Titan Extreme is NOT Fun

**Archambaud** · 01-09-2014 06:50 PM

It is now time for Archambaud Longbriant's Great Wall Of Text.

As a disclaimer, the following reflects my personal opinion regarding a number of points that were made throughout this thread and does not in any way represent the opinions of my Free Company, my friends, my family or my four year-old cat Rainbow.

I love the Extreme Titan Fight. Why? Let us have a good read to discover the reasons behind such folly.

First and foremost, in order for the discussion to advance, it would do us good if the many level-headed players that have brought their attention to this thread could dissociate the lag issues some players may sadly be experiencing in some specific instanced fights from the actual enjoyment value of the Extreme Titan Fight. Being crippled by lag can be very disappointing, frustrating even, and as someone that does not personally experience such latency issues I can nonetheless understand your query, having myself cursed a few times at the inability of my home console to deliver appropriate online experiences in fighting games, for example. However, disregarding the Titan Extreme Fight as not fun because of something as fickle as delay is unfair to the efforts the design team have spent to give us such an enjoyable encounter. If you must insist on steering this discussion towards the inappropriate network problems a fraction of the users are experiencing, then I would welcome you bringing it somewhere more appropriate.

The Titan Extreme Fight is as much about individual skill as it is about team cohesion. There are many reasons to this, the most obvious one being that the many players in the party have to dodge some mechanics individually. As was pointed out many times before, this is the ultimate version of the Titan encounter, it doesn't get as hard as this. It should be expected that every single member of the team delivers an adequate performance. Now, I can understand that not everyone that participated in the discussion has the means (ie. a Free Company) to get immediate access to such players, but expecting the Duty Finder to deliver those members on a silver platter is wishful thinking, especially when you get penalized for thirty minutes should you judge said members inadequate. The Duty Finder also robs you of something that is often critical in hard encounters: cohesion as a team. People that keep trying together will get better together, provided that they all supply enough effort to the cause. If that is not the case, parties created on the server will allow you to replace members.

Your group will define your encounter with Titan Extreme. As in any multiplayer game, your very experience depends on your opponents or your allies. In this case, your allies will have a significant impact on your actual enjoyment of the encounter. We have all rolled eyes sometimes, I am guilty as charged like the rest of us. It should be expected that people that take part in a learning process get hit. Opening your favorite web browser and reading a guide or watching a video about an encounter is a small step towards success, but the biggest one has yet to be taken. Your group will have to die and your group will have to figure out ways to successfully deal with the many mechanics on their own. If it cannot or if that perfectly executed strategy you saw someone else do does not work for you, you need to do the one thing that is ever so essential in a game, in life, even, and that is to adapt. Think outside of the box, do yourself a favor.

Before proceeding I would like to remember that in the current context, delay should be and must remain unaccounted for.

The mechanics of the Titan Extreme Fight do not represent fake difficulty. If we are looking at fake difficulty, it would be more appropriate to point fingers at the stacks the Spiny Plume from the Garuda Extreme Fight put on its target. As we all know, after three stacks, a Super Cyclone will happen and will probably kill a lot of people. This is a new mechanic that has a very discreet indicator. The information handed to the players to deal with this is very limited. Mechanics in the Titan Extreme Fight are clear because you have either encountered them before or the indicators they use are very straightforward (ie. yellow tethers are bad).

Every role has responsibilities that vary from one party of players to another. To illustrate the depth of the Titan Extreme Fight, I will only be demonstrating my own. As a paladin with sufficient confidence in my own abilities as well as proper synergy and even greater confidence in my two amazing healers, I do alternate between my two oaths so that I may be able to bring more damage as a whole, especially during the heart where the actual single target damage I will receive is very limited. I also always mind Titan's positioning in a way that the landslides that happen during the bomb phases throughout the fight will never compromise the rest of the party. I have sufficient knowledge to know that Titan does not cleave until the bombs have all disappeared, giving me enough time to dodge the bombs myself instead of risking receiving heavy damage. Avoidable damage should be avoided. The swapping my offtank and I indulge in is not based on stacks alone, but rather on the general allure of the encounter, as we are both capable of dealing with all the mechanics on our own.

I have read complaints that the static aspect of the rotation ruined the fun for many players. I personally disagree with this. I believe the different phases are short enough that you don't experience the same rotation for too long, especially if your damage dealers are good contributors. If repeatedly dying to Titan Extreme bores you because it implies you must go over the same phases countless times, maybe you should reconsider your choice of playing the wonderful game that is Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

And finally, as has been pointed out many times before, Titan Extreme is not for everyone. I regret to concur that not all players are equally proficient at this game, but as has been the case with many fights that were deemed difficult before the community progressed, I also believe that with enough practice and as gear comes and goes, more people will be able to vanquish the indomitable will of the earth.

PS. Fun is subjective. Proper opinions should claim “I dislike Titan Extreme” rather than “Titan Extreme is not fun!”.

**Doge** · 01-09-2014 07:16 PM

I hate the titan extreme fight, i always get hit by the first landslide and die. I don't understand this mechanic. First my fc leader says i am a scrub and now he says i should reconsider playing FFXIV. I am sad. Sorry i can't be as amazing as your healers or as good as you are at this game

I'm going back to playing hello kitty island adventure.

**Hitome** · 01-09-2014 07:25 PM

You should just use manawall, Ria.

Oh wait...

**avecha** · 01-09-2014 08:22 PM

Originally Posted by Axidrain

just a tip. copy paste hello in japanese when joining jp only parties. thats all u need lol. they basically just want u to understand what they say. so google translate and respond with a simple yes no

Just do what Yoshi does and say "Hai" every few minutes.

**gadenp** · 01-10-2014 10:20 AM

Originally Posted by Archambaud

It is now time for Archambaud Longbriant's Great Wall Of Text. ... Stuff....

While I disagree with Archambaud that this is valid game play. Note I am a hardcore RPG (not actionRPG) player, which dislike Fighting or DDR revolution games. I agree with most of what he says. Except that unlike him, I am affected by 3 things:
1. FC is not doing Titan X runs.
2. BcoB group has little time to do and are affected by lag.
3. Unable to find 7 pro players, at one time, to help.

Both the above make it hard for me to even consider that the Titan designer has a clue about the real world outside his LAN connection to the game server. Also I do not find it fun that DDR has come to Final Fantasy. The supposed leader in old fashion RPGs.

Also as Archambaud said, groups make a big difference. And definitely the groups I join make the experience less the stellar. Great for you all that have great group. But that is the minority, not the majority.

Concerning the static aspect of gameplay. When the location I keep on wiping is the final phrase, and every time all need to do sames phrases before group can practice on the phrase party wiped, yea it gets static or lets say extremely boring fast. Especially when it is not a given that you would even get to final phrase as in my experience people make a lot of mistakes and there is alot of network connection issues, thus something would screw you over.

Thus coming back to my point of bad design (for me):
1. This is an RPG, is the designer even a RPG guy? Why is action, DDR, etc, becoming a bigger aspect in RPGs then RPGs gameplay?
2. It is divisive and exclusive instead of being social and inclusive. Why at the same time being the only method to get some BiS ilvl 90 gear. If it was only vanity, I would care less.
3. It is designed too narrowly with only a select group of people in mind. Excluding everyone else. Which is especially bad when the whole extreme content which this stalls you is 37.5% of the whole 2.1 patch. Made even worst when the other main content, LotA/CT locks you out of loot after a few plays. So for people that points out that Titan Ex is not for everyone. I would like to point out that it is 37.5% of the new patch and thus at the minimum should be for 37.5% of all players.

**Maye** · 01-10-2014 10:48 AM