The Binding Coil of Bahamut (T1 - T9) - Thoughts?

[Kenji1134]

As other have said before, T6-9 are a LOT more mechanics heavy than T1-5.
However the biggest issue is that T6, which keeps you out of T7-8-9, not only has numerous mechanics, that come at you fairly quickly... but they are all based on RNG.

Bulb in the center before a Floral transition = loss of melee dps.
Double Vines and Honeyglazed initial hit = potentially dead dps.
Double Vines and need to be eaten = damage still ticks while being devoured, if the other 2 people dont break the vines, you die.
Double Vines and Floral target = again, possible dead if the people you are tied to are not being proactive.

Basically the fact is that every primary mechanic, Vines, Floral, Bulbs, and Honey, all have an rng component to them. The bulb in the center just happens. But the problem is that the other mechanics can target anyone but the MT (Floral cant target OT), and you can get SEVERAL of them at once. At that point, you have to do your job, but now someone ELSE has to do their job to make sure you survive.
Also worth noting that in the case of Vines, if you have to be eaten or direct Floral Trap, and the person you are tied to goes into a Briar... yeah, that vine isnt going to break, hope you have a regen ticking on you.

This kind of design is what forces people into statics. The core idea behind a static is that you KNOW that everyone in the group knows what to do, or is willing and able to learn what to do, and doesnt suck. If they do suck, and cant learn, you just kick them from the static.

Honestly T7 is easier than T6 simply because there is next to no overlap of mechanics. You get Voice, OR you get Shriek. One person is assigned to deal with Renauds, and that is what they focus on. No overlap, and minimal dependance on others to not mess up.

I get the feeling that the devs wanted T6 to be a "teambuilding" encounter. Where depending on rng, you will have to depend on your team to get through the fight... Sadly this doesnt always work out. And with the extra rng of positioning, honey, and briars covering half the field... even an experienced group can wipe a few times if mechanics dont line up well.

[Cessna]

Snip

Wow those players would have been kicked so fast from my learning party. I host winning parties and I host learning parties and I know people are going to screw up in learning parties over and over. Its how you learn, you have to put in your wipes for endgame. Expecting any different is retarded. Players like that just end up shooting themselves in the foot though because people don't put up with their garbage for long.

I had a monk who acted like that who eventually tore our static apart because our raid leader *rightfully so* thought he couldn't get anybody to join that could withstand his toxic attitude. He tried joining a high end fc and they refused his application because they asked around and found out he was a jerk. They also said they would have taken him but for his bad attitude. Moral of the story is don't be a jerk.

[ChriZirhC]

I think the coil lockouts have created a mentality within the community which believes that you must be in a static group in order to progress in the game. This idea is incredibly toxic to the community as it forces players into small exclusive cliques of people who only play together and at times even look down upon others. Even those who would normally be very friendly and helpful have no choice but to exclude even their friends and free company members because helping them could infringe upon the weekly progress of their static group.

In other words, lockouts cause otherwise kind people to act like assholes.

It is my opinion that this aspect of the game (lockouts) is the single greatest threat to the long term success of FFXIV.

We understand the need for content gates, but do it in a way that lets me play with more than 7 other people.

Make good use of the Armoury system. Make the lockouts per class!

[Galliano]

Lockouts are the most annoying thing, I want to run the content with different players each night, friends strangers whoever. I mean yes you do build a good bond with a static but all that happens is you end up with segregated free companies. There's so much emphasis on getting a FC, building a house, ranking it up etc. But all it really boils down to is a chat room and meeting place for you and your friends to shoot the shit and run some dungeons or primals.

In 1.0 our whole LS would meet up and head on over to Garuda, Moogles, AV or CC, then we'd either make a couple parties from what we had, or swap people in and out of a single party. Now swapping people in and out sounds worse than having solid statics, but the thing was on these event nights it involved the whole LS and we were all chatting about the runs while out of pt and afterwards we would all discuss things as a group. Now it's just the same 8 people doing this in their own private groups, which saddens me as I miss the fun we used to have on those event nights. This is also the fault of DF making it irrelevant for us to even bother meeting up in the first place, but that's a whole other topic of discussion.

