I just wanna say how much I hate a lot of the Masked Carnivale stuff

Title. I'm getting fed up with shite server ticks and having to waste time doing nothing in fights to throw a damn fish at a mob or I die no matter what. You guys should put a lot more focus into dungeon/trial content with blue mages and stop with the masked carnivale, personally.

A single server tick worth of lag in these damn fights is enough to literally kill someone. Only ONE way to do the fights, nothing out of the box to do with other skills. Just one copy/paste way to do them. And if you lag at roughly the same point? Oh well do it again, and again, and again.

I don't really care if people say 'oh it's easy lol'. I'm just tired of how easy it is to have lag eff up any attempt. with mechanic heavy fights.

I've done 8 man raids and less BS with lag than I do here.

Agreed, honestly after it released I took one look at some of the Pita stuff they did with it and just noped on out. If the job was mainline and level 80 compatible then maybe I'd level it, but it would be last.

It isn't the most engaging content. Often times, it involves bashing your head against a wall until you figure out how to handle the instant-kill mechanic, then once you have that down, it becomes a simple stroll to the finish line. And yeah, even if you know what to do, an unfortunate lag spike can put an end to your 3-round fight real quick.

I'm someone who would appreciate more solo content, but they can do better than this. Honestly, I was glad to see they didn't add more than five stages.

Way too much memorization required.
It's difficulty is primarily reliant on trial and error.

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Originally Posted by Tranquilmelody7

Way too much memorization required.
It's difficulty is primarily reliant on trial and error.

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Have you tried fight 29? Where if you're a bit slow on the recovery you can be dealing with MULTIPLE mechanics at the same time like Throttle (You die if it hits zero) and knock back + DoT (You'll die because the DoT is so bloody heavy)

There's nothing fun about studying for a test like being back in school. I don't know why SE did these fights they way they did. I keep getting screwed over at 25% in this damn fight.

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Originally Posted by Tranquilmelody7

Way too much memorization required.
It's difficulty is primarily reliant on trial and error.

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I would argue that's basically true of near every trial and raid they design though.

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Originally Posted by Cidel

I would argue that's basically true of near every trial and raid they design though.

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Those are designed with 4 tanks, 3 healers, and a bunch of DPS in mind.

These are solely for Blue Mage. There's only one way do to mechanics. Many of which you need memorization for the one way to do them. I have fun doing raids with other people, even when dying. We learn and keep moving. In the Carnivale I keep dying to the same mechanic over, and over, and over. If you lag in any other content, there's other people to back you up so you can keep going longer. If you lag in this (Internet or mentally) at any key moment, you're screwed in every literal meaning of the word. There are many times that if you attack, you won't have enough time to use your interrupt as Blu, which will 100% kill you every single time.

there is always enough time to use silence, either your internet is really bad or you just react to it too slowly.
the carnival is just a lot harder than 4 man dungeons so keep training if you wan't to do them.

The only thing I felt particularly troubled by there was the Perfect Blue/Champaion of the Blue achievements (Due to the "no taking damage" restriction") and some of the more prohibitive weekly goals.

It only took a death or two to figure out why I died in each fight and adjust my skills accordingly, though I'm still not a fan of them randomly having "Must have X skill equipped to not die" mechanics in the second/third act of a stage.

Lag can kill you basically anywhere, though, not just in the carnivale. Even MSQ duties have fairly tight mechanics that almost guarantee death if failed.

Since it's something you do once and never do again, I don't understand this fuss. Since Weekly targets can be done with different ways and are fairly easy.
I say, just see some guides/videos and adapt to it. If you can't do it today, try tomorrow.
The devs are not going to stop with the Masked Carnivale.
Fight 29 is designed to force you have specific spells, such as Diamondback to survive the DoT, Esuna to dispell Throttle, heal (White wind or Healer stance+Pom Cure to save MP), damage, and silence. And on top of that, there's no new mechanic in Masked Carnivale.

