The Train is Back!

[Raven2014]

Am I the only one thinking this whole thing is just deliberated? We talked about how SE is clueless about what the players want when Pagos came out, than just a week later they released a small fix (that doesn't really do anything) with a forewarned promise that they will "continuously monitor thing and adjust things as need week by week", and now here we are. I've been playing this game long enough and continuously enough that I think I kinda have a suspicious that they definitely know what they're doing. For years now, SE has always been trying to look for a way to pace and throttle the contents so that the "grind" gap (not skill gap) between the hardcore and casual. Basically, they don't want the hardcore gets too far ahead too quickly, and the casual case follow close enough behind. Thinking about this situation:

- The early release have a gigantic speed bum, but the hardcore grinded through it anyway, and hit max level in a week or two.
- Now that the hardcore had reached the end, it's time for the more casual to catch up.

Looking at this upcoming change, it's fairly obvious who gonna benefit the most (the people who haven't got max level) and who benefit the least (the one who already capped). Remember the whole shenanigan about crafting at the beginning of HW? It was done for the exact same reason: to slow the hardcore down so the casual can have time to catch up. But that was so poorly thought out and kinda blatantly in your face, so they do it a bit more subtle now. But I seriously doubt they're making these changes due to the players protest. The "nefting schedule" was probably already set in place before the content roll out. They get a bit of flak at the beginning but face it, they know the hardcore will just grit their teeth and grind through it anway, which they did no matter how much they complain, and now SE can also so earn some obligatory "THEY LISTEN TO US" cheers from the player base.

[AmemeAmeklin]

Friend just reported that he got 200k exp off Ash Dragon in Pagos, about 2.5(?) times more than previously.

Have fun!

[Theodric]

The eye NM just gave me 330K experience at level 31.

[Leadleaf]

Am I the only one thinking this whole thing is just deliberated?

No. It reminded me of HW fates giving terrible exp the first few weeks or so, making North Thanalan more preferable for up to around 55~.

[Tsalmaveth]

Is the Train back for all levels, though? I didn't bother with Pagos at all, really... I have all my relics from Anemos but didn't really have people to go into Pagos with and due to work, wasn't able to spend the time to find people and grind for hours... so I'm only level 21.5 or so atm. So would it be useful to someone like me? How useful is it atm to me?

[LauraAdalena]

snip

I don’t think they are doing it on purpose. It seems like too much of a conspiracy. And I don’t think they are doing it because they are completely clueless either. I think they are legitimately trying things and when they don’t stick or the fanbase thinks it’s not good enough they nerf/change it. The 20/20/20/20 step from HW would be my best scenario. They seemed to really like the idea but when players realized how long it took Square realized the mistake they made and said “look, we won’t do anything like that again, but a fix for that won’t be immediate, sorry.” I think they are legitimately trying and failing and when their ideas don’t work they backstep quickly or apologize a lot.

[udubdave]

Do NM's give a lot of light? If not, then you still need to do chains to upgrade your relic.

[BillyKaplan]

Cool, now if they can remove other elements like the level 40 dragons or what have you, that'll be swell.

[Duskane]

Is it though dont fates have a 3 hour respawn time rather then 2 hours in anemos
Also the business of "Recycled" instances

[InkstainedGwyn]

I have a strong feeling that "recycled" instances were simply happening because so few people were going in, the odds of getting a "new" instance that was actually just recently abandoned was more likely. We'll see, though, I suppose.