Any reason to launch A4 Savage as an impossible raid?

[RiceisNice]

As several in this thread have pointed out, this is artificial content life extension, nothing more. The devs are basically thumbing their noses at groups who previously demonstrated that skill > gear.

Ilvl 200 average is still considered pretty damn high. That's full eso and acessories. Most people at this week would be inching raound 195, unless they got extremely lucky with gordian drops and was fed all of them (and then it'd only be one or two individual out of the entire party). If something like A4S required a minimum of everyone being 210 then yes, that would be a problem in design. But that's not the case since I doubt anyone is even at ilvl200 average atm, let alone the entire party.

[Kallera]

Can you fight the last boss of any rpg ever in history with the gear you got at the beginning of the game?

Castlevania: symphony of the night.

[BloodPact]

No, the whole point of raiding is downing bosses while coordinating with other players. If the main factor to killing a boss is the gear the players have, then the raid is poorly designed (it has been an issue on some wow bosses in the past).

It would be perfectly natural for the top end players to clear a raids in a matter of few days, as it mean they would have mastered the game.

Yes, clearly those who are in Gordias 4 Savage have gotten there EXCLUSIVELY just by doing their daily roulettes and weekly runs of normal difficulty runs, certainly not by spending countless hours wiping and learning to coordinate and execute their strategies.

[Mission]

To me the whole raid should have been designed..so you group needed the gear from each prior turn to even clear then next one. What's the point of gear if its not used for anything?

[loreleidiangelo]

Ilvl 200 average is still considered pretty damn high. That's full eso and acessories. Most people at this week would be inching raound 195, unless they got extremely lucky with gordian drops and was fed all of them (and then it'd only be one or two individual out of the entire party). If something like A4S required a minimum of everyone being 210 then yes, that would be a problem in design. But that's not the case since I doubt anyone is even at ilvl200 average atm, let alone the entire party.

I'm i193 with zilch for Savage drops and not enough tokens to buy anything. Our raid DRG is already i195 and we've only cleared AS1 so far, and for three weeks only. Groups that cleared 1 and 2 the first week, and 3 the second, likely have members who are higher.

My point still remains, though. Gear has traditionally been a "cushion" for more average players to be able to get their clears. Removing that cushion just means that 2% of the playerbase what clears these raids might just get chopped down to %1.5 or less. Apparently this is okay to the "hardcore" playerbase, that seems to think an arbitrary gear score requirement equates to challenge.

Why is this "content life extension" necessary, anyway? To eke out an extra month of subs from the very small percentage of people that will farm this content so quickly that they'll get bored and unsub? LOL.

[Velhart]

snip

A damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. People will complain either way.

[LineageRazor]

Folks complained that Coil locked interesting lore and story behind content that was too difficult for a significant part of the gaming population (I think they noted that only, like, 10% of players completed FCoB before Heavensward?). This time around, the endgame raid comes in two tiers: Standard and Savage Alexander.

This time around, there's no feeling of obligation for average players to beat the hardcore raid. They have Standard Alex to fulfill their storyline needs, and Esoterics gear (and eventually the new Relics) to fulfill their gear needs. Savage Alexander is there explicitly to present an honest challenge to the small percentage of players who will EVER be able to complete it.

I don't know if I'll ever be a part of that small percentage, but I still think this was a great idea, and I'm glad to see the raid is actually giving the ueber legendary raiding groups something to really sink their teeth into!

[Keyln]

Castlevania: symphony of the night.

That's not an RPG. It's an action game with RPG elements.

[Priya]

Ok so would you rather have a raid introduced that takes time to complete both skill wise and gear wise, or a raid introduced that can be facerolled immediatly upon release?

Its not been out for long, all this doom and gloom about it being impossible to beat is silly. Groups are making progression nicely in Alexander Savage. Its not impossible.

What about both? Say, a longer raid with a more gradual difficulty curve so those better than story mode but not good enough for savage can get in some meaningful raiding while they wait to clear. Let's say 8 bosses with the difficulty ramp up being more gradual until the middle and spiking up sharply at the end; similar to the way it is now? Would that be acceptable? Alternatively, maybe a 3rd tier of Alex difficulty that exists between story and savage?

I guess we can also tell everyone to ditch their static buddies if they actually like to raid.

[loreleidiangelo]

A damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. People will complain either way.

This is perhaps the truest rebuttal to my claims that anyone could have hoped to make. Fair enough.