16 hours of cross server zurvan extreme party finder: my thoughts

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Except they never said that.





So where did he explicitly say this would be closer to A12S? He said it would be harder than the usual EX trial.

Either in the Famitsu or another interview preceding 3.5, Yoshi mentioned A12. His subsequent mention of tuning it closer to Savage implies that was the initial intent. Somewhere along the way, they veered away and we've seen the results.

Is it? I don't think so. But, I am also a full BiS high-parsing player who cleared A12S on week 4 or 5. I think Thordan EX and Sephirot EX are clearly harder. The ordering of the rest is debatable.

As for Zurvan, like I said, it is a step in the right direction. You want content that tests players even if it's not hard content overall. Zurvan tests if you can do a proper opener. Just look at the discussions about soar skipping. It's exposing the hard truth that a lot of people can't do a proper opener and it's forcing people to really care about DPS like they should (though a lot of people in this topic still have their heads buried in the sand). With how punishing the mechanics are, it's actually forcing people to execute well. Compare that to Sophia EX where DPS didn't matter and you could repeatedly botch mechanics and still comfortably clear.

Earlier, I said Zurvan is really nothing new in terms of mechanics. But, from a different PoV, it does familiarize people who aren't seasoned raiders with common raid mechanics. Bait and move mechanics are all over savage. Prey marker isolation mechanics are all over savage. Out-in mechanics with no indicators are all over savage. Dragon Rage damage sharing is all over savage. Assigned position spreading is pretty much A11S's bread and butter. If you aren't familiar with T11, Zurvan's tether system will at least familiarize new raiders with a partner system they will see again in A12S. Zurvan is actually similar to Thordan in how it's a fairly succinct summary of common raid mechanics.

From that PoV, Zurvan is a better raid progression fight than a lot of EX trials which have more unique mechanics -- Sophia EX for example. Your complaints about the broken ladder is not that relevant to 3.4+. It was a really pronounced problem in 3.0 and 3.2, though.

Once again, I disagree. Were it the beginning of Heavenswards, I may feel differently, however to concluded the expansion on such an unimaginative and easy Primal means there is a derelict of meaningful content to tide people over. It further doesn't inspire much confidence things will change when Primals have become easier with each patch. Granted, at least most had decent mechanics to make them interesting. All we've seen from Zurvan is people omitting Healers or Tanks because the most efficient way of clearing him is a 5-6 DPS comp. Ironically, it's a clear demonstration of how poorly tuned damage is. We've had dungeons where healers spend 80% of their time in Cleric Stance and now a Primal where dropping one entirely makes the run faster-- debatably easier.

This is just wrong. On release, you could skip a lot of A9S. You could also skip multiple tank busters and other mechanics in A10S. I would know. I cleared both week 1 while skipping multiple mechanics.

Does Zurvan lack imagination? As someone that has cleared everything in this game, yea, I think it's a boring fight. I already mentioned how all the mechanics are copy-and-pasted from other fights. But, I would be mistaken to believe that an EX trial should be designed to cater to players like me. After how much Gordias and Midas damaged the raid population, it doesn't make sense to cater to players like me. 3.5 is a catch-up patch. Odd patches have always had a lack of content for players like me.

You weren't skipping Scrapline one day or rendering it a complete non factor. And you certainly weren't omitting a tank/healer to bring five DPS. Comparatively, Soar may as well not exist since the preferred strat is to skip and LB. Keep in mind, even casual raiders who weren't skipping anything from Savage are still skipping Soar. Basically, if you have any experience whatsoever with Savage, he's a joke.

Nor did I expect it to be toned to my skill level. What I did expect is something to keep me occupied for a little while. Neither Nidhogg or Sophia pose a significant challenge, however both are engaging fights with a good variation of mechanics. You had to work somewhat to skip Sophia's initial tank buster-- one she'll cycle through multiple times throughout the fight. You didn't have a chance to wail on them mechanics free for 25-30% of their health. There is a difference between catering and making fights an unimaginative pushover. I will concede Zurvan does show how woefully inept a good portion of the playerbase is at DPS. But that is as much a fault of the game as the player. When you have a massive difficulty gap in terms of content tier, people become complacent.

There would be no real difference. Comparing Gordias before 3.2 with Midas before 3.4, A8S was the hardest fight we have ever seen in this game.

A lot would beg to differ. Midas went down at 2-2.5 weeks; Gordias took nearly five. Regardless, Midas is widely considered a better tier.

My group almost always skipped soar using the normal set up. Not sure why there is a need in PF to use 1 tank or 1 healer.

There isn't a need. It's simply faster. The fact it's the preferred method already doesn't make Zurvan look like a particularly well designed fight.