The disapointment that is Alexander

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Originally Posted by Kazama

Agreed, need more like this Ultima I think

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And we did. We got Ravana's theme (which people apparently hated for some reason. I love it), Singularity Reactors theme and the new final boss theme for most dungeons. If everything were orchestral, the game would sound pretty bland. To go further back, there's Shiva's phase 1 theme, Ramuh's song, etc.

It's kinda like Bayonetta. You have your amazing orchestral music in places, but there's also the jumpy and motivating pop/club-music. It gives the game extra spice.

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Originally Posted by Nestama

We got Ravana's theme (which people apparently hated for some reason. I love it)

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Waltzes aren't exactly what comes to mind for most gamers when facing a god of war wielding 4 blades - waltzes aren't even popular to begin with. It fits because you are metaphorically dancing with him but that's it.

Try not to forget that the Coils wer a continuation and conclusion to 1.0 so they need to be epic.

But Alexander ya I can see what OP means but sadly this is because the devs once again thought it was a good idea to make short instanced raids they mind as well just drop us off in the boss area T_T.

Way to go Yoshi you ruined what could have been an epic raid learn from this please.

Alexander's story so far is boring and it does feel like they could've, at least offhandedly, built it up a bit in the pre-60 MSQ.

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Originally Posted by NFaelivrin

Alexander's story so far is boring and it does feel like they could've, at least offhandedly, built it up a bit in the pre-60 MSQ.

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People wanted raids not related to MSQ or easy enough for everyone so they could see the MSQ (imo coil story was kinda a part of MSQ).
They got both. Easy raid (I don't mean savage) not related to main story quest at all. Which is definitely not the best option but for some people it is better than what coil was.

I would rather have raid that is somehow connected to the main story and it would be possible now as they introduced 2 difficulties. Also I was raiding previous coil for 2 things - the feeling of acomplishment and story (I was the unlucky person who never looted anything so raiding for loot wasn't kinda my thing). Now the story was shown in easy mode and savage mode has nothing new about lore in it, which kinda kills one of the reasons why I raid, I was always looking forward to the cutscene in the end that comes after weeks of wiping.. but yeah, now I have atleast some guaranteed gear.

IMO there should be 2 completely separated raids with different difficulty and story. But that will never happen.

Maybe it's just because I associate the FFXIV goblins with FFXI (since they're the exact same), but I honestly don't view those guys as anything like comic relief. Sure, they had their suicide Bomb Toss that made them a bit comedic to fight... but the ones you'd normally fight in exp parties would destroy you alone, and sometimes kill you too with their accidental suicide bomb toss. Goblins were generally something associated with fear in FFXI lol.

I'm pretty disappointed that for an expansion that was supposed to "try different things" we were given coil 2.0

I want to see some end game content that isn't a DPS check and team jump rope. Give us a reason to use lesser used skill like "bind" and "heavy" or even "sleep"

As far as Alex savage is concerned, well I'm thinking of sitting this one out, maybe 4.0 will actually "try different things"

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Originally Posted by Nestama

And we did. We got Ravana's theme (which people apparently hated for some reason. I love it), Singularity Reactors theme and the new final boss theme for most dungeons. If everything were orchestral, the game would sound pretty bland. To go further back, there's Shiva's phase 1 theme, Ramuh's song, etc.

It's kinda like Bayonetta. You have your amazing orchestral music in places, but there's also the jumpy and motivating pop/club-music. It gives the game extra spice.

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One of my favorite video game OST to this day is VtM: Bloodlines.

Mmmm Crüxshadows and Lacuna Coil...

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Originally Posted by BoltNixter

The music is terribad!!!! Stop it with the 15yr girly pop music.

We are in a Final Fantasy. We need epic classical themes!

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Sounds like you need to delete everything you know about "15 yr girly pop music" because that's not what I hear when I fall back right into the DF queue for another weekly Alexander drop.

I have a reason to keep believing Soken will deliver on the BGMs every patch, you see.

I could go on a whole spill about how bad Alexander is in general but I'm biased because FF9 is how I wanted Alexander to be done.
[I honestly don't like Alexander the raid itself anyway. While it's neat to have a summon be a raid...read above lol.]
Offtopicy: But I wish summons wasn't 'bad' in this game. The only one who isn't is Ramuh and I think we faught him because we were being tested, and Shiva too...

Shiva ended up being my favourite because she actually saved our lives in HW and ended up being an actual person. Not to mention that cool fight with her and Ravana she tried to help us there too!

^ I wanna see more of that.
I'm just tired of fightning Primal's because every dude and their moms wants to use them for some sort of ritual crap. xD
I know it's how the game works but just my little 2 cents.

