Odyssey needs more casual options

[radar]

Forcing players to kill vengeance 25 bosses before they can work on grinding out maxed augments on their armor is ridiculous. You're forcing players to do things most can't do if they are casual or solo, which makes no sense when over 50%+ of players are casual or solo.

Offer other options, even if inferior so players can work on grinding out gear. Remove the requirement to kill 25+ bosses before they are allowed to max augment their armor.

You want players to be grinding things when they log in, not have nothing to do.

[Voidstorm]

this is a MMO, please create a party and build up your way to clearing the v25s. they were never meant to be casually or solo killed at a high vengeance level.


v15 can be cleared by many casual shout groups, even v20 or v25 if the players you gather happen to be less casual in their playtime.

While you won't get the highest rank augment casually, you can still get rank 20 augments quite easily with dedication.

[Uroah]

The problem with that is climbs only exist until the top is released. Once the peak is open, no one climbs anymore.

[radar]

If 6 casual / solo players group up to fight 25+ bosses the only thing they will achieve is mass Mlev loss.

There is a reason Runescape dose so well, it's cause they know they need to offer content to all instead of the top 25% of players.

The main problem is they don't seem to get just how many players are casual and solo, even Sortie has the same problem. It's fine to have prestige paths, but there should always be lower paths to the same goal. It should just take longer, or come later.

[radar]

The unwillingness to go back and alter old content is very odd to me.

Odyssey needs changes, Sortie needs changes, heck even Omen needs some (huge numbers of players just farm the trash monsters in Omen, far more people do that than the boss runs and they have zero variation in the runs at all. Even though the boss runs have other variants of trash mobs they could use).

[Voidstorm]

The problem with that is climbs only exist until the top is released. Once the peak is open, no one climbs anymore.
I've seen sever shouts for people trying to create a Odyssey + Sortie static. I can only imagine they're at least going to be climbing some, but for a PUG single fight, it probably would be v25 or nothing.

[Uroah]

They shout to climb and give up because they have no other options. No help. No mercs. No chance. No interest.

[radar]

The problem with XI is it's not like normal mmorpgs.

On a normal MMORPG if you meet the gearcheck to enter you can survive and clear the content, mechanics are spaced out and the game explains what you're supposed to do well (arrows, red marks etc)

On XI gear matters a lot, but also the bosses can do whatever they want back to back, you have to understand every move it can do, often the moves are unfair (charm, painsync are good examples), there is very very little signposting of moves that could wipe you (just a text line in a spamming chat log) and if you're using trusts and one of them die it's often over cause you can't resummon.

Even if they do give players good catchup gear, even if they give them free REMA players are still not going to be able to clear difficult content.

The best players of the game are min / maxers who do a lot of research and planning, who play with other very good players.

In the past the way to clear content was just to join alliances with very good players, and in effect their 11/10 behavioure carried the 6-8/10 players.

Now with so much content being party based, most players are never going to get there. Especially with trusts, and even after the boosts to trusts.

That's why things like Odyssey needs other paths to the goal.

[dmuller30]

The problem with XI is it's not like normal mmorpgs.

On a normal MMORPG if you meet the gearcheck to enter you can survive and clear the content, mechanics are spaced out and the game explains what you're supposed to do well (arrows, red marks etc)

On XI gear matters a lot, but also the bosses can do whatever they want back to back, you have to understand every move it can do, often the moves are unfair (charm, painsync are good examples), there is very very little signposting of moves that could wipe you (just a text line in a spamming chat log) and if you're using trusts and one of them die it's often over cause you can't resummon.

Even if they do give players good catchup gear, even if they give them free REMA players are still not going to be able to clear difficult content.

The best players of the game are min / maxers who do a lot of research and planning, who play with other very good players.

In the past the way to clear content was just to join alliances with very good players, and in effect their 11/10 behavioure carried the 6-8/10 players.

Now with so much content being party based, most players are never going to get there. Especially with trusts, and even after the boosts to trusts.

That's why things like Odyssey needs other paths to the goal.

Exactly. XI’s difficulty is not just a gear check. Content like Odyssey, Sortie, Limbus, and similar endgame activities requires extensive knowledge, coordination, and consistency, while the game barely explains its mechanics.

You can spend hours forming a group, die almost immediately because of one small miscommunication, and then wait 24 hours to try again. Even one amazing player cannot quickly teach several new people every role and mechanic during a run that only lasts 30 minutes to an hour.

There are 22 jobs, but only a small handful are commonly accepted for this content. New and casual players often build jobs they enjoy, only to discover they cannot get invited. Difficult content should still allow properly geared tanks, healers, supports, and DPS to participate without forcing everyone into WAR, COR, BRD, WHM, GEO, RDM, SMN, PLD, or SAM.

People say “just join a group,” but they are often already in statics built over two or three years. Catch-up gear and stronger trusts do not fix that. Content like Odyssey, Sortie, and Limbus needs better job flexibility and alternate progression paths.