Stat Squish Helped Older Content

One of my favourite things to do in this game is older content, especially seeing sprouts come into it for the first time enjoy it.

Especially in the tail end of Shadowbringers, many older fights felt... unsatisfying, some even boring because of it. You didn't even have to do mechanics, just stand still and dps until the boss dies.

You'd also miss out on seeing so many mechanics a boss has to offer. Think O3 for example, where a huge unique part of the fight was lost as it could simply be skipped thanks to excessive over ilvl.

I understand that content needs to be accessible to all, but that can still be achieved while keeping fights at a fun difficulty, somewhat similar to release.

The stat squish has helped things for sure. You see a lot of mechanics you'd never see before during roulettes, and not just because of the players you get; the fights are consistently more challenging, which is a great change.


I do feel it could be a little more, though. Fights like Cape Westwind are still a complete joke, or the MSQ fight at the end of 3.0. I feel they should set a "maximum" ilvl cap for older content (I believe this actually already in place in some older dungeons? Correct me if I'm wrong) to keep the fight at a fair difficulty, while allowing scaling echo upon party wipe to help those parties struggling.

You could argue it'd make fights drag on for longer, but I would rather have 8 minutes of more challenging content versus 4 minutes of mashing my face on the 1-2-3 keys until the target dummy falls over and dies.



TL;DR: Stat squish meant we get to see more of the older fights that we were missing, but maybe more can be done about it too.

first of all i 100% get what you mean but having content always scaled to the point where you feel weak defeats the purpose of an mmo.true i do enjoy seeing i little bit more of a1 (the two robots) and other trials i enjoy and other raid content but it's normal mode, not savage. also "normal" mode is not meant to really be challenging. if you want challenge it's called extreme, savage, ultimate and panamodium when it comes out.you have to also remember that a lot of people will get these fights in the trail roulette and will instantly leave if it's not quick enough i'm look at you "steps of faith". but if you're still unconvinced the one trial in stormblood where you dance dragged on for so long that the idea of that fight in particular taking any more time would terrify me if i got it n the trial roulette.some fights are designed to have a certain pacing and they remied certain fights by at certain points you couldn't damage them until they phase transitioned.if yoshi p is not ok with certain pacing of fights even in normal mode he would and has done something about it.

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Originally Posted by cdfgfxghf

if yoshi p is not ok with certain pacing of fights even in normal mode he would and has done something about it.

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With all due fairness, he is doing something about it, specifically some of the level 50 content:

https://clips.twitch.tv/FunnyAgileAy...-o3N5gkKl1WTrd

TL

Yoshida:
This is about 6.0 onwards, but... we are planning a lot of things, and one of them is that there is a possibility that we will be changing Cape Westwind fight in some ways.

Morbol:
Oh?

Yoshida:
So its possible that this might be the last time you can "experience" this fight in this way.


I totally get that you want to feel more powerful over time, yeah. I don't think all fights should forever stay as hard as they first came out either. But missing core parts of fights or bosses just dealing no damage is a little... boring, really. There are many other ways ingame to get that power fantasy you want (soloing old content as a tank is a pretty good way to do it).

What I'm basically saying is, fights are best at their release, but are still fun by the end of the patch cycle within which they were released. But there comes a point after it where some fights just become *too* easy. They lose their satisfaction and accomplishment. It's much more satisfying to kill something after a well-paced, challenging fight, than it is to just steamroll it with barely any effort put in. I feel that a challenging fight at the climax of a story makes achieving it feel even better.


Many Stormblood trials have great sync. The later Omega raids also had great sync. Some Heavensward content really suffers though. And I do get your point about dragging on fights. Sync should be to a level where you get to see everything of a fight, but not to the point where you cannot clear with new players, or where you see the same things 4 times over because you've gone on for so long. Making fights a bit harder and punishing would teach new players the importance of mechanics and help them improve faster.

I don't get your point about going to do extreme and savage just to get a buzz, though. My post isn't really about that. Of course, anyone can queue into harder content, or restrict to minilvl + no echo if they choose. I simply feel the experience of a story or fight can be ruined if it's too easy. Imagine if the entire game had a journalist mode where you never get punished for mistakes as the main plot of progression, only allowing any hard content as optional content. It wouldn't teach people much at all.

Squish good imho! Feels way better ^^

Eh... not really. It feels like it takes so long to beat past bosses with your better gear at the time. I recall they added in minimum item level to serve that, but there's is the Undersized/Unrestricted though that's all full power.

I don't really like it that much. It just makes the old fights more annoying to do now. But, I'll manage.