Inb4 I'm flamed to death.

Well, sorry, i can`t please everybody.

More mechanic = team jump rope. Process to complaint about how fight shouldnt be mechanic heavy, demand for fight like t4.
Do as above = artificial difficulty
Gotta love this community~

Just saying, bahamuts body is the size of limsa. I feel Alexander is pretty small in comparison. I wouldn't mind having the map Alexander being bigger. I also don't enjoy any of the fights aside from A3. AS1 has 2 mechanics that are relevant, resin placement and the missiles, both borderline irrelevant in terms of adding difficult (in my opinion) what I would have liked, is having the prey marker target tanks by default and having it be passable, so a dps had to remove It. I'd also have preferred that the hydrothermic missile hits to be spread out and had increased in damage, so that it had to be passed to another dps during its cast due to the healers being busy with the tank buster. These are just ideas though. As they are now, they're just boring to me. Previous savage raids were heavy with mechanics, the dps checks being a secondary concern, (aside from maybe savage 9). I would have liked to see this formula again, rather than the heavy dps checks we got. My 2 cents

I don't really care with the Savage, I just enjoy the BGM.

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Originally Posted by Vincent_Mateus

AS1 has 2 mechanics that are relevant, resin placement and the missiles, both borderline irrelevant in terms of adding difficult (in my opinion) what I would have liked, is having the prey marker target tanks by default and having it be passable, so a dps had to remove It. I'd also have preferred that the hydrothermic missile hits to be spread out and had increased in damage, so that it had to be passed to another dps during its cast due to the healers being busy with the tank buster. These are just ideas though.

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Prey automatically being on the tank would actually make the fight much easier though. The difficulty of the tank buster/prey combo comes from each healer having to save two people within a short amount of time. Being able to just spam heal the tank for a few seconds would trivialize the hardest mechanic of the fight.

When I cleared A1 savage it wasn't exciting to me. lol. Currently working on A2 savage and it's still meh to me. HOWEVER just because I'm not excited about alexander savage doesn't mean I don't want to clear it. It's simply not comparable to the thrill/excitement I got clearing first/second/final coil.

What helped kill the excitement for me is being forced to farm Alex normal before savage came out. It makes savage less thrilling because it's the same old aesthetics that you've seen over and over in Alex normal.

I'm not asking or expecting future raids to be any different; just voicing my opinion.

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Originally Posted by StrejdaTom

IMO there should be 2 completely separated raids with different difficulty and story. But that will never happen.

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The downside to that is the same old complaint about Coil will come up. "We want to see the story on the harder content, too!"

Could do what WoW did.

Mythic is delayed release, but so is LFR. Normal/heroic release immediately. LFR is a week or so after. Mythic is a week after that.

Not entirely 100% on the mythic timing as my guild couldn't pull 10 more folks out of our ass for it(despite doing mythic/heroic np in MoP), but they've done the delayed LFR release for a while now.

i don't think the savage of alexander is artificial difficulty, T5 had a lot of artificial difficulty mechanic, like the over use of insta kill mechanic. but that another debat, they have learn from them error of coil it's a good thing, now i think people are not excited because they had farmed normal before savage did come out. since i doubt anybody can do A1S without be full 180-190 it was clever to push back the release 2 week after.

for the aesthetic it's more your personal taste, i like the design and the music. actually i prefer it to coil... exept for some armor that look.... meh for me.

outside this, i find alexander nice, the story behind it's at the beginning, what make coil more interesting was the fact that the story did begin with the end of the V1, people was wanting to know what did happend to bahamut. here alexander just did come out, who know how the story will evolve.

Well.. you're fighting inside a robot's arm.

I don't know how SE can make it more "exciting", it's a robot's arm after all. It's gonna be cramped and have mechanical parts and robot stuff.

I don't bother with savage so... no comments.

Can't wait for 3.1 though, 24 man raid!

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Originally Posted by SyraLeo

Can't wait for 3.1 though, 24 man raid!

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i do hope for an imperial themed raid this time, i want to get some imperial looking armor and weapon. allagan is nice and all, but we had only this from raid from ARR...

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Originally Posted by MisterLucie

Prey automatically being on the tank would actually make the fight much easier though. The difficulty of the tank buster/prey combo comes from each healer having to save two people within a short amount of time. Being able to just spam heal the tank for a few seconds would trivialize the hardest mechanic of the fight.

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I suppose you're right. It would be nice if the two together on a single target was unsurvivable or something, but I suppose that's asking a bit much. I just wish there were fights that required more team cohesiveness and coordination. Savage T8 was incredibly fun because of that

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Originally Posted by silentwindfr

i do hope for an imperial themed raid this time, i want to get some imperial looking armor and weapon. allagan is nice and all, but we had only this from raid from ARR...

