Quote Originally Posted by Aysha View Post
I would agree that a permanent 50% would be a good solution too, but they seem to want the spikes in player activity that they do every month for some odd reason. They seem to think that this is the best way to keep players active, to rotate different activities. Problem is, too little too sparse. Yes, you bring everybody to the Apex Mobs with CP Campaigns, but when there's no CP Campaigns, I almost never see shouts for CP groups in the cities, and the Apex Camps are nigh-empty 'cept for a couple no-lifers that are always there 24/7 (probably botting at that).

It boils down to SE trying to keep the game afloat without any new content for long stretches of time by inflating the amount of time it takes for us to get stuff done. Problem is, that's not how it works. Make it take too long and players will simply quit out of boredom.

And yes, old content needs to be made do-able, either by nerfing to allow low-man groups, or changing the mechanics to adjust to today's playerbase numbers.

I've long maintained that obsolete content such as Delve should be nerfed to allow for solo play with trusts by people wearing lesser gear. Right now, you got this endgame model where it is impossible for the little guy to progress past Yorcia Wield Skirmish and Ambuscade NQ because everything else requires a group and is tuned way too high to even think about doing it with trusts, even if you have the best Trusts. It's "get an endgame shell or go home", but what does the newbie have to offer an endgame shell?

It usually boils down to "play a support or go home" because support is what every shell seems to want, because the ONLY shouts you see are for GEO, BRD, or rarely BLU. Sometimes WHM once in a blue moon. GEO and BLU take a ridiculous amount of prep work to actually be useful to your group, BRD to me looks like the most boring (but hectic) job to play and I dunno about WHM. Been wanting to try that, but eh, how do I get practice and how would I convince an endgame shell to take me in when I have zero skill (or might as well be zero -- I used to heal way back before Afflatus days) and next to no gear to offer them?

So, with no Endgame shell, I'm locked out of 90% of the endgame content at 119 and even some stuff less than 119 that is simply tuned too high to be solo'd due to horrible mechanics, such as mobs unequipping your gear in Ra'Kaznar Skirmish. Most lame mechanic ever.
I run a social-that-does-stuff LS on Asura. I enjoy collecting stray players whether new or returning. I think it's fun to get fresh players into the game and help returnees get back up to speed. My standard welcome gift is a free EZ T1 clear (and T2 if they can help offset the pop cost since I'm not rich,) with me dboxing once they have at least one 99 job. It helps to have a stock of vorseals and they get all the drops. So it's not everyone everywhere that excludes lower geared players for everything. ^^

I agree with you on Delve entry requirements and don't understand why they still require 3man to enter. I don't agree that anything should be actually nerfed tho, since it's not actually obsolete content. There are several drops that are still good/unique/desirable, plus plasm is linked to Ergons, so I don't see any difficulty changes incoming ever. Group content is group content however, so it doesn't make any sense to nerf it to easily soloable in sparks tier difficulty if groups are still doing it.

The demand for support is because everyone seems to want to play a DD. Most gamers like big numbers (especially damage dealt) and support jobs don't tend to directly cause much damage at all even if they are indirectly doing so by buffing others. Plus gearing a modern BRD is a nightmare. ~_~;; GEO is actually very easy to gear as most of the AF/relic/empy armor reforges are what you will be using the most and they even start off as 109s. BLU's challenge is just learning all the spells, gear-wise it's not that different from any other melee/mage. I don't know WHM well enough to say too much about it tbh, but you might want to look into reforges for it, and Vanya set from EZ T1s should hold you over for quite a while on at least cure potency I'd think from looking at the stats/augs. There's a nice WHM staff from UNM too.. Think it's Arke? The one in Sauromuge Champaign. :x It's a BRD/WHM greater bird, and the most threatening thing it does is Benediction once per fight, but it's a pushover.

Normal Skirmish doesn't have much worth the effort to obtain as far as I know, so I think you'd only need to clear it once for ROE? (Please correct me if this is wrong. I skipped it entirely and going off the very dismissive feeling I had after looking at the drop/aug lists.)