Preliminary patch notes are up

[Alahra]

The bad thing is: even in a full party you will need that iLvl to enter then.

Item level requirements are usually relatively high for content that goes from pre-form only to Duty Finder, generally ranging from about 15 to 20 item levels below the rewards offered by the content.

The time for an EX to be a challenge is when it's released, and it seems that you got that challenge. Now, the content and its rewards are dated, so it is made more accessible to the general playerbase. The item levels are set higher because you can't guarantee party compositions or player skill to any degree in the DF, which creates for a better experience when groups are randomly matched. The content is no longer *for* the people that could clear it at i160--it's for the people that *couldn't* do that.

Those looking for challenge now have Thordan EX.

[Noxifer]

Item level requirements are usually relatively high for content that goes from pre-form only to Duty Finder, generally ranging from about 15 to 20 item levels below the rewards offered by the content.

But... Aren't Bismarck weapons i185? Doesn't that mean it WOULD be reasonable to have a requirement of i165-170?

*goes look it up*

Wait. Bismarck weapons are i175. What's the point of having the same item level requirement as the drops? O.o That's like requiring i90 for first Coil.

Edit: Nvm. I misread and thought bismarck was requiring i175 xD not Ravana. That makes more sense then, even if Bismarck is still only 10 ilvls below the drop ^^;

[Alahra]

Edit: Nvm. I misread and thought bismarck was requiring i175 xD not Ravana. That makes more sense then, even if Bismarck is still only 10 ilvls below the drop ^^;

Yes, Bismarck is one of the few outliers, but the DPS requirements in Bismarck are fairly stringent (more so than Ravana's, in my experience), so I'm not surprised it has a relatively high requirement.

[Noxifer]

Yes, Bismarck is one of the few outliers, but the DPS requirements in Bismarck are fairly stringent (more so than Ravana's, in my experience), so I'm not surprised it has a relatively high requirement.

TBH, I didn't think so; the only reasons I've ever seen an auto-wipe* in Bismarck was due to adds being neglected because of everyone going "oooh, look, a whale to ride!" and consequently leaving them to break the island. But I'll say that I still have very little clue how to recognize the weather patterns and that I'd be lost if I didn't have an FC mate do the weather call-outs o.o (I also still have problems with the doors in Lost City, unless that mechanic is skipped altogether ^^; So it's not necessarily that it's a difficult mechanic, only a type of mechanic that I personally have issues with.)

*) I first wrote 'hit enrage', but then realized that the whole island reaching 0 might not be the actual enrage, so I changed it ^^;

Most wipes I've seen on Bismarck was due to lacking DPS, with the others normally due to tank swap mixups during the serpent phase. That's just in my experience, of course.

Fair enough ^^ I haven't really seen that happen that much; I've only been told by people I've run with that unless the carapace breaks in at the most two goes, there's not enough DPS to clear it. In the beginning, that was tricky and it sometimes took two goes and a little bit due to the debuff (but it was good enough for practice and learning the mechanics, and we usually wiped due to everyone falling off or dying, not due to failing DPS checks, so...), so I guess if that's right it could be tricky with DF groups, when you can't be sure of how much practice they've had.

[Alahra]

TBH, I didn't think so; the only reasons I've ever seen an auto-wipe* in Bismarck was due to adds being neglected because of everyone going "oooh, look, a whale to ride!" and consequently leaving them to break the island.

Most wipes I've seen on Bismarck was due to lacking DPS, with the others normally due to tank swap mixups during the serpent phase. That's just in my experience, of course.