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It can be anything, as long as it isn't related to Allagans. Isn't anyone else getting tired of Allagan this Allagan that?

Uplanders don't like new hard-fights?

Hmmm... maybe uplander should wait for more things-putting in 3.1!

PSSH SKOSSHHH Elestox means no fight-wighty! Just advise uplanders that big-makers may make more big hard-fights with much time! It's very head-spinning to make new hard-fights because uplanders always ask for more harder hard-fights! And some other uplanders will bad-talk about hard-fights being too hard.... psshhh skoshhh.... it's very head-crushing for big-makers.....

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Originally Posted by ChiefCurrahee

I'm pretty disappointed that for an expansion that was supposed to "try different things" we were given coil 2.0

I want to see some end game content that isn't a DPS check and team jump rope. Give us a reason to use lesser used skill like "bind" and "heavy" or even "sleep"

As far as Alex savage is concerned, well I'm thinking of sitting this one out, maybe 4.0 will actually "try different things"

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A1S has a heavy you need to deal with (don't drag adds into resin)
A2S' gobwalker is essentially a utility tool
Heavy and stun is useful on the adds in A3S

I can't speak for A4S since I'm not there yet, but yeah.

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Originally Posted by Mikhaill

snip

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Primals are a threat to Hydaelyn by simply existing. Ramuh may have been willing to negotiate (if we lost, then he would have struck down every city in Eorzea), but he was still killing Hydaelyn, which is what the Ascians want.

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Originally Posted by HReincarnate

So, they gave people two versions to hopefully satisfy all those people, except by having normal mode predate savage mode, and by having raiders farm normal mode to get gear to be able to do savage, those raiders had nothing to look forward to except gear. The excitement of seeing each arena & boss and progressing the story was gone within the 3rd week of HW for basically everyone & instead those raiders only have gear to look forward to which greatly devalues the raiding experience.

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Pretty much how I feel too, no new areas to explore after beating a boss you spent ages on because we've already seem them all and gotten tired of them before savage was even open. No new gear because you already got that from story mode and it doesn't look nice so being able to dye the savage drops isn't motivating. No story because we've already seen it all (though if I had gotten this story from working for weeks on savage I would probably have been even more disappointed than just seeing it all in one evening). Eso upgrade items will likely be available from hunts and 24snooze in 3.1 so getting to dye the eso gear (some of which actually look pretty nice unlike the alex sets) doesn't matter. If it weren't for the people in my static who I like and tie me to the game I would've already unsubbed and waited until 3.2 to see if they changed anything, because slamming my face into a wall for weeks just to slam my face into a wall may be fun for some but as it's supposed to keep me busy for 6 months I'd like a little bit more motivation to spend time in there instead of in a different game than just seeing a few extra mechanics with bigger numbers.

When compared to the epic nature of Coil, Alexander is very underwhelming. Coil felt massive, it felt new and fresh and exciting. The storyline was fantastic and so many "OMG" moments throughout the actual experience of Coil. Fighting on Bahamut's hand?! Jumping around inside Dalamud structures?! Bahamut himself!! Even the mechanics of these fights have become infamous in their own right. Twisters! Divebombs! These two simple words can strike fear in the hearts of many, lol xD

This all stems from the build-up to Coil. Sure, it would have been impossible to do a storyline on the scale of the Calamity again, but it would have been nice if towards the end of 2.5 there were hints and teases to Alexander within the story and the threat he presented. The only thing we got was a 1 minute cutscene after clearing 3.0 of his hand coming out of the water. When first announced, the promise of Alexander sounded very exciting, but its execution and lack of storyline just meant that in the end it is very underwhelming.

Please go into A3S and tell me there's too much artificial difficulty, the mechanics alone will wipe most of you before you even see the dps check.

I personally think Alexander Savage is awesome, it's a real step up in difficulty from the previous raids and has some interesting mechanics.

A lot of you look at AS2 and think it's just a dps race, but you know you have to work out how to use the Gobwalker properly and the kill orders etc. It's not a fight where you can just run in all guns blazing even with high dps.

Its easy to comment on fights saying they are hard when you've only watched kill videos, everything looks easier in kill videos...

While I agree about the goblins, the rest not so much. It does follow a bit how it is actually laid out from the outside.

I don't get how you will go out the other leg though once its all the way out. The walkways from A1 will be vertical at that point. And it looks like you will find an entrance up near the top of the shield bubble as well at some point. Don't know how they will fit 4 raids in the head though.

