Solo Duties

Anyone else find solo duties, whether they be for MSQ or job quests, just... extremely boring? Like the game wasnt really designed for solo play in duties (or with one or two mindless npcs) and I cannot stand smacking the same enemy with about 3 skills as some role play character. Why do they keep adding these to the game?

As with anything in life, some are boring and some arent. The solo duties seem to give them a little more freedom in some of the odd mechanics they can introduce. I cant envision them doing something like the riddles from the 5.2 solo duty in a group setting, as an example. They seem to add them because it gives them an extra way to advance the story. As for the role-play duties, those are actually incredibly popular. Thancreds went a little too long(opinion of course), but each of them gets tons of compliments and people asking for more.

I quite like them in whatever form (and by extension Trusts), but yeah Thancred's role-play duty was quite slow in how much damage you deal. Especially if you compare it to 5.2 role-play duty which felt much faster. I also liked the rp-duties during the ShB role quests as it let you shortly experience the "life" of the past Heroes of the First. However, I assume wheter someone likes them or not may also depend on their priorities: Some story players don't like it if they are not the WoL (or get torn from their "power fantasy" trope) and purely endgame-focused players may perceive them more of an annoyance as well. This is, of course, no universal rule or anything like that.

I'm a rather atypcial MMO player as in that I care about the main story but lose motivation or don't care about the typical MMO aspects; like the (for my "casual" prorities) endgame gear grind at 80 in case of the former, or optional dungeons, trials and "hard content" for the latter.

I think some of the solo duties are pretty interesting.

Stuff like the fight with Ran-jit (But not the tedious beating up of the civilians beforehand) and the fights with Zenos are pretty interesting. It's basically like being in a Raid, dealing damage while performing the mechanics.

There are also some off-the-wall duties that bring something different (Like the duty with Y'shtola and the 3 bunny waifus where you had to answer riddles and play the match game)

I abhor the RP duties though. Ever since the first one with Alphinaud in the Burn. Not only is it lame to be torn away from my character with a full assortment of skills to be shoved onto someone with like 3 skills (With bindings that are awkward because they cannot be changed and don't fit with how I usually set up my action bars), but honestly, the set pieces themselves could have easily been cutscenes and thus even more of a spectacle than having Estinein just mashing AoEs at a handful of Imperials (A complete joke when you consider the number of guards and the location combined with the recent events) and then pogoing on a budget Ultima...

Too much pointless text/quests in my opinion. Main story quest tends to add fillers in between major plot points that are just fetch quests. Why do I need to talk to these 6 specific individuals. Almost always either talk to someone at multiple locations and then return to the main quest guy or click through several sparkles on the ground. I get it you want me to interact with each sparkle and wait for the loading bar load for each one. Just get to the point already. Wish there was a skip conversation/fetch objective button.

Almost every area has small pointless quests that explode around the map after completing a main quest. I’d rather have a map completion progress bar like Guild wars 2. The story would be told as you complete various tasks. Different game different visions I guess.

My suggestion would be to start taking risk in new design ideas for quests. I mean it’s about time they ditched each job quest. Cut the fat on the side quests already. Instead of having hundreds of small side quest. Why not build one big entire side story for each map location with voice actors? 5.0 job quest had something like this. It had some fetch objectives but it told a story that grabbed my attention. Why not make something similar for an entire map?

The La hee map had an awesome puzzle dungeon and what looks like a battle that happened before when arrived in the first. How come we didn’t get to experience it?

I quite enjoy most of the later solo duties because they add a level of immersion (if you have to run through an instanced version of an area to find people) and the bosses definitely are trickier with almost as much mechanics as in dungeons or trials. Great way to have me panicking on MSQ or Job Quests (60 MNK quest took me a few tries because I only noticed the Orbs of Death adds after second wipe). The final fight against the WoDs also got crazy with having to charge up the Weapon of Light in time; really gave a strong sense of danger and urgency when your turn comes up to charge the weapon and you have to get rid if whoever’s aggro’d on you. Extra scary when you go in completely blind and don’t see the Weapon is a separate clickbox from Alisaie and spend your first attempt panicking because you can’t seem to charge the weapon (which totally didn’t happen to me, what are you talking about?).

Most of them are bland, I can agree, but the climactic ones are duties I wish were replayable (without have to New Game+ I guess, ha; no New Game+ for Job Quests alas).

I like having them as its something different. I just like having as much content as possible and not everything needs to be designed with group play in mind.

I do feel like a lot of the recent solo instances do last a touch too long (Thancred's comes to mind). But overall I still enjoy them.

And the class quest solo instances are good, the lvl 50 and 60 final Monk fights, and the BLM fight against shantoto were great.

