Current State of End-Game Contents - A Blog Post from A Japanese Player

[Ginga_K]

Well Nice article, content for "never ending" updating patches seems to
be aiming at prolonging players subscriptions esp 2.25 onwards.

Raids aint a prob if u have parties for practice n play,
or if u learn the usefulness of "focus target bar"

As I only hv 1-3 hr available free time daily...

Fm 2.25 onwards :-
- Can u speak Japanese?
- Pls watch e video before we play together
- Oh I hv ilvl115 weapon, pls catch up.
- Pls follow e pattern, otherwise disband
- Dps waiting time on DF.. at least 30mins for a 10min dungeon rush.
- Oh this is a need party, n got wipe 10 times till disband.
- Haha I got my Animus, oh wait ... u cleared t9? wth is Animus.
- Yeah I got Alexandite map... oh crap I got 5mins vs a mob of 20 monsters
resist sleep/stun etc....gd bye 800myth.

+++

Well, if "Pro players" need randomness, put all raids/dungeon as 3/7ppl party
and let a 4/8th random player from server to join.

However, recent updates seems to be done to retain elites.

Otherwise T5/T9 should hv wkly lockouts.
SE shd implement a "training mode" option on raids/dungeons with no loot.

[Dashuto]

It really feels to me there is going to be a "stretching" effect. CT2 will come out and that will be fine, and then 3rd coil will arrive. By late into updates centric to the 3rd coil age, we'll realize that maybe 10% of the game is in 3rd coil, the majority are going to be in early 2nd coil and a shocking amount /STILL/ stuck at T5. From there the effect will get slowly worse each time. Mostly due to wipe/instant death mechanics.

[Kuwagami]

It really feels to me there is going to be a "stretching" effect. CT2 will come out and that will be fine, and then 3rd coil will arrive. By late into updates centric to the 3rd coil age, we'll realize that maybe 10% of the game is in 3rd coil, the majority are going to be in early 2nd coil and a shocking amount /STILL/ stuck at T5. From there the effect will get slowly worse each time. Mostly due to wipe/instant death mechanics.

You're overestimating the amount of people already in SCoB. More likely around 5-6%

[Dashuto]

You're overestimating the amount of people already in SCoB. More likely around 5-6%

So probably about that much in TCoB when its out. Right then.

[Kuwagami]

So probably about that much in TCoB when its out. Right then.

Now, you're overestimating the amount of people :

=> who will have cleared T5 before 2.4 (I estimate it around 10% if nothing is done in 2.3 onwards to ease it)

=> who will beat T9 after that (estimation : 30% of those who will have beaten T5 by then. Might go up to 70% in the following month depending on nerf/echo applied then)

Grand total of 3% on T10 when it's out

If things are eased in 2.3 and onwards though, it might go up by quite a bit. Especially with CT giving sands and oils

edit : those are estimations considering how T5's progression evolved in 9 month. I might be horribly wrong on T9's completion numbers. However, I think that T5's numbers should be quite good, and even a bit overestimated.

[Anyssa]

This was a great explanation of so much of what I've been feeling. It took me months to overcome Titan HM - even after I learned the fight, there were still people in the group who would mess up and it'd go all wrong. Currently, I'm stuck at Titan EX. Even after learning the fight and performing it flawlessly, there are still others who do not. Then there comes a point where I can no longer perform it perfectly because of fatigue, latency, or some other issue.

Beating these bosses doesn't feel like an accomplishment, it feels like winning the lottery - I lucked into the right combination of players on a given day.

So at the moment I have these options:

1. Continue to beat my head bloody on the wall that is Titan EX
2. Farm a gazillion Fates for this ridiculous quest line
3. Do dailies and log out

I've been doing #3 for a long time. This is the first time in 6 months of playing FFXIV that I've seriously considered just cancelling my sub.

This nonsense isn't fun anymore.

[Litre]

I've been doing #3 for a long time. This is the first time in 6 months of playing FFXIV that I've seriously considered just cancelling my sub.

This nonsense isn't fun anymore.

Exactly, can I ask what iLvl are you? This is the main issue, even if you worked your way up to iLvl 120, due to the heavy mechanics of Titan EX you'd never beat it. Not your fault, it just takes a couple people to mess up, if the devs want to fix the scaling issue here, they need more creative solutions to ease the fight rather than just a blanket 5-25% echo boost to stats.