This is assuming that the entrance for second alex is on the island where the rocks shaped like his foot are and then he will raise fully up for third alex.

You guys do realize it's story is supposed to span throughout the 3.xx patches right? I personally love it. The music alone gets me pumped. Give the story time to develop.

I find it funny when some people call DPS, healing and mitigation checks "artificial difficulty". They're measurements of how well you play the game, how is that artificial? Just because a fight has mechanics and one can wrap their head around on what they do, doesn't mean they can play the game well enough to win. Mechanics, or gimmicks, are fight based spice. DPS, healing and mitigation are the GAME, and there's nothing artificial in requiring one to play well to win fights.

Artificial difficulty must be the flavor of month word. *rolls eyes*

I'm just sick of robots and lasers tbh. The level design I'm okay with because anything before the final boss in a raid is just filler meant to artificially extend raid time for an unknown reason. Sure it may add some immersion the first two times you run the instance, but it gets pretty old after that. Maybe if the gatekeepers actually dropped something.

And the Alex gear is just fugly. Alex Savage gear is the same but you can dye it, so you can look fugly in a totally new colour. This isn't helped by the fact that 90% of the Eso stuff is also truly hideous.

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Originally Posted by FaizeD

And the Alex gear is just fugly. Alex Savage gear is the same but you can dye it, so you can look fugly in a totally new colour. This isn't helped by the fact that 90% of the Eso stuff is also truly hideous.

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I'll take "aesthetics are subjective" for 500, Alex.

The caster alex sets look great.

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Originally Posted by HReincarnate

T9 had so much detail[/B]

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I'm just going to stop you here and inform you that T9's arena is a rehash of a 1.0 fight arena, with less places to go.
There's floating islands above the arena. They used to all be connected and the fight took place in various parts.

I'd personally like to see THAT level of detail in a fight arena again.

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Originally Posted by CGMidlander

A1S has a heavy you need to deal with (don't drag adds into resin)
A2S' gobwalker is essentially a utility tool
Heavy and stun is useful on the adds in A3S

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I'm just really disappointed that for almost 2 years 8 man raids were races basically a race against a clock. Your team has to output abc DPS in xyz time otherwise it's a wipe. If one of your party members die there is a high chance you might not meet that DPS check, or maybe someone doesn't have the "optimal" rotation it prevents the group from advancing.

I'm not asking for easier end game challenges, I'm just wanting something different than that DPS race. I want to see some crowd control mechanics (A2 has a little bit of that is gobwalker stun), maybe some tank kiting, bind/heavy usage to avoid damage ect ect.

I want a reason to save "silence" or "stun" to counter a devastating skill. When was the last time a PLD was able to pacify a boss mob? I don't think I've ever seen a BLM cast sleep since low level hauke manor back during launch. Does a Mnk have any reason to not be in fists of fire 100% of the time? Do DRG even have "feint" on their hotbar?

We have all these neat utility skills which seem to be useless in PvE, I would love to see them be strategically useful instead of blowing them when they come off cooldown just to increase DPS.

I think it's too late for 3.0 to change it's design but hopefully 4.0 will prove different.

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Originally Posted by ChiefCurrahee

I'm just really disappointed that for almost 2 years 8 man raids were races basically a race against a clock. Your team has to output abc DPS in xyz time otherwise it's a wipe. If one of your party members die there is a high chance you might not meet that DPS check, or maybe someone doesn't have the "optimal" rotation it prevents the group from advancing.

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So basically you want a fight that lets you get away with sub par dps?

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Originally Posted by Miscreant

So basically you want a fight that lets you get away with sub par dps?

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Maybe you should read the rest of his post. Status effects seem to have been made laughable in how everything and its mother resists them.

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Originally Posted by Miscreant

So basically you want a fight that lets you get away with sub par dps?

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I think what we want is a fight that doesn't have as high a dps check but has more mechanics that are more difficult to execute.

Meanwhile I don't know what the hate against "artificial difficulty" is - seen it used & described in another thread and it seemed like a fitting description. The reason it's 'artificial' is because it's not a natural evolution of the normal mode - the mechanics don't become much harder and most of the difficulty comes instead from high numbers, which imo is a poor & 'artificial' way of adding difficulty.

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Originally Posted by Kitfox

Artificial difficulty must be the flavor of month word. *rolls eyes*

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Yeh it's replaced "toxicity" (I think that one had someting to do with lots of people playing witcher 3)
It seems any dps check is now considered 'artificial difficulty' not sure how it's any more artificial to push the buttons which maximise dps than it is to push buttons to deal with mechanics.