 9 is a great example. Dodging was our group's biggest problem yet we knew what was coming (because I was calling it) and all knew our jobs fairly well. So why is that? Well, let's examine the fight. There's a video below the explanation if this doesn't make sense.

There are split second decisions you need to make in turn 9 that have nothing to do with knowing something is coming up or not. The tethered target is randomly selected. The thunderstruck target is randomly selected. The thermionic target is randomly selected. Each divebomb target is randomly selected. So on and so forth. Have no idea what I'm talking about? Well, if you really care, you can view our third downing of T9 when I was on my i91 bard. If you think skill doesn't matter at all when you have such a huge gear deficit compared to the rest of your group, you are very much mistaken. As you can see, I do not die at all despite having the 2nd lowest HP, lowest MDEF, and lowest DEF. DEF and MDEF on armor matters on quite a few mechanics in this fight: anyone who has been double meteor streamed can tell you this. Despite this, I don't die and do most of the raid calling. I actually did drop to 89 HP on Mega Flare, though. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckvMPBy4QZQ

As you can see, this is pretty much Queen from Tera when it comes to being responsible for your own debuffs. Two double fires and you're dead. Two double ices and you're dead. If you drop a thunder on the group, they will (likely) die and cause a paralysis that cannot be leeched or esuna'd. All these debuffs require you to make split section decisions within seconds of getting them. For instance, if you get thunderstruck, you have about 4~5 seconds to move away from the group until it detonates. This is the definition of reaction that some of you complain is lacking in this game.

As you can see: the tank uses alarms and notifications. This is standard fare in any MMO with this type of raiding environment: especially in WoW. DBM (if you aren't familiar with it..go look it up) pretty much does what notifications do. If you don't think this is fun, again: endgame content isn't for you.



I'd just like to +1 this. Almost every fight and every dungeon I can think of trains you for everything in a dungeon, the 1st, or the 2nd coil. Here are some I came across today:

The Lost City of Amdapor's first boss has a mechanic that tethers a target and draws you in. Did you know that you can control which direction you are ejected from the boss? Well, this is very important for Turn 6's boss: Raflesia. She has a similar mechanic. However, she cleaves right after spitting you out unlike the first boss of TLCoA.

Aurum Vale is a good example of boss building. The final fight is a nice combination of what you have learned throughout the dungeon. Worth mentioning: the 2nd boss will train you for the Halatali HM's boss that uses an eye of the beholder type attack.

There are various hints about Turn 6 trash in The Lost City as well regarding the mold colonies. Don't kill them in time? More molds spawn. In T6, it causes a pretty big explosion. Twintania's twisters are the reverse of Raflesia's blighted bouquet.

Soaking mechanics for the laser in turn 6 are imperative for turn 9 thermionic (aka: the more bodies, the less damage you take). The same is true for gaseous bomb (turn 8). More bodies = less damage taken.

Allagan field (turn 8) = accountability for your own debuffs which trains you for the last phase of turn 9.

Turn 7 trash has a chimera mob in it as well as a snake similar to the first coil's turn 1 boss.

You are trained for Lunar Dynamo (Turn 9) from Diabolos' attack in Lost City called Ultimate Terror which has the same doughnut shape and properties.

I could probably think of more if I were to examine every encounter and every trash pull more closely..but the point is: this 'training' element already does exist in the game as previously mentioned. This is especially true for the primals since you have a story version, hard mode version, and extreme version with pretty similar mechanics.



I don't need a VPN to kill Titan, Twin, or even Turn 9. It helps but it isn't necessary. The fact that you are having trouble with these fights 7 months after they have been released/on farm and have received nerfs (via fight mechanic changes/echo buff) probably paints a better picture than any.

You can argue about game design philosophy all you like I suppose. So what if they make Titan Ex and Twintania easier than they already have? The next thing you will be complaining about is Turn 7. OK so they nerf Turn 7. Then you'll complain about 9.

Please just learn to accept your limitations instead of the entitled behavior displayed. It took me around 25 hours to learn and down T9. Twintania took around 20 hours 6 months ago. Titan Ex took around 5 hours.

If you can't put in the time and lack the skill involved to do these encounters, just come to terms with it. Stop acting childish. It's @#%^ing frustrating to see some of you back pedal when your level of skill is brought into question. I suppose you think that you should be able to play Rach's 3rd piano concerto after just a year of piano as well. The real world doesn't work this way: why do you think a game (built by people who exist in the real world) would be any different?

Edited, May 30th 2014 2:15pm by HitomeOfBismarck

Well let's see. I haven't played since March roughly. Everything I've posted is observations from other people in this forum or other FFXIV forums, or my direct experiences in game from when I did play. From what I've read, nothing has really changed server stability-wise since then. Just because you don't have connection issues doesn't mean others don't, and it certainly doesn't give you the right to pass judgement on who you think is skilled or not. You know nothing about each situation other than assumptions you make about player skill simply because you can't fathom other people have connection problems, or problems finding a good static to clear the content.

It's funny how you call people out for acting childish, yet go and post another bitter rant about how unskilled others are. Yeah, we're the ones being childish.

Edited, May 30th 2014 9:45am by BartelX