Hard Mode {Found It}

[AreeyaJaidee]

Hey I like your thread OP

Thanks for the multiple shoutouts to our R87 Headrip Ogre kill peeps

OP, here's our YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/HiddenPowerLS

We too like to turn the heat up a bit in the kitchen It's fun and LS mates get good practice. We been doing these fights shortly after FFXIV's release but decided to make some videos recently to show people how these type of fun battles can be accomplished without cheap exploits like using the mobs deaggro range OR other silly things like winning via a zombie kill.

I really love your enthusiasm and the game needs more people like you in it~!

Take Care

[origamikitsune]

Heya Pooka!!! Guess what? You're not alone!!! Several of my LS mates enjoy going out and doing stuff for the challenge, or just for s**ts and giggles. No rewards necessary. Oh, and we're on Besaid, too! we're currently also doing a screen shot scavenger hunt! There's nothing wrong with making your own fun with like-minded people. you should hit us up in-game sometime.

Added you to my social list, if that isn't too presumptuous. Feel free to do the same.

[Synthesis]

This is more challengeable than FFXIV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D6jMRuqekU

[Dyne]

I have been asking for hard mode for a long time. I don't want to say I hate freedom, but in this case I do hate the fact that people have the freedom to set their own difficulties instead of leaving the difficulty at default and letting people figure out the best possible way of defeating things. I really do feel like the developers do not respect our intelligence and treating us like babies. Learning is fun, and even though it is just game knowledge, it keeps your brain from turning into mush. These companies better not be "Set how hard you want the Garlean Empire to be" battles." Otherwise, its like the US going to war against a country whose primary weapons and army are people throwing rocks.

[origamikitsune]

So many Afghanistan jokes came to mind... but politics will make for a rapid locking of a thread, so I shall let it past. I do know that if there is a difficulty option my motley crew and I will be starting with the hardest and working our way down. The way I figure it, if we are willing to believe we can take R90 mobs, how hard can a quest be, right? Here's hoping. And here's hoping the rewards are appropriately tiered as well!

[Galoot]

I agree with the OP. The Wyrm Jormungand in FFXI was in the middle of nowhere and didn't drop anything worth getting. However, my LS went to kill it just for sport and it was a great fight, and we also wiped once before finalizing our strategy. It was only about pride and killing our first Wyrm, and everyone who came knew that there was no reward but to put it down. Pride is a great thing to fight for, but as I read in someones post, goodluck getting a group together consistantly for that. That's the truth right there, we did it once, and never went back to do it again. Some wanted the title for the win, but that wasn't enough to get people to drop what they're doing to give it another go. I can tell you that in FFXI I remember the rare items that I got. Not exactly how I got them though or the fights for them, but I remember with absolute certainty the epic battles of our first victories over Wyrms, expansion fights, and other impossible battles we went up against.

[AngryNixon]

Here are some videos of "interesting" solos if the OP is interested in player-made challenges. Including a solo of that Lv99 Qiqirn Mercenary someone mentioned. Solos were done by either myself or another player on my server Roi Beoulve.

Lv99 Qiqirn Mercenary by Lv50 GLA
Lv75 Widowmaker by Lv50 GLA
Lv70 Ogre by Lv50 GLA

Lv91 Rainbow Basilisk by Lv50 ARC

Uraeus by Lv50 THM
Great Buffalo by Lv50 THM
Elder Mosshorn by Lv50 THM
Dodore (Un-nerfed Version) by Lv50 THM
Haughtpox Bloatbilly (Un-nerfed version) by Lv50 THM
Tarbh Uisge by Lv50 THM

There are many aspects of the current XIV battle system which are "broken" and make these solos possible (some of them with relative ease). Just to list a few of the really big ones:
(1) Aegis Boon and Deflection being broken (Aegis Boon at least a glitch)
(2) dLVL-ignoring attacks (Bloodletter, DoTs, Barbs) being very strong on high level mobs
(3) The "return to territory" mechanic being extremely abusable

To add a couple which I'm sure you've seen from these group kills:
(4) The fact cures generate almost/no enmity.
(5) Twisting Vice being extremely overpowered as a TP-control strategy

Hopefully many of these mechanics will be changed (in as little as a week from now). I think it's fun to challenge yourself or you group, but as others have mentioned, there is little reward for exceling beyond maybe farming the NMs solo/low man for selling right now. And with all due respect to the players that posted the Lv87 Ogre video in the thread that got locked, there is no mob challenge that truly requires anything beyond 2, maybe 3 players in this game currently, although that shouldn't diminish their own sense of accomplishment.

With all due respect Kaeko, I disagree with your assertion that doing things legitimately is worthless and/or largely negated by the fact that nothing in this game "truly requires anything beyond 2, maybe 3 players" by virtue of the exploits you have so usefully assisted in bringing to light.

You have, I submit, incorrectly substituted the fact that you can currently cheat the system in order to succeed due to SE's many failings in the game mechanics department as the true "mark of accomplishment" with killing these various things traditionally. By traditionally I mean with a party without intentional use of exploits.

I fully agree with you on your points (2), (4) and (5) insofar as those exploits engage themselves passively whether you seek them out or not in every encounter you enter into and so diminish all our achievements universally. In other words, their universality levels the playing field and so makes their detrimental effect on the difficulty of any given achievement moot (because everybody who posts a video glorifying themselves is passively suffering from (2), (4) and also sometimes (5)). I should say this in no way diminishes their damaging effect on the game and their being fixed should still be high priority for SE. I share your hope of these mechanics being altered for the better.

Anyhow, I agree there are exploits that engage themselves without conscious action by players but saying "Look, I did this solo because I specifically targeted the failings in the game and exploited them to succeed, and therefore those who did not specifically target the failings to succeed and simply did it "as intended" or as close to that as possible haven't achieved anything" is somewhat skewed. For me that is akin to saying "You earned your money by working all day, I earned it by defrauding my insurance company without much effort, therefore people who work for their money haven't achieved anything". Yes that analogy is a stretch but it's the closest one I could think of.

Anyhow that's all.

P.S. Keiko keep up the good work bug testing their game for them. They need it.

P.P.S. Good on you OP for going out there with other people and trying new things.

[Gally]

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

My 2 friends and I 3 manned a Marlboro last weekend. R49 ARC/ R48 CON/ R48 LNC. Shit was rough. Took us like 4 tries to take it down. If we missed our twisting vices (I was using it on my ARC as well) he would launch a 2500 HP AOE that would wipe us.

There are all kinds of random fun challanges in the game =)

[Rau]

ITT: GRINDING AT 5 STARS = REAL ENDGAME CONTENT

[Molly_Millions]

Yeah, the game can be pretty damn difficult if you search out hard battles, but most people prefer to play the SP/hr game which of course is gonna be cake.