Any idea what is in patch 2.57?

[Nalien]

The game mechanic made them ignore aggro until they hit cannons. I tried get them, both had aggro on me but they will continue to go hit the cannons.

The Biasts have a weird AI. They spawn aggroed to the cannon and are basically queued up to do an AoE attack on their target, but that requires them to be close enough, so even if you try to pull them they'll still go in to do the AoE since they're already set to do that attack. Stunning them cancels that out and they'll do their next attack, which should be on the tank if they attempted to pull them. If not they'll just go do another AoE on the cannon.

That's my experience with them anyway. When I did it I put down the pitch in their path to slow them down and did the stun shot the moment I saw the tank try and grab them, they then went straight for the tank and never got close to me. Probably more sensible to just have the tank pull them with stun.

[Dragoon4life]

I hope they buff the Mount drop rate for Levi and Ramuh Ex. Those buttheads are Stingy

[Jamein]

It always struck me as unfortunate that the FFXIV community has such a hateful divide between the casual and hardcore playerbase(s). It probably doesn't help that hardcore players will forever be convinced that casual players (which are the majority of the playerbase) are out to "destroy" the game.

It also doesn't help when casual players brand end game players as douche bags who think they are better than everyone, when 99% of the time that isn't the case. There is no hateful divide from what I have seen, only assumptions made by both playerbases.
The reason you see the end game players complaining about nerfs, is because there is very little difficult content in this game. So when SE takes away what little content we have, it gets a little annoying. Although to say that's destroying the game is an overstatement. This whole thing works both ways though.

We just want to enjoy the game in our own way, and as far as I am concerned - I've never advocated any nerfs to any raids/dungeons. Most of us don't even care to post on forums and just play the game. However, it makes sense that as new content comes in - outdated content is made more accessible to those people who didn't have the opportunity. It's just sound business practice.

I'm all for that, I'm sure I have said it before but I have no problems with echo, as it can be turned off. It's the actual nerfs like in SCOB T6/T7 that are just going too far in my opinion. The addition of echo + overgearing is more than enough to nerf raid content. There is zero point in my opinion in reducing mechanics even further because if they do, what is the point in running those dungeons? It's not for the gear if it is now outdated, and it's not for the challenge as that has been removed. So other than just to 'see it' I guess, which even then all you are experiencing is a watered down shell of the original if they nerf the mechanics. I do believe they way they locked the story out behind the coils was a bad move though, hopefully alexander fixes that.

I've done all of the relic steps since the beginning, yet you don't see any relic owners getting up in arms when Yoshi-P announces nerfs in the relic steps. Is it so wrong to wish for a more egalitarian system of opportunities for people to experience end-game content?

No reason to complain about it really. It isn't challenging content it is simply grindy content and the grind is there because it is easy, making it harder (longer is a better word) to get an end game worthwhile weapon. However as the end game shifts higher and higher it only makes sense to lesson the grind, no point making someone grind the same amount for a weapon that is absolute trash, decreasing difficulty is one thing, decreasing length and repetitiveness is another.

[RiceisNice]

...

There's the good and bad to both sides. I've seen players who will berate others for wanting things to be nerfed/easier (you can probably even see some in this thread). You have people who cry "ELITISTS!!!" to said people. Though objectively, something like SoF is required for 3.0 expansion, and it's not a good tactic to make it difficult/different to the point that you have a really really poor clear rate (which honestly should be 100% or close to it for expansion gating)... Bad players or not, they're paying for the game and it's what keeps it ticking.

The other point is, where do you want that difficult content? I mean you have FCoB which is unchanged for the most part (and with echo being clickable), Savage SCoB. I can understand having low clear rates for end game content, but not so much when it comes to main scenario content (and I'm going to hate throwing this word out, but that's not "optional content" like people would say for relic or raids or whatever)

Also, when you mentioned SCoB, you'd have to realize that because of of those fights being so focused on mechanics, no amount of echo/overgearing would ever make the fight easier (infact would make it harder/have no impact) due to phase transitions...such as skipping a devour phase right after a honey or timing T7 phase transitions).