I would like if the fights in there would be Turn Based, since it's a lot more strategic than normal content. But it is fine as it is.

wouldn't be as bad if they didn't stop you from cheesing it with final sting/self destruct

Agreed 100%.

They are meme/gimmick fights designed as a puzzle. And thanks to the limits of the game engine (server ticks, etc), and the design choices, it's on par with shoving a rusty nail up your fingernail sideways. It's bad content. I suffered the 30 level of it for only one reason - because the BLU rez is locked behind it. I wanted to have that to be able to help FC mates get blu skills, to give a little breathing room, just in case.

I actually screamed obscenities so loud at one point, my neighbor checked on me. Wish I was joking.

27 was far and away the worst for me out of all of them. Even doing it correctly, the auto-fail condition fired multiple times. As in it was quite literally impossible to win. Others didn't have as many issues with it when I asked around... but when I told them what mine was doing, not a single person said they experienced the same issues.

I finished it, and I will never, ever do them again - unless some form of content or spell is locked behind them again. And then I will do it JUST ENOUGH to get that, and then it's dead content again.

What Blue Mage does well, it's really fun. But the way it's still half-thought through and regulated to side content to stall for subscriptions during quiet parts of patch cycles is a joke.

Regarding lag, I've not really experienced it. I live in Australia, play on an American server and average around 150-200+ ping o:

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Originally Posted by LeoLupinos

Fight 29 is designed to force you have specific spells, such as Diamondback to survive the DoT, Esuna to dispell Throttle, heal (White wind or Healer stance+Pom Cure to save MP), damage, and silence. And on top of that, there's no new mechanic in Masked Carnivale.

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What DoT? Did I somehow skip a mechanic in #29? or is the DoT from Big Splash?

Big Splash is the only mechanic that required Diamondback to survive out of the new stages as far as I can recall.

Said skill is honestly one of the most broken utilities BLU has access to as almost nothing in the ARR/HW instances can actually kill you while it's active short of instant death mechanics so it's always on my bar.

Honestly, they're so easy and quick to do and figure out that it's not such a big deal...

I agree that the design is lacking, though. Considering the diverse kit of the BLU, I was expecting several possible strategies to work for each turn.

Tackling old savages with a full BLU party is way more interesting to be honest and I'm glad they didn't add more than 5 new carnival stages.

pick up a guide beforehand, i probably wouldn't have bothered with it otherwise

I was interested in the carneval because I wondered what great solo content they brought to us..well I agree with you OP. Its not that great imo. Not only do you need certain skills to even beat some but those long fights are also not fun since any mistake can mean that you have to start again..and its not even that hard..its just tedious. If you do not have the strongest skills you will take a long time to decrease the life of the boss..just spamming those skills again and again while hoping that you wont make one single mistake or have a lag and thus get killed..

Honestly I would have more fun with having something similiar to PotD but for Blue mages. Random floors that you can fight your way through while maybe even using the envoirment for your advantage.

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Originally Posted by Alleo

Honestly I would have more fun with having something similiar to PotD but for Blue mages. Random floors that you can fight your way through while maybe even using the envoirment for your advantage.

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Heck, they should just let them in PotD/HoH but have a distinct reward for a solo full clear so as to not cheapen the value of the current solo clear title and don't allow them to party with non-BLU.

Maybe I'm the odd duck here, but I actually enjoyed the Carnivale. I like the idea of puzzling it out step by step and figuring out what I need, then going back in and seeing more progress each time - to me, it's more fun than facerolling it and being done, like so much of today's content is. I like figuring out mechanics, or how the "intended" way to beat a fight goes. I often go in with a set kit as well, to cover different situations: Diamondhide (for those big attack moments, though I was surprised only 29 needed it), Flying Sardine (Silences are common), White Wind (which got replaced by Healer + Pom Cure, so much more efficient!), and as of this last update, Exuviation. To me, that covered all of my defensive points to survive various mechanics, and got me a lot further, requiring only minute adjustments for most things. 26 I needed Eerie Soundwave, which I discovered after the first run, the rest was just figuring out survival. 27 I had to add in Snort after the first try, and Water Cannon after a few more (easier to beat the explosive), but then I literally only needed those two spells once I figured out how the bombs slid. 28 was just a timing change for cures and setting flamethrower to murder adds easier, and 29 was simply a matter of learning the dance, much like any EX or higher. 30 was... shockingly easy, though going back to get Champion of the Blue was much more challenging.

