H on H (like-dislike, thoughts, experiences?)

[Besame]

I like it as an alternative to Eureka for tomes, materia and a cool MH. I also finally got the hairstyle the other day I also like the summoning and petrification options.

I do not like the fact that I am in the same rut as I was doing POTD where I could not, but it was required to have a static over a certain floor level. I also noticed that the first couple of days (before their so called "FIX"), I got 3 pieces of Emp Pine and it stopped dropping in sacks after that on 21-30. I have never got a clay either. I think it was their nerf they call a fix per typical SE tricks.

What are your experiences there and after you get your MH and aether back to 99, why are you running it? I am just speed running 21-30 like the cloned potd mindless zombie I was for months to get tomes, etc. I would like to see them stop with the static groups to get further so I can see what progression looks like. Hopefully we can learn from others and maybe toss SE a clue.

[Ilyrian]

I think it's ok - I expected a reskinned PotD and that's what we got.
What is annoying, in what now seems to be typical of this game, is that they managed to add frustration in the party save system. It's like they do it on purpose.
Maybe i'm missing something critical here - but limiting the way you can engage with the content behind a laborious and restrictive save system just seems a bizarre choice.

The summoning is very cool - they need to expand this to actual Summoners and/or future content.

[Kurando]

I found the story to be too short, ok I'm not expecting an exact 50 floor copy of potd but something a little more substantial would of been nice, maybe throw in a cutscene every 5 floors or something out in the Ruby Sea with a bit more of back story I dunno.

It would be nice if once you competed the story, that the boss on floor 30 was randomised between a few you have faught before in the past. It just gets tedious fighting the same old Titan reskin.

[Mixt]

I don't like that they put the new cards in the random loot bags.

And ESPECIALLY not that the last one only drops from gold bags...

[TheMightyMollusk]

It's a lot prettier than PotD. That's about all I expected.

[Squintina]

LOVE:

1.The guaranteed +1/+1 (regardless of your current level) for 21-30 means that even a person who ends up in a speed running group can still raise their aetherpool over time. Combined with the grip being -10/-10, it means a person can choose to lose a grip and know that at most it'll take 10 runs to get back to where they were. It also means a person can get to 99/99 over time even if they never do higher floors - and thus get prepared to join PF groups that have requirements for when they're ready to tackle on the harder floors.

2.The guaranteed potsherd gives a consistent method for people aspiring to do solo to farm special potions.

3.The challenge is fun and having less floors makes it easier to plan to get a group together.

LIKE:
The way they've reused assets.It gives enough familiarity that you can guess what challenges might be coming, but they changed up enough things that there were still some surprises and "holy shit" moments along the way (a key component of a successful longlasting mmo as it is very costly and time consuming to make new assets for everything, but at the same time they have to reuse it in a way that doesn't feel too cheap either).

MEH:
I wish the auspices buffs were more common, or at least more easy to know it's on a floor. Right now it just doesn't feel worth it, especially in higher floors, to explore JUST IN CASE an auspice buff shows up. But if they showed up more often, or if I knew FOR SURE there was one, it would be more worth risking things for a buff. Right now, it's just "cool if it's already there".

HATE:
1. I hate RNGesus sacks. I'd much rather trade in sacks/potsherds for a guaranteed, but higher cost, reward than deal with idiotic RNG prizes. Like I'd gladly take having to trade in 20 sacks for a SINGLE reward I want than get 20 rewards that I may or may not want.

2. two saves. I don't "mind" not having an infinite number of saves. But 2 is SO limiting. 4 would be far more appropriate, because that'd give:
- A solo save
- A party save
- A party farm-for-more-aetherpool-because-shit-got-real-in-the-above-save save
- A "whatever else" save

Yes the things I hate are not specific to HoH. Hated them in POTD too.

[Kai_Lee]

I hate the fact you only starts to get platinum sacks on 70+ floors and unless you have a competent group or good RNG you typical walk away with only 1-2 platinum sacks for 4-5 hour work and the platinum sacks rewards you with junks items.

[Xinthia]

HoH isn't bad imo, but it has the same issue that potd had. Speed runners want to get through asap and loot runners want the loot and sacks. They call for two completely opposing strategies. I just wished SE had set up DD so that both groups can get what they want without any conflicts.

[MuseTraveller]

Liked
- Summons
- The new poms
- Less floors
- Easier to dedicate time to attempt the higher floors.

Disliked
- The "story" ... or the lack thereof.
- The Aesthetics (this is personal, I enjoyed the creepy potd floors more. )
- Why so many fireworks... please... why you do this...

Overall enjoying the gameplay a lot more, meh about the story and feel to the place. Everything feels very randomly put together instead of having a theme like PotD had. You would get edda minion, nightmare mount, wind up minions from the PoTD itself. Here we get... dodo mount, why? And lizard minion. I find them cute I just don't see how they fits there. And of course when unsure how to fit something just excuse it with - Allagans did it. > >;;;

[Besame]

HoH isn't bad imo, but it has the same issue that potd had. Speed runners want to get through asap and loot runners want the loot and sacks. They call for two completely opposing strategies. I just wished SE had set up DD so that both groups can get what they want without any conflicts.

Yeah, I prefer speed runs at 21-30 now but I do what the majority wants. Only irritating thing are the people that want to kill every mob even after the portal is up and they can be avoided. That might cause me to say "later" but it's not a huge instance so...if they irritate me too bad, I run the other way and hope they die hehe.