Can you stop?

[kegfreak]

Ambuscade was released in April of 2016. Before Omen, before Dynamis-d, before Master Levels, and before Sortie. That content shouldn't need ML50 with all +3 gear to do V1VD. If you are afraid of people selling REMA materials, raise the prices of the ambu points you need for them.

[Alhanelem]

I'm not aware of any ambuscades that "require" ML50.

[Zenion]

I'm not aware of any ambuscades that "require" ML50.

It may not be required, but it has felt, for the last few months, like high master level and ranked Odyssey gear is assumed for Volume 1 D and VD. In restricting the tactics which are allowed to work, fights have been made to require more and faster damage, or more dedicated support (or sometimes both.) I've been hearing a lot of "the last time we did this, we just rolled though and did it" from a group that has, in the meantime, gained 20 to 40 master levels on the relevant jobs and broken two tiers of Odyssey upgrade caps (to level 25 on most of whatever matters for those jobs.)

I get that VD is meant to be, well, "very difficult", but it's meant to be that for players just starting to get Ambuscade gear, isn't it?

The joke's becoming that Ambuscade is the new real endgame, once we finish the climb to Bumba v25 we'll be ready to do a VD ambuscade again.

If this is the design direction Ambuscade is going to be moving in, it might be prudent to move armor onto a third (and maybe fourth?) currency type and hand out like six times as much of that as is currently given of Hallmarks and Gallantry per tier. New players are going to be mired there for a long time if even going to Easy is going to be a struggle every month.

[Immortal]

I can't believe theres actually ppl that want this game to be EASIER. Like what kind of gamer are you

[Alhanelem]

I get that VD is meant to be, well, "very difficult", but it's meant to be that for players just starting to get Ambuscade gear, isn't it?

I think very difficult should mean very difficult.

Most of these ambuscades nowadays are re-runs and they are nerfed from their original versions, so I really don't see the problem. You make it sound like they're getting harder, but I don't see anything in the patch notes that sounds like a difficulty buff.

• Intense Ambuscades have undergone the following adjustments.
  • The amount of time between the Bozzetto Songstress being affected by silence effects and using Cleansing Bubbles has been increased from 45s to 60s.
  • The Bozzetto Songstress no longer has cumulative status ailment resistance.
  • The amount of time that it takes the Bozzetto Flowspear, Bozzetto Wavefist, Bozzetto Hydrophile, and Bozzetto Chirurgeon to respawn after being defeated has been increased from 90s to 180s.
  • The amount of damage taken in one blow required for the Bozzetto Flowspear, Bozzetto Wavefist, Bozzetto Hydrophile, and Bozzetto Chirurgeon to activate special abilities has been increased from 10,000 to 22,222.
  • The Bozzetto Flowspear, Bozzetto Wavefist, Bozzetto Hydrophile, and Bozzetto Chirurgeon will no longer retain the levels when they respawn.

• Normal Ambuscades have undergone the following adjustments.
  • Mukasura’s HP has been decreased by approximately 10%.
  • The air elemental’s HP has been decreased by approximately 25%.
  • The light elemental’s HP has been decreased by approximately 50%.

Which of these changes made the fights harder? Every line looks like a nerf to me.

[Voidstorm]

Sahagin was too difficult previously and the nerf made VD far more doable. Other months like Corse ambu was an increase in difficulty by making it so we couldn't cheese it like we did before.

[Zenion]

I think very difficult should mean very difficult.

Most of these ambuscades nowadays are re-runs and they are nerfed from their original versions, so I really don't see the problem. You make it sound like they're getting harder, but I don't see anything in the patch notes that sounds like a difficulty buff.


Which of these changes made the fights harder? Every line looks like a nerf to me.

Honestly, I couldn't tell you exactly what it was that was different this time, to make it so difficult. It might actually have been because gear and levels are better now, making it harder to hit weaponskills below 22222 today than it was to hit them below 9999 in the past. I, personally, never got to do the previous iteration of the fight, so all I can offer on that is my veteran party members being surprised, dismayed, and disappointed when we managed to time out on the VD fight (their prior experience, apparently, had been "in and out, five minutes, easy month." That regen rate was pretty brutal though, and level ups ramped up really quickly, so, I don't know, I feel like maybe this just turned into one of those "empyrean aftermath white damage mandatory" sort of affairs.

I'm honestly not sure what happened on moogles, either. Before, with chasing the safety moogle being effectively impossible with North American latency to server, there'd been a strategy of just hanging back and fighting with ranged weaponskills, compensating for the kaustra aura by curing as hard as a white mage can cure. This time, that... well, that just wasn't an option. It was two ticks to floor, anywhere in the arena. Interesting fact, it seemed like it was flat 1000 damage over time regardless of any regen you had on, we went in with something like 150/tick regen on one attempt and it was still eating the full thousand HP. As for the intended strategy, with all the moving around and the amnesia, the invincible/benediction/perfect dodge power trio... was it even physically possible to turn that over in under ten minutes?

Iron giants... well, maybe that was easy once you got past the invulnerability phase at the start. I wouldn't know, I never got to see a fight get past that. That might have been a reasonable change if they didn't get the damage resistance until they dropped to, say, 92%, to give people a chance to do the "attack one, then the other" thing.

Corses just always sucked. Not really any harder than it ever was, actually a little more survivable since you got an extra couple of seconds to try to pop a holy water before the doom got you, but... come on, it's a fight with aoe charm and doom, and a chance that if you don't kill one of the adds immediately the boss might pull off a quick rocks fall everybody dies play. It's doable, but nobody's having fun waiting out weakness timers, even with arise and without experience loss.

I don't even remember what meebles was like. I think we actually did okay that month, it was actually just the previous version but with enough time to react to things that required instant reactions.

[Alhanelem]

making it harder to hit weaponskills below 22222 today than it was to hit them below 9999 in the past

Maybe you should invite my SMN/SAM for this purpose then. I have no problem hitting less than 22222, unless that includes the skillchain damage >.>

(And yes, I do actually do this, melee subs, especially SAM, have dramatically increased my solo damage potential via skillchains and bursts while solo- I use a healer trust and thus have little need for anything any mage sub can offer other than S/I which we have items for)

[Sp1cyryan]

Ambuscade was released in April of 2016. Before Omen, before Dynamis-d, before Master Levels, and before Sortie. That content shouldn't need ML50 with all +3 gear to do V1VD. If you are afraid of people selling REMA materials, raise the prices of the ambu points you need for them.

You are mistaken.