Alexander Normal difficulty...

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Originally Posted by HaiHai

They have clearly stated in interviews that, in a nutshell:

Alexander (Hard) = Coil Savage

Alexander (normal) = Coil with echo buff

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If that is how it is, then their (Yoshi & SE) hope for a higher completion rate will be utterly crushed.

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Originally Posted by AdamFyi

[I]"I want the best loot! Why do Hardcores get everything?!"

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I can definitely see this coming. People complaining about not getting the top tier gear while they're actually paying for a susbcription (Just to mention one of their arguments).

I'm really excited to give Alexander HM a try. I love challenge, and I wouldn't blame the dev team for making it really hard but myself for not being able to clear. And again, I really doubt it will be as hard as the current Savage. If the current Coil was beaten by less than the 10% of the player's population, making it like Savage will reduce that number to a 1% or even less!

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Originally Posted by Cyrus-Wallace

I can definitely see this coming. People complaining about not getting the top tier gear while they're actually paying for a susbcription (Just to mention one of their arguments).

I'm really excited to give Alexander HM a try. I love challenge, and I wouldn't blame the dev team for making it really hard but myself for not being able to clear. And again, I really doubt it will be as hard as the current Savage. If the current Coil was beaten by less than the 10% of the player's population, making it like Savage will reduce that number to a 1% or even less!

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Current coil was beaten by less than 5% of the players who bought the game on PS3/PS4, and that's based on Sony's own trophy data for players completing the BCOB Turns 1-5. Not sure of the PC numbers, but it's clear that comparatively few have completed even turn 5 of coil

Anyone who whines that the normal mode drops are not the same as hard mode will need to get a swift reminder of reality, along with an even swifter kick.

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Originally Posted by Zumi

People beat FCoB in the first week it was out. So they were probably like, yea we need this to be harder so that doesn't happen again.

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This is stupid, there's a reason Blizzard doesn't care about when world-first teams clear content. Because 20 people out of 10 million people who play WoW literally do not mean anything when designing content. I can't believe that Yoshi and his crew could be that stupid, the story goes that Yoshi has played WoW and knows how that works. He's also probably aware of how Wildstar crashed and burned after launch too, or I would imagine he is.

If they are really going to push the "casual core" and "midcore", you know, the people who raid only 1-2 times a week and don't live their entire lives in the database, into the bucket that holds the non-raiders with Alexander HM difficulty they are not going to like what happens to sub numbers after the first month of Heavensward after everyone has facerolled their way through Alexander NM and 99.995% of players have nothing to do because Alex HM is now only for the people who do Mythic raiding in WoW. Blizzard hasn't added multiple difficulty levels between faceroll and impossible in WoW raids just for the hell of it.

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Originally Posted by Illya

If they are really going to push the "casual core" and "midcore", you know, the people who raid only 1-2 times a week and don\\\\'t live their entire lives in the database, into the bucket that holds the non-raiders with Alexander HM difficulty they are not going to like what happens to sub numbers after the first month of Heavensward after everyone has facerolled their way through Alexander NM and 99.995% of players have nothing to do because Alex HM is now only for the people who do Mythic raiding in WoW. Blizzard hasn\\\\'t added multiple difficulty levels between faceroll and impossible in WoW raids just for the hell of it.

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So..you think 99% ffxiv players care about end game raids? Really?

Well Yoshi said in that nico nico thing they are calling Alex Hard, heroic internally. I've never played WoW, but i'm guessing heroic isn't as hard as mythic.

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Originally Posted by Whocareswhatmynameis

Well Yoshi said in that nico nico thing they are calling Alex Hard, heroic internally. I've never played WoW, but i'm guessing heroic isn't as hard as mythic.

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Until this current expansion, Heroic was Mythic. They added a new, easier difficulty and just redid the naming structure. Essentially, what happened was:

Previous:
LFR: Baby-mode
Normal: Basic
Heroic: Hardcore

Current:
LFR: Baby-mode
Normal: Below basic
Heroic: Basic
Mythic: Hardcore

I think some of you misunderstood me... I didn't say I don't like Alexander Savage being harder than FCoB, I actually like that.

But I like it mostly because it will give those hardcore progression players something more to do, maybe not much for for the best of the best groups, but for the "normal" progression groups, which is good for the game in general.

Alexander Savage could be very hard for most groups to do, and would require them to get better gear from Alexander Normal mode first.

That might still be true, but if we need gear from Alex NM, I don't just want it to be a slightly harder 8 man dungeon or something... I still want it to be a raid where there is a point in having a static and having decent coordination.

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Originally Posted by Illya

after everyone has facerolled their way through Alexander NM and 99.995% of players have nothing to do because Alex HM is now only for the people who do Mythic raiding in WoW.

