AA fights seem very grindy to access

[Zumi]

The entry requirements for the AA and DM fights seem a bit overboard. 20 merits and 30 merits. This is such a radical change from previous SoA content.

The single AA fight lets compare that to skirmish where 1 person just needs to get a KI by buying trading 3 statue pieces which can be obtained from many sources and bought on the AH. Now you need everyone in the group to have 20 merits. Merits take time. Your asking everyone in the group to get all these merits for 1 fight.

DM you need all 5 previous single fights cleared along with 18 people all of which need 30 merits to enter to do the fight once. Compare that to Delve bosses where 1 person needed a ki that you got for trading a rock that was a common drop from any mob in the zone.

In the days of doing delve bosses it took quite some time still to build a party of 18 but do able in like 20 min to an hour. Now for DM there is the insane requirement of having to find people with 5 clears (100 merits), and then having 30 merits read to go to enter the fight. Finding people to do this content will be very hard a lot harder then delve which anyone could of joined without these requirements.

FFXI has a declining population and I just don't know too many people willing to devote this much time to doing stuff like DM 2.

Bottom line is Ease of access to the new AA and DM event needs to be easier.

[Draylo]

You can get capped merits in 30m~1hr just through Voidwatch or farming mobs in Woh Gates/Kamir Drifts.

[detlef]

I do think the access is a little too strict in that every single member needs to have the KI. I preferred the SKC system where only one person needed the orb and everybody else could participate and get something for their troubles. Another issue is that each Ark Angel fight requires a different entry KI, which means you either have to bank KIs and hope that the fight you buy the right KI or you have to just sit on merit points. Something akin to Voidwatch would be preferable, where you can hold up to 6 voidstones, all of which are good for any one fight.

Also, I think getting a Divine Might group together is going to be very difficult.

[Carth]

FFXI has a declining population and I just don't know too many people willing to devote this much time to doing stuff like DM 2.

Likely the point, considering AA/DM is meant to be for the dedicated players who enjoy a grind. People who don't has other content they can enjoy.

And capping merits takes less than two hours.

[svengalis]

LOL people just want everything handed to them don't want to work for anything

[Alhanelem]

I figured the key items must be permanent with those merit point costs, but boy was I wrong. Who the heck is going to even attempt these fights on hard/very hard with the risk of vaporizing 20 or 30 merit points/

[Umichi]

Probably garunteed upgrade to af and awesome lewt on the most difficult settings.

[lllen]

With Trust and Eminence I go to Yorica and get a merit about every 3 mobs. Its crazy fast.

[Dreamin]

Seriously people stop being that lazy, it's not like XP is that hard to get at all.

[detlef]

Seriously people stop being that lazy, it's not like XP is that hard to get at all.XP isn't the issue. Obviously it's very easy to get, especially right now.

What's hard is finding 5 other people who all want to do the same fight (just helping out isn't an option because every participant needs an entry KI). These fights are harder than the SKC fights, and if you read accounts of the fights, damage mitigation is required. Think about what must be done to get 18 people access to the Divine Might fight, and tell me that the obstacle is laziness.

[Carth]

Oh no, strategy is required!

[detlef]

Oh no, strategy is required!Okay, but that doesn't address how you're going to put together a group for DM.

[Dreamin]

Getting 18 competent people together is indeed an interesting challenge SE has given us.

[detlef]

Getting 18 competent people together is indeed an interesting challenge SE has given us.I'm not sure if there's any underlying sarcasm here so I'll just assume you're being sincere. Yes, it's definitely a challenge finding 18 competent people.

But my concern is more about having to get 18 people through each of five 6-man battlefields to access the DM fight. Each fight requires a 20 merit point entry KI, which means you can't gather your group and do it in in an afternoon/evening "(like you would for something like Provenance Watcher). Maybe you do the fights in small groups on the side, but then you will run into issues with some people missing this KI or that (like Einherjar was when every participant needed 9 feathers). The logistics of gathering a group of players who can access the fight is pretty staggering in this day and age of FFXI.

