Would you guys like an added difficulty for raids?

I think what the developers consider the “middle content” are the EX primals. While not technically raids, they are 8-man content. So, I think the way they tier difficult at endgame might look something like this:

“Expert” Dungeons
Alliance Raids & Normal Raids
Extreme Primals
Savage
Ultimate

I think there’s also future nuance between the EXs and Savage floors. In the past, the developers have said that some EX primals can give players a “stepping stone” into the third and fourth floors of a tier. For this current tier, I’d wager the nuance between EX and Savage would be something like:

Pandaemonium Normal
83 & 89 EX = entry level to high-end 8 man content
P1S & P2S
90 MSQ EX set to release in 6.1
P3S & P4S
Dragonsong Ultimate set to release in 6.15 (pls don’t delay it again devs)

The 90 MSQ EX trial won’t have much bearing on higher end statics or more skilled players that have already cleared the tier and have it on farm—but more so for the casual raiders or those just starting to get their feet wet when it comes to the content. I think it was Shinryu EX where Yoshida said the weapons might be beneficial for Savage groups—since, at that time, you couldn’t buy a weapon upgrade for the current Tomestone gear unless you had cleared O3S, and the Shinryu weapons were a slight increase from the tome ones. If I am remembering correctly. It has been a while, so I could be mistaken.

I know that explanation was used for Thordan EX. It was supposed to be a middle ground between A2S and A3S. There were just…other issues with Gordias that kind of skewed that tiering. Plus Thordan EX was actually super hard compared to the EXs of today when it was current.

The difficulties are just right for me. Normal difficulty is pretty much my sweet spot given lag and my physical constraints. As much as I'd love to see more difficult versions of Alliance raids, the thought of having to go through them on a Roulette isn't terribly appealing.

Normal mode is interesting enough at first, becomes a fairly routine farm later but that's fine. Savage is also generally in a decent enough place difficulty wise.

A middling difficulty seems like a decent amount of work for not a great deal of reward. I don't really think there is much point.

They could probably add scaling modifiers to increase the difficulty, i.e. more HP for boss, harder hitting abilities, reducing mana regen. Maybe scale everyone's gear to minimum ilvl supported by dungeon. As a reward they could give you additional tokens, like 50 more than normal. Honestly most bosses increase in difficulty during last 40% as multiple mechanics start to overlap, increasing HP and reducing damage from ilvl would ensure players sit in that window longer.

I seriously doubt they would add more abilities or new gear sets though, that's too much work. FFXIV does a pretty good job IMO of offering moderate difficulty without the need for coordination, something WoW doesn't.

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Originally Posted by Illmaeran

The difficulties are just right for me. Normal difficulty is pretty much my sweet spot given lag and my physical constraints. As much as I'd love to see more difficult versions of Alliance raids, the thought of having to go through them on a Roulette isn't terribly appealing.

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I think the equivalent of more difficult Alliance raids in this game are probably things like Baldesion Arsenal in Eureka and Delebrum in Bozja. I only did Delebrum once because I took an extended break from the game last expansion, but BA was a ton of fun.

What would the "middle" difficulty be? Mechanics either aren't mandatory and failing results in a slap on the wrist like normal or are mandatory and failing leads to a wipe like savage. There is no in-between. A harder slap on the wrist is just a slight annoynce to the healer.

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Originally Posted by PMSJordan

I personally would appreciate a new difficulty in between Normal and Savage. I wondering if guys would as well?

An example from another game would be WoW. It has Normal, Heroic, and Mythic modes for their raids.

In my opinion Normal mode is too easy and Savage destroys most of the player base. So much so that many players are to scared to even attempt Savage.

To me personally the old Coil raids had the perfect mix of difficulty. It was way harder than normal, but not as cruel as Savage.

It would be very nice to have a difficulty been the two. Maybe even call them Extreme Raids. Plus it would get more people to try some harder content.

What are you guys thoughts on this?

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Raid no that's what ultimate covers. Dungeon yes.

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

I think what the developers consider the “middle content” are the EX primals. While not technically raids, they are 8-man content. So, I think the way they tier difficult at endgame might look something like this:

“Expert” Dungeons
Alliance Raids & Normal Raids
Extreme Primals
Savage
Ultimate

I think there’s also future nuance between the EXs and Savage floors. In the past, the developers have said that some EX primals can give players a “stepping stone” into the third and fourth floors of a tier. For this current tier, I’d wager the nuance between EX and Savage would be something like:

Pandaemonium Normal
83 & 89 EX = entry level to high-end 8 man content
P1S & P2S
90 MSQ EX set to release in 6.1
P3S & P4S
Dragonsong Ultimate set to release in 6.15 (pls don’t delay it again devs)

The 90 MSQ EX trial won’t have much bearing on higher end statics or more skilled players that have already cleared the tier and have it on farm—but more so for the casual raiders or those just starting to get their feet wet when it comes to the content. I think it was Shinryu EX where Yoshida said the weapons might be beneficial for Savage groups—since, at that time, you couldn’t buy a weapon upgrade for the current Tomestone gear unless you had cleared O3S, and the Shinryu weapons were a slight increase from the tome ones. If I am remembering correctly. It has been a while, so I could be mistaken.

I know that explanation was used for Thordan EX. It was supposed to be a middle ground between A2S and A3S. There were just…other issues with Gordias that kind of skewed that tiering. Plus Thordan EX was actually super hard compared to the EXs of today when it was current.

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That's getting delayed :)

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Originally Posted by EverQuest

Raid no that's what ultimate covers. Dungeon yes.

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New harder dungeons would be great!

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Originally Posted by PMSJordan

New harder dungeons would be great!

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I've got a suggestion for the hardest dungeon, that will probably get people complaining instantly. No trash packs, extra strong bosses(still only the 3 usual amount, just like 5x stronger), but instead of the trash packs...you have jumping puzzles.