NO MORE ALEXANDER(NM)!

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

Nice assumption. Except it's wrong in my case.

I fully plan on doing savage, for the challenge. But I am waiting on a friend to actually get to the point where they can challenge it before I try to build a static.

If it was up to me, ilvl would stop at 200. It would take half as much effort to obtain ilvl200 gear as it does now, and Savage would be some form of Arcade where your performances are worth points for bragging rights and currency towards glamours, mounts, items and maybe even new attack animations/particle effects unique to the content.

That would actually make the content fun, and you'd still be challenged to perfect your performance.

Ya maybe it was wrong to assume that about you personally, but for the community as a whole i feel the comment holds up. But they already did that with Coil savage. Put it in for max lvl 110 players to get titles and bragging rights. And very few people wanted to do it. Even less then Alex savage now. which is less than original coil's participation rate.

EDIT: Believe it or not, not all of us are trying to stroke our epeen or w/e it is people say. People just natrually go down the path of least resistance. It's up to the devs to make that path fun and exciting and not a snoozefest like Alex Normal is. Does easy content belong in the game? Absolutely. Does every single piece of content need to be super easy? I don't think it does.

[Hyrist]

If they put in a unique mount and upgrade tokens, I say bring it.
I happen to like the gubal gear

If it fits with the theme. Sure. Problem is Void Ark doesn't fit with the theme. But if they came out with a "Savage Gubu Library" that only dropped dyable versions of that piece's content. I'd do it, if the content wasn't absurdly difficult.

Or if they added another difficulty tier to Void Ark, which was slightly harder (Read, more mechanics, not this Gearcheck BS) for dyable versions of that gear, I'd be ok with it.

Ya maybe it was wrong to assume that about you personally, but for the community as a whole i feel the comment holds up. But they already did that with Coil savage. Put it in for max lvl 110 players to get titles and bragging rights. And very few people wanted to do it. Even less then Alex savage now. which is less than original coil's participation rate.

Again, it's not the rewards, it's the content. People don't like frustrating themselves.

And no, my idea is vastly different than the whole 'beat it once you get titles' thing. I'm talking leaderboards, and stylistic rewards along the lines of what we get out of Golden Saucer, except instead of just glamours for an Armory system that's already bloaded. I'm talking getting glamours for Limit Break effects, special spell animations and skill particial effects. Things that effect how your character appears in content in an impact way. Not just another piece of pretty gear.

Also I'd design difficulty differently. More mechanics, messing up mechanics punishes the point score. Doing well on mechanics and using teamwork boosts the score. Mess up too much and you fail, rather than slip up and make one mistake and there's almost no recovery at all.

[Eidolon]

I think I get the intent of this thread.

The idea is that Alexander (Story mode) should be released after Savage/Hard mode. Basically, making Alexander (Story) required for progression in Savage (Had to get to i190 before really attempting it - well, mostly i190 for our left side) really stagnated the progression of a lot of groups. If we could've gone from full i180 Law -> Alexander Savage (Being the cap as 200 similar to old progression), there would've been a lot more groups clearling week 1/2 and the balance would've been tighter, instead of being overtuned for what we went in with.

Not only that, people would've gotten to enjoy learnign mechanics in challenging raids instead of thinking "Oh so what's the twist on Alexander Normal on this one?" There's no real sense of exploration or discovery.

I won't agree to take out Alexander Story, but I think it should A) come later and B) Be less relevant in progression gearing.

[Fevelle]

...

Yes, it is the rewards. That 5% of the playerbase want to get the highest ilv equip, a mount, upgrade items AND they want it all to be exclusive until the content is left behind, even the story. Because filthy casuals don't need to experience the same content I do.

I hope they get used to it, because SQEX doesn't seem willing to let all the efforts the dev team put into creating that content go down the drain by gating it beyond extremely difficult fights that only a minor percentage of the playerbase will enjoy and acess.

...

With that I can completely agree. But they would complain anyway, because the normal mode having the Prototype set that is identical to the Savage gear and they would probably say that the Savage gear isn't exclusive anymore and there's no reason to do the content. The same complaints we are seeing now. And prepare yourself for other threads on the same matter but about VA and Airship Exploration.