It's one of the reasons why I hate the SCoB fights so much; they can't get easier to natural progression (overgearing or introduction of echo) unless you make changes to the actual fight (which can and has ruined it). But when you're talking content costs like they mentioned in a live letter, developing content starts becoming counter productive when more than half of the playerbase can't even clear/get to it.

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

Though objectively, something like SoF is required for 3.0 expansion, and it's not a good tactic to make it difficult/different to the point that you have a really really poor clear rate (which honestly should be 100% or close to it for expansion gating)... Bad players or not, they're paying for the game and it's what keeps it ticking.

I think this is exactly the part where people are getting upset. If you nerf Steps of Faith till you get 100% clear rate (this means people that know nothing about the fight but can still beat it). Then you have to do that for all of Heavensward too or "they will be gated out of the expansion they paid for". Which means the whole game just becomes a snoozefest.

This whole game is a catch 22. You put in mechanics, it makes the game fun but people fail more often. If you take away the mechanics (or the requirement to do them properly), the game is boring tank and spank with 100% clear rates, AKA Garuda HM.

[Asierid]

Doubt they'll touch SoF. Titan HM was the same cockblock back in 2.0, people just had to deal with it until Echo came out or actually learn to play the game correctly for once.

It will be the same case here. Only thing they would do that is even feasible is removing the turtle, but that wouldn't even fix anything because most people already suck at using the cannons.

[RiceisNice]

...

Thats why I believe you shouldn't put it at the end of the game where it's gating another game/expansion. I mean for the entirety of ARR, the main scenario fights have been a snoozefest. SoF does something different from the typical boss fight with XYZ mechanics. It requires eight players to be competent on their role and following mechanics. That's where the problem comes into play when we consider duty finder. And at least for famrfrit, I never see steps parties on PF ever fill up, and god forbid if you get a troll who will purposely go out of their way to waste your time or screw with mechanics, which is very easy on SoF in regards to hogging the cannons or misfiring the DK (and yes, I've seen these people as well in both DF and on my realm).

I mean, if they had kept the difficulty consistent or at least ramp up properly, there wouldn't be as much trouble. I'd love to say "how can you not do SoF when you've already done chyrsallis", but it's not really teh case because both encounters are different in presentation and required overall coordination and party composition (arguably you needed two tanks for the white-zone meteors....a second tank in SoF is more-or-less deadweight). It's easy to tell people to play better if you're coming from a perspective who does coil raids, but this is an encounter in main scenario which is aimed toward players who probably aren't interested in the raiding scene

Garuda HM became a tank and spank because we grossly overgear the fight at this point. Do it when it was current content or where everyone is wearing darklight/AF. It didn't even get a mechanical nerf. Doesn't quite help either that it's the best way to farm nexus/zodiac light, so there's never a shortage of players who both overgear it and who want to do it (while SoF lacks any real reason for people to clear it more than once)

Doubt they'll touch SoF. Titan HM was the same cockblock back in 2.0, people just had to deal with it until Echo came out or actually learn to play the game correctly for once.

It will be the same case here. Only thing they would do that is even feasible is removing the turtle, but that wouldn't even fix anything because most people already suck at using the cannons.

They could just buff cannon/DK damage and increase the add's hp or something. One thing I didn't like about the fight was how the first thing I was told by an NPC was that "arrows and sling will avail us little", giving us implications that majority of the damage would be coming from weaponry (which is definitely not the case if we still have to make up for at least 50% more hp in player damage). At least by doing that, you retain all the mechanics and trying to follow that would still give a better rate of success.

[Maero]

Would be nice to have a QOL improvement, like say dungeon drop rate increase for Relic. Currently it's been hell and i regret doing another Relic, lol
Nightmare mount increase would be nice perhaps also since all other ponies have been increased, though since they are more rare perhaps it is best to leave as is so not all have it

[Doki]

Would be nice to have a QOL improvement, like say dungeon drop rate increase for Relic. Currently it's been hell and i regret doing another Relic, lol
Nightmare mount increase would be nice perhaps also since all other ponies have been increased, though since they are more rare perhaps it is best to leave as is so not all have it

Feel like it already has been... I did 20 Titan EX runs and saw 5 Nightmares and 2 Gulfaxiwhavers.

