Anybody else got tired of scripted fights?

[Hatfright]

What the title said.
I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. With each new battle content drop I find it more and more difficult to enjoy it. Pretty much everything is the same. Tankbuster, raidwide, aoe hell, additional healchek if we’re lucky. The difference is just the visuals, everything else is as predictable as a lala with high pitched voice spamming emotes to annoy people in Limsa. And don’t get me started with “endgame” content, where it’s the same stuff, but faster and in some cases stacked.

After 2-3 clears it feels less like I achieved something and more like I’m a circus monkey trained to do the same trick over and over for little to no reward. After 10 or so clears it all turns to a no-brainer, unless randoms are doing something wrong. But in a good group? You don’t even need to pay attention to what's happening, muscle memories will drag you to the win anyway. And so even the mechanics that looked interesting at first turns into an annoyance, nothing more. It is tiring.

What saddens me most is how uncreative most of the clears are. Like, there’s no room for doing something outside of the established path. There’s no way to utilize class or at least role specifics to turn the fight to be something a little different (eating the damage as tanks when there’s supposed to be a swap doesn’t count, that's just ilvl abuse, same with all the cheesing). I guess part of my problem with it is how the job synergy is implemented (can we even call a single party buff a synergy?), or how all the “support” spells/skills is a damage boost in most cases. I think bard is my favorite in that regard, they have a few damage buffs, defensive buff, buff for incoming healing and can clear a debuff. What doesn’t fall in favor with me is how rarely BRD even needs to use anything besides damage buffs. Hell, I rarely see Esuna used because it’s easier to overheal its effect with mass healing than take time to clear dots/debuffs or, in case of some “difficult” content, you can’t even clear it at all. CC is basically non-existent, I don’t remember anything if DF that required a use of Sleep, for example. All of this just dumbs down the fights to “tank and spank”, basically. And I find it more and more boring with every new fight. Anyone else?

[Veis_Alveare]

I kind of agree.

Personally, at least when it comes to casual stuff, the variety I get comes from running things on different jobs. I just did a Bunker as BRD for the first time when I haven't touched the job since leveling it months ago and even though the fights are something I'm very familiar with I enjoyed doing them while trying to reign in a new skillset. I also found a few places for Paen which was nice.

Personally I also find fun in chasing numbers. It might not be everyone's cup of tea but after a while that's all that keeps me going on some EX fights and stuff when I want the mount like - okay, I know the fight, but this time I'm going to do X and see if I can eek out another percentage.

[MicahZerrshia]

I've been over heavily scripted fights since ARR. But I also understand this is not a game of strategy. They script everything to make it accessible to a wider audience and if you want good, strategic combat and a feeling you really accomplished something, you need to look elsewhere. In other games every time you get a clear it can be exciting. Every time you get a drop it can be cause for celebration because you worked for it, you earned it and you will be able to use it for an extended amount of time. Here however, you just need to deal with a momentary feeling of "yes I did it!" and drops not meaning so much because you are just going to replace them in a couple months. It's just the way this game works and at this point there is no changing it.

It's designed to be like a mobile game that feeds you small, easy wins to give you those addictive little dopamine rushes instead of the build up and extended periods of pride we feel from accomplishments in other games. Sadly it's where the industry likes to go these days since it's much more of a cash cow than a well thought out battle system and long term rewards, which a lot of people do feel is worth it.

It really gives credence to the saying my parents used to have "you will appreciate it much more when you work for it"

[Kyrj]

Coming from WoW and SWTOR it's the same over there. While WoW doesn't always telegraph where something is going to hit, after about 3-4 runs of doing the same raid or dungeon you'll either know exactly where to stand or be told exactly where to stand and it will never change. Bosses will always do the same thing over and over and how you deal with them will always be the same.

I do agree though, but I think that's just the nature of MMORPGs.

[Raikai]

Hm? There's even an MMO without scripted fights? All the things you mentioned appear in other MMOs too...

The thing that XIV would benefit, though are unique mechanics in the fights. In the end, all we got are variations of the same telegraphs... But then, there's the whole sphagetti code limitation that might or might not play a role in how homogenized the combat mechanics are.

[Hatfright]

Bosses will always do the same thing over and over and how you deal with them will always be the same.

Bosses, may be. Runs to them, not so much. In same SWTOR there's at least 1 other way to get there besides killing everyone, skipping the trash either in it entirety or in part by jumping around or sleeping the key mobs. Skippin that whole first part in that stupid "for house Ilrokini!" flashpoint, forgot the name, was a blessing. Granted, that depended on party composition, but the option is here. And, well, straight run dungeons in ffxiv been beaten lots of time before me already.

[Edax]

After 2-3 clears it feels less like I achieved something and more like I’m a circus monkey trained to do the same trick over and over for little to no reward. After 10 or so clears it all turns to a no-brainer, unless randoms are doing something wrong. But in a good group? You don’t even need to pay attention to what's happening, muscle memories will drag you to the win anyway. And so even the mechanics that looked interesting at first turns into an annoyance, nothing more. It is tiring.

You could say the same thing about Halo on Legendary. Once you know what to do, it's a no-brainer. But that's fair game design. If creating a game where if you do your homework and study your enemy and you perform no better than someone who goes into the fight blind, it would be considered unfair game design because the variables are outside of the player's control.

[Theodric]

Yes. Some of my favourite fights are those which have mechanics that can play out in different ways.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Not really, because when there is rng, people try their hardest to minimalize it as much as possible.

Look at wol ex, E8s.

Except, it doesn't look like you have done those so...

[Hatfright]

Look at wol ex, E8s.

Except, it doesn't look like you have done those so...

Not sure what that suppose to mean.

And, yeah, I know people always look for the easiest strat possible. I just wish there was more options to choose from.