The constant disbanding of Steps of Faith

[Kuurei]

This fight is not hard. Conceptually, it is EXTREMELY easy, from what I've read. The hell does it need adjustments for?

[Fynlar]

Yeah, but compared to the raids and em primals, steps of faith is just a casual stroll in the park.
I don't see a reason why everything related to story should be a faceroll content, then maybe lets just make story just be running from NPC A to B and watching cutscenes where our characters fight, doesn't differ a lot from facerolling anyways.

I have more trouble with SoF than I do with most of the ex primals nowadays; that ought to say something.

Most people were not calling Chrysalis a "faceroll" fight; some here have even said it is harder than SoF. And to me, Chrysalis was a far better constructed fight, even though I never had trouble with it like I do with SoF.

[RiceisNice]

Ok
Let us compare it to CT1 during 2.1, where a wipe was guaranteed if people didn't listen to the strats and ignored simple mechanics (like 4 man on platform during the Atomos fight). Where people even wiped in the first trash enemies room.

I said other main scenario fights. Not Crystal tower. Now we're going from a 8-man trial to a raid.

I have more trouble with SoF than I do with most of the ex primals nowadays; that ought to say something.

Most people were not calling Chrysalis a "faceroll" fight; some here have even said it is harder than SoF. And to me, Chrysalis was a far better constructed fight, even though I never had trouble with it like I do with SoF.

At least Chrysalis somewhat catered to being straight forward and the typical 8-man composition (2 tanks, 2 healer 4 dps). SoF does not do this when it tries to feed you vague advice ("Arrows and slings will us little against this foe!") and the add damage being nowhere near the level of requiring two tanks.

[RyuDragnier]

Anyone who didn't see a nerf coming was just fooling themselves.

And frankly, something that's locking out the expansion had no business being this irritating to clear.



Then that is a sad, sad prospect for the quality of this upcoming expansion, in my eyes.

More like a sad prospect for the people who aren't actively trying to get better at the game. As mean as that sounds, it needs to be said. This fight is easier than any EX mode primal, easier than the various turns of Coil, easier than Ultima HM, it's like a baby step into the endgame's difficult stuff, all of which requires some thinking outside of the box. Guess what, Heavensward is likely to have more stuff like this all over the place, so get used to it now.

[Nalien]

Compare it to the other main scenario fights rather than coil.

Castrum Meridianum pretty much introduced all the mechanics Steps of Faith uses. Something like Garuda (Hard) used to require much more explanation and coordination as well.

The issue I think we have is that SE never introduced an iLv sync on such content, so now it is just ridiculously easy to the point where new players don't pick up those mechanics at all, they just get carried through by a group of i110+ players.

[Miitan]

WoW tried to appease similar hardcores once, it was Cataclysm expansion which almost ended in a cataclysm for Blizzard. Elitism was at an all time high, and after losing over 1 million subs, they had to nerf it.

Strangely enough after releasing Mists of Pandaria, which was widely considered one of the easiest expansions for WoW, their subs also dropped dramatically. This just goes to prove that you can't please everyone.

[Fynlar]

Guess what, Heavensward is likely to have more stuff like this all over the place, so get used to it now.

And that is a shame if this is indicative of what's to come.

[Alberel]

Compare it to the other main scenario fights rather than coil. And even then, I feel like SoF is presented poorly especially for a fight that gets immediately put on DF. That's the problem I have, along side the fact how the previous main scenario fights (HM primals, especially levi) were done before SoF. It's a complete shift in what you're typically used to/doing. The matter of fact is that its still required for the expansion and having a fairly low clear rate is bad design and marketing.

It's like getting someone to play a platformer (straight forward, perhaps facerolly like levi HM) to something like Dark Souls. (different approach and requiring different concepts from a platformer game)

Comparing it to Dark Souls is a little much... just because you personally find it irrationally more difficult than it actually is does not warrant a comparison to suggest everyone does. This line of argument is basically saying that we can never have any variety in content because people can't adapt. Is that what you want? Nothing but fights where everyone just burns the boss whilst ignoring AOEs that do too little damage to actually bother dodging them?

It's incredibly sad that the creative direction of future storyline content is going to be completely inhibited because a few players don't want to have to think about anything...

[File2ish]

This fight is not hard. Conceptually, it is EXTREMELY easy, from what I've read. The hell does it need adjustments for?

The fight isn't hard at all, but if one mechanic fails then it becomes unbeatable until the fight resets. It only resets once the boss makes it to the end of the stage, if everyone dies it's not a wipe, it gives you a respawn prompt and you just continue fighting. The adjustments needed are mainly to prevent people from leaving the duty immediately upon seeing what they got for trial roulette. Some would rather eat the 30 minute penalty than do the fight that may fail every single time because of a new person or someone who doesn't understand the fight completely. It can't be facerolled like the other duties in trial roulette.

[RiceisNice]

..

Then why not start it with 3.0 rather than gating to it? Even if you try to tell them to get better at the game, soemthing like SoF is much more team oriented where you can't outcarry 2 or 3 baddies (or trolls), even if they were DPS who typically have the most leeway for performance.

You could say its a babystep to endgame...except this isn't even required for coil so I'm not sure what it's supposed to lead to. If it's leading to what 3.0 is expecting, then I'd like to vouch that it'd be the wrong time to do so (at the end of 2.0 instead of one of the story trials in 3.0).

Comparing it to Dark Souls is a little much... just because you personally find it irrationally more difficult than it actually is does not warrant a comparison to suggest everyone does. This line of argument is basically saying that we can never have any variety in content because people can't adapt. Is that what you want? Nothing but fights where everyone just burns the boss whilst ignoring AOEs that do too little damage to actually bother dodging them?

It's incredibly sad that the creative direction of future storyline content is going to be completely inhibited because a few players don't want to have to think about anything...

My point was that Dark Souls started off without pulling any punches with it's difficulty or curve balls. I'm not saying we should have difficult fights, but we shouldn't ahve difficulty spikes (which we also see in T5, T9 after nerfs, but those are supposed to be side, end game content)

Think of it like this.; you're only doing main scenario. Do you feel that the difficulty jump fight expectation (meaning party communication, group composition and all that) transitions smoothly from Good King Moggle Mog XII-> Levi HM -> Ramuh HM -> Shiva HM -> Mr.Ascian > SoF? I do not feel that's the case because of how the fight work, how the NPCs give you vague advice which can be perceived as the wrong strategy, the "requirement" of a 2/2/4 party breakdown, and the degree of execution required from every single party member (can you afford to carry 2 deadweights that can't dps or even manage cannons?)

Like I mentioned before, I'm all for main scenario fights being more difficult or even interesting, Levi HM was an utter disappointment to me and honestly EX should've been for main scenario instead, but I feel this is a wrong way to immediately introduce it (being at the end of a game cycle and being required for the expansion) all things considered.