Skirmish III is hard...but for the wrong reason.

[Sephiran]

Firstly, let me state that the combat of this event is by no means hard. None of the NM's are bad at all--even the Yacuex which simply requires a bit of creativity (an LS mate of mine has melees use stunning weapon skills while mages nuke it down, mob dies before Haste even wears off).

Even the mobs that use encumbering moves are no real struggle since there is a way to prevent them from using them that doesn't even include Stun. I have to say I really do enjoy the event since it allows such flexibility for what jobs you can employ for it. I've been in runs with RUN's and PUP's, where NM's go down flawlessly and swiftly.

You are probably wondering after reading this far, "What's hard about this event, then"?

There are not enough NM's in the area at one time. Honestly, I think every run I've been in sees more difficulty finding the mobs than they do killing them. Only about 15 minutes of this event is spent fighting. Conversation during this event looks like this:

"Any NM's?"
"Yup! Wide Scan says there's one to the north of here."

"Where's the NM?"
"I lost it on Wide Scan...must be on a different floor."

This comprises the majority of the time I spend in Skirmish III--and there's a feeling of emptiness I get when Berserk wears off while I'm not slashing away at something. And unfortunately, that's how it wears off 90% of the time in Skirmish III.

Anyway, my request to the devs is, would it be possible to look into increasing the number of NM's present in the area? I don't mean by shortening respawn times, because that would be an abusable mechanism. I wouldn't even mind having each mob drop less fenestral fragments or making regular enemies not drop them at all to compensate for more NM's being present. I would rather have the devastating moves that inflict encumbrance be unavoidable than have such a sparse number of enemies present. I don't think the intent of Skirmish III was to run in circles the whole time. Or even putting multiple NM's in the same room and making them all link by true-hearing. (I think other people might just disagree on that last one...)

My tl;dr point is this: Can we have some more NM's filling the halls of Ra'Kaznaar [U]?

[saevel]

That's because your doing it wrong. Wide Scan should not be used to locate NM's, only to check if they are in a room nearby when your running past it. Maps of all body tiers have been made and we now know exactly where the NM's spawn and where the accessions are at. You can plan a route where you run from room to room clearing everything with minimum doubling back.

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Ou...Kaznar_%28U%29

Doing this you can minimize the amount of time you spend running.

[Sephiran]

You're joking, right? After all the complaints that Skirmish II was repetitive, you are saying that they DID NOT randomize the spawn array for Skirmish III?

I had assumed that the spawns were totally random now. Wow, I guess not. Thank you Saevel. Unfortunately, this is a bit of a letdown.

[AppropriateName5786]

After all the complaints that Skirmish II was repetitive

No one ever complained that it was repetitive. All the complaints circled around it being boring.

[Demonjustin]

What spawns where is random, where spawns themselves are is not. I don't use the maps like he suggests anyways and have never found this event to be all to hard. Go in, use Wide Scan to find the mobs, as in what map they're on, and once you find areas like the large double sided rooms(with the small door in the middle and the 2 walls separating it mostly) you often have 2 or 3 ways you can leave that map onto other maps, go 1 stop off that map, WS, if you see a NM go that way, if not then ignore that way. A simple yet effective method.

[Sephiran]

No one ever complained that it was repetitive. All the complaints circled around it being boring.

And what constitutes "boring"? Repetition combined with the fact that you aren't fighting for a majority of the time. Why aren't you fighting? Because there are no mobs.

Believe me, if people actually had to look for the dens and worry about enemies spawning from variable spots in Skirmish II, the event would be somewhat more engaging. While running is better than standing around waiting, it's not as good as fighting.

Demonjustin, that's a good method, but unless you've been through the maps several times (and obviously you have since you know how the rooms connect in relation to their design), that doesn't help. The Skirmish III runs I've been in where we clear the secondary objective no-problem are those where the party contains someone who has seen the layout enough times that they know the pattern. In other words, our party contained a person for whom the event has become a stagnant errand.

By all means, an event is poorly designed when luck is its basis (like pre-adjustment NNI). However, being thrown a curveball that only affects the course of the event but doesn't predestine success or failure adds excitement. Skirmish III lacks in this element. The fights are fun and it's entertaining to be able to devise your own strategy for handling each one of them (e.g. finding out what works best for you when handling that Yacuex). This is why I want to see more this--that is, fighting.

[saevel]

You're joking, right? After all the complaints that Skirmish II was repetitive, you are saying that they DID NOT randomize the spawn array for Skirmish III?

I had assumed that the spawns were totally random now. Wow, I guess not. Thank you Saevel. Unfortunately, this is a bit of a letdown.

Haha, Skirmish II was bad because of the insane wait times in between waves. Skirmish III is really fun, especially once you get to know the maps and can plan routes. Tier III / IV body is big enough that you can run in a giant circle while hitting different enemies and NM's. The respawn is 5m so some people just camp in an area but I find that to be boring so I usually take my group and kill every NM on the map. You get more points the first time you kill an NM, after that the respawn will give you less points. Each of the NM's is different and requires different strategy's. Because of that it's good to go with a somewhat well rounded group usually WHM BRD BLM DD x 3, you can toss in a COR but I find that rolls just aren't worth it most of the time. BLM is incredibly useful on certain NM's while always being solid for sniping monsters while your clearing a room. DD's can be anything from DNC, NIN, RUN to WAR, SAM, DRK, MNK, there isn't a very strict requirement for DPS, just the ability to think a bit and be creative.

[Malithar]

This is why I want to see more this--that is, fighting.

Then memorize the area or use the maps, and plan a route that contains the most mobs. Bonus points for stacking Jig/Mazurka and Bolters Roll so you spend less time running, more time fighting.

Hardly the main issue with this event IMO. I still enjoy runs even now, nukers are fairly decent, can get curve balls early on in higher tier runs that you might not be prepped for (Chapuli or big ol Twithrym), and you're rewarded with faster runs by being prepared and knowledgeable of the event.

Rate of KI acquisition is the real problem. Far too rare, even on high tier heads with 2nd objective completed. Wings aren't that bad, thankfully, though.