Fixing The Praetorium

[DiaDeem]

THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS FOR 2.0 AND FINAL SHADOWBRINGERS DUNGEON

It's not hard to see how long XIV has come in terms of delivering a story finale since the days of 2.0 and when The Praetorium was new.

Back in the day the fights in this dungeon felt alright, but ever since the cutscenes were made unskipable, the dungeon has become practically unplayable. I'm actually writing this while Nero indulges himself for 5 minutes. I have two friends that just started playing XIV, and I'm just a bit sad this is the experience that awaits them. I know some rework is planned for 2.X content sometime in the future, I don't think I've seen if there's gonna be work done for Praetorium (and even Meridianum) so I've decided to make a small post of stuff I'd do. if there's one thing from 2.0 I feel deserves/needs a complete rework right now, it's Praetorium.

My Fixes to Praetorium
- Sync item level to 90 as max
- Make the instance for 4 instead of 8 players
Both these previous fixes aim to make the dungeon feel less bloated, more focused and make the important fights not as easy as they currently are. I understand it's MSQ, but to be able to beat every boss in less than 30 seconds while ignoring every mechanic just makes the fights feel incredibly anti climactic.
- Remove a lot of cutscenes, have them happen as voice clips or text messages throughout the dungeon.
Amaurot is a great example of this. Instead of Emet going on for 5 minutes on a long speech, you get bubbles of text and experience the destruction of the city around you, and it's fantastic to tell the finale of the story thought dynamic means and actual gameplay. For Praetorium, you can have a back and fourth between Nero and Cid throughout the entire dungeon up to his fight, and have a single (shorter) cutscene for Gaius before his fight.
- Make Gaius the Final Boss of the dungeon. Rework his fight, make it a bit harder, and have that be the end of The Praetorium.
- Make current Ultima HM into a standard MSQ final encounter for ARR.
Maybe nerf the final Aetheric Boom, but the fight already exists. Current Ultima in The Praetorium is presented as this huge terrible fight but again, you can kill both its phases in less than a minute each. Ultima HM was a good old school fight. Re-using it as a final fight for 2.0 would just make the ending of the story feel much closer to where the expansions ended up going with their story finales.
- Lahabrea can be a cutscene only.
Even back in the day this guy was considered a pushover, and right now he's so worthless that the game makes him immortal at 0.1% only so that he can deliver all his dialogue. Just make it a cutscene post-Ultima fight and it should be more than enough.

I think Praetorium is in desperate need of a massive rework that elevates the end of ARR somewhere close to what the newer xpacs have delivered.

[DPZ2]

So, basically, ensure that the 2.0 finale is as incomplete and blah as possible before the credits launch ...

[DiaDeem]

"as incomplete and blah as possible"

Sorry, I don't know how you'd get that from the post but no, the intention is the complete opposite.

[HyoMinPark]

So, basically, ensure that the 2.0 finale is as incomplete and blah as possible before the credits launch ...

Because it’s complete and not blah now?

If this suggestion is insufficient, what would you propose to make it better?

[Avenger]

I think it is mostly fine as is - the story dungeon idea is something I kind of miss even though it quickly became toxic in ARR. I would have been fine with it as it is now.

However I do agree that the ilvl sync should be lower and/or the bosses should be tougher. Splitting out Ultima (as a version that is HM and actually hard) and Lahabrea (and making him not a pushover) would be fine.

[Gula]

Can't fix what ain't broke.

[Spectrum]

You have some really great ideas. I heard they're consolidating quests from previous expansions to make the entire story more streamlined (gutting a lot of pointless side quests I think), so hopefully they do work on those two dungeons because no one likes them. Great addition to the story, but very poorly executed. Those duties only make me borderline hate the characters in them because I've seen them say the same dialog 8 million times. I just hope they don't take away the 500 poetics from MSQR if they do rework it ^^;

[Seraph522]

I just hope they don't take away the 500 poetics from MSQR if they do rework it ^^;

That's pretty much guaranteed. The reason the rewards for MSQ roulette are so high is specifically because of the locked cutscenes; back when they weren't locked, the rewards were dramatically less. I think a rework isn't a bad idea, if only so new players don't have to sit through people whining in chat about all the cutscenes, but any rework is going to bring with it reduced rewards.

[DPZ2]

Because it’s complete and not blah now?

If this suggestion is insufficient, what would you propose to make it better?

I didn't think it was insufficient, I thought it eliminated the entire reason for the instance in the first place: Elimination of the Ultima Weapon.

[Seraph522]

I didn't think it was insufficient, I thought it eliminated the entire reason for the instance in the first place: Elimination of the Ultima Weapon.

Pretty sure that's not eliminated at all; what OP is suggesting is that the fight with Ultima Weapon be separated into its own trial, like what every expansion since HW has done - one final dungeon (everything in Prae prior to the fight with Ultima) and one final trial. The only thing OP suggested removing was the fight with Lahabrea, which, let's be honest, is effectively a glorified cutscene anyways, so turning it completely into one wouldn't change much.