Why encounters with a difficulty slope are bad

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Originally Posted by Aurora-Pendragon

For me, Ramuh ex is the perfect example of an easy mechanics fight than can be a hell to beat in DF.

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I like REX a lot as well. I'm with you on that it is easy enough to understand but values a bit of on the fly coordination over individual handling mechanics without coordination. I like shiva EX but... Other than assigning way marks it is all about can you handle the mechanic and not as much, working as a team.

I'm just more satisfied by the team coordination mechanics, but admittedly these fights are harder to be successful with in DF.

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Originally Posted by Sepix

Let me elaborate on this a little bit. I don't particularly find all the mechanics in the fights bad at all i just hate that we get it fed spoon full all the time. Why is the 2nd add phase always harder than the first? What for? Can't they make the first one as hard as the second one and just keep the second one the same so people actually have a chance to train harder parts of the fight without having to play the majority of the time to get there first?

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It wouldn't make much sense in terms of game design. Why does any RPG have Final Bosses that are harder than the bosses that were before it? It's more exciting, and feels more rewarding. Also, I think they're going a great direction with mechanics and fight balance the farther they progress.

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Originally Posted by Karen_Cerfrumos

Enrage timer is there as the accountability check for DPS. Otherwise you'd go in there with 5 tanks and 3 healers and turtle all day.

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Conflags, Titan Egis, and Bees in T6 are good ways to do DPS checks, you don't need a hard enrage to prevent turtling.

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Originally Posted by SendohJin

Conflags, Titan Egis, and Bees in T6 are good ways to do DPS checks, you don't need a hard enrage to prevent turtling.

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Of special note, though, is that most fights with DPS checks ALSO have hard enrages.
Hard enrages are sort of necessary to keep fights tight and encourage dps to do more than dodge and hit a few buttons on tougher fights. You need the gear, skills, or both to meet the enrage timer, which is in reality just a simple time limit on the fight itself to nip situations like Pandemonium Warden and Absolute Virtue in the bud in terms of length, and to mitigate the viability of carry groups. Of course it doesn't eliminate carry groups at all, but in order to do so you actually have to be damn good at the fight to be able to manage it while down a DPS
It also means you're guaranteed about 6-8 full attempts on a given boss at a minimum.

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Originally Posted by SendohJin

Conflags, Titan Egis, and Bees in T6 are good ways to do DPS checks, you don't need a hard enrage to prevent turtling.

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Except that you can't really put only add DPS check all the time, it would feel the same too much, DPS check is not only to prevent turtling but to prevent too much raising that would ruin some mechanics( although FCoB have a lot of death punishment T10 with the stacks and failure punishment move, T12 where the boss get buffed when people are dead, etc... )

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Originally Posted by lololink

Except that you can't really put only add DPS check all the time, it would feel the same too much, DPS check is not only to prevent turtling but to prevent too much raising that would ruin some mechanics( although FCoB have a lot of death punishment T10 with the stacks and failure punishment move, T12 where the boss get buffed when people are dead, etc... )

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you answered half your own question.

Conflag isn't an add, neither are Titan Gaols or am i reading your first sentence wrong? you can also have mechanics like the Captain in Sastasha HM, where he keeps shooting you until you do enough damage to make him stop. not every DPS check has to do with Adds. Heaven's Fall is kind of a DPS check, i've never cleared T9 without skipping the 3rd Heaven's Fall.

it's not super difficult to make things progressively harder for lower DPS groups without a hard enrage. increase the number of Tumults as the fight gets longer. add a 4th and 5th Ifrit to charge across the screen. Shiva already gets damage stacks over time, eventually staff mode will kill you, why do you need a hard enrage in that fight?

the longer the fight the more damage the group takes but it shouldn't be an instant amount of damage that really good healers can't makeup for at least for a short period.

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you can't have PW/AV because the Trial itself has a timer, that should be the only hard enrage.

All fights should be a tank and spank without any mechanics. Putting anything that requires some planning, execution or reactions into an encounter too hard for me, I struggle to understand Hellsclaw's and Agrippha's counter move already (please nerf this SE because I should be able to dps non-stop!)

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Originally Posted by SendohJin

it's not super difficult to make things progressively harder for lower DPS groups without a hard enrage. increase the number of Tumults as the fight gets longer. add a 4th and 5th Ifrit to charge across the screen. Shiva already gets damage stacks over time, eventually staff mode will kill you, why do you need a hard enrage in that fight?

the longer the fight the more damage the group takes but it shouldn't be an instant amount of damage that really good healers can't makeup for at least for a short period.

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So...punish the healers for the dps's short comings?

Just want to say that T5 is a very good fight...
One of the main problems with it is that none of the preceding fights actually prepare you for it.
It's also quite unforgiving (get knocked into wall or hit a twister and you're dead)

Two things that would help the people still struggling with it would be 1) no massive damage (essentially instant death) from hitting the wall, and 2) change twisters so they just blow you and others up the air with minor damage instead of certain death.

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Originally Posted by Sepix

Good Design:

T1, T4
Garuda Ex, Shiva Ex, Levi Ex, Mog Ex, Odin
T7, T8

Bad Design:

T2, T6,
Ifrit Ex
Pretty much every fight in FcoB

Horrible Design:

T5, T9

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Originally Posted by Sepix

I personally think they wasted some of the best mechanics in the Crystal Tower raids and put whats left over into coil.

I just wish there were more encounters with things to do beside having to focus on your main party role. Healers heal and nothing else, DPS do DPS and nothing else and tanks are useless 50% of the time because most fights don't even need 2 beside the odd provoke in between to share some damage.

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http://i.imgur.com/Tx7dCdn.jpg