Any idea what is in patch 2.57?

http://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...89a77cbe4ebf24

Got another '6 hour' maintenance coming this Tuesday for infrastructure maintenance plus another supplementary patch.

Anyone got speculation on what the content of the patch will be?

Steps of faith nerf most likely, not sure if anything else.

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Originally Posted by Whocareswhatmynameis

Steps of faith nerf most likely, not sure if anything else.

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Regrettably, I have to agree with you.

Seriously, I think they took one look at the number/percentage of players who've cleared 2.55 Part II and they cannot be pleased!

Whoa. They are doing an actual 2.57. Colour me surprised - but yeah, sadly, I have a suspicion it will once again be only one thing, and this time it's Steps of Faith nerfs. Not sure if the nerfs themselves are bad or not, that's a different subject; but I would like it if they included the things from my own imaginary patch notes. T.T

Hopefully they're just removing the Unsettled Scholar from Northern Thanalan, seems like a 6 hour job.

*points at dyed Valentiones gear*

Really hope they don't nerf Steps too hard. They really need to put their foot down sooner or later and make the Duty Finder dependent masses fly the nest. Really they should just remove it from the Duty Finder and force players on the same server to interact; Duty Finder is the subtle teat that many players need to be weaned off, seeing as they're at 50 but still absolutely terrible at the game...

Moogle hat coloring options.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...notes-for-2.57

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Originally Posted by Nalien

Hopefully they're just removing the Unsettled Scholar from Northern Thanalan, seems like a 6 hour job.

*points at dyed Valentiones gear*

Really hope they don't nerf Steps too hard. They really need to put their foot down sooner or later and make the Duty Finder dependent masses fly the nest. Really they should just remove it from the Duty Finder and force players on the same server to interact; Duty Finder is the subtle teat that many players need to be weaned off, seeing as they're at 50 but still absolutely terrible at the game...

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Yes. Genius. Put there foot down and drive away players. That's going to be good for the game. (Note: I'm being sarcastic)

I think a better idea would be to start introducing mechanic changes like we see in Steps of Faith more slowly. Steps of Faith is a rather large departure from what people are used to. I think they should have introduced environmental mechanics incrementally over a longer time before making a fight so environmental mechanic intensive.

Even if they don't nerf it, in 3.0 you'll see the mechanics become sidelined anyway cause as 50+ characters reach higher gear levels the dps requirements will reach the point where the cannons and Dragonslayers won't be needed to dps him down in time.

Note that while they put it at 6 hours, depending on how much is in their (like say, if its just a Steps of Faith thing only) it might not be that long, they just are giving themselves a bit of cover just in case something goes awry. Plus I heard something about dealing with RMT being kept off patch notes but done during said patches (Mostly during the Valentine's dye thing, might just be player speculation for all I know.)

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Originally Posted by Belhi

Yes. Genius. Put there foot down and drive away players. That's going to be good for the game. (Note: I'm being sarcastic)

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The players need to grow up and get better sooner or later, it makes perfect sense for the final instance before the expansion to be that time. SoF isn't hard, it's a mechanic driven battle that requires cooperation and a bit of coordination. If people can't make a conscious effort to TRY to do that, then they don't need to be playing a Massively MULTIPLAYER Online Role Playing Game.

I pray that they will finally give us the option to set the default back to "commence" on controller. This is a daily blight on my gameplay experience.

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Originally Posted by Belhi

Yes. Genius. Put there foot down and drive away players. That's going to be good for the game. (Note: I'm being sarcastic)

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I don't think this can be said enough. Steps of Faith acts as a gate to parts of the expansion (Ishgard, new Jobs, new job skills) and it's clear rates, given that SE is trying to sell a product with a primary focus on stuff that happens after the fight, should be 95-100%. They should have put in a story mode and a hard mode( with something as a reward) instead of tuning the fight up so much that they need to nerf it to get acceptable clear rates.

