So, how is Pagos?

[Tsumdere]

Long post incoming.

As of yesterday, I hit 35 and obtained my relic weapon and here are a few thoughts after doing the grind.

1. The map design is cool… in theory. Once you hit 35, you find out pretty quickly that the most efficient way to get light right now is killing the sleeping void dragons. That is an amazing idea done horribly wrong as the void dragons respawn quickly, give only feeble light and thus incentivize chaining two of them back to back.
If this had been something where the sleeping void dragons gave brilliant light and did not respawn for a while (as in 30 min or so), this would be a great system where high level players would blitz around the map killing obstacles for the lower level players, benefiting both parties. Once dragons are dead, they could go back to chaining or bunnies and have a reason to stop doing those activities and socialize with the instance every once in a while.

Besides that however, the map is incredibly anti-player and anti-fun. Aetherytes are placed at terrible levels, especially the northwest one which is 30 when the people who chain up there are 27-29. The aetherytes should be 21 - 27 - 32.
The map ends up being so anti-fun there is no reason to explore because you’ll just die. And don’t you dare die in Pagos because there is a 60% chance you won’t be picked up because people don’t want to lose a few exp points so you don’t lose a million.

2. The players are toxic. I don’t use this word willy-nilly, but God damn. Pagos shout is terrible. It’s nowhere near as bad as other chats for sure, but for a game that prides itself on its community, it is shameful and embarrassing. More than half the time it’s an internet slap fight between those who love chaining (for some reason) and those who don’t. Those who don’t and are holding SE accountable for literally releasing trash mobs as content get called every single name in the book : lazy, entitled, mad 'cuz bad, and other things I can’t put here because I’ll get banned.
You don’t like chaining mobs until your fingers bleed? I bet you are a stupid, lazy casual who just wants things handed to you instead of you know… engaging content.

Also, I was actually in a party where a BLM openly admitted to using a parser and used it to call out people for making us drop chain. I'm pro-parser but... really?

3. Coming off the point above, this relic is not for casuals. They have completely overshot their target audience and made relic for midcore -> hardcore players. Casual players do not have the time for Pagos. Why?
Simply put, Pagos is unpopular and finding parties for it is already proving absolutely buttblastingly annoying. A good chunk of the players (mid to hardcore) are already 30+, so those seeking parties lower than that are having a very difficult time. When I was sub 30 just a few days ago, it would on average take 70 - 80 minutes to make a party that stayed together. That's absolutely ridiculous. That’s over an hour just to try and play the content. I ended up going into Pagos and soloing challenge log until I was invited to a party. That would take around 40-50 minutes. Now, at higher levels making a party takes about 15 - 20 minutes which is bearable, but still too long for a casual playstyle. With old relics, you could immediately hop into whatever you needed for the step and spend those 15-20 minutes progressing instead of picking your nose in Kugane. You cannot do that with Pagos.
Another point against the casuals, you are forced to do one activity and one activity only. In previous light farms, you were allowed to do whatever you wanted for light, but now it’s one thing and one thing only : chaining. This is because SE got their panties in a twist that we did not play the content like we wanted. Even in Anemos people realized that chaining in this game was a bad idea.

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The most frustrating aspect of it all, is that there is these fragments of good ideas that are completely wasted. Mutations and adaptations? Super cool. Give me more of this. Bunnies? Nice in theory but they don’t give light, exp, and give crap rewards. Hakutaku eye cluster used to get a special item from a boss? Amazing! Too bad it’s the only NM that works like that and it’s for an optional item that has no relevance to the relic.

Anyways, I’m done with my (1) relic. I am the kind of person who goes for all relics as I even have all of my Anemos relics even though I found Anemos dull as bricks, but I will not touch Pagos again until it is nerfed into the ground.

[Ilan]

This is the real problem. Casuals just can't do it, and the relic is supposed to be for casuals, yet the people with the advantage are the raiders already with pre-formed parties. I only have about 2 hours spare to take a break and play, cannot follow a particular schedule due to work, and I have found I can spend an hour or more of that time just trying to get a group together (they are certainly never the same level). I've only managed to get in and do that once this week. I don't actually mind how much time it needs, or how much of a "grind" it is, what I want it is the opportunity to actually get it done. It needs a DF, they did it with diadem, no reason to not have it as an option for this unless they would prefer all their casual players unsubscribing.

Oh please not only raiders have their fixed parties. There are a lot of FC's who just play amongst each other.

[Edax]

Anyways, I’m done with my (1) relic. I am the kind of person who goes for all relics as I even have all of my Anemos relics even though I found Anemos dull as bricks, but I will not touch Pagos again until it is nerfed into the ground.

