So, how is Pagos?

[Hyperia]

At first, I really disliked Anemos due to its very slow and hard startup. Then the train happened and oh wow, did things change for me. I found the zone engaging, fun and I met many new friends which I still have to this day.

Fast-forward to Pagos…

Pagos is not fun in its current form, its actually down right mean and punishing. The last time I went in, I left and my hands were literally trembling in pain from trying to tank for all of the challenge logs. I have seen a total of two NMs and getting to those were very dangerous. I saw people begging me to rez them while I went by, but all I could do is console them as PLDs don't have rezzes and I ran out of P-tails. Every time I went in there, I found myself watching the clock, wondering how much longer I will need to be in there. That was it for me... once I felt that way, I knew it was over for me. Everything I have read here is further reinforcing my feelings that this is not the right content for me. My friends miss not being able to play with me but I am too low level and there too high. In fact, we cant play with any of each other as we are 22, 24, 28 and 30.

I was sooo hyped for Pagos after learning to love Anemos, now I'm crestfallen about it all.

I suppose I am just joining the self help group as I know they don't listen to us much anymore. I heard that we are considered noisy Americans that rant and complain about anything and everything in an incoherent manner. That may be the case but still... ignoring us is done so at great risk.

[athisvolume]

I was sooo hyped for Pagos after learning to love Anemos, now I'm crestfallen about it all.

!00% agree. I hated Anemos at first but it really grew on me. I was really excited for Pagos because I was expecting Anemos 2.0 but it's just been a huge letdown. It feels like when you're a kid and you open that Christmas present you really want and you've been hinting about for months..but it turns out to be socks. You try to be nice about it but it's super depressing. That's Pagos - except it's not a gift, you get to pay for it.

[Kiriezaiku]

My overall feeling is that SE has no idea how to listen to its players anymore, and Pagos is the proof of that.

In Anemos, we found a way to make the unforgiving lengthy and sometimes physically painful chain grind into a more bearable, sometimes even fun experience with the NM train. People worked together to get it done. People were friendly. We traveled in a pack, creating rez leapfrog to not leave even the lowest level player behind. People would go out of their way to run back in the case of a straggler, because no one wanted that death penalty. It still took forever to get you weapon and your armor, but you felt progress being made for all the time spent.

For Pagos, well, for starters it seems like SE had a hissyfit with "the NM train was not how we intended this to be played", and took a rather awful approach with "fixing" Eureka. For the most part, chain grinding you way into carpal tunnel is the vast majority of any progress to be made, with the NMs far more difficult to spawn. Of course, the monsters are hp bloated as ever, and you need to fight monsters 5-6 levels above you own to really see any progress however slight. But wait! Let's make it so that you have to have a party of people with similar level or else it completely screws some people on xp! Got that friend that can't play as much as you so he's a lower level? Well poopoo on him, you can't help him because your level is too far above his! Want to have a weekend FC run with friends but everyone's level is all over the chart? Nope! It can take upwards of 20 min just to get into a party, sometimes even having to instance swap just to find a level-friendly group at all.

So overall the attitude in Pagos is... well people are pretty grumpy to put it mildly. After finally achieving a workable party, chances are you're in for a 15+ min hike through certain death just to get to an optimal level area to chain yourselves into oblivion. And you gotta get those chains! Oh wait a party member has to piddle or his child jumped out a window or he can't feel his hands anymore so he needs an afk sec? Crap our chain dropped let's just yell at him for not making us first in his life! Better yet, kick him out of the party, yeah that'll teach him a lesson! Oh hey, a NM spawned! Okay let's return and make our way through the lengthy map and pray that we make it in time cause the people already there have no intention on slowing down the nuke-fest cause poopoo on you, shoulda been here, move faster! I mean I need that NM! Cause I'm gonna need 500 bloody crystals just for a single weapon and these guys are handing out crumbs!

Then there's the death. There's a lot of death. Remember rez leapfrog? Yeah not a thing. Remember going back for the fallen? Yeah right, not happening. People are dropping like flies, and begging to be saved until they time out and take that quite franky unacceptable penalty. No one wants to break their chain to help a fallen soul, or a fallen party. The few that try sometimes end up in the mass grave as well, begging for someone to save them the xp loss. The helpful people have dried up and become bitter as heck in this winding, death-filled wasteland.

And hey! Gerolt! I love you but why is it you can make a magic kettle I need to fill, what 31 times per weapon I believe but you can't convert the flippin thing into usable material yourself and instead send us out to the middle of nowhere, risking death alone in a ditch cause really, no one in your party is gonna come help if they don't actually need to go down there too.

I won't even really touch on the bunny thing too much because I want to slap whoever thought it was a good idea to make a fate that gives no xp and a slim chance to get a bunny who drags you into a cluster of monsters to get a chest that has a majority chance of giving you garbage but a slim one of getting you an item so that you can get gold in a fate cause really getting gold in a fate should be about rng... Seriously. Geez.

I know the purpose of the relic is to have a grindy, little easier and more casual method to obtain weapons, made for those who don't care for or just can't do savages for the top tier stuff. But this is completely out of hand, and feels like a middle finger to those of us that don't do that top tier stuff. I'm not crying for a nerf, just for some consideration on the massive undertaking Pagos is for quite frankly, a minimal reward and a weapon that will be borderline obsolete by the time most of us obtain it.

Sorry for the lengthy rant, after a week of aggravation and ice packs on my wrist in Pagos, having only gotten to lv27 has left me frustrated and kind of achy. In the hopes that maybe some of this makes its way to the people that made this, and really understand what we're dealing with, I let it all out.

I know that I yelled about all the mean and rude and grumpy people, and that there are also a lot of good ones left, people that do go out of their way to help and for them I appreciate and /dote you a lot! Keep it up and so will this RZM!