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Originally Posted by RyuDragnier

The players need to grow up and get better sooner or later, it makes perfect sense for the final instance before the expansion to be that time. SoF isn't hard, it's a mechanic driven battle that requires cooperation and a bit of coordination. If people can't make a conscious effort to TRY to do that, then they don't need to be playing a Massively MULTIPLAYER Online Role Playing Game.

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I'm pretty sure SE cares more about subscription money and expansion money than player skill, and honestly, why should they? Player skill isn't going to fund the continued development of the game. And yes, I hate it when I get paired with people that can barely play their jobs, but I do like that SE makes money, puts out consistent updates, and is delivering an expansion to a game that failed the first time around. So they have to strike a balance between hard content and casual content, but pushing people out as was suggested earlier before the expansion is just a terrible business idea and just bad for the game in general. No one benefits from SE making less money.

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Originally Posted by RyuDragnier

The players need to grow up and get better sooner or later, it makes perfect sense for the final instance before the expansion to be that time. SoF isn't hard, it's a mechanic driven battle that requires cooperation and a bit of coordination. If people can't make a conscious effort to TRY to do that, then they don't need to be playing a Massively MULTIPLAYER Online Role Playing Game.

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Yes. There's a point at which players absolutely do have to start getting better.

However.

Steps of Faith is, in about a month and change, going to become outdated content. It's a challenge that won't really get any easier from gear and levels. And the reality is that right now, when it's still 'relevant' content, people have little patience for the fight. And it's going to be mandatory in order to make it to Heavensward content.

Really, I do want to see more content that requires players to get better... but Steps of Faith is both an incomparable fight to other content mechanically (Getting good at Steps doesn't necessarily mean much for the rest of the game other than 'ability to follow instructions'), and left alone, it'll just become more and more of an irritation and roadblock.

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Originally Posted by Belhi

Yes. Genius. Put there foot down and drive away players. That's going to be good for the game. (Note: I'm being sarcastic)

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I'd rather lose some subscribers who couldn't even grasp Steps of Faith, than continue having the developers cater to that lowest of bars, personally. Forming a group rather than relying on the Duty Finder is a sure fire way to clear this incredibly easy Trial. Talking people to form a group ensures that you'll actually all communicate roles and such.

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Originally Posted by Belhi

I think a better idea would be to start introducing mechanic changes like we see in Steps of Faith more slowly. Steps of Faith is a rather large departure from what people are used to. I think they should have introduced environmental mechanics incrementally over a longer time before making a fight so environmental mechanic intensive.

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How much slower could they possibly have been? Perhaps they should have made Stone Vigil (Hard) a requirement (or is it already?), because between that and Leviathan there really wasn't any new mechanics... Timing Dragon Killer was the only new thing and in my experience that is what people fail time and time again. That isn't even a difficult mechanic to grasp... Wait for the dragon to be in place... Wait for people to Snare him... None of it is hard or particularly difficult to figure out.

Communication is the killer in Steps of Faith. People who don't communicate fail to do the simplest of things, and not communicating is perhaps the defining feature of the Duty Finder groups for every piece of content. So many people simply get carried through the story Trials without even having to think. The Duty Finder is an enabler which shouldn't be the norm for every piece of content. Beef up that New Player bonus and Party Finder for Steps shouldn't be difficult at all, though perhaps if SE had "put their foot down" sooner, people wouldn't be at Lv50 without a single friend to help them out. Perhaps if content wasn't constantly catering to these precious subscribers, content could have been less forgiving and prepared players better. Instead they constantly downgraded content for these people, and here's the result. I'm not surprised, and I agree, Steps of Faith as a gate to Heavensward probably isn't the right place to make this change. They should have made it in 2.1, if not in some of the high level pre-50 dungeons.

Dear Square Enix,

Please allow us to trade Soldiery gear for GC seals.

Sincerely, everyone.

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Originally Posted by DragonSlayer45

Dear Square Enix,

Please allow us to trade Soldiery gear for GC seals.