I finished Zenos’ second fight last night after about 5 tries and

<insert long garbled angry rant and grumpy lizard noises>

I love and hate it at the same time, and I hope this isn’t going to be a regular occurrence, *sideeyes the mention of a recent Thancred solo duty*

"Second Zenos fight"... in a thread about solo duties... the one in Yanxia where Yugiri fought with you? If im reading that right, you havent gotten to the first "role-play" instance yet. The first one(that i remember anyway) was in the 4.x patch line quests. And youve been doing solo instances here and there since like level 5. As a monk(pugilist) i would guess you started in Ul Dah, so your first would have been a fight near the Sultantree in central thanalan. An ascian summoned some form of voidsent and you put it down. Ill avoid any specific spoilers for now. The thancred fight that gets mentioned is interesting(individual opinions may vary) and it serves a purpose in advancing the story(somewhat - could be better), but the enemy(it isnt zenos, if thats what youre worried about) has a bit too much hp so the fight drags a bit longer then ideally it should(from a storytelling and gameplay perspective). Youre still a ways out from there however.

I like the solo duties. It's a nice to see the dev team capable of developing fights based around one person. To me they seem like a way to make the playerbase learn some of the mechanics that they might not see, otherwise. The RP ones I rather like, because I like to see what the other characters that are reputed to be the creme of the crop can do. Like the damage Estinien was capable of in that vision one was insane. Alphi-boy's physic and also him having Ruin III. Just kinda neat.

Most of them are fun the first time, but doing them on alt's the second time is not so fun. But I think that's more my own problem than the games :')
Also the Thancred fight can go to hell I NEVER want to see it again, would rather fight un dying Zenos again for 100 times...

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Originally Posted by Neoom

Most of them are fun the first time, but doing them on alt's the second time is not so fun. But I think that's more my own problem than the games :')
Also the Thancred fight can go to hell I NEVER want to see it again, would rather fight un dying Zenos again for 100 times...

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I've done the Thancred fight on 3 different characters. I feel your pain haha

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Originally Posted by Vyrerus

I've done the Thancred fight on 3 different characters. I feel your pain haha

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I have done it 3 times too and I hated it even the first time.. the other 2 I legit was thinking ''maybe they dont need to finish story after all..''

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Originally Posted by Neoom

I have done it 3 times too and I hated it even the first time.. the other 2 I legit was thinking ''maybe they dont need to finish story after all..''

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I'm pretty immune to solo activities taking a long time. I go back and solo old content just as soon as I think I can, and I also do a lot of solo attempts in POTD and HoH. For me it was just like,"Man I wish I had more of the Gunbreaker skills to work with, like you know, Continuation or something."

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Originally Posted by Frizze

"Second Zenos fight"... in a thread about solo duties... the one in Yanxia where Yugiri fought with you? If im reading that right, you havent gotten to the first "role-play" instance yet. The first one(that i remember anyway) was in the 4.x patch line quests. And youve been doing solo instances here and there since like level 5. As a monk(pugilist) i would guess you started in Ul Dah, so your first would have been a fight near the Sultantree in central thanalan. An ascian summoned some form of voidsent and you put it down. Ill avoid any specific spoilers for now. The thancred fight that gets mentioned is interesting(individual opinions may vary) and it serves a purpose in advancing the story(somewhat - could be better), but the enemy(it isnt zenos, if thats what youre worried about) has a bit too much hp so the fight drags a bit longer then ideally it should(from a storytelling and gameplay perspective). Youre still a ways out from there however.

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I’m.....confused by your response because that is a Solo Duty. Unless I’m somehow mistaken in thinking any MSQ quest that has “Duty Started!” and makes you solo it is one. And I’m not sure why you dragged in “Under the Sultantree” either because it’s not relevant to anything I said at all.

Is there something wrong about me posting my reaction to a Solo Duty in a thread about Solo Duties? I legit just said I hope it’s not a regular occurrence where I have to get past a long-ass unwinnable boss fight and expressed some nervousness at people talking about a Solo Duty involving Thancred in the latest patch. I don’t know if you intended it or not, but your post came off as very condescending. :\

I’m not stupid, I know what a Solo Duty is and that Zenos isn’t going to be every single boss, so you can just tell me the instances drag out even more and have roleplaying dialogue to boot.

Well...as someone who just spent two hours trying to complete the Samurai Lvl 54 Class Quest....not all are under-tuned...some are just brutal lols.

They're great. Some players play for the story, not for the endgame. I like it if the story drags because it makes my subscription worth it. If the story takes 1 day to complete and the rest of the game is endgame raid, I would only subscribe one month every two years.

I absolutely hate them and I'd be happy to have them replaced by some cutscene. They were ok time ago, but now as time go they become longer and longer and more tedious. And at the end if you die is because you fell asleep/got caught by exhaustion. And they're just long for the sake of being long, no added value from that.

I wanted to comment on this myself, after having finished the solo instance inside Cid's memories this morning. I'm not sure I like that the dev team is seemingly incorporating more and more solo instances to this game, especially since the multiplayer aspect is why I enjoy it so much. Plus there really aren't any rewards for doing these, minus progression and the rewards you would have received from completing the quest anyway. Also you can only do them once per playthrough.