[JayCommon]

This isn't meant to be generalized to everyone, but sometimes the reason DF groups fail is because the experienced players just don't explain things well enough.

Yes, yes there are people who don't listen. There are also people who act like they listen, and then fail at the same thing over and over again. Honestly, I don't encounter too much of this.

My little brother wants to get the coil experience before Heavensward comes out and no one runs the content anymore. He is a huge final fantasy fan, and a good player, but has been stuck on Turn 5 (he only started playing a few months ago). He has a crazy work schedule so I don't get to see him too often, but this weekend I was able to group with him and I queued with him into Turn 5 in the duty finder while we were in a PSN party chat. I told him not to expect a win, but hopefully with some direction he would get to see most of the fight and begin learning it.

We queued in almost instantly (both as DPS, at about 12am CST....I was shocked..). Immediately I began inspecting people, and before I could get very far, 5 people (not including my brother) said it was their first time. No one had watched any videos. The one paladin who had beat it had some High Allagan gear, but no Dreadwyrm. I was the lone FCoB inhabitant.

The paladin was in voice chat with his friend, the warrior. So I left tanking mechanics out of my explanation. I broke the fight down into sections.

Healer-specific: Watch out for Death Sentence and Plummets. With Echo they won't kill the tanks if they don't mitigate, but they can still potentially take a ton of damage. Keep them alive! Raid AOE is pretty straight forward, but if everyone follows the mechanics there shouldn't be a ton of damage going out to anyone other than the tanks.

- Kill trash, then focus twintania. At 85% the MT will re-position Twintania to a different section of the arena. (We had no SMN and no SCH, so I acted as the "pet" for fireball soak since I had over 8k HP with echo and OT and I could soak alone if needed)
If you get a blue icon over your head, position it directly under Twintania. Anyone not caught inside of it needs to DPS the conflagration to break the person out.
If you get a red icon over your head, run it to the Chains #1 and Chains #2 people to split the damage. If there is a Conflagration on the ground and you have a red icon over your head, run it INTO the Conflagration.

1st attempt made it to divebombs. - i called out Pit in chat log for people at 54% so they knew when to stack

- Focus target Twintania from here on out. Position yourself in this Pit, as close to the wall as possible without killing yourself.
When you see a Green Icon, run out of the Pit to this spot, then immediately run back into the Pit. Repeat 2 more times.
DPS the small snakes until dead, then DPS the big snake until we have 3 more divebombs (we had plenty of DPS for the big snake to die without having 4 stacks). Repeat step 2.
Once all snakes are dead, stand in the 2nd necklace that dropped. (again, I left out tank instructions due to the PLD helping his friend in voice chat)

2nd attempt made it to twisters.

- Everyone needs to spread out and try to be as far away from the middle of the arena as possible.
When you see Twister on the cast bar, run in small circles that do not intersect with one of your partners, and DO NOT retrace your own steps while running.
When a dreadknight spawns in the middle, kill it ASAP.
Watch out for a Twister cast bar to happen DURING a dreadknight spawn. Don't tunnel your DPS! Mechanics are more important, we have the Echo on our side.

3rd attempt, Twisters not done properly. 4th attempt - Twisters messed up by one healer that killed the MT. PLD picked up Twin and we pushed to Hatch phase, but he dies eating Hatches because the other healer wasn't ready for the amount of damage the PLD was taking with Death Sentence/Hatch.

- Healer, lots of damage goes out on Tanks in final phase, be sure to keep them alive!
If you get targeted with Liquid Firex5, run to the outer edge of the arena and try to place them away from everyone in the group.

5th attempt - Twintania dies and I watch 6 people get their achievement for beating Turn 5 for the first time. I also get 6 commendations, because my brother and I queue together lol ^^


Yeah, I know you get the type that don't follow instructions, or troll purposely. But more often than not, what I see is..."watch a video" or "you don't know this fight? you're dumb" Maybe not everyone can type as fast as me, maybe not everyone can type at all (PSN, but bad excuse) but 10 minutes of explanation got my brother a Turn 5 kill because the people in the group did listen and did pay attention, and I like to think became better players early that morning. As far as the "communication" bit, it does go both ways, and often times I see veterans just as unwilling to help teach as I do idiots who can't learn.

Food for thought.