Hard Mode {Found It}

[origamikitsune]

So, a couple months back I hit the BW trifecta cycle. Dune, Reveries, Cracked. Dunes, Reveries, Cracked. Three and four stars all the time to maximize SP. And everyone bitching the whole time about how easy it was and how repetitive it was.

I asked, because I had to, because I like to play the game, "So, lets do Dunes on 5*?" And the response I got? "You don't get more SP." "They're already 10 levels above us." "That ruins SP/hr."

Ten minutes later my same LS mates that were in /l complaining about easy mode. Really? SP/hr? It's a thirty-six hour wait to get more leves! What does it matter if you finish them in one hour or in twelve? You still have to wait for refresh.

Still, I didn't really say anything 'cause I will still leveling, still focusing on getting 50. Well, I'm there now. I'm always looking for something to do 'cause I like to play the game. And I'm always listening to people gripe about not having anything to do and griping about it all being too easy.

So the other day I went in search of Hard Mode.

Most recently I went for the R80+ ogres (saw a thread, now locked, about it and it sounded fun). Managed to somehow get eight of us level 50s together. We put together some tactics, went out, and... proceed to prove to seven other people that this game is not as easy as they thought it was. We consistently got that R88/89 Ogre down to 1/4 and then someone would slip up, or we would get that R75 Bomb as an add.

We got our asses handed to us. We wiped. Over and over and over. We didn't even succeed. All we walked away with was several attempts, several wipes. But, we were laughing the whole way, and we promised to get back together and refine our tactics and get it right. Why? Because we know we were sloppy and slipping, and trying to drag our asses out of the hole the is easy mode was harder than the mobs themselves.

A few days earlier I got bored with R20s. Same old stuff over and over. I asked my duo partner, "Hey, think we can four star it?" I got the answer of, "Aren't we supposed to two star them?" My answer? "So?" So at R20 we ran up to our four starred mobs, Rank 40, "Uh, maybe we should lower them?" I asked. My partner's response? "Fuck it. Lets kill them."

I can't tell you how many times we almost died. How many times that cure got off in the last second, or how many times we almost gave up and ran away. But we didn't; we duo'd mobs that were fifteen to twenty levels above you because we could.

I'm not saying that having to go out and make your own content for something to do is a good thing. I'm not saying SE didn't drop the ball on giving us shit to do. What I am saying - and this is addressed to all the people whining about easy mode - is that there is plenty of shit that is hard to do if you take the time to find it.

Stop three and four starring leves because "its better SP/hr." Five star dunes. Its harder. Four, and five star all your leves.

Stop complaining about how world NMs are too easy. So what? R90 mobs aplenty. Fight them without thaum-bomb / zerging them. Some of them even have drops that are worth selling; almost on par with NM drops even.

Solo the R35 NMs. Everyone talks about how easy they are. Really? Have you actually done it yourself? On LNC? On Con? Using in-class skills? It can be done. Can you do it?

In short, stop turning easy mode on, and guess what? The game is difficult.

Just sayin'.

/soapbox

[Fated]

I admire the idea of tackling the highest ranked mobs in the game with a group (especially when there are Youtube clips involved *hint hint*) and trying to do colorful solos, but I honestly think the idea of trying to make a repetitive grind "more fun" by simply making the mobs last longer is kind of dumb.

[Rentahamster]

I think the point of the "easy mode" complaints is not that there is a lack of hard mode. Most high level players know how to get a tough fight if they really want it.


The main point of the complaints is that there is no reward at all for turning easy mode off.



edit: oops, I meant "lack of hard mode", not "lack of easy mode".

[origamikitsune]

I agree with you totally it -is- dumb. An issue that SE has said they will address in various ways (knock on wood). And for some people it won't actually make it "more fun." For some people, however, it will. Mostly though, I wanted to simply illustrate that "easy mode" -can- be turned down and sometimes even turned off. And in some cases it isn't a matter of making the mobs last longer; when you have a 30+ range for mobs depending on the number of stars they are on, choosing your stars can significantly alter how the mobs attack you - at higher levels they have more abilities, etc.

[Serio]

Right now hard mode, is basically soloing mode. I don't really have time to party much, so I solo most of the time. But I solo the sp cap, which is mobs 10 lvls above me. Pretty challenging, at least more so than spamming 1-2-3 in a party. You also get more sp/mob if you're grinding solo than in a party.

I think raising the sp cap will encourage hard mode. They've already taken care of the major obstacle in this, which is Guldleves. If you consider what sp would be like with the cap at 20 lvls, and add that to an optimal leve-link party, People would be getting some seriously stupid sp (probably also would hit fatigue in 30 min). Now that guildleves are being modified, I can see them raising the sp cap tho. Because it's really stupid that any class can solo the cap.

[indira]

i remember in ffxiv things called easy prey used to kill you, wouldnt mind that in ffxiv. sucks your lv26 and can kill up to lv47 mobs like my self to grind on @_@

should just be one skill level to weed out the weak, and instance like things, leves should have upper skill levels if you want with better loot.

[Nipa]

Rewards, need them.

[alexi14]

In essense, he's saying. If it's too easy to do it, find a way to make it harder.

If killing a mob is easy to kill on a rank 10 class, jump on a rank 1 class-- then it will be funner! Heck with making progress WHILE you have a challenge. Make the progress in easy mode, then jump on hard mode and make no progress, but at least have fun.

I prefer a hard challenge = higher SP.

Then your being challenged, and getting rewarded for it

[origamikitsune]

Indeed, rewards would be nice. But I have to ask - and I really don't mean this as an insult - but can I really be the only person out there who likes to do stuff for the sake of taking pride in what I did? That enjoys the difficulty of figuring out how to do it without looking it up on some walk-through wiki? I do understand that fundamentally this game is like every other game ever - beating the snot out of the other guy and taking his shit - but is it really too much to wish that the gamer community took pride in the GAME of the game? And is it too much to hope the FF players at least would take pride in doing something well - just as much as taking pride in the what they got out of it?

/whips off Rose-colored Glasses
"Man, all this whining really makes me red!"

All jokes aside, I hope you guys see the point I'm trying to make (and I hope you realize I don't mean it as an attack against different play styles)

[Rentahamster]

can I really be the only person out there who likes to do stuff for the sake of taking pride in what I did?

The problem with that is that doing hard stuff for the sake of challenge is meaningless if other players are not all held to the same standard of gameplay.

Self-imposed challenges are all useless in the world at large. The only time that they have meaning is when used in stuff like speed runs, since everyone else who participates in the challenge is held to the same standard.