Redesigned Test/Practice Mode for harder fights

[DeathFiend]

I fail to see how it is cheating as long as you don't get any gear. Practicing something to get better at it by putting in your own time and effort isn't cheating at all.

Asking for a save spot in the middle of a boss is a ridiculous idea. Thats like asking for a save spot in FF7 against Sephiroth because you want to practice it.

Practice or not, I feel that a player should adhere to the difficulty of the content. If you want something to be made easy for you with the addition echo buff and increased ilvl cap, then I suggest re-evaluating your skills. Not Hardcore gaming skills but basic hand-eye coordination, memorization and timing. Titan Ex is the biggest memory fight where 8 people need to be focus for ~10 mins. If you cant find 7 other people that can, then maybe find new people to play with or switch servers.

[Colvin]

Just to play devils advocate ---
+snip

I hear you, but I like to think of this as a way to help the community be more inclusive. There are lots of ways to insentivize people around doing practice parties outside of the real environment. Additionally, Echo is only used in older content, so people who want to learn newer content without wasting 95% of the fighting time wiping over and over don't really have any recourse.

I think this would be an elegant solution which gives a practice outlet for targeted learning. It's a little bit like muscle development. There is something to be said for isolating the weak areas.

[Nabian]

Snip

You learn by doing. Or for those who are challenged with avoiding red circles then they must wait for better gear to come out. Eventually they will either learn to move properly, or get enough gear to make moving a non-issue

[Colvin]

Asking for a save spot in the middle of a boss is a ridiculous idea.

Regardless of the fact that the completion of it wouldnt really "count" it is far from rediculous. There are lots of games that have something similar. SE's own FF series has various games where dying after a certain phase starts you at that phase; and I'm not even referring to a "for keeps" situation.

[kidvideo]

Isn't any fight that isn't a "win", a "practice/test" match? Or are you asking for a specific duty finder option?

[Colvin]

You learn by doing. Or for those who are challenged with avoiding red circles then they must wait for better gear to come out. Eventually they will either learn to move properly, or get enough gear to make moving a non-issue

Some people can't get to the phases they need to learn. That is the point. stopping people from isolating that learning capability because we feel like they should suffer through it is something I find strange, wasteful, and unnecessarily stressful to those trying to learn.

[AttacKat]

where dying after a certain phase starts you at that phase

IMHO this will not work, why, you might have failed because you didn't keep your tank's heal at a high enough level, or you didn't keep 1 of your DPS alive into the next phase. A lot of the results are in direction relation of previous actions. If you cannot perform the previous phases correctly, what is saving a bad result going to do to improve the phases afterwards?

I understand it waste time, but the way these boss battles are done, SE made it that all the previous phases helps determine the outcome of the final phase; therefore, to produce better outcome, you must first be able to finish the previous phases with better outcome.

jc

[Colvin]

Isn't any fight that isn't a "win", a "practice/test" match? Or are you asking for a specific duty finder option?

It would be a specific DF option where people know they wont win, but it gives them an opportunity to focus on phases they aren't good at without doing it over and over. This way, if you are good at the first 8 min of a fight only to wipe after 30 seconds of the next phase, you dont have to spend 95% of the time getting to what you really want to practice.

Then, when you are confident in that phase, you can try to run the whole thing for real, start to finish.

[Corfish]

What about people who know a particular part of a fight, but can't progress any further because "Learning Parties" as a whole always tend to hit issues on the same parts. When I was trying to learn Garuda EX, it didn't matter how much Echo we had, people would always falter on particular parts of the battle, which in no way reflects what I knew about the battle. I did my first Twintania learning run a few days ago, and I'm sure I'll run into similar issues. When I really know Phases 1, 2, and 3 down, the rest may not know how to do 2 or 3, making it near impossible for me to actually practice 4 and 5 (this hasn't happened yet, just an example).

By adding a practice mode, someone could finally practice a Phase they actually need to learn, so they then could join an experienced group and hopefully get the kill.

As for Lore, the Minstrel can pretty much solve anything that's a little out of the norm.

[Colvin]

IMHO this will not work, why, you might have failed because you didn't keep your tank's heal at a high enough level, or you didn't keep 1 of your DPS alive into the next phase. A lot of the results are in direction relation of previous actions. If you cannot perform the previous phases correctly, what is saving a bad result going to do to improve the phases afterwards?

The point is if you can get to that phase already, then you can probably do the mechanics. It isn't a matter of it "working" or not because people would still have to clear the content as normal to get storyline progression or drops. It is not as if this would give people a way around progression.