[hagare]

Does every single piece of content need to be super easy? I don't think it does.

is every content super easy? I don't think it does.
we have savage for those who want a challenge.

B) Be less relevant in progression gearing.

you do have a choice in the form of eso gear, which is what savage is actually tuned for.
if you wanna progress faster though, you're gonna have to make sacrifices.
Like how people beat T13 with crafted gear before they get ilvl appropriate gear.

With all that said though, I actually don't mind if alex NM drops nothing.
I just do it for the story xD

[StrejdaTom]

I think I get the intent of this thread.

The idea is that Alexander (Story mode) should be released after Savage/Hard mode. Basically, making Alexander (Story) required for progression in Savage (Had to get to i190 before really attempting it - well, mostly i190 for our left side) really stagnated the progression of a lot of groups. If we could've gone from full i180 Law -> Alexander Savage (Being the cap as 200 similar to old progression), there would've been a lot more groups clearling week 1/2 and the balance would've been tighter, instead of being overtuned for what we went in with.

Not only that, people would've gotten to enjoy learnign mechanics in challenging raids instead of thinking "Oh so what's the twist on Alexander Normal on this one?" There's no real sense of exploration or discovery.

I won't agree to take out Alexander Story, but I think it should A) come later and B) Be less relevant in progression gearing.

This is probably the wisest reply I have ever read in accordance to raiding.

you do have a choice in the form of eso gear, which is what savage is actually tuned for.

Wrong.
The best is combination of both Alex NM and ESO gear.
Going full ESO wouldn't only delay people from entering Alex SM for months, but it would also be worse than combining ESO/Alex NM gear, especially for damage dealers.

[Moonleg]

With all that said though, I actually don't mind if alex NM drops nothing.
I just do it for the story xD

How many times do you do Normal Mode for the story, though? There has to be incentives to go in there so people that aren't 100% up to date all the time can get in a few weeks later. Just look at CT now, I'm having to tell all new members in our FC to ignore CT until SE creates a roulette for it, because getting in is unrealistic.

[Akiza]

Alexander Savage is for a challenge like WoW Mythic Raids.
The order of release in terms of difficulty mode in raids should be
Looking for Raid
Normal Mode
Heroic Mode
Mythic Mode

[Hyrist]

I won't agree to take out Alexander Story, but I think it should A) come later and B) Be less relevant in progression gearing.

It's already less relevant though. ilvl 190 is lower than we're getting through Void Ark. Any worse and it'd be the equivilant of upgraded base currency gear. I think that's fine where it's at.

We're going the wrong way when it comes to ideas of incentivizing content. Gear Progression should end before hardcore accomplishment begins. If we're going to have 'hard' content, then it shoulden't be something you just wait four weeks to get the best set to dominate with. It should be skill based.

[hagare]

Wrong.
The best is combination of both Alex NM and ESO gear.
Going full ESO wouldn't only delay people from entering Alex SM for months, but it would also be worse than combining ESO/Alex NM gear, especially for damage dealers.

of course the best would be a combination.
but you could still do it with full eso, after all eso is higher ilvl and has more main stat.
and that is the choice you have to make.

it's like what yoshida said about healer DPS. Content done with appropriate ilvl does not take into account healer DPS, but if you wanna do it faster with lower ilvl, you're gonna have to push harder and include healer DPS.

How many times do you do Normal Mode for the story, though? There has to be incentives to go in there so people that aren't 100% up to date all the time can get in a few weeks later. Just look at CT now, I'm having to tell all new members in our FC to ignore CT until SE creates a roulette for it, because getting in is unrealistic.

once lols. Except if I'm helping someone else clear it. xD

We're going the wrong way when it comes to ideas of incentivizing content. Gear Progression should end before hardcore accomplishment begins. If we're going to have 'hard' content, then it shoulden't be something you just wait four weeks to get the best set to dominate with. It should be skill based.

true. The best solution would be if they added Alex NM, Alex HM, and Alex SM.
NM will be like what we have, HM would be coil tier with drops from current savage mode, and SM will be like coil savage with titles and the mount drop.