Quote Originally Posted by LeaderofAtlantis View Post
I wouldn't be opposed to the idea of a 4th Lunar Abyssite, but only because Abyssea is basically "What if you could use a Game Shark on FFXI?" except that we have to earn "the codes" (meaning Atma and Abyssite) that change us into Gods. It's fun and all for those zones, but I hope from here on out, they return to the creativity and challenges of what Absolute Virtue and Pandemonium Warden used to be. I don't necessarily want 18+ hour marathon battles (actually, I know I don't), but having monsters that take teamwork and skill (not zerging) to beat would be great.

I remember how much fun it was to figure out how to beat Ouryu in the mission battle during the era of level caps with me tanking as THF/WAR. Yes, I know I can make the game that challenging for myself, but it cheapens me getting the reward that way when anyone else can get the same reward by say, just brewing the monster down. I mean, with a Brew, you could probably solo Vrtra and everything in his room without breaking a sweat on most jobs.

Easy mode is fun, but I hope it stays contained to Abyssea.
People have such rose-colored glasses when it comes to CoP. Remember when you had to buy over-priced gear for level capped missions? Remember when the portals in the Promy zones were only active for 30 seconds and Strays kept popping to interrupt you from entering? Remember when they completely nerfed Ranger and a good quarter of the player base just quit the game? Remember when the drop rate for the pops to get Jailer of Prudence, Justice, Hope, and Love was only 25%? Remember when Jailer of Love was completely unbeatable because it would regen 10% of its HP back every 3 seconds? Remember when Absolute Virtue wouldn't even spawn half of the time after you beat Jailer of Love? I certainly remember all of that and there is a whole lot more that I have worked very hard to repress from that time. Level cap was one of the worst ideas that S-E ever came up with, "Congratulations on all of the grinding that you put into your job, now for no apparent reason you are stuck at a noob level in a zone filled with true sight monsters meaning that they will be completely empty when no one is doing missions." Trying to Metal Gear your way though a zone is really thrilling the first few times you do it, but it gets very tiresome after a dozen or so missions. It has nothing to do with skill, it is merely an inconvenience.

As someone who has beat nearly every HNM in this game, I can tell you that AV and PW are not examples of good game design, they are examples of sadism. That 18+ hour fight it an essential part of those monsters because someone in the dev team decided that is how you are supposed to fight them; the only reason that they were changed is because of the storm of bad publicity that the game received. Did you actually fight either of them at 75 before they were nerfed? They were nightmares of XP loss and futility.

Given this history of this game, I say long live Abyssea and long live easy mode. I guarantee that anyone who picks up FFXI after playing pretty much any MMO out there will scratch their heads at the purported "ease" of this game.