I'm not sure I was interpreting this right, but apparently the next patch won't have a Trial because they're incorporating their resources into creating a solo duty instead. Regardless of how amazing this solo duty might be, I heavily disagree with this decision for the reasons listed above. However I could very well be misinterpreting something so please correct me if I'm wrong.

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Originally Posted by Wilford111

I wanted to comment on this myself, after having finished the solo instance inside Cid's memories this morning. I'm not sure I like that the dev team is seemingly incorporating more and more solo instances to this game, especially since the multiplayer aspect is why I enjoy it so much. Plus there really aren't any rewards for doing these, minus progression and the rewards you would have received from completing the quest anyway. Also you can only do them once per playthrough.

I'm not sure I was interpreting this right, but apparently the next patch won't have a Trial because they're incorporating their resources into creating a solo duty instead. Regardless of how amazing this solo duty might be, I heavily disagree with this decision for the reasons listed above. However I could very well be misinterpreting something so please correct me if I'm wrong.

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I don't remember anything about what you said from the live letter, but I might have missed it?

As for the rest, that one is actually one solo instance I loved. Because for a change it wasn't a "fight your enemy in a place identical to open world but instanced and just a long boring battle" but more "explore a dream and enjoy the crazy awesome scenery, as well as witness various cutscenes, ending with some fights to close it." Played as group content it would have ended to run quickly past the actual cool stuff and hurry to fight and get out. And we already have the trial of it, for that, tbh. I see the solo instance more as: take your time to live through the story.

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Originally Posted by Tlamila

I don't remember anything about what you said from the live letter, but I might have missed it?

As for the rest, that one is actually one solo instance I loved. Because for a change it wasn't a "fight your enemy in a place identical to open world but instanced and just a long boring battle" but more "explore a dream and enjoy the crazy awesome scenery, as well as witness various cutscenes, ending with some fights to close it." Played as group content it would have ended to run quickly past the actual cool stuff and hurry to fight and get out. And we already have the trial of it, for that, tbh. I see the solo instance more as: take your time to live through the story.

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"Recently our solo instanced battles have been quite elaborate, and this one is no exception! There won’t be a new trial this time, as the resources for that were allocated into the main scenario."
This is what I was referring to.

Also, the dream sequence was cool but I felt I'd seen it before in Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep :p

I enjoy the solo duties and very much hope they stay in the game. Anything that gives me more story and more lore, more insights into NPCs and more to fire my imagination is great. The Thancred fight was hard work, exhausting even, but it was fascinating too. I do wish people wouldn't start playing the game and then asked for it to be changed into a different game because they don't like X. There are Xs I don't like here either, and I've been playing for ten years, but they are not big enough Xs to drive me away. If they were, I'd go play something else.

I wish this game had something more like TESO's housing for example. But it doesn't. So if I need a housing experience, I go play TESO for a week. But TESO's story is bad, and the voiced everythings are really annoying so I only stay a week. I don't jump on the TESO forums and demand they change how they do the story, cutscenes, quests etc however because I know very well there are lots of folks who love those aspects of it.

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Originally Posted by Wilford111

"Recently our solo instanced battles have been quite elaborate, and this one is no exception! There won’t be a new trial this time, as the resources for that were allocated into the main scenario."
This is what I was referring to.

Also, the dream sequence was cool but I felt I'd seen it before in Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep :p

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That was refering to the Sorrow of Werlyt questline specifically, stating that there would be no new trial in that. Our trial for the patch will be a part of the main scenario, just like in 3.3 and 4.3.

Yeah, theres for sure a trial in the next patch. A secret one they dont want to spoil just yet, along with a minstrels ballad/ex version too. From the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LVIII Digest(05/012020)..

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New Trial / Extreme Trial
(00:40:07)
Who you’ll be facing off against is still a secret. Please look forward to it!

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And it has an image of a slide with any actual information hidden.

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Originally Posted by Frizze

Yeah, theres for sure a trial in the next patch. A secret one they dont want to spoil just yet, along with a minstrels ballad/ex version too. From the Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LVIII Digest(05/012020)..

And it has an image of a slide with any actual information hidden.

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Right, the one they said don't even try to guess because there's no way you can guess that right. I'm so curious.

Yup, thats the one. Im guessing that we'll fight Tataru. Shes one of the last people we'd suspect.

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Originally Posted by Frizze

Yup, thats the one. Im guessing that we'll fight Tataru. Shes one of the last people we'd suspect.

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Well, now not anymore thanks to you, and they'll have to change it again! :P

We fight the firsts version of Jandelaine. We go looking for him, because we figure that getting Elidibus a new hairstyle will lead to a new attitude. First-delaine refuses, so we attempt to convince him with a proposal drafted by the exarch and chai nuzz. Sadly, paper fails to convince the scissor man. So we smash him with a rock until he agrees. Elidibus looks so fabulous afterwards that all further calamities are cancelled. With the ascian problem now solved, we move toward solving the garlean/zenos problem in 6.0. Look forward to it!