Quote Originally Posted by TaleraRistain View Post
1. I'm gonna disagree here in Shinryu and it was because of gear. They locked the tome gear behind completing it. It definitely was a brick wall and it was only when those of us who cleared early were able to start getting our tome gear that it evened out. Still needed to pay attention but the runs weren't the wipefests they were before we had that gear. I intentionally ran that fight constantly as a healer to help people because it was such a PITA.

Doge mentioned capping ilevel to the patch it dropped. That may be a good compromise. Or maybe just a bit higher in case there is something else like Shinryu where that boost in ilevel is helpful but still maintains challenge.

I also agree with Joyoya that some of the issue may be with SE and their pacing and not assuring the fight can't be finished before things like the Scion dialogue finishes.
1. Tome gear has always been locked behind the expansion story. However, you are mistaken if you believe the SB AF sets were on the tomes, they were not. They were given to you, for free, once you had completed the level 70 job quest (in the form of a coffer), which is also the place you get your level 70 action/trait. If you went into that fight without your AF gear available, it also meant you did not have your level 70 action. The ONLY expansion that had the AF gear locked behind tomes was Heavensward.

2. The fight pacing was not an issue on release, due to a lower ilevel. This was still the case in the earlier months of the expansion and it was only when more and more people started to get savage level gear that the end phase started becoming noticably shorter. This was only made worse once the ilevel cap was increased. The fight pacing is fine, if the ilevel matches it. Reduce the max ilevel, the fight pacing is better.

Also, on a note for Shinryu, the fight was never hard, you just had to pay attention, which some people are bad it.