I hope SE takes the response to long intermission phases in Trials to heart.

[Veis_Alveare]

That connection would be the musical theme Suzaku has, I reckon? Represented by her flute and attack-names like Mesmerizing Melody and Ruthless Refrain.

Edit: Please note that I'm not defending this - I'm terrible at this kind of thing (which is why I never enjoyed playing the type of game they borrowed the idea from), but I can still see the connection and "respect" that they tried something new and different here, to make the fights possibly more fun and engaging for people. Maybe not for everyone and maybe not during your 20th run in a row, yes. But I'm taking some minor innovations and/or "breathing time" during fights over battles that are designed to be farmed on repeat for hours any day - which I fear would be the outcome if they did away with their current philosophy of making fights a spectacle with some sort of "limit-break"-animations for the primals, transition-phases in which they change the apperance of the boss and/or arena and give players a minute to collect themself (and ressources) before bringing out the big guns.

I didn't think of actually linking it to DDR the game, I was more looking at it as "what connection does Suzaku have to dancing or facing different directions, she doesn't even have a gaze attack" but fair enough.

I just think that window exists - outside of the fight. If you need a sip of water or want to eat a few crackers there is plenty of time after the boss is dead. That's when I do things at least. Fights aren't generally longer than about ten minutes and I think we can all comfortably make it ten minutes focused on the fight.

[Vidu]

I didn't think of actually linking it to DDR the game, I was more looking at it as "what connection does Suzaku have to dancing or facing different directions, she doesn't even have a gaze attack" but fair enough.

I just think that window exists - outside of the fight. If you need a sip of water or want to eat a few crackers there is plenty of time after the boss is dead. That's when I do things at least. Fights aren't generally longer than about ten minutes and I think we can all comfortably make it ten minutes focused on the fight.

Well, to me the connection between music and dancing was pretty obvious (aswell as assuming they wanted to try something different in terms of phase transitions and tried adding this mini-game that fitted into the music-theme of the primal).

In regards to my use of the downtime: While it is true that one can go easly for 10 minutes without taking a sip of water and go for that after the battle, I personally prefer that downtime because it doesnt cause one person to hold everyone else up. Maybe thats a very "personal problem" but if I'm farming stuff I'm not a fan of taking breaks and with the downtime being enough to drink and eat thats one source of break-potential gone. Besides the time to take a sip of water not being the only good reason in my book to have such transitions, as I mentioned already. You could always take my reason that I like to use the time for such things as suggestions of how to utilise that time for yourself if you cant enjoy watching the spectacle anymore (which is understandable after a few times...)
I wasnt merely refering to water-sipping when I talked about "breathing time" but also about being able to relax for a minute and going into the next part more focussed, letting potential debuffs fall off, have TP/MP regenerate and the like. Grabbing my water bottle is merely and added bonus - but still a bonus I wouldnt want to miss.

[Kyrausagi]

I like the Phase change/Intermissions, it makes the fights unique and stand out. I don't like the whole "Ok here is a baddy now spank and tank." I do understand over time they can get tiring BUT they shouldn't be removed. It gives excitement and flavor to the fight, it's what sets this game apart from WoW one of the things that sets it apart.

[alimdia]

I have a feeling that the people complaining about the theatrical phases are also the same people doing it fifty times in a single week. Perhaps taking a break and pacing yourselves is in order instead of having the phases removed entirely from future fights?

You feel wrong, regardless if you do it in a week or within 2 months it doesn't change the fact that it serves no purpose other than padding the length of the run, I'd prefer to see actual mechanics in combat in whatever time we save with shorter intermissions.

Also absolutely keep the longer intermissions in normal mode, that's where they will be more impactful.

[Veis_Alveare]

Well, to me the connection between music and dancing was pretty obvious (aswell as assuming they wanted to try something different in terms of phase transitions and tried adding this mini-game that fitted into the music-theme of the primal).

In regards to my use of the downtime: While it is true that one can go easly for 10 minutes without taking a sip of water and go for that after the battle, I personally prefer that downtime because it doesnt cause one person to hold everyone else up. Maybe thats a very "personal problem" but if I'm farming stuff I'm not a fan of taking breaks and with the downtime being enough to drink and eat thats one source of break-potential gone. Besides the time to take a sip of water not being the only good reason in my book to have such transitions, as I mentioned already. You could always take my reason that I like to use the time for such things as suggestions of how to utilise that time for yourself if you cant enjoy watching the spectacle anymore (which is understandable after a few times...)
I wasnt merely refering to water-sipping when I talked about "breathing time" but also about being able to relax for a minute and going into the next part more focussed, letting potential debuffs fall off, have TP/MP regenerate and the like. Grabbing my water bottle is merely and added bonus - but still a bonus I wouldnt want to miss.

