Pagos is still beyond unreasonable

[Glaceon10]

Can be viewed as just a complaint post, but I'm using it as a general discussion point for all aspects of Pagos, not just getting the weapon and levelling.

Of course, getting the weapon and levelling are still both chores that take a good fuckin' while, with there being few really "good" early-level methods that aren't just doing wolves (which are both often occupied by other players and is variable based on people doing Happy Bunnies). Getting into any high-level area for its Notorious Monsters is stupidly difficult because of how many dangerous enemies are on the hill and how the Aetherytes aren't accessible until so far into the levelling process anyway, which basically limits low levels (pretty much anything below Level 30) to anything up to Hakutaku and maybe King Igloo, south Happy Bunnies give almost no experience points, and chaining is obviously straight-up not fun and is difficult to do when a lot of people don't want to do it for the very reason that it's not fun. Light's about as bad.

Leveling and the light grind are both pretty bad themselves, but the ugly head of Pagos only starts to rear its little head when you start getting into the deeper aspects of it, such as the Eureka Effect items. Starting with Hakutaku, the issue with even having the opportunity to get the Optical Hat is related to Happy Bunnies being garbage with giving golds (discussed later), and how difficult it is to get the Eyes or even buy them. The concept of getting gold only from that special item is itself pretty neat, but it basically feels impossible to attain. Not really sure on the Speed Belt's chances at dropping, but it's fairly lenient in that it's just a Notorious Monster drop with no bullshit attached that's even right beside an Aetheryte. As for Cassie, I've literally only seen her once, even after doing Pagos since it launched and basically never stopping, and the fact that the Cassie Earrings don't even consistently drop from her is stupid, and all of the Eureka Effect items generally suffer from how they feel as if they take so much effort to get for so little real gain.

It's also unbelievably difficult to get anything from Lockboxes, though. Pagos Lockboxes feel straight-up worthless when I open hundreds in one sitting and only get Materia and Potion of Harmony materials, and Cold-warped Lockboxes feel just the same - literal hours of farming Anubys and still haven't gotten the emote nor Wind-up Tarutaru, with approximations coming out to about a ridiculous .2% chance on the former.

[Glaceon10]

Happy Bunnies are just about as hellish, though. It's much the same as Anubys - you can spend hours of effort for about nothing. Part of the issue is the scaling on the enemies to the scaling of the players in the instance when the people who want to do Happy Bunnies is only a small fraction of how many people are actually in the instance. When there is roughly a full instance, they take so bloody long to a point of feeling like a lot of effort for probably a singular Materia V. But even in a dead instance where the Happy Bunnies die fairly fast (in which I've been in multiple), the rate of Gold Coffers and how the only valuable items are in them just leads to feeling like you're accomplishing nothing. I've been doing Happy Bunnies as much as possible since Patch 4.45, and even after a month of doing a ton of Elemental Conflicts, I only saw my first Gold Chest today - for just an Earthen Hakutaku Eye. Does that mean that I have to do that garbage - again, basically a month of grinding for hours on end - three more times just so that I can get an Optical Hat, and another time so that I can get the Copycat Bulb?

The problem with Pagos is that nothing actually feels like it's designed for a human being to play. It's hours upon hours of mindless, tedious grind without any sense of progress or even a sliver of a hope at actually attaining anything. I said it before, but it genuinely should not be possible to feel like you can go for hours upon hours and basically accomplish nothing. It feels like it's easier to go through Savage and even do bloody Ultimate than it is to actually get anything done in Pagos, and for what's supposed to be fairly casual and laid-back content, I can't fathom how that makes any sense from a design perspective. I've literally went into Pyros and gotten everything there (a weapon, a few rerolls, Triple Triad card, both minions, mount, hairstyle, and emote) in what felt like a fairly reasonable amount of time for how much I was playing it, yet I still first left Pagos having attained neither minion, no emote, neither Triple Triad card (only obtaining Yukinko Card much later and the Louhi Card from the new NPC), all in what was generally a much more vapid yet simultaneously frustrating experience. And now, having grinded it out extensively for a good while now, I still basically have nothing from Pagos.

This post is as much a call for nerfs as much as it's a call for help.

[Vahlnir]

Pagos as a whole was/is imo some of the worst content this game has seen and was clearly meant to be filler content. There's a reason they nerfed it at least twice before it was outdated and will probably nerf it again at some point. I can't really say the relic grind was hard, but it was tedious. Navigating the map was also pretty terrible. And the whole treasure bunny thing...it was obviously improved in Pyros, but they need a rework in both instances imo. Too random. Way too random. Just like any of the good drops in Pagos and Pyros from lockboxes or bunny treasure chests. There's too many layers of RNG on top of too many layers of RNG to even consider either place actually fun or enjoyable. Pyros is just more tolerable.

[Tsriel]

I've been in Pagos for two weeks now, one pre-nerf patch, one post nerf. Post-nerf is leagues better, but the real bottleneck now is getting light for frosted crystals. Granted, I basically got 2/3 of the light I needed for one weapon leveling up. These past few days have been nothing but boredom farming mobs for light. I'm just sick of it. I can't understand why (outside of NMs) its so difficult to earn, plus its seemingly RNG based, adding only to the frustration. I just want to leave Pagos already yet I can't because I don't have my weapons done yet. I would gladly take all the Pagos Crystals I got and start forging them into frosted crystals. You get so many now that getting Louhi spheres is an afterthought to a point where Louhi doesn't get prepped much anymore.

[Noitems]

I'm back in Pagos completing my third relic, I did the first two prenerf as well. The biggest hurdle Pagos has right now is light. I understand that it was buffed (around 4.4) for better light gains, but that only applies to the NM's. I think we need to see either a reduced amount of crystals needed for the weapon or increase on light gained through mobs.

Right now the main options you have are Dragon farming in the center, forge parties(Haven't tried this method yet myself) or Anubys farming. Dragons are good if you just want light but they're still fickle on giving it. Anubys do mutate a lot but the amount of light gained is pathetic compared to others, it's more so for the assured light and bonus CWLB if you get it.

If we're gonna see any final nerf to Pagos I bet it will be at 4.7 as Pyros is extremely smooth to get your weapon and Hydatos will hopefully get the same beats as it prior. Just doesn't make sense to have a fast first map, a slow second, and then speed back up for the third.

[Zolvolt]

Pagos is no where near unreasonable now. My friend sky rocketed to 35 in one week just by doing the NM train and the challenge log. I started and finished my sch relic in that time as well. You may as well call pagos the new anemos. As for light farming theres very little reason to actually light farm. The NM's trump all light farming options so its really just something to do in downtime.

[Lambdafish]

Why would you bump this thread? It's from before the nerfs. Both the OPs point and your point are correct.

[Maerdhina]

Do yerself a favour & don't give a shit 'bout Ewwreka. Its' top weapon is still lacking compared to Omega wep imo. I've seen some of those "pyros wep" stats and I instantly decided to cba for that sh!t. Getting a single wep takes too much time making it useless.

Tbh I liked the Zeta (had 2) & Anima (had 6) weps questlines cuz every step was different.. on Eureka every fuckin' step is the same.. and in horrible, tedious & boresome area.

[Videra]

Terrible game design is terrible game design, news at 11.

[SmokeyTheSequel]

I just spent the last few weeks leveling up through pagos and pyros. I completed two relics throughout my time in both and it's been a slow and sometimes tedious grind but it's not unreachable and certainly obtainable.