Request: Please tone down PoTD Solo 181+. My experience and partial rant.

[Alleo]

Someone on reddit posted that they have reached 193 as a redmage solo but died to some traps. After all the time it seems they are only the third solo person to get that far and even those other two seemingly never reached beyond 194. The problem for that player was the sheer bad luck with RNG. Stepping in too many traps that they could not see and having barely any pomander anymore. They also said that you probably wont be even able to survive floor 197 without a steel pomander since all monsters there will kill you otherwise just too fast. So on one hand you need all the luck in not stepping into traps (which would still be kinda a good risk in the palace and okay) but also having all the right pomanders on certain floors..Also they nearly run out of time on boss 190.

So the time and the pomanders seems to be quite problematic but those can be changed so I hope they do that.

[MagicalLoli]

Hi! ^that would be me. It was really unfortunate! I even had a decent shot at clearing if I got some steels... if I finished clearing 193 normally, I would be able to maybe sneak around the bicephaluses on 194-196 to pick off wraiths and dragons (and hopefully in the process gain some steels) and then use rage to clear 2 out of the last 3 floors (or maybe use them earlier with fortune to try to get some poms). Having 2 rage and 3 serenity was huge! I don't know when I'll get that kind of luck again.

But, speaking of luck and the factors it plays in POTD, I share some concerns with OP.
(continued in next post due to char limit!)

[MagicalLoli]

First let's talk about mobs and poms. Starting from 187-189, most mobs simply cannot be killed without using poms. Claws and worms require Steel (and hope for no autoattack crits after tanking worm enrage, which can also crit I believe), while dragons are impossible. The only mob that can be killed without poms are the chimeras. While there are ways to get around these floors (alteration + chimera hunting comes to mind), having to use a Steel to clear a floor is asking for a lot, seeing as you need around 9 minutes of Steel for the 190 boss. On the final set of floors, you have to start avoiding the Iron Corse patrols, which can 1 shot you from range with an ability + autoattack crit combo.

(continued in next post due to character limit)

[MagicalLoli]

Past 194, Bicephaluses start to appear in rooms, which also do too much damage to handle without Steel and can be impossible to sneak around based on their positioning. This is most likely why there are other failed runs around 194 due to a lack of poms. And don't forget about 197+ where every room will be filled with Gourmands, Knights, and Corses, none of which can be killed without Steel.

(continued in next post)

[MagicalLoli]

While dependence on poms is definitely an issue, there are some other RNG factors that really should be taken into consideration. One of my biggest gripes is Critical Hits from monsters. Starting from 171+, even if your healing is on-point, certain mobs can one shot you with a crit (without Steel, of course). One of the biggest offenders is the Sasquatch (yes, unbuffed), which can hit you for around 13K with an ability that can happen at the same time as an auto. For this reason, I also try to avoid other mobs with such abilities, including Wamouracampas and Archeosaurs on 181-189, but sometimes you don't have a choice. I know dodging monster skills is a thing as well, but personally I believe both critical hits and dodging should be removed from monster skills. The overall "DPS" of the monster would effectively be the same (if not higher), except without 1-shot RNG (also, while abilities interrupting casts can be predicted, critting autoattacks interrupting casts is not cool)

[MagicalLoli]

One other huge RNG issue is the amount of kills it takes to unlock the Cairn of Passage (why is it even random?). On average it's around 6 kills without flight and 3-4 with. However, with bad luck, it can take upward of 9 kills without flight or around 6 with. On 181+, monsters take around 1 minute each to kill, so any 9 kill floors pretty much mean you HAVE to use flights or rages to speed up the remaining floors. I remember one run from OP where the first two floors on 181-189 were both 9 kill floors, taking up 18 minutes and screwing him over for the rest of the set.

[MagicalLoli]

Finally, to discuss a bit about POTD solo balancing outside the RDM world. Due to class design, I feel it would be incredibly hard to balance 200 to be clearable by all classes solo without either 1) making the feat too easy for some while just passable by others or 2) doing class-specific balancing in POTD only (which is highly unlikely). An example of #2 would be something like giving a special version of sustaining potion to melee classes that heals more, or a version that also gives a damage buff to healers. However, there would still need to be more fine-tuning as the difference between casters like BLM and RDM is night and day (BLM is easily the worst POTD class due to being immobile).

[Louvain]

@magicalLoli: thanks for the input. just for future reference you can post, and then go back to edit your post to be as long as you want. It's bizarre but yea.

Edit:
I do understand the concern about making it to easy for some jobs, and I don't think it needs to be nerfed to the point that all jobs should breeze by...but even just minor adjustments would seriously help ALL of them.

[MagicalLoli]

Ohh, thanks. I was wondering how everyone else had posts that long LOL.

And wait a second, your name is a bit familiar... were you by any chance that Kalahan fangirl from DN? (also, Mayu says hi!)

[Alleo]

@MagicalLoli: Haha nice that you found your way here. And good to read of some more experiences. The more that I read from the last few floors the more I am certain that its truly impossible to clear this solo. Not only would you need so much RNG to even get all the pomanders that you need but the timer is also a big problem and the damage that those monsters seems to do are way too much. (And lets not forget the beauty that is the random respawning of monsters..its still something that annoys me since this takes so much away from trying to be tactical or careful..you can do all you want but you still cant do anything against something spawning directly on top of you or the exit..)

Hopefully some of the devs will read this and if they dont plan to change anything for this than I hope that the next deep dungeon will be improved (and truly solo-able if they include that) and hopefully a bit more tactical and less RNG..