Even if you do the single AA fights, that has its own issues that I mentioned earlier in the thread. I still think the simplest solution for that would be to make a single entry KI that can be used to enter any of the AA battlefields rather than have a different one for each. And to let us hold multiple triggers so more than one fight can be done (and KI can be banked).

[Carth]

Okay, but that doesn't address how you're going to put together a group for DM.

Keep in mind you don't need the merits actively on you. You just need the key item.

It's simple. Ask the invited if he/she has the key item. If yes? You're good to go. If no? Either kick that person out or go spend an hour farming merits. Or you can make a static that'll do DM runs on specific days.

I don't see why this is a problem. This is the game that used to force us to make server-wide schedules for Dynamis runs.

[Zumi]

The problem is unlike SC fights everyone needs the item. Its not that hard to get merits solo, but finding others willing to have the merits to do the fight doesn't seem very likly. SC fights were easy to find people to come help even if they didn't have an orb they could still get a couple of personal drops.

However AA fights you get 1 fight per 6 people because a KI is needed for everyone and gets used on entry. It really should only take the person entering having the KI like the SC fights that came before this.

[Carth]

If they want to do AA fights, then there is no reason why they wouldn't have the KI ready to go upon invite. I do agree however that all KIs being lost after one go is pretty annoying.

A possible solution to that is to just allow players to hold multiples of the same KI.

[Kuvo]

I haven't done any of these fights but do u get a lot of REMs and other loot? Enough for everyone in the party? If not then I would say to change it so only the person starting the fight looses they're KI at a time. This way a party of 6 can do the fight 6 times. I think all other requirements are fine. I enjoy a challenge and working for what I get on this game even though it seems people now a days want the easy button.

[Renaissance2K]

Community: Merit Points are useless now! I've wasted so much EXP because it accumulates so quickly, and I have nothing to use it on! Please make Merit Points useful again!

Development team adds high-demand battlefield entry items that are purchaseable with Merit Points.

Community: WAAAAA! The new battlefields require too many Merit Points to enter!

[Demonjustin]

I wanted merits to be useful, I did not want merits to become another form of currency that is the only way to do an event.

[Renaissance2K]

That's the only way to ensure that they'll always be useful. They could increase the category caps, sure, but once everybody hits the new cap, the same complaints will start up all over again.

[Demonjustin]

Once people have all they want from Angels they will be just as useless.

[detlef]

Once people have all they want from Angels they will be just as useless.It seems pretty likely that the revamps of the old mission battlefields will also require Merit Points as a currency.

And on my server at least, I think that a significant portion (of the NA population at least) is just skipping the AA content altogether.

[Demonjustin]

I highly doubt they are just going to use SKCs for what they have so far and merits for everything else coming...

[detlef]

I highly doubt they are just going to use SKCs for what they have so far and merits for everything else coming...So they added a new crest as a currency to access old seal fights. For mission fights that previously had no seal/crest requirements, they used merit points. The future battlefields are also based off of old mission battlefields. You highly doubt that there is a pretty good chance that those fights might also use merit points?

[Demonjustin]

Rereading what you said, I missed that you said mission battlefields rather than just battlefields.

Mission battlefields may need merits, that I agree with, however, unless they add a lot of rewards with some amount of variety, I do not think they will last nearly as long as this even, and as it has been said, these are already nearly dead on some servers with only moderate or low participation. I also worry about the amount of battlefields we will have redone in the first place. We had a few in RotZ and so far only saw Divine Might redone, as well as the Ark Angel fights around it, those which originally gave rewards in the form of the earrings. But what of other expansions?

Take for instance, CoP, what battlefields are even in CoP? If they do not redo some of the smaller ones such as in CoP how we fought, say, Tenzen, or the other Airship fights, then we could very easily end up seeing nothing but Dawn* as the battlefield remade, 1 battlefield will not last us long. Either the battlefield would have a divided drop rate to many items, for instance, 15 weapons in 1 drop slot, or there will only be certain weapons that drop and once people have what they want they won't do it anymore. I mean, it will last a little time, but I do not see later battlefields lasting much longer than current ones, rewards will likely be comparable in some ways, 119 weapons, alternate(Suppanomimi did not get a Supernomimi, only a Double Attack Earring for instance) or upgraded versions of old items(Hopefully Rajas Ring gets a real upgrade), but I do not expect much different from the two when compared in all honesty.

