So how is everyone feeling about Occult Crescent now that it’s been a few days?

[Valence]

Even Eureka/BA has some fun shenanigans you can get up to - Double Edge chaining is wild once you get a feel for it, certain jobs can do so much damage with their first attack under the right setup that you can end up ripping aggro from the MT. And we'd be here all day talking about the wild stuff you can do in Bozja/DRS - Mimic + Excellence (one person brings EX and everyone else uses Mimic to get a 25 weight huge damage buff for nearly free), BLM doing astronomical damage with Flare Star + Font of Magic, my beloved Seraph Strike Profane WHM...

You can do a handful of funny things with Phantom Jobs but it's just not the same, you're still ultimately locked into playing your base job the way its primarily intended, and as already commented there are more than a few jobs that may as well be useless on certain roles. And while I get why you can't hot-swap jobs in the middle of combat... being able to do that with logos plates and lost actions were what gave way to being able to do so many fun things in Eureka and Bozja with them.

I'm pretty sure that the reason behind this is that SE has been extremely averse to any kind of skill expression tied to the battle system and jobs since ShB was released. The only skill expression that is tolerated and encouraged is how you dodge DDR mechanics while playing an instrument.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

I'm pretty sure that the reason behind this is that SE has been extremely averse to any kind of skill expression tied to the battle system and jobs since ShB was released. The only skill expression that is tolerated and encouraged is how you dodge DDR mechanics while playing an instrument.

I was just talking to a friend about this.

It feels like Logos/Lost Actions were designed to be experimental, out of wack, and game breaking - segregated within the field content they occupy & do not wander out of that. PJs on the other hand are designed to not interfere with regular/savage raiding experience you see outside Field Contents. What's that you ask? Keep 2m aligned. Dump all high potency into buff window. Press and forget button. Almost zero consideration. Except maybe certain combination but funnily works nicely only on tanks because... their overpowered privilege.

[TaleraRistain]

I have my issues with Lost Actions since there were so many with very little guidance from the game about them. But the one benefit there with Bozja is that you weren't afraid to experiment because you didn't de-level if something went pear-shaped. I have no idea why they brought that back as well and it's contributed to making OC feel much more like a treadmill like Eureka was.

It's like they just brought the Eureka devs back and said make the same thing you made before and kicked the Bozja devs to the side and let them offer only an idea or two. I guess that's their way of bringing the best of both of them.

[Granyala]

I have no idea why they brought that back as well

To force people into groups.
That is all there is to it. No deleveling if one of you manages to survive and can pick the others up.

[TaleraRistain]

To force people into groups.
That is all there is to it. No deleveling if one of you manages to survive and can pick the others up.

They saw with Bozja they didn't have to. People grouped all over the place there.

[Granyala]

They saw with Bozja they didn't have to. People grouped all over the place there.

You're talking about the same DEVs that are too incompetent to give FATEs a proper scaling so people that need the XP can actually get to them.
What do you expect?

This whole thing smells like an Intern project to me.

[SoCalKingg]

I would encourage anyone who is considering doing the Forked Tower to give it a try. I understand the “I don’t want to join a discord to do this content” mentality because I used to be the exact same way, but it’s really the only way to do the content the way it was designed.

16+ random people meeting up and going into the Tower without any type of coordination is going to lead to a very quick wipe. To clear the content and maximize the rewards, you need the right combination of Thief/Geos/Time Mages/Bards/Chemists/Knights/etc. You will never get this without coordination prior to entry.

The good thing is that some of the discords have a lot of really cool/friendly people in them who are willing to teach the fights and optimize the group’s composition so you actually have a chance of progging/clearing. They will do callouts in voice that are meant to help teach and minimize mistakes. In this content, 1-2 people botching certain mechanics can absolutely wipe all 48 people and send everyone packing. The point of the callouts/voice is to minimize the risk. Even with the callouts, there are still times where 1-2 people will derp and wipe everyone. When this happens, it’s heavily frowned upon to criticize the person who made the mistake, at least in the groups I’ve been in.

I can also sympathize with people who aren’t thrilled when one of their team members doesn’t make it into the raid because a random person walked up and put in a cipher. I have never seen 16+ random people walk up and put a cipher in so the only way you’re getting in without being a part of the coordinated group is walking up and sniping someone’s spot. It’s not fun to try and get 48 people into the same instance, wait 35 minutes for the weather change, and then lose people who may be playing critical roles in the raid to random people who walk up and don’t want to coordinate.

Last night we had a run where the raid leader didn’t get in (despite putting in 2 ciphers), the person who does all the callouts, and it was just a bummer. The coordinated groups are also dealing with griefers who are intentionally joining these discords to spy on times/DCs for the runs, trying to snipe spots for them with the sole purpose of trying to agitate people in say chat, get them to respond negatively, then report them and try and get them banned when they talk back.

The bottom line is that SE royally botched the entry system for this raid. If 48 people want to get together and coordinate a run without worrying about people sniping spots, they should be able to. If people don’t want to do any prep/coordination and just want to randomly queue in and see what happens, they should be able to, but those people should all be matched together. Make it to where 48 people can queue in together and also make it to where randoms can queue in and match with other randoms. The current system is awful as designed and is only going to do more harm than good.

[Daralii]

I was just talking to a friend about this.

It feels like Logos/Lost Actions were designed to be experimental, out of wack, and game breaking - segregated within the field content they occupy & do not wander out of that. PJs on the other hand are designed to not interfere with regular/savage raiding experience you see outside Field Contents. What's that you ask? Keep 2m aligned. Dump all high potency into buff window. Press and forget button. Almost zero consideration. Except maybe certain combination but funnily works nicely only on tanks because... their overpowered privilege.

It definitely feels like they want Forked to be "serious" raid content instead of something that's hard but allows for room to fuck around, like BA and DRS to a degree.

[Mawlzy]

It definitely feels like they want Forked to be "serious" raid content instead of something that's hard but allows for room to fuck around, like BA and DRS to a degree.

Apparently that's all they know how to do.

[Granyala]

I would encourage anyone who is considering doing the Forked Tower to give it a try. I understand the “I don’t want to join a discord to do this content” mentality because I used to be the exact same way, but it’s really the only way to do the content the way it was designed.

Sorry but I am a retired raider for some years now. I have no illusions of grandeur: no longer do I have the skills or reflexes to deal with this twitch-action content (the CE's made that abundantly clear to me ._. ) and I most certainly will NOT subject myself to random people flaming me to death because I have made 1 tiny mistake and wiped the group.

Nu-Uh!