That being said, while I like it, I do agree that there are definitely frustrating points to it. I think one thing that would make it more palatable is a "hint" in the form of a match description for each Act in a fight. For example, 26-1: "The Mirrorknight likes to hide itself behind a defensive layer of feathers that reduces damage to almost nothing." Okay, we know that it has some form of shield or defensive mechanic. Either we need to break it, or remove it - that would make it easier to plan our sets out. Leaving 25/30 alone would be fine (they are the "ultimate" fights, after all), but I do think that a match description would definitely help plan out our kit.

I don't really like Carnivale, but I think they said that the raising of level cap would be a way to add more difficulty to the Carnivale because previous stages were not that interesting. So in a way, I'd be happy for harder solo stuff. But then it's all the same, as people said above : "find wich action you need to avoid the one hit kill and you're done". While it can work sometimes, I don't think it's interesting game design. I believe people have more fun tackling content with 8 blue mages.

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Originally Posted by Bacent

Have you tried fight 29? Where if you're a bit slow on the recovery you can be dealing with MULTIPLE mechanics at the same time like Throttle (You die if it hits zero) and knock back + DoT (You'll die because the DoT is so bloody heavy)

There's nothing fun about studying for a test like being back in school. I don't know why SE did these fights they way they did. I keep getting screwed over at 25% in this damn fight.

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Maybe in Japan it is.

I just find it boring. It's a bunch of damage sponge bosses with one or two gimmicks that will insta-kill you unless you have the specific setup required to deal with it. If you do, then hooray, you get to spam your 220 potency attack of choice at it until it dies. Lather, rinse, repeat. The old Final Sting/Self-Destruct strategies sped it up a little at the end, but it still wasn't a big change. It's just not very interesting or engaging content.

My problem with the masked carnivale is that there's almost just 1 way to win the fights, and it's more like a "puzzle" of specific skills and patterns than an actual improvisation like thing. The other issue is that many fights have 1 hit KO mechanics if you fail any specific part of that. I don't do it much because of that, and I'm really glad for the new Blu Log... but unfortunately to get Angel Whisper we have to beat every stage, and it being such a staple spell... Ehh.

I just wish the Rez was tied to something else.

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Originally Posted by Blueyes

It isn't the most engaging content. Often times, it involves bashing your head against a wall until you figure out how to handle the instant-kill mechanic, then once you have that down, it becomes a simple stroll to the finish line. And yeah, even if you know what to do, an unfortunate lag spike can put an end to your 3-round fight real quick.

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You have just described how all Savage (and to an extent, Extreme) fights are structured and I think those are the most engaging content in the game n_n

I personally think Masked Carnivale is very well designed to provide a similar experience of figuring out and progging a scripted fight without (in most cases) an enrage timer to beat. I'm a big fan of stuff that I can progress through because I feel intrinsically rewarded once all the pieces finally fall into place and all the stuff I was struggling with gradually becomes second nature. Okay, it may not be the best fit for something that has story and an incredibly useful spell locked behind it but... I would like to see a bit more of this kind of design outside of Savage/Extreme/Ultimate.

Content can be fun without being clearable on the first try. I wish people had higher tolerance for wall-bashing ._. Just high enough to notice that many of those walls are actually staircases.

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

I just find it boring. It's a bunch of damage sponge bosses with one or two gimmicks that will insta-kill you unless you have the specific setup required to deal with it. If you do, then hooray, you get to spam your 220 potency attack of choice at it until it dies. Lather, rinse, repeat. The old Final Sting/Self-Destruct strategies sped it up a little at the end, but it still wasn't a big change. It's just not very interesting or engaging content.