[Renaissance2K]

Take for instance, CoP, what battlefields are even in CoP?
Apocalypse Nigh is the one that seemed most obvious to me, but really, most of the mission battles from that expansion were pretty awesome and would warrant a re-visiting.

The fights in each of the Promyvion spires, in particular, would parallel what we got with the new Ark Angels fights. Fight a boss from Mea, Dem, and Holla, and then fight all three of them at the same time in Vahzl.

[Monchat]

The entry requirements for the AA and DM fights seem a bit overboard. 20 merits and 30 merits. This is such a radical change from previous SoA content.

The single AA fight lets compare that to skirmish where 1 person just needs to get a KI by buying trading 3 statue pieces which can be obtained from many sources and bought on the AH. Now you need everyone in the group to have 20 merits. Merits take time. Your asking everyone in the group to get all these merits for 1 fight.

DM you need all 5 previous single fights cleared along with 18 people all of which need 30 merits to enter to do the fight once. Compare that to Delve bosses where 1 person needed a ki that you got for trading a rock that was a common drop from any mob in the zone.

In the days of doing delve bosses it took quite some time still to build a party of 18 but do able in like 20 min to an hour. Now for DM there is the insane requirement of having to find people with 5 clears (100 merits), and then having 30 merits read to go to enter the fight. Finding people to do this content will be very hard a lot harder then delve which anyone could of joined without these requirements.

FFXI has a declining population and I just don't know too many people willing to devote this much time to doing stuff like DM 2.

Bottom line is Ease of access to the new AA and DM event needs to be easier.

if you're solo in WoH gate I believe you get 4k exp/mob lol. 6-man pt you get 2k/mob, and alliances doing Divine might II can do morta for 30merits instant.

so solo you need 30mn
1Pt you need 15mn
1ally you need 5mn.

no wonder you can't enter AA fights during Jp prime time.

[Demonjustin]

Apocalypse Nigh is the one that seemed most obvious to me, but really, most of the mission battles from that expansion were pretty awesome and would warrant a re-visiting.

The fights in each of the Promyvion spires, in particular, would parallel what we got with the new Ark Angels fights. Fight a boss from Mea, Dem, and Holla, and then fight all three of them at the same time in Vahzl.I more or less meant that give actual rewards. There are more battlefields in RotZ than just the Angels, however only the Angels have been given a rebirth thus far, now they may redo others too, who knows, but just going off what we know now only the battlefield with an actual reward was used. The one in the Temple wasn't and neither was the one which you fight at the end, or the top of the Tower, I am sure there are more that slip my mind as well. In the end, in RotZ the only reward there is in the missions are the Earrings from the Angels, which is why I was saying that it may just be Dawn that gets a remake since it is the only battlefield that in a way held a reward, via the end of the story.

All of that being said you very much could be correct they may make other ones a new version such as the Promy fights, who knows, but in the event they do it would end up no different than the Angels most likely, it would be a fight we do a few times get what we want and don't go back to except to help others. One of the best ideas I have seen for merits was to allow an exchange of them into forms of currency, something I would compare to the new Vouchers actually, that would be a lot longer lasting I think than this, but who knows. In either case, so far as merits go I still think this was a bad choice, or at least the amount sucks, because its more going out of our way to get things just to participate in an event a single time, which has never, ever, been fun to me.

so solo you need 30mn
1Pt you need 15mn
1ally you need 5mn.10k XP/1 Merit
300k XP/30 Merits.

I do not recall Morta giving 300k XP upon death, in fact, I remember it being something like 25k. No matter how fast you kill Morta, empty the box, and restone after 6, you are not getting 30 merits for an Alliance in 5 minutes, more like an hour at best.

[Draylo]

It seems pretty likely that the revamps of the old mission battlefields will also require Merit Points as a currency.

And on my server at least, I think that a significant portion (of the NA population at least) is just skipping the AA content altogether.

They must be idiots then. Plutons are still 200k+ and you get a lot of them from a D~VD divine might lol, also on VD regular AA. Not to mention the obvious AF upgrades.