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Who said NM would be faceroll? Majority of players still can't clear or consistently farm FCoB in pugs and even more can't do it without being in full i130 on top of echo. If we're talking about FCoB + Echo levels of difficulty and not LotA/ST/WoD, then it will be geared towards the middle group.

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Originally Posted by Cyrus-Wallace

I can definitely see this coming. People complaining about not getting the top tier gear while they're actually paying for a susbcription (Just to mention one of their arguments).

I'm really excited to give Alexander HM a try. I love challenge, and I wouldn't blame the dev team for making it really hard but myself for not being able to clear. And again, I really doubt it will be as hard as the current Savage. If the current Coil was beaten by less than the 10% of the player's population, making it like Savage will reduce that number to a 1% or even less!

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10% is the JP servers, its 2% on the NA ones.

Guys, there will be stuff to do for every kind of player in the new raid.

Q：You've mentioned that Alexander Normal is for people to relax and enjoy the story, does that mean they'll be cleared within a day or two?
Y: /em nods.
Q. Was Hard mode made with WoW's Mythic raids in mind?
Y: We're actually calling them Heroic internally.
Q.Does that mean there'll be something even harder?
Y: Depends on the players' clear rates and requests.
Q. So Alexander was made with player clear rates in mind?
Y: Yup. Looking at the number of player clears, we also have something called Content Costs where we basically want our content to be enjoyable by more people.
Q. How many levels?
Y: 4.
Q. Will there be higher IL requirements and more gimmicks as we go up?
Y: Yes. We designed it with what players considered fun between all 3 coils.

So, based on the Q&A, we will have a "Normal/Story" mode really easy (just for the story), and a Hard Mode for the raiders.
If the Hard Mode is too easy, they will add another mode, for the hardcore raiders.

I think its good enough.

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Originally Posted by Lyrinn

Who said NM would be faceroll? Majority of players still can't clear or consistently farm FCoB in pugs and even more can't do it without being in full i130 on top of echo. If we're talking about FCoB + Echo levels of difficulty and not LotA/ST/WoD, then it will be geared towards the middle group.

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A disconcerting number of people still can't do steps of faith or WoD in pugs, despite both encounters being ridiculously easy. Whether or not this game's pugs can clear something is no indication of actual difficulty. >_>

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Originally Posted by Tannlore

Today he expanded on this and yes, hard more is the equivalent of SCoB savage:

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...d_other_stuff/

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The text on reddit is

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Q. How hard is Alexander Hard?
Y: About as hard as FCOB Savage ← ?!?!?!

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and leaves much room for interpretation.

And in earlier questions he confirmed again what I wrote in other threads

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Q.Does that mean there'll be something even harder?
Y: Depends on the players' clear rates and requests.
Q. So Alexander was made with player clear rates in mind?
Y: Yup. Looking at the number of player clears, we also have something called Content Costs where we basically want our content to be enjoyable by more people.

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I think the clearing rates they have in mind are similar to actual FCoB.

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Originally Posted by Chibilidawg

Am I to understand that they're eradicating the midcore from raids now too?

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Alexander Normal IS mid-level raiding.

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Originally Posted by Tannlore

Today he expanded on this and yes, hard more is the equivalent of SCoB savage:

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...d_other_stuff/

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Q. How hard is Alexander Hard?

Y: About as hard as FCOB Savage ← ?!?!?!

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FCoB Savage =/= SCoB Savage
And only the devs know how hard FCoB Savage is before they tuned it down for our FCoB normal mode.

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Originally Posted by gorezilla1

Alexander Normal IS mid-level raiding.

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Alexander Normal is EASIER than current Coil, and current Coil IS medium core raiding. Therefore there is technically NO medium core raiding in the expansion, only casual and hardcore.

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Originally Posted by Jarinolde

Alexander Normal is EASIER than current Coil, and current Coil IS medium core raiding. Therefore there is technically NO medium core raiding in the expansion, only casual and hardcore.

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Personally I thought hardcore would be clearing coil within 3 months of coil intro while midcore clears within 6 months while casual clears during echo. Though apparently my estimation seems to be two grades too high for most people. Would people still attempting t9 right now consider themselves to be midcore? Really?

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Originally Posted by gorezilla1

Alexander Normal IS mid-level raiding.

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No, from the sounds of it ("cleared in a day or two" & "to relax and enjoy the story), it's straight up easy-mode.

And Alexander Hard will be overly difficult for a mid-core player (equivalent to "FCoB Savage").

Point is, the game desperately needs 3 difficulty tiers (for raiding, at least).

Dungeons have their easy, leveling counterparts & the tuned-for-level-50 alternatives which are quickly out-geared (turning them easy very fast, because a lot of them are mechanically light).

