Casual AK Runs, time for a change?

[Ehayte]

So, I ran 3 AKs this morning after the patch. Here are my findings, both general and theoretical.

1 | Every trash mob is now dropping between 40-60 Gil. Not a big enough bonus to make me want to clear the whole zone, but I netted 2-2.5k gil / run
2 | Damage TO me seemed to be roughly the same. I did not notice a significant decrease if any at all.
3 | Trash mob HP seems to nerfed. Usually with DF groups that are in GC-Ifrit weaps, you can get the Dullahans down shortly after they King's Will. It was different these times (explained below)
4 | Boss mob HP seems to be nerfed. I'll explain more below
5 | 100 Phil, 40 Mytho for success now
6 | This could lead to a very different standard AK

I was in DL/AK gear with Ifrit blade (PLD).
Run1 - Relic'ed WHM, SMN, BLM - 24mins
Run2 - BRD, WHM, MNK, no Relics - 29mins
Run3 - DRG, SCH, BRD, no Relics - 34mins

Trash mobs - In my 3 runs, we were downing the Dullahans (on average) JUST after their first frontal cone AE. Everything seemed to be dying marginally faster.

Boss1 - Never did Psychflayer's giant rock get off his Room-Wide AE. Avg time downed was about 10mins in
Boss2 - On one run, the Bees didn't even spawn. The other two, the bees spawned and I just kept them aggro'ed and stunned and waiting the 10 seconds until DW was down. Avg time was downed about 22mins in
Boss3 - It was just quick, probably 2-3 room-wides went off, I don't really pay that close of attention to those. Avg time would obviously be 29min.

With decreased HP, the bosses are what they are, but even marginally well geared groups (I was at around 5100hp this morning as a Pally) should now be able to pull multiple groups of trash mobs and AE them down. In my first run, by the time we were on level 3 we were just ignoring mechanics and I was grabbing whatever I could see, I think we had 7 mobs in at one point.

Imagine, in that first run, if I was well-geared (just got my DL legs and AF2 BP after those runs! : D) and we knew that the difficulty was tuned down. We could easily see some sub-20 min AK runs. I know some people have been doing this already with Coil/Relic/AF2 gear, but even semi-casuals should be able to burn this place to the ground now.

[Kryzen]

not what I was wanting to hear but was expecting this.... I was already tanking AK without any armor and they go and do this. Think it may be time to promote my monk to tank and ill move to heals and have the whm/sch be DPS.

[mythicrose]

Imagine, in that first run, if I was well-geared (just got my DL legs and AF2 BP after those runs! : D) and we knew that the difficulty was tuned down. We could easily see some sub-20 min AK runs. I know some people have been doing this already with Coil/Relic/AF2 gear, but even semi-casuals should be able to burn this place to the ground now.

Not sure about the mob/boss health reduction, but if there is any merit in it then maybe there will be less of a stigma for this dungeon. It was rather annoying that people demand or expect a Relic weapon or level 50 GC weapon (both that require one to run the zone) and near full darklight gear. This isn't just people shouting for speed runs but in the DF as well.

[oceanlord]

Not sure about the mob/boss health reduction, but if there is any merit in it then maybe there will be less of a stigma for this dungeon. It was rather annoying that people demand or expect a Relic weapon or level 50 GC weapon (both that require one to run the zone) and near full darklight gear. This isn't just people shouting for speed runs but in the DF as well.

true dat, ppl demanding relic weapon for AK is just weird :/
and they change GC weapon requirement, now they need to run aurum vale instead of amdapor keep

[CyanDvai]

Haven't ran it yet, but regardless of what they did I'll be in AF2 body this week, the 100 phylo tomes is nice since it is now comparable to CM.

[Ehayte]

I have mixed feelings still : D I like a challenge and to work hard, but this will help with gearing our small FC a lot.

I much prefer the 4-man dungeons as my FC is small, and its not common for 8 people to be able to pick up CM out of the blue, so I like that we can get AK done quickly now, and that we can grab 100 Philos.

I heard that WP gives 100 philo, 30 Mytho now - I haven't heard what CM gives now, or what the HMs give.

[Seriat]

Not sure about the mob/boss health reduction, but if there is any merit in it then maybe there will be less of a stigma for this dungeon. It was rather annoying that people demand or expect a Relic weapon or level 50 GC weapon (both that require one to run the zone) and near full darklight gear. This isn't just people shouting for speed runs but in the DF as well.

Anyone shouting those requirements for AK are people you shouldn't party with anyways. When I started running AK as PLD I had an ilvl 47 sword and AF gear and it was a cake walk even then.

[Kasandaro]

level 50 GC weapon (both that require one to run the zone)

not any more:

The quest required for promotion to second lieutenant within a Grand Company has been changed.

Before Changes / After Changes
Quest Name: Twisted Beliefs / Gilding the Bilious
Requirement: Clear Amdapor Keep / Clear the Aurum Vale
Quest Level: Level 50 / Level 47

For what it's worth.

(eta: always worth it to check the EU patch notes; there's often more/different details.)

[Raminax]

You must've been blessed with ridiculously competent people, had two runs earlier today which both took nearly an hour each with my own relic (White Mage) and a relic'd Tank in the first and DPS in the second. :/

But yeah, I don't feel any difficulty decrease with AK at least.

[Ehayte]

You must've been blessed with ridiculously competent people

You could be right. I really don't think so, though. 3 Demon Wall kills At or before the Bees spawning? In a row? Maybe I should go to Vegas...