The Road Less Traveled (not a poem)

0. Target Audience
1. Introduction
2. Objective
3. Caveats
4. Resolution

0. Target Audience:

Those of us who like to have some challenge in our games, that also happens to play in the Crystal Data Center, or are willing to move or make a new character there.

1. Introduction (blah blah blah, you can skip)

As the game gets older, the more common it is to run a dungeon with people who have already done it hundreds of times. On top of that, the game defaults to 'easy mode' on everything else: solo duties start with the echo already activated (a buff that you used to get only if you failed the encounter 3 or so times).

This a non-issue for most of the players, on the contrary, they are delighted that their party is full of veterans that will make sure the run will go smoothly and be over fast. However, for a small minority of players, this is something to dread. The veteran is going to carry us through the dungeon, and some times, even stop for 10 minutes before every boss fight to give a detailed explanation of the mechanics. Again, this is something most welcomed for the vast majority of the players, but for some of us, those veterans literally ruined the little fun we could have had when everything else was such a faceroll.

2. Objective (the meat of the matter)

I want to form something of a static... but for MSQ. The rules are pretty simple: we would do our story at our own pace, but upon reaching a dungeon or trial, we would wait for the rest of the party to reach that point. Then, we would do it together, blind and minimum item level. Why min ilvl? For the challenge and because the MSQ dungeons are such a faceroll that perhaps going min ilvl would make it somewhat challenging... maybe not even, I haven't try yet (couldn't find 3 other people willing to science with me, hence this post), but at least would be something.

The main point in the end, is that we would be doing the content blind, and we would take our time to learn and experiment.

Ideally, we would be a small group of at least 4 people, but not more than 8. That way we would have 4 people to do the dungeons and 8 for the trials.

What about raid content? Well, min ilvl raids and EX primals are actually challenging. If our little group is willing to do that too, it would be perfect. Even better if we have 24 people so we could do min ilvl alliance raids too !! ....
But that is a dream for another night. Right now I'm struggling to find 3 people to min ilvl a story dungeon.

3. Caveats (because the world is not perfect)

Unfortunately I'm not 100% blind. My main character is on Shadowbringers story. However, I only did the dungeons once for the story, maybe twice to help a friend, but that was it... and was years ago, mostly already forgotten. Also, min ilvl... I don't know how much of an impact that would have on the mechanics.

Also, if anyone happens to actually be interested in this little venture I'm trying to put together... they also need to play in the Crystal Data Center or be willing to move. If you are not in Crystal, but just starting ARR with only a few hours of gameplay, let me persuade you into starting over but in my server, Zalera. I can support your progress with crafting and transport so that you can reach the same point you were at in no time, and continue at your own pace from there on.

4. There is no part 4 ...

I just did it to end in an even number, even tho the count started at 0 so that makes 5 points.

Anyways, I don't expect to have a positive response, but if you have any interest in doing something like this, let me know and maybe we could manage something.


-Ley