24-Man's just have their one easy difficulty (same as dungeons, quickly outgeared & becoming "zerg tower" in no time).

Primals are just perfect I think... except I think this game needs to implement a much harsher ilvl sync on its hardest difficulty settings (e.g. EX Primals).

I would say pre-nerfed, non-echo SCOB was perfect raider midcore.

Now, it's important to note that "raider midcore" & plain midcore are very different.

When I say raider midcore, I'm emphasizing some sort of effort put into accomplishing the raids, gearing for it, & forming up.

Midcore in general tries to keep their gear in check I would say, caps their Poetics for the week at least, but doesn't necessarily min-max to the extreme or contemplate the meta or strategies in their sleep. This' partly why I wouldn't consider the 50 Dungeons or the 24-Man's midcore due to them turning into zerg-fests pretty quickly as a result of their mechanical lightness. Maybe pre-nerf Pharos could count but that's about it for 4/24 Content.

I typed this in a major sleep stupor just as I awoke so I'm probably not giving the best or clearest picture, but this gives you an idea.

Implementing EX Dungeons, a third Raid Difficulty, & Savage 24-Mans would be PERFECT.

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Originally Posted by Chibilidawg

Implementing EX Dungeons.

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This would be an absolutely fantastic feature.

While i do agree with you, i don't necessarily think they should just add more difficulty levels to alex. I feel they need to add more things like the Ultima HM and Odin (Urths Fount), kind of fights for a more medium level of difficulty. Maybe have 1-2 mechanics that will kill people instead of 8+ like in coil.

Let's hope in future content patches we get more stuff like that. Unfortunately in 3.0 endgame is gonna be slim pickings.

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Originally Posted by Chibilidawg

No, from the sounds of it ("cleared in a day or two" & "to relax and enjoy the story), it's straight up easy-mode.

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What makes me think that no, it isn't just "easy mode", is that he probably isn't saying casual/non-hardcore players will complete it in a day or two, but that it can be as such. The hardcore will have it complete before the first week is done, everyone else will have guides to help them but still have something challenging for themselves. Lots of players still haven't cleared T5 with current echo, even though it is easy once you know what to dodge.

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Originally Posted by Dualblade

What makes me think that no, it isn't just "easy mode", is that he probably isn't saying casual/non-hardcore players will complete it in a day or two, but that it can be as such. The hardcore will have it complete before the first week is done, everyone else will have guides to help them but still have something challenging for themselves. Lots of players still haven't cleared T5 with current echo, even though it is easy once you know what to dodge.

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I don't think the players that haven't managed to clear content that is a year and a half old and outdated by 40 item levels should honestly be taken into consideration when creating what is supposed to be some of the most difficult content of the game meant to last for 6 months.

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Originally Posted by Ashkendor

Un-nerfed Turn 7 would like to speak with you.

So would Turn 9.

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A bit late to reply, but Turn 7 was super easy and had basically no mechanics in comparison.

I don't consider 'turn around when you get a debuff, petrify an add, or stand behind the petrified add' a mechanic, honestly. Turn 7 is the easiest turn in history and always has been. >_> The nerfs just made it way more forgiving.

Turn 6 wasn't much better, and turn 9 is also incredibly simple when it comes down to it, it's just another long fight that you can't make a mistake in.

Only fight in second coil that is even remotely complex is turn 8.

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Originally Posted by Chibilidawg

Implementing EX Dungeons, a third Raid Difficulty, & Savage 24-Mans would be PERFECT.

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I would kill for WoW challenge mode type dungeons with leaderboards and the like. Players are COMPETITIVE. They want to fight to improve and battle against their friends or try and climb the ladder, and the popularity of things like challenge modes, greater rifts and Hearthstone seasonal ladders just prove this.

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Originally Posted by FoxyAreku

A bit late to reply, but Turn 7 was super easy and had basically no mechanics in comparison.

I don't consider 'turn around when you get a debuff, petrify an add, or stand behind the petrified add' a mechanic, honestly. Turn 7 is the easiest turn in history and always has been. >_> The nerfs just made it way more forgiving.

Turn 6 wasn't much better, and turn 9 is also incredibly simple when it comes down to it, it's just another long fight that you can't make a mistake in.

Only fight in second coil that is even remotely complex is turn 8.

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T6 had a few large mechanics before people figured out the LoS method. Honestly, whether you want to think it so or not, a mechanic is a mechanic. Turn 8 was widely accepted as the easiest Second Coil turn, and for good reason at that.

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Originally Posted by Zaft

A small number of Players are COMPETITIVE.

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Fixed. The rest would rather claim that they can do it but don't actually do it and use a bunch of lame excuses to justify it.