Am I the only one that sort of kinda likes the nerf to SoF?

[Kikoten]

Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking forum...

Yoshi P et al are watching us dance and eating popcorn.

...Or whatever they eat at the theater in Japan. I'm thinking popcorn. It's a different world over there, so I don't know.

[OranKells]

Right now, the main scenario requires no skill. To use your minigolf and bowling examples, it's like aiming at one pin in a bowling lane that has bumpers over both gutters, or like playing a mini golf lane that's just a straight line with no humps or anything. I'm sure there are people who would like that, but we can both agree that it's not for everyone, right?

I'm not asking for great things, here. I'd like to think I'm a decent player, but I'm almost certainly not among the best. I'm certainly not going to be contending for server or world firsts any time soon. And I'm not asking anyone to get to my level, or to get to the levels of BG or Lucrezia. I'm not even asking to meet in the middle, so to speak. I'm asking that maybe we teach people how a golfball rolls down hill, or how it bounces off the walls to let you get to a hole around a corner. Or maybe remove the bumpers from the bowling lanes.

What kept people from doing SoF before the nerfs, to continue the metaphor, is that some people are so excruciatingly bad at it that it's like they managed to gutter-ball even with the bumpers on. Which wouldn't be so bad (I mean, it's bad but it's kinda tolerable) if there were any actual rewards, especially if the rewards were commensurate with the time. Unfortunately, you have an instance with essentially no rewards and a high time requirement even if you succeed on the first try.

Now, if SE would actually implement stuff (like they started to with Chrysalis and SoF) to try to raise the lowest common denominator, people might actually get better. If people get better, we would expect to see fewer people throwing their bowling ball across three lanes. Which means that when you get an instance like SoF, you can reasonably expect success within the first try or two without also feeling like some of the party aren't pulling their weight at all. All SE has done here is allow people to play worse while still succeeding.

THIS. ALL OF THIS. CAN I FRAME THIS ON MY WALL PLEASE

[Morzy]

Hard to say, I haven't done SoF yet. If it makes it easier for new players to clear the trial and progress in the story, I do not mind at all.

[Fallenstarz]

Did any other region i.e.: non U.S. players Need the nerf as well or was it mainly done for our region. I'm noticing a trend with content makers nerfing or "Changing" classes, quests, dungeons, mechanics and other aspects in many games to suit western culture.

As frustrated as I was with how many times I had to do steps of Faith, the completion of it was super rewarding because of how difficult it was.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Did any other region i.e.: non U.S. players Need the nerf as well or was it mainly done for our region. I'm noticing a trend with content makers nerfing or "Changing" classes, quests, dungeons, mechanics and other aspects in many games to suit western culture.

As frustrated as I was with how many times I had to do steps of Faith, the completion of it was super rewarding because of how difficult it was.

Its too bad you don't get anything for doing it.

[OranKells]

http://http://forum.square-enix.com/...96%84%E7%82%B9 there is a japanese thread talking about steps of faith. for once this does not appear to be a uniquely american problem.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Achievement: Help 10 players first clear the steps of faith (this can proc multiple times an instance.
Dragon Mount
Achievement: Help 20 players first clear the steps of faith (this can proc multiple times an instance.
Dragon's Bane Title
Achievement: Help 30 players first clear the steps of faith (this can proc multiple times an instance.
Dragonslayer Armor (unique armor that all players can wear/color.)
Dragonslayer Robes (unique armor that all players can wear/color.)

This would of been a much better way to fix the problem.

[Welsper59]

Achievement: Help 10 players first clear the steps of faith (this can proc multiple times an instance.
Dragon Mount
Achievement: Help 20 players first clear the steps of faith (this can proc multiple times an instance.
Dragon's Bane Title
Achievement: Help 30 players first clear the steps of faith (this can proc multiple times an instance.
Dragonslayer Armor (unique armor that all players can wear/color.)
Dragonslayer Robes (unique armor that all players can wear/color.)

This would of been a much better way to fix the problem.

Not really. Since then you'd have people complaining about it being unobtainable after everyone gets their clear lol. Oddly enough, incentive is either too uneffective or it becomes seen as necessary... and anything necessary is met with angst.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Not really. Since then you'd have people complaining about it being unobtainable after everyone gets their clear lol. Oddly enough, incentive is either too uneffective or it becomes seen as necessary... and anything necessary is met with angst.

Not really, new players would need to do it to to get to the new expansion, since its part of the main storyline. They cannot access the expansion without doing this. Think outside the box a little.

People still do 2.0x stuff for clears today!

[Anneliese]

I don't think it was the right decision. They should have just created two versions in the first place: story mode and hard/extreme mode. Story mode can be as easy as the currently nerfed version right now, while hard/extreme mode has difficulty on par with other ex mode primals, balanced around an average ilevel of 120-130 and drops i130 rings (because this is the only patch cycle that only has two ways of obtaining highest ilevel rings)