How Do You Feel When Old Content Is Made Easier?

[HyoMinPark]

Arguments about older content being made easier, or less work

Depends. For me, if we’re talking about previous expansion content getting nerfed (e.g., older Relic grinds), then I don’t really see an issue. With Relics specifically, they’re obsolete the moment a new expansion comes out, so why continue to make them a painful grind?

With regards to battle content specifically, it naturally gets easier with better gear, because you’re just able to power through it, or completely unsync it with newer expansions/level caps and trivialize most of the hard mechanics (there are some exceptions, of course). So I think older battle content getting easier is just a natural occurrence.

With regards to content getting nerfed in the same patch/expansion, I typically disagree with this. I understand the reasoning given behind some of the content nerfs (i.e., Steps of Faith), but I don’t necessarily agree with it. I think if things were a bit more challenging/remained a bit more challenging, and weren’t nerfed when someone cries about it being too hard, overall player skill would increase and cries for nerfs would cease to be an issue. Content that was previously nerfed becomes even more of a joke once you blatantly start to outgear it in future expansions (Amdapor Keep/Demon Wall, Pharos Sirius), and it honestly saddens me to think about how challenging it used to be, and how much of a joke it is now (I never got to experience Pharos when it wasn’t nerfed, but I have seen videos and heard the stories of both it and the original Demon Wall in Amdapor Keep). Though, perhaps that could be changed with lower ilvl syncs for content. But then that will just spark more complaining about difficulty.

I do get aggravated the minute a piece of content comes out and people call for it to be nerfed because they just seem to not want to have to try. And I do feel respect for the developers when they refuse to nerf pieces of content despite people wanting it (e.g., Weeping City, Final Steps of Faith story mode). I don’t think general content needs to be Savage-difficulty, but I would like to see things like dungeons pose a bit more of a challenge—especially the so-called “Expert” dungeons, which are oftentimes easier than leveling dungeons even at release (so, before overgearing, i.e., Kugane Castle).

The problem with making content easier all the time is it destroys accomplishment, prestige and exclusivity of rewards.. All of which then destroy value of the content.

How does it devalue it? You did the content when it was relevant, and you have your own proof of that, if it really matters that much (i.e., Achievement dates)—I get the feeling a lot of your talk about Coil (the Louisoix minion/title, the “prestige”) comes from you feeling like others will just think you unsynced the content to get the goodies; achievements prove that wrong, since they’re dated on the Lodestone. You have all the proof you need to make a claim that you cleared content at-release/when it was relevant versus someone like myself, who had to clear Coil unsynced at 60 because very few people care to do it at synced level 50 nowadays.

How does people unsyncing the content devalue your own synced experience if it’s not the case I stated above?

If players were required to do content synced for things like mounts or titles, you can guarantee that the content would die instantly—most do not want that challenge. The ones that do either have hard times finding like-minded people, or are told “lol just unsync it in PF” when they try to go for synced clears.

For me personally, it doesn’t matter if someone gets their clears/ponies/birds/dogs/titles synced or unsynced—I cleared the ARR Ex primals in 3.1 at level 50; sure I was a bit overgeared in a mixture of gear from the MSQ and some i115 crafted, but I still did it. And it was fun. And no one can take that away from me, even if they clear it today at level 70 in full 350/360/370 and get their ponies. I cleared Deltascape and Sigmascape within their relative tier cycles, and it was an accomplishment for me; no one can take that away from me.

It’s my personal opinion that the only one who can devalue an achievement is oneself.


The only conflicting opinion I have with regards to this is wanting Ultimate to remain item level synced. But that stems more so from wanting some piece of this content to retain its original difficulty with no changes to it rather than becoming a faceroll fest when people can just blatantly outgear it. But, if I clear it during SB when its relevant, I suppose it doesn’t really matter. It being unsynced won’t devalue my achievement; I’ll just be sad to see the content that was once so difficult become more and more trivial. But I feel that way about all content, I guess.