[Reyn]

I think the coil lockouts have created a mentality within the community which believes that you must be in a static group in order to progress in the game. This idea is incredibly toxic to the community as it forces players into small exclusive cliques of people who only play together and at times even look down upon others. Even those who would normally be very friendly and helpful have no choice but to exclude even their friends and free company members because helping them could infringe upon the weekly progress of their static group.

I agree with this completely. Every FC I've been in has ended up segregated by who's in which Coil group, and who isn't in one altogether. Switching statics for whatever reason almost always results in lost friendships. The lockouts have everyone in a mindset of only playing with their 7 friends, and anyone else is irrelevant. I would like to tackle challenging content with all of my friends, but for now, our only options are trivial content for our alt jobs.

I don't even care if I can't attain loot from a Turn I've already cleared for the week. I'd just like to re-enter to help a friend, if need be. Or join a PUG and not be scared that we might win and I won't be able to run with my static later. Throw some tomes at me and I'm thrilled!

[Purrfectstorm]

My issue is the same as it was in turns 1-5... which is the lockouts. It horribly annoying to log in day in and day out and have to make a decision do I get a pug for the person missing a day due to rl and screw them over for the week or do we run circles around the housing area for 3 hours because we are bored. Gets old and is not fun in the least.

It is forcing segregation in guilds and honestly just creating a horribly toxic atmosphere inside guilds.

This is one reason why I won't do statics. I'll bother w/ T6+ when it no longer has lock outs. I don't really care that I don't have the best gear, the best gear is only really needed for content that isn't out yet. I'd rather be perpetually one step behind in 2nd best gear than deal with the nonsense that comes with statics.

[skaterger]

Make good use of the Armoury system. Make the lockouts per class!

Very much this. The game wants you to level all your jobs on one character but contradicts itself by making the lockout per character. I really regret spending the time getting all jobs to 50 when the alts are sitting around looking pretty with no means of end game progression. In games like wow, 1 character can only level 1 class so if happens a healer in the raid can't log on for the night, I can log on to my alt without fear of my main getting locked out of the content for that week. Its gotten so bad that I can't even spend soldiery tomes to gear up my alts because I have to get them for my main first. This game basically pigeon holes you into focusing 1 job which is terrible design for an mmo.

As for the difficulty of coil, I like the level it is at at the moment. Whereas other games have more raid bosses released per tier, ff14 seems to stick to around 4-5 bosses per tier. Thus I can see the need for each encounter to be challenging and meaningful though I wouldn't mind 1 or 2 more easier bosses added to serve as an introduction to the raid to help less skilled/geared raiders gear up and tackle the later content.

[Seif]

I usually just get a lot of verbal abuse in there.
The only real advice I get is from the forums.

In XI players were not that mean.

I even enjoyed 3 so it's too bad that it's useless.

[AmyNeudaiz]

Honestly the lockout system in place cause so many issues it makes it difficult to play with other friends. Multiples of 8 or GTFO.

[Garlyle]

My personal experience with coil is that "holy shit, this is fucking awesome". No, really. I love crazy challenging stuff that requires a lot of execution and teamwork. Stuff like that and EX Primals are what I've always wanted from a modern MMORPG - but have rarely had the love for the game to stick with until I reached. People complain about the 'best stuff in the game' being there, but frankly, that's where it needs to be. If you're not doing it, then frankly, you don't need its rewards. There always needs to be that high end challenge, above all else, which rewards above all else. That's what Coil be. Alternatives will appear - in time, just like they did for first coil. And at that time, for the rest of you, there'll be content that wants that.

The lockout element is exceptionally painful as someone who doesn't have a static, however (and can't really join one because my work hours are unpredictable). Not so much because of the "I can only do it once each week"; rather, because there are extremely few public players going for T6 onwards, because nobody wants to disrupt their group.