Like the OP says, the game is mostly based on mechanics, fights are like on average 75% mechanics and 25% gear/stats. Some fights are skewed more towards mechanics or stats but regardless, it's overwhelmingly mechanics. So their solution to make the fights easier for lesser skilled players is to ease the stats dependency, which is the most insignificant determiner of the fight? Lazy balancing in my opinion, that will do a lot of harm to the game because we're losing players like you.

[Bizniztyme]

[B]mechanics[/B

LOL Fights are 100% mechanics in any game ever created. It's the kind of mechanics they use that are different. Gear and stats helps you overcome the games mechanics. If you're overwhelmed by the mechanics, get better gear or get better. That's what I do even though I know it'll take me forever because I know I suck.

[Litre]

If you're overwhelmed by the mechanics, get better gear or get better. That's what I do even though I know it'll take me forever because I know I suck.

Looks like you're new to this thread, please read this first if you want to have a meaningful discussion:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post2164220

But to summarize, and why your statement shows just how completely blind you are to the real issue at hand, which the OP is trying to address:

1. FFXIV uses mechanics like 100% of every game, yes true. And like you said, they use a certain kind of mechanics, being a telegraphed AOE which you need to move out of mostly. The issue the OP is trying to bring up is that, a fight is mostly determined by this dodging mechanic, more than any other mechanic.
2. Because some fights are more mechanics heavy, gear makes less of an impact on the fight, we have been referring to these fights as ones that have insta-death mechanics, fail to dodge = instant death. This completely negates any gear advantage, so your comment of "get better gear" won't help, if you fail to dodge X mechanic, you die, iLvl 70 or 110, doesn't matter. (the example in the OP is Twintania Divebombs, Landslide is another)

3.

or get better. That's what I do even though I know it'll take me forever because I know I suck.

As for this comment, I'd say good on you, that's great that you have the dedication and time to improve your skills and knowledge (memorizing fights) to beat these fights. But you can't assume everyone has that perseverance, time or even enjoys practicing and dying again and again to beat something.

This is where opinions diverge, one type of player (hardcore/some mainstream) players say, just like you, "that's your fault, get better or get out". And "get out" is exactly what they will do, they will find another game which they enjoy, that doesn't make them headbutt a giant obstacle and fail endlessly due to no fault of their own. This is what the OP is worried about, the OP doesn't care about players that are on coil, they're happy, we are worried about casual players and less skilled mainstream players.

But more understanding players realize that if we tell them all to get out, there will not be enough subscriptions to support FFXIV and it'll eventually fail because there won't be enough development money for FFXIV to compete with other MMOs. To this we are saying, when content is old, 2-3 months+, don't just give us echo boost, properly address the fights individually. For some fights like Titan, echo boost won't help you; in this case a more creative solution needs to be implemented.


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As for:

A lot of my friends feel the same and several have already moved on to WildStar so maybe that's where I'll peek next.

I agree with Bizniztyme, you'll get a wake up call because WildStar combat is FFXIV telegraphed AOE on steroids. But WildStar also has Exploration and Settler Paths, which are catered to the more casual crowd, which you may like. This is what FFXIV needs to do, offer content for casual players OR ease current content for casual players, or we will just bleed subs till the game is nothing but the hardcore/mainstream players. But if that's what people want, so be it, but there will be consequences.


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The example I like to remind people, is to think of a friend you know who likes to play RPGs on easy mode, that friend who levels up on the world map until he's 10+ levels stronger than the boss before going in. Even if you don't have a friend like that you can relate, there are casual gamers that don't necessarily like the challenge, nor the frustration that comes with it. They play games to relax and have fun, they want progression but don't care about being the best or joining a static. We have to be more accepting of these users, because that's where the development money comes from, like Yoshi said ~5% of players are passing T5, probably more now, but most players are doing other things and we need to ensure they are not being held to the same standards that the hardcore players are.

[Bizniztyme]

snip

I understand the OP just fine. I just don't agree with it. You can doom and gloom all you want. People will leave a game for all kinds of reasons. You going to tell me if SE caters to what you're asking, another group that doesn't like the change will not leave? It doesn't matter what they do, there will be a group of people that will not like it and leave. It's part of an MMORPG. So.....I will never agree with making anything forgiving just because people don't have the skill to beat something. You want players to be accepting to the kind of players you're talking about but you certainly are not accepting to the players that don't agree with your plea.