Sincerely, everyone.

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And desynth them, and let us buy myth mats for sol while they're at it. There're only so many stacks of cashmere fleece, wootz ore, and dubbin I can collect on my retainers before I give up and leave sol capped for the next X weeks.

They don't need to spend resources on nerfing Steps of Faith.

They just need to make it drop a Rowena token of poetics (worth 130 poetics) for the Magitek (lv120/130) weapons.

People would farm it all day for the 10 token required, and every noob and their grandmothers would get their clears even if they don't have any clue at all of what's going on.



And yeah, for the love of god, please let us desynth and trade-in lv100/110 soldiery and high allagan stuff.

why anyone hasn't even think about poetic weekly being abolished? lol

Probably just a 15% Echo for final coil.

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Originally Posted by BobbinT

why anyone hasn't even think about poetic weekly being abolished? lol

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Because they explicitly said they weren't going to remove it, so we kind of gave up on it.

I'm guessing more echo for coil, not expecting much.

you may now dye your egg head

There's no reason to nerf anything with SoF. They'll most likely add a Echo Buff for SoF and more Echo to Final Coil. Maybe make the Moogle Hat dyeable. Maybe relic nerfs that I've been hearing about recently.

I think they'll remove poetics cap. FCOB farmers have already had enough exclusivity by now.

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Originally Posted by Malusion

Because they explicitly said they weren't going to remove it, so we kind of gave up on it.

I'm guessing more echo for coil, not expecting much.

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oh when did they say this?

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Originally Posted by Belhi

Even if they don't nerf it, in 3.0 you'll see the mechanics become sidelined anyway cause as 50+ characters reach higher gear levels the dps requirements will reach the point where the cannons and Dragonslayers won't be needed to dps him down in time.

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I hope it get a level-synch to level53/ilevel110

also to 2.57:
Vishap card and Vishap mount (a mount for a whole FC) got added to Step of Faith

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Originally Posted by FallenArisen0990

There's no reason to nerf anything with SoF. They'll most likely add a Echo Buff for SoF and more Echo to Final Coil. Maybe make the Moogle Hat dyeable. Maybe relic nerfs that I've been hearing about recently.

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Call it a nerf, an adjustment, or w/e, SoF needs some attention. Even if all that is done is having the fight reset when all party members are down.

And not ragging on the quoted poster, but something is definitely wrong with this fight when many people are being blocked from progressing in the main questline, not from lack of skill or desire; but simply because once cleared NO ONE wants to do it again. Just this week i saw someone shouting for ppl for a PF run he was trying to setup. Think he gave up after 4 hrs or so and much heckling.

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Originally Posted by Spiritreaver1217

Call it a nerf, an adjustment, or w/e, SoF needs some attention. Even if all that is done is having the fight reset when all party members are down.

And not ragging on the quoted poster, but something is definitely wrong with this fight when many people are being blocked from progressing in the main questline, not from lack of skill or desire; but simply because once cleared NO ONE wants to do it again. Just this week i saw someone shouting for ppl for a PF run he was trying to setup. Think he gave up after 4 hrs or so and much heckling.

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yes, it need some type of a carrot

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Originally Posted by Spiritreaver1217

And not ragging on the quoted poster, but something is definitely wrong with this fight when many people are being blocked from progressing in the main questline, not from lack of skill or desire; but simply because once cleared NO ONE wants to do it again. Just this week i saw someone shouting for ppl for a PF run he was trying to setup. Think he gave up after 4 hrs or so and much heckling.

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That's mostly on SE's part to have made it like that. SoF has nothing to do with being the what? 3rd Wall we have (First ones being Demon Wall and Titan HM)? Echo Buff is more than enough needed. You really only need like 3 people to do all the mechanics. The blame should be on SE, duty has nothing to do with lack of clears.

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Originally Posted by Spiritreaver1217

... once cleared NO ONE wants to do it again...

