Disappointed by Alexander (story) difficulty, fear Savage difficulty

[stupiddog]

Hi,

before I start, please let me say that I am most probably not the "elitist" player you might think after reading the thread title. Nevertheless, I think the difficulty in the current Alexander (story) raid is poorly designed.

When I started with 2.2 and progressed, it took me quite a look time to truly get the grip of my job (SMN) and to find a FC/static that would bother with my various shortcomings on the battlefield. We needed several weeks to beat Turn 6 (we did it shortly before the big nerf came), and I think we needed several weeks to get Turn 9 done (think we beat it with 15% echo or so). We gradually improved, and we were finally able to beat T13 the week before HW was released. However, every single one of these kills was deeply satisfying, I learned a lot, and it brought us closer together as a group/FC.

And now, we have Alexander. I understand that SE wishes to make it as accessible as possible, but in doing so, a terrible mess was created. I was able to beat the first three floors yesterday in a semi-random group with three wipes at most (IIRC, floor 2 was even cleared on the first attempt). Sure, it was nice to be able to see cutscenes and everything, but it left a very sour taste in my mouth.

When Alexander (Savage) will come out, it is likely be much more difficult than coil (pre-nerf) was. I am not sure if anybody except "progress" raiders will even bother with that kind of difficulty. Most probably, we will have to live with "ridiculously easy" and "extremely difficult" levels. Both do not satisfy me in any way.

Alexander (story):
- No preparation necessary (all fights can be quickly explained in-game)
- Hardly any communication required during the fight
- Most turns fall after the third attempt
- Does not really force players to learn and improve; severe tank errors, bad DPS rotations, and healing oversights often do not cause a wipe.

What coil was: <-- Please bring back THIS!
- Most turns (except the last one) take approx. two or three weeks (medium-skill raid group, two raid days per week)
- Attention to detail, reading guides, communication (most use TS) required
- One bad player would usually kill the whole raid (at least in T5, T9, and T13)
- Everyone has to learn and improve
- Although difficulty was high, everyone had what I call a "fair chance".
- Halfway decent gear (iLvl around 115) was enough to give FCoB a try (pre-DF)

What Alexander (savage) will probably be:
- Out of reach for most medium-skill groups until 20% nerf
- Hardly doable below 3 or 4 raid days/week
- BiS equipment (current Relic maximum etc.) required, maybe even crafted equipment with fully melds (hello GS!)


EDIT: Maybe I haven't made my point clear enough. For the audience it was made for, i.e. players to whom story is more important than fighting, Alex Story Mode is perfectly fine. I have no problem with its existence.

What I have a problem with is the difficulty planed for Savage. Yes, we do not know exactly how difficult it will be. My fears are that it will be so much more difficult than FCoB (which means: Second Coil Savage when it came out) that "medium-skilled players" like me won't be able to do it, even with the time I can afford to put in.

All the best,
Zazanima Mananima

[DracotheDragon]

for like the 70th time

Alex story was made to be easy so those who do not have a static can go in see the BASICS of the fight and then see the story, the difficulty of alex savage has been said to be HARDER/(even by a small amount) then final coil.

this 'raid' is just so players who don't raid can get a taste of what the actual raid is like,

as for the players part in
"- Does not really force players to learn and improve; severe tank errors, bad DPS rotations, and healing oversights often do not cause a wipe."
thats a players fault and not SE's

if you want a proper raid of alex wait 2 weeks then watch as raiders came its to hard

[Kallera]

Uh, no, OP. You are misinformed about what Alex NM is for.

I for one do not want coil back. Instead of "forcing people" to one brand of gaming for story how about we let them choose it of their own volition?

Death and one shotting mechanics isn't the only way to learn, indeed, you may not even learn anything because someone else was the cause, and not you. How fun is it when that happens all night?

[Evangela]

not sure why it has to require i170 to enter.

[Raim]

I get what you are saying about there really only be an Extremely Easy and Extremely Hard mode for the raid. However unfortunately 'accessibility' is the new standard for MMOs in the sense that people complain if they can't easily finish and have access to all the content of a game these days.

[AckersFury]

your lucky we even get a normal mode, they could of just released savage mode only like previous coils, just because its easy for you doesn't mean it is for others im sure there's plenty of people who haven't completed it yet, they can't cater to everyone unfortunately, if you want a challenge then you'll have to sack up and do savage, you can't complain that one is too easy then the other is too hard...well, you can...but this is what we've got sooo /shrug

[Dererk]

I doubt savage will be nerfed since we now have a story mode for hard mode.

I'm also kind of disappointed that it's still the short run then boss that coil was they should have just made it one long instance.

[Airget]

That's the thing you are missing OP. Alexander "Story Mode" is a forgiving mode, it doesn't force players to be 100% perfection and allows them to make mistakes. If anything you can consider these dungeons a "trial" for what's to come. Sure players mess up, rotations aren't the best but as people learn, become more aware, it will of course become easier, that's just human nature. The truth is you shouldn't be passing judgement until you see how "Savage" Mode is and until you've beaten Stage 4 which is sounds like you haven't yet.

Also keep in mind the whole reason this was designed was so that they could keep the "Challenge" of a dungeon without adding "echo" later on to make it easier. Ask yourself, what sounds more fun? A single dungeon instance where it's only beatable through perfection but later on it's nerfed to make it easier for everyone else or two dungeons specifically designed for x player base in mind. One that eases players into the mechanics and gives them an idea of what to expect from the tougher dungeon while also being forgiving if they mess up.

It just sounds like when it comes to starting a new game, you just want to play on the hardest difficulty rather than realize that at times the reason why "easier" difficulties are chosen/offered is to give people a chance to adjust to the games mechanics and learn and become better.

A Person who plays a game on Normal and goes to the Hardest difficulty may actually play better then a person who just starts on the Hardest difficulty and then becomes to flustered over how difficulty the game is because they decided to play blind on the hardest mode.

[RiceisNice]

If you had an extremely retarded group (or at least tanks who can't pick things up), you wouldn't get past floor 2. While there's certainly not that many one shot mechanics, you certainly needed people who did not fail at their role in order to get through.

A lot of us already knew that this would be the case anyway. If it was designed with coil difficulty in mind, then those players wouldn't have anything to do for the next month or so until content update.

[Kiara1]

Soo many threads about this. We dont even know how hard or easy alexander savage is gonna be yet