I'm pretty sure this is one of those situations where we both know how we feel and nothing someone else is going to say is going to change that so I'm happy to agree to disagree with you? I feel like on average I get more than enough down time in a farm between runs and as for debuffs falling off... If it's a farm there shouldn't be any weakness floating around so I'm good there as well, I'd rather not have to essentially pause combat for a cinematic or an incredibly easy mini game. Maybe if they made them more difficult I'd feel differently but who knows.

I'm happy to have talked with someone about it who remained respectful though, not everyone in the thread has been so lucky so cheers to you!

[Noitems]

You feel wrong, regardless if you do it in a week or within 2 months it doesn't change the fact that it serves no purpose other than padding the length of the run, I'd prefer to see actual mechanics in combat in whatever time we save with shorter intermissions.

Also absolutely keep the longer intermissions in normal mode, that's where they will be more impactful.

For real. I think the average Byakko EX run is generally around 10-11 min or so (pending on experience). Add in the fact the intermission is about a 1 min 30 sec until the raidwide and for 99 runs it adds up to (rounded up) 129 minutes.

Now it may not be that crazy and this is just in the case of the worst luck possible. But to go with that math you've wasted over 2 hours going through JUST that intermission alone.

Hell even going through Seiryuu's intermission(albeit way shorter) still adds up to a lot of time.

[SaitoHikari]

Agree. Most of these transition phases have no execution and don't positively affect kill times outside of just wasting players time. They're cool the first time you see them in normal mode, but have no place in high-end versions of fights unless they plan to work them into something significantly challenging or rewarding.


inb4 the thread gets bombed by a bunch of people that don't even raid or do exes giving their opinion on content they don't participate in.

I actually disagree.

The actual execution of the phases matter (do we have something to hit during said phases?), but the devs clearly design the intermission phases around what cooldowns we'll have available to burst with once the boss returns to the field. Probably the most notable example is that if UwU didn't have that 80 second intermission between Titan and Ultima Weapon, for one, beating its enrage would be a lot harder because most of our burst cooldowns wouldn't be back for our opener against Ultima and the absolutely essential tank defensive cooldowns wouldn't be available during key phases.

[kidalutz]

While I do like the transition phases the first time, they get awfully annoying if you're farming an EX version of the fight. I'd much rather they change it so that the EX versions have no intermission phase entirely, in order to make farming them go faster.

I hope they ignore this thread and leave them no offense intended but this is a minor thing that separates this game from other MMOs and they do it well. The more people try to change things to make them quicker the more bored others will become.

[HyoMinPark]

These phases of nothing are just here for two things:
- Show off cool visual effects
- Give players a little resting period before arguably the most difficult parts

These parts are important. If you don't see the benefits of these moments, then simply understand that they are a key aspect of the encounter design for pacing fights.
Yes, the downside can be annoying, but the benefits are completly worth it.

How is the second half of Byakko harder than the first? It's not. Even Suzaku is only a small jump in difficulty. Most of her difficult post-DDR is Simon Says being on the server tick, which really sucks for players that have higher latencies as they need to be extra careful to move early for the mechanic. These mini-games get really tiring after you've done them 99 times trying to get a mount in EX - even if you space out your clears across several weeks or months.

There isn't really much benefit to them, as Seiryu has an intermission with adds where you can still line up buffs and bursts afterwards for a reopening. And most Savages have this this tier (o9s, o10s, o11s - though o10s has the worst intermission because you spend a full 2 minutes not even attacking the boss and dealing with RNG nails for the first 1 minute). Mini-games aren't necessary for cooldown alignment - it's very much possible without them.

I find it to only artificially extend the content past any sort of tolerable length. Byakko's especially. I feel myself start to check out while farming him after the 3rd time falling and dodging the balls.

I hope they ignore this thread and leave them no offense intended but this is a minor thing that separates this game from other MMOs and they do it well. The more people try to change things to make them quicker the more bored others will become.

Why ignore constructive criticism? That's the very opposite of what a business marketing a product should do.

[Fyce]

I see no benefit to them other than the potential to plan CDs around them.

Yit doesn't change the fact that it serves no purpose other than padding the length of the run, I'd prefer to see actual mechanics in combat in whatever time we save with shorter intermissions.

For the second time in this thread, breaks in a fight are important for its pacing. It's game design 101.

How is the second half of Byakko harder than the first? It's not. Even Suzaku is only a small jump in difficulty. Most of her difficult post-DDR is Simon Says being on the server tick, which really sucks for players that have higher latencies as they need to be extra careful to move early for the mechanic. These mini-games get really tiring after you've done them 99 times trying to get a mount in EX - even if you space out your clears across several weeks or months..
[...]

Yes, some breaks are longer than others. Deal with it. It doesn't change what I said.
I made a general statement. I'm not interested in discussing particular exceptions.