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SoF is not the only one. See all that 50s that ragedc at AV

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Originally Posted by Spiritreaver1217

Call it a nerf, an adjustment, or w/e, SoF needs some attention. Even if all that is done is having the fight reset when all party members are down.

And not ragging on the quoted poster, but something is definitely wrong with this fight when many people are being blocked from progressing in the main questline, not from lack of skill or desire; but simply because once cleared NO ONE wants to do it again. Just this week i saw someone shouting for ppl for a PF run he was trying to setup. Think he gave up after 4 hrs or so and much heckling.

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People struggling to clear an easy encounter would indicate more that the problem lies with the players, no?

The biggest issue with this fight is that half the people entering via the duty finder are lazy, expect to be carried and refuse to communicate. Just having one such player in SoF severely inhibits your ability to clear the trial as it relies heavily on everyone knowing their role and coordinating with the group. SoF really needs to be kept as mechanically intensive as it currently is simply to force these players to learn how to play in a group. If they nerf it too much then we're going to have problems with these same players in Heavensward because they won't learn anything.

The reason no one wants to do the trial any more is because no one wants to take the risk of having that one silent player in their party that screws the whole trial up every attempt. My FC regularly does clears of SoF to help other players through it because we can guarantee that everyone knows what they're doing. As soon as you throw a couple of randoms from the duty finder into the mix though everyone is a lot less interested...

Lazy players have gotten too used to being carried through easy content via the DF. We finally have a story boss fight that actually feels like a boss fight and it's likely a taste of things to come in Heavensward. Any players stuck on SoF now will just get stuck on future content anyway so there's no point in nerfing it. Let them bang their head against the wall until they learn how to play.

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Originally Posted by Alberel

People struggling to clear an easy encounter would indicate more that the problem lies with the players, no?

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This would make sense if SE was running some sort of gaming school or something, but they're trying to make money by providing an experience that MANY people will pay for. If there's a roadblock that would prevent even 5% of their current customers from continuing to pay them then they'll remove it and it will be the sensible thing to do. You may dream of a server full of nothing but fantastically skilled players, but all SE really wants a a server full of people who will pay them. I'm not trying to by cynical or anything, that's just the practical thing to do for their business.

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Originally Posted by Alberel

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"Easy" is subjective. The point remains that SoF is pretty different from any other trials we've done (esp in main scenario) where it actually requires coordination. And even then, only half of the problem is "learning how to play", the other is actually getting people to do SoF after the first time around. I feel like it wouldn't be so bad if there was a ramp up toward what's expected out of something that's put in duty finder (see T5 and T9 compared to the rest of BCoB and SCoB, except they're not required for a whooping expansion.)

As it stands right now, its a content that's significantly different from what you're typically doing in main scenario/DF, and it's serving as a gate to an entire expansion. It's not good for sales if clear rates are as low as it is, and it's definitely going their concept of "content costs" mentioned in a previous live letter.

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Originally Posted by Alberel

People struggling to clear an easy encounter would indicate more that the problem lies with the players, no?....

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Did you not see where i said it was the fact that MANY ppl can't even seem to get a chance to try the fight? Person in my FC literally loaded into a totally empty arena, well the mobs were there, but no players.

Where does skill play into that?

Your argument is flawed because there will always be players that are bad. Always. And the number of bad players will most likely always outnumber the "good" players. SE has hopefully learned their lesson from FFXI's CoP expansion and SoF changes are incoming, because frustrated bad players are still paying customers and you don't want large #'s of your customers going elsewhere over easily fixed issues.

I hope they'll add a quest that makes all the allagan gear dyeable, desynthable and tradable to CG.. Oh well why bother with a questo XD

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Originally Posted by Spiritreaver1217

Did you not see where i said it was the fact that MANY ppl can't even seem to get a chance to try the fight? Person in my FC literally loaded into a totally empty arena, well the mobs were there, but no players.

Where does skill play into that?

