The disapointment that is Alexander

[Blood-Aki]

Sorry, I can't tell you my secret, but I am in fact unsubbed.

There is no secret, when you unsub it still lets you post, But it seems you are taking full advantage of posting as much negativity about a game you don't like as possible untill it runs out.

[Fendred]

Lore is not important here until they can make something that isn't a lazy copy of what came before it. Once they figure out how to make fun, engaging content then they can go nuts with story and lore. So far they are failing in both aspects but gameplay is infinitely more important that who dunnit and why.

Uh, hate to break it to you, but they aren't going to be making anything new or original in terms of strategy. It's taken straight off of WoW. They've gone through all the strategy this system has to offer prior to the expansion. Also, don't do that when quoting someone. You're basically harassing me over bringing up lore. Ironically, its how they've chosen to do loot in combination with increased accessibility that makes the dungeon so horrible. People end up running the bosses multiple times a week until their items drop. It's an incredibly repetitive setup with zero replay value.

Additionally, the kinds of things that should make a player stop and do something, like an enemy speeding themselves up or a giant bee's poison, are entirely trivialized in this system. So the only elements that could force players to react differently to a situation have been purposefully undermined. Instead of giving us more complex rotations, they should have given us situational abilities to let us recover from or counteract such effects. Then they could have made the fights harder by making status effects something to pay attention to.

[Brannigan]

I think part of why Alexander is lacking in the feeling of adventure and exploration is because of the Easy Mode. In coil, each bit of new content (story and otherwise) came only after a hard-fought victory. Here, it's all cleared after an hour and a half. The savage mode offers more challenge, but no new experiences. I didn't feel excited to see what was next after A3S, only relief that I was done with the fight. I understand the need for more casual content, but maybe easy mode Alexander would be best saved for a patch after hard mode.

[VargasVermillion]

I'm more disappointed with how the aesthetic idea doesn't have much impact on the fights or trash. We are inside a giant robot castle with steam power and all that jazz, I feel like the environment should of played more of a role in the fights and not just be there to 'look nice'. Like fighting on a conveyor belt or something. (idk if this would be good or not but it's just an example of what I mean.)

This more or less applies to dungeons in general but I feel trash mechanics are lacking as well, as far as i can see trash as little difference with each other, Just pull and aoe. I Feel labyrinth of the ancients handled trash scenarios the best since they were more than just generic mobs but actual scenarios or if not that they had more environmental hazards/mechanics to compensate.

[VargasVermillion]

I think part of why Alexander is lacking in the feeling of adventure and exploration is because of the Easy Mode. In coil, each bit of new content (story and otherwise) came only after a hard-fought victory. Here, it's all cleared after an hour and a half. The savage mode offers more challenge, but no new experiences. I didn't feel excited to see what was next after A3S, only relief that I was done with the fight. I understand the need for more casual content, but maybe easy mode Alexander would be best saved for a patch after hard mode.

I also agree with this. I don't find savage as exciting as coil was because I know what bosses are coming up and the general gist of what to expect and the story already revealed, victories feel a little less satisfying to me.

[Subucnimorning]

I think part of why Alexander is lacking in the feeling of adventure and exploration is because of the Easy Mode. In coil, each bit of new content (story and otherwise) came only after a hard-fought victory. Here, it's all cleared after an hour and a half. The savage mode offers more challenge, but no new experiences. I didn't feel excited to see what was next after A3S, only relief that I was done with the fight. I understand the need for more casual content, but maybe easy mode Alexander would be best saved for a patch after hard mode.

I agree with this completely, it is the major downside to doing content with the WoW model where you have to progress through an easy mode then go to a hard mode of the exact same encounter. Like you said I would also prefer hard mode to be released first and easy mode released later and not a required gear progression but made as more of a catch up thing for casual players.

[Cetonis]

I think part of why Alexander is lacking in the feeling of adventure and exploration is because of the Easy Mode. In coil, each bit of new content (story and otherwise) came only after a hard-fought victory... I understand the need for more casual content, but maybe easy mode Alexander would be best saved for a patch after hard mode.

Either that, or tune the NM so that groups need to be pretty skilled to clear it at i180, while groups of average to weaker players can do it at i205 or so, and people in between would get their clears over time and feel somewhat accomplished when they do. Something like Bis EX tuning, except for 180-210 instead of 160-190. Really all that matters is that non-raiders are able to see the story before the next set of floors is added; instead SE made sure everyone could clear the whole thing basically week 1 and eliminated any potential it might have to be a non-trivial goal / accomplishment for people.

[Yeldir]

I enjoy Alexander normal and Savage. The encounters are bite-sized and easy to organize. There's minimal trash. Normal gives me an easy way to shove 190 gear at my FC members and train people new to raiding, and Savage gives us something to wipe on until 3.1.

My only gripe is that they feel a bit content-light. A fifth instance would have hit the spot, but everything is fun for me, otherwise. I like the Goblins.

[Melixy]

I also agree that Alexander NM killed a bit of the Savage excitement. I don't really wanna comment on the story because Coil had a lot going for it in terms of the build up that Alexander hasn't gotten a chance to do yet. I'll wait for the next installment before I'll start formulating a solid opinion on that.

The scenery isn't that bad-- I like that it's a bit different than anything else we've seen. But it does feel cramped and not very fluid. I don't see why SE couldn't have made trash like Coil, where if you clear it through one week, you're done with the trash til reset. I think it would've added onto the overall atmosphere of the raid. In Savage, minor spoiler-- you're just auto-teleported to the fights. There's no trash in A2S or A3S. You're just suddenly there, and I really don't like that. I think it kills the vibe of suspense and the imminent threat of Alexander/what the gobbies have in store for the party.

Having downed A1S and A2S, I've noticed that (thus far) the fights are very much straight out of their NM counterparts, albeit with more HP on the enemies, more damage coming out from the enemies, and maybe a new mechanic per fight. (I haven't been in A3S yet, but will be trying it in an hour, but I've been told it's a bit different.) Had the fights been altered a bit more drastically, I think it would be better. SCoB Savage was fairly different from SCoB normal to the point where it became interesting all over again. But Alexander Savage fails to do that, in my opinion.

[VargasVermillion]

Having downed A1S and A2S, I've noticed that (thus far) the fights are very much straight out of their NM counterparts, albeit with more HP on the enemies, more damage coming out from the enemies, and maybe a new mechanic per fight. (I haven't been in A3S yet, but will be trying it in an hour, but I've been told it's a bit different.) Had the fights been altered a bit more drastically, I think it would be better. SCoB Savage was fairly different from SCoB normal to the point where it became interesting all over again. But Alexander Savage fails to do that, in my opinion.

Can confirm AS3 is a lot harder than AS1 or 2, it's kind of like another tier of itself along with AS4, it is the same in essence like many other fights in alex but it has significantly more added mechanics than the previous two and requires a little more attention to detail.