FFXIV: The State Of Raiding

[Jetstream_Fox]

Dark Souls or Bloodborne to release an "easy mode"

They do, some weapons in Bloodborne starting out made many parts of the game easier and in Dark Souls certain classes had better abilities and made fights easier. Those aren't exactly easy modes, no, but they do certainly impacts a players ability to learn the games flow and encourage different playthroughs.

[Stanelis]

That is incorrect. Anyone that has looked at Wildstar said they enjoyed the action type combat but the content wasn't casual friendly.

As I said, the "action type combat" was relevant for solo play, not group and raid play. Very few people raided in wildstar because the game wasn't compelling enough. And I say that as someone who downed avatus.

Because the only content post cap was group play, the game crashed (as the battle system wasn't suited for that sort of gameplay). But that was an issue with the battle system, because I don't really think people would have played wildstar if it was a single player game, even if more content had been implemented.

FFXIV has the same battle system issue, while he is fine for solo and maybe 4 man content, he doesn't upscale very well for 8 man and 24 man player raids.

[KarstenS]

DPS Check's This causes a lot of friction between players. Se needs to go back to the old formula, mechanics.

DPS checks were always in content like raids and primals. Thats not a "new formula". It was there from the beginning with first Coil and our 3 primals. Even regular dungeons like Castrum (Ultima) and Amdapor Keep (all 3 bosses) had strict DPS checks.

[Colt47]

snip for room...

Actually, it will fix the issue. This was done in some other lesser known titles in the past that failed for other reasons (Nexon... enough said) and the community loved it. It enabled groups to bring in people they knew needed to learn the fight still without impacting their own raiding schedules, and also let organizers make less intensive groups via shout out. Everyone got access to the same gear level and there was basically no grumbling about gear level because everyone, no matter how hardcore, could eventually get the gear. It was just faster to do so via the smallest group possible so tight nit groups (on balmung it would be RareEX), would still be the first to clear content and get it on farm. It worked a lot better than what the developers currently are doing, which is gating gear via time lock and making the highest level gear exclusive to a small niche part of the community.

After all the years of playing MMORPGs, exclusive content has always proven to be a fast track to making your community get angry. Case in point the recent maid outfit promotion being exclusive to Japan. Having content be exclusive to a set number of people due to time of release and difficulty does exactly the same thing, which is what is happening with savage versions of Alexander and even EX primal fights.

[PandaHugs]

Not an experienced raider I'm casual but I stopped trying savage because I would get attacked for one screw bad mouthed called stupid. So I just don't do it anymore not worth it to me as it sucks the fun out.

I like the idea of adding additional players. I also would like 6 man content with a max of 9 being able to go. Or 8 man with max of 10-12 so it makes it easier so what it would be fun and get people to run it. Maybe make it first month or month and a half limited to 8 for world first groups then open it up for casuals.

Gear is a hot mess right now Alex normal invalidates all previous gear next Alex normal needs to be 240 to foster old raids still matter. Also would like to see them open 24 man gear to be upgradeable to max item level via same as lore items. If you are going to invalidate it next patch why be afraid to let casuals have high item level it is already called a catch up patch.

[KarstenS]

After all the years of playing MMORPGs, exclusive content has always proven to be a fast track to making your community get angry. Case in point the recent maid outfit promotion being exclusive to Japan.

There is a huge difference between both of them. For the maid outfit it is the country which locks you out. The raid is open to everyone. Its just your own decicion and effort, which locks you out. Its the same like in soccer, football and so on. When you want to be part of the higher sport events, you have to get good enough to become a member in such a team.

Not an experienced raider I'm casual but I stopped trying savage because I would get attacked for one screw bad mouthed called stupid.

When you group up with assholes, there is no way SE can fix the issue.

[Zojha]

Its just your own decicion and effort, which locks you out.

Actually, the same can be said for the country - after all, you can move there.

[PandaHugs]

Oh I wasn't blaming square it's not their fault. Most of my friends don't run Alex because they aren't interested.

[Toguro]

Actually, the same can be said for the country - after all, you can move there.

[LalaRu]

Well, I will agree (in part) with some of you, and don't agree (in part) with some other.

Will agree about naming and difficulty level of encounters were in some part misleading, fueling the fire of confusion.

I'll restate something I had told in the past, with a tl;dr here just for sake to avoid you dig too much info past forum posts:

The thing have been dissected countless times, and it is:
- content too hard will let out casual players and them cannot be able to enjoy some pieces of the overall story
- content too easy does not appeal the hardcore that uses heart and blood to close a match he can be proud of

My proposal were about:
- stop using one hundred different terms and levels for same encounter
- use an uniform naming that can stay still within all future patches, without the need of renaming:
- SAVAGE: the vanilla encounter, aka hardest difficulty planned for it, with gear capped to the ilevel the encounter was meant to be. No discounts, no echo, nothing. Hardcore that wants be proud of something will do this one. And will be rewarded with the bragging achievement he deserves to have; Any NEW raid put into the game will be SAVAGE;
- NORMAL: the tuned-down version of the SAVAGE: it will be adjusted over the time to make it affordable to the average raider, all and any adjustments. bonuses, etc will go here, and standard achievements, and it being introduced after a while the SAVAGE were in;
- STORY: this is my own addition to the topic, and proposal: it is a lol-mode of the encounter, with the only purpose to let it be able to be completed by a pug of casual players for the only sake to see and enjoy the game story, no special achieves other than be able to go on any given quest, to be introduced when SE decides the encounter is too old and it is time to open gates to the casuals for it;

And last, no, I'll not agree on make easier the encounters completed by only a few. They are meant for improve yourself as a gamer, and tuning them down it is like tune down the game to your level, giving you no reasons to improve.