Your argument is flawed because there will always be players that are bad. Always. And the number of bad players will most likely always outnumber the "good" players. SE has hopefully learned their lesson from FFXI's CoP expansion and SoF changes are incoming, because frustrated bad players are still paying customers and you don't want large #'s of your customers going elsewhere over easily fixed issues.

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SoF isnt even comparable to CoPs level of difficulty lol. I don't even understand how anyone is unable to beat SoF unless there just full retarding the mechanics. I have 2 haracters and DF both my clears np.

Believe it or not there are people who fail even when a battle has absolutely no mechanics. The problem is people do not communicate in this game a lot. Even when you try to explain to them what they have to do they either ignore you and never answer or they simply do not speak English. Let alone that the average gamer wants a very easy game to play.

The only reason why the general populace thinks SoF is hard is because many of them seem to fail at basic literacy. There was one time when I tried to help out a group of PUGs using macros w/ sound effects and it went like this:

Macro #1: Tanks, gather mobs under Vishap's belly!
Result: Tanks kited the mobs all over the place.

Macro #2: Tanks, get the mobs away from the cannons!
Result: No response. Cannons are destroyed by Biasts.

Macro #3: FIRE BOTH SNARES NOW!
Result: The tower person fires the Dragonkiller and misses, causing the cannons and snares in the area to self-destruct.

Macro #4: DPS, burn down the boss!
Result: DPS run all over the place, randomly attacking mobs and getting trampled.

Macro #5: DRAGONKILLER, FIRE!
Result: I never got to use this macro because the tower guy always fired the DK during Macro #3 or whenever he felt like it.

Is this fight really hard, or does the general populace just fail at basic literacy?

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Originally Posted by Intellion

Is this fight really hard, or does the general populace just fail at basic literacy?

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Look at how many people fail to understand the OP of this thread.

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Originally Posted by Nutz

This would make sense if SE was running some sort of gaming school or something, but they're trying to make money by providing an experience that MANY people will pay for. If there's a roadblock that would prevent even 5% of their current customers from continuing to pay them then they'll remove it and it will be the sensible thing to do. You may dream of a server full of nothing but fantastically skilled players, but all SE really wants a a server full of people who will pay them. I'm not trying to by cynical or anything, that's just the practical thing to do for their business.

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There comes a point where if the devs make the game too easy to accomodate bad players the good players will get bored and leave. There has already been a LOT of moaning throughout the 2.0 and 2.x series of storyline boss fights claiming that they were too easy and didn't feel as epic as they should have. Lahabrea and Nabriales were both pathetically easy fights and yet these characters were meant to be immortal demi-gods that have manipulated the entirety of the world throughout history. It is incredibly anti-climactic and damaging to the story and that will serve only to disappoint players. I'm pretty sure the entire reason SoF is so much more complex than previous story encounters is precisely because SE heard all the feedback.

There absolutely MUST be a point at which they refuse to make content any easier. If they try to accomodate all the idiots at the bottom of the food chain anyone with more than a few braincells will get bored and go elsewhere. It's this thing called risk vs reward; if something is too easy it stops being fun for a lot of people. These same players moaning now will only continue moan throughout 3.0 anyway.

As to the other poster's point about players not being able to get groups: Free Companies and Linkshells exist for a reason. If a player cannot communicate with others to form a party then they sure as hell don't stand a chance in SoF itself.

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Originally Posted by Nalien

I'd rather lose some subscribers who couldn't even grasp Steps of Faith, than continue having the developers cater to that lowest of bars, personally. Forming a group rather than relying on the Duty Finder is a sure fire way to clear this incredibly easy Trial. Talking people to form a group ensures that you'll actually all communicate roles and such.

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We have party finder to form server groups which sometimes ends up in; "Please know/have xyz before joining" People can't know unless they learn and sometimes learners even have requirements themselves just because normally players don't want to continue learning the same small phases and stay stuck at that point.

I sadly can't think of a better way to quick fix the battle other than nerf myself. :x