Funny how Anemos was a bit dull yet people still made sure to complete all their sets and brag about how many weapons they upgrade through Pazuzu. Even if the content was easy, it still took a significant commitment of time to do all that so clearly Anemos was an experiment that succeeded. It was the perfect casual content, not to hard, but was worth logging for and burning up your time in.

[Victoria_Silverdawn]

I do have to agree that Anemos was way better then Paogs... to me Paogs felt like they wanted 5 different things for relic released at once that don't fit together at all... they want us to light farm, we do light farm... they want us to farm for crystals and rare mats, make us do that... if you want us to do bunny treasure hunts, let us do that... not have us to do all of those! Plus level, where if you aren't keeping up you get left behind because people can't help you level unless they are your level.

I have loved every relic, because the grind could be done different ways at my own pace. i loved ARR for the different phases, so each was different. HW because it gave many options.

Eureka... was a fun social relic that was bad at first, but we made it fun... Pagos most just did to get done. Some people have made it through the struggle, and gotten a weapon done by some miracle! While others are stuck at 21 and gave up

[Kazgrel]

Funny how Anemos was a bit dull yet people still made sure to complete all their sets and brag about how many weapons they upgrade through Pazuzu. Even if the content was easy, it still took a significant commitment of time to do all that so clearly Anemos was an experiment that succeeded. It was the perfect casual content, not to hard, but was worth logging for and burning up your time in.

I ended up with 75 additional Pazuzu feathers past the ones needed to make all 15 weapons due to going back and helping friends out; be it they were leveling or just trying to get more crystals for another weapon or armor set. If I grew tired of bashing mobs, I could take a few mins to crack jokes in shout.

The far more relaxed pace of Anemos, as much as it could be decried for coddling lazy/afk play, was far superior to the current shitshow in Pagos.

[WhyAmIHere]

Funny how Anemos was a bit dull yet people still made sure to complete all their sets and brag about how many weapons they upgrade through Pazuzu. Even if the content was easy, it still took a significant commitment of time to do all that so clearly Anemos was an experiment that succeeded. It was the perfect casual content, not to hard, but was worth logging for and burning up your time in.

At least with the people within my circle of acquaintances, that was the case already. They disliked it for the grind but still saw it as the best method to cap on weekly tomes. So, it had even that going for it.

[Tsumdere]

Funny how Anemos was a bit dull yet people still made sure to complete all their sets and brag about how many weapons they upgrade through Pazuzu. Even if the content was easy, it still took a significant commitment of time to do all that so clearly Anemos was an experiment that succeeded. It was the perfect casual content, not to hard, but was worth logging for and burning up your time in.

Getting all your Anemos weapons takes like three days of really casual play. It's not an amazing achievement and it's not really something that can keep people subbed at all. It was far too easy and uninteresting, but Pagos makes even me wax nostalgic for the 'read while getting relic' days of Anemos.

[Alucard135]

Is Padang up?

[TheGrimace]

The past week I did my challenge log for Eureka, did the summer event, and then went cold turkey on the game. I've been playing Monster Hunter World instead. It's been time well spent and even if MHW is difficult, I feel rewarded for my time.

More to the point, Pagos is so bad that its presence makes me feel less enthusiastic about logging in as a whole. I could focus on other things in the game I've yet to complete besides Pagos, but dealing with this crap makes me want to take a break instead. Seeing SE's lack of response to the playerbase on this issue speaks volumes, and they're gonna have to come to terms with that.

[LauraAdalena]

I’m not here to talk about Pagos except I keep getting people telling me how because I dislike it I’m just an Anemos person who AFKed in train and didn’t help with defeating things. I had college work to do, of course I’m going to do that while I do Anemos and not give myself carpal tunnel constantly fighting enemies while pressing buttons that frequently.

Now, the main thing I want to say is that Im going to say that Pagos is boring and the best way of grinding is chaining. And this game is not designed with chaining in mind. Whoever put this content in the game forcing the chain is clearly not understanding the frequency you have to press buttons. And to anybody who will say I didn’t complete the content, or I was an AFKer who complained about Anemos and has no right to criticize, I have a few words for you. First, stop putting words in my mouth. I complained about specific aspects of Anemos but I never called the whole thing garbage, Pagos is hard for me to play. Second, if you say I have no right to criticism, you don’t understand criticism or have a different requirement of criticism than I which is okay, just stop forcing it on me and tell me I have no right to criticize. I’m tired of hearing this in game.