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I don't know what you'd call TWEWY, but it's the game that got me to love making special load outs for situations. KH: Birth By Sleep is like this too. And with how BLU works, I thought it'd be the same.

But it's not.

Maybe if they get a redesign Yoshi P can contact the Osaka team (handheld SE titles) for something viable and enjoyable. Cause making a game as big as Chain of Memories for the GBA shows they can work with restrictions.

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Originally Posted by Bonbori

You have just described how all Savage (and to an extent, Extreme) fights are structured and I think those are the most engaging content in the game n_n

I personally think Masked Carnivale is very well designed to provide a similar experience of figuring out and progging a scripted fight without (in most cases) an enrage timer to beat. I'm a big fan of stuff that I can progress through because I feel intrinsically rewarded once all the pieces finally fall into place and all the stuff I was struggling with gradually becomes second nature. Okay, it may not be the best fit for something that has story and an incredibly useful spell locked behind it but... I would like to see a bit more of this kind of design outside of Savage/Extreme/Ultimate.

Content can be fun without being clearable on the first try. I wish people had higher tolerance for wall-bashing ._. Just high enough to notice that many of those walls are actually staircases.

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Savage and Extreme content are rewarding because they give you rewards suitable for the content. If you want to be all best in slot you need to do savage and extreme. I agree it's the most engaging content, but for stuff that's locked behind story it's too difficult. If it gave a suitable reward, I'd say it would be worth it. Maybe give upgrades to augment your armor to be best in slot.

The Masked Carnivale can be absurdly punishing in how rigid it is with solutions at times. For example, some cases require you to have Diamondback to survive a big charge-up move. There's not really any kind of spell alternative. So when you die, it feels less like you failed to solve a puzzle and more along the lines of "Oh, I didn't bring what the game wanted me to", often with no warning.

One of my least favorite Masked Carnivale instances of this happened while I was unlocking Angel Whisper on my alt. I was redoing a stage from the 4.2 instance of Blue Mage that I hadn't touched in a while and went in to clear it. As I did, I saw it was a stage with four slimes, where I would have needed to use Loom to get around. I believe I had Flying Frenzy and Diamondback equipped, so I was confident I could clear it.

So the stage starts and I kill one of the slimes. Somehow or other, I get aggro on another one. Immediately, it hits me with a souped up version of Heavy that prevents me from moving. Unfortunately, with how I was positioned, I couldn't use Flying Frenzy to jump to it or even attack with magic, so I decide to wait for the debuff to run out. At about ten seconds left on the debuff, it refilled said debuff to a full thirty seconds and continued to do so. Which effectively kept me stunlocked and unable to finish the stage. I had to wait for the instance to kick me.

They can keep going with Masked Carnival even when Blue Mage is a normal job. However they have to convert the spells learned through clearing a specific amount of stages in the Masked Carnival to learning x amount of spells to unlock new totems. Masked Carnival has to be an optional content and doesn’t force the player to play because of a specific spell they need from it (Angel Whisper).

The Masked Carnival is easy. Did it take a few tries (for the achievements)? Yes, however every player skill level is different so I'll leave out the part of how easy it is and how I managed to get everything including the savage. Masked Carnival is a puzzle playground meant for Blue Mage and honestly that is the saddest part, that is where most of the effort is put into. Not just that but it’s more like you do it once and never touch it again.

Not much effort is put into trying to make it into a normal job. With what we have now and hopefully patch 5.4 we could possibly see a huge update for Blue Mage. Cause the way I see it is that they are slowly trying to get Blue Mage into group content more often than not. However I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high as 6.0 can mean whether Blue Mage makes it as a normal job or not with 5.4 being the premonition of it. I do hope the developers know the right decision, that is to allow Blue Mage to finally be a normal job with what it has with some added adjustments (that last sentence is to make my answer short and simple, I have a longer response in mind but my previous posts throughout different Blue Mage thread will answer that).