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

[Amberion]

Snip!

Level cap was 60 before RoZ came out.

[SekhmetM]

I agree on all parts. Especially the part about the dungeons pre-lv50 that tested the skill of the players and dungeons that have instant-kill mechanics.

This game at lv50 is now a battle of whether can you live through these instant-kill mechanics or not.

God have mercy on your soul if your internet connection is "bad". It's not because of Square-Enix, no. It's not like having the servers for NA/EU based in eastern Canada isn't making keeping a stable connection difficult or anything.

[RiceisNice]

Posting again after some time..

I really feel that FCob has hit some of these points really well. Specifically, it's less overall emphasis on one-shot/mechanics (though they are still present) and values more on players being able to perform their roles.

Perfect example is the DPS check of T10 and the enormous amount of damage that stresses the healers in T13, as well as the strict dps check and management of tank cooldown for akh morn.

These fights are undoubtedly made easier as you get a higher ilvl or if echo were introduced, compared to say T5, T9, or even the entirety of SCoB if they had not make any changes to the actual mechanics. This allows a fight to naturally get easier as time passes without the need to do make huge changes, and T13 is a perfect example of this imo.

Don't get me wrong, they're still difficult and nothing short of having a pre-formed static would be ideal, but having more hp to survive marked megaflare is definitely nice to have.

[Litre]

gear should help but it should be a secondary factor not a primary one

Turn 4 is a moot point, but this quote is exactly the problem! See GEAR SHOULD HELP, that's the problem, it doesn't - it barely even matters! Most of the most frustrating fights are won and lost because someone else made a mistake and the unforgiving mechanics wiped the party. So right now, as long as you have basic gear, gear is not even a factor, let alone a secondary factor. The OP is complaining that this game is 90% mechanics, 10% gear, when really it should be 60/40 or maybe 70/30 at higher levels/end-game top-tier raids etc.



So turn 4:

The fight [turn 4] is pure tank and spank gear check no more, no less. Of course it helps if you know your role(rotations, when to use cooldowns etc) but the same happens in every single fight in this game.

Why was it mentioned as a good balance? Well I saw you initially write "this game is too easy" before you edited it, but regardless it's subjective right. I know many people who struggled in Turn 4, there are some mechanics not a lot, phases too, but also a good DPS check. And yes the same happens in every single fight (like many other bosses), but when people screw up the mechanics you could compensate and still pull through...

If the OT screwed up and couldn't grab a soldier, a black mage could even pull a hero and manawall kite it a bit! How was that not awesome, nothing mechanics based really insta-killed you. I've even tanked 2 dreads with 1 healer for 30s once with perfect buff rotation and won, or as OT if a healer died Hallow Ground and backup SS the MT for 10s while DPS finish off the 2nd dread.

Ask yourself this, people find Turn 4 easier than Titan EX, even though Turn 4 is meant to be further in the game, is that right? Why? Because when things go wrong in Turn 4, the better skilled players can compensate, in Titan EX they can't do anything except watch helplessly.

[Pibz]

Turn 4 is a moot point, but this quote is exactly the problem! See GEAR SHOULD HELP, that's the problem, it doesn't - it barely even matters! Most of the most frustrating fights are won and lost because someone else made a mistake and the unforgiving mechanics wiped the party. So right now, as long as you have basic gear, gear is not even a factor, let alone a secondary factor. The OP is complaining that this game is 90% mechanics, 10% gear, when really it should be 60/40 or maybe 70/30 at higher levels/end-game top-tier raids etc.

Gear does matter, if you don't think so you're not playing the same game as me. Whole mechanics can be completely skipped by having better gear. So no it isn't 90% mechanics, it's way lower. And the more reliant it is on mechanics over gear- the better.

So turn 4:
snip

Please don't use quotation marks if you are not going to quote me, what i had written before i edited it was that the game already has enough easy fights as is, and what i wanted to say(and therefore edited to avoid this crap) is what it says now - that we don't need any fight to get easier.

Also you need to read better, i didn't say that the fight is always the same i said that ofc knowing your role helps as it does in every single fight in the game..
As for the scenario you painted here it is reversed:
The OT in Titan EX doesn't manage to grab aggro, it goes for the blm he uses manawall. Yay crisis averted.

In T4, someone messes up and brings the bugs that are stuck on him to 2 dreadnoughts(not at the same time, doesn't matter who lets assume stupid OT) feeding them, the poor main tank gets to tank a 4 stack dread and a 2 stack one, he doesnt manage to, no one else is able to do anything but watch helplessly. OMG such unforgiveness needs to be less punishing and moar random please.(this example is a joke of course but this is how some people in this thread sound to me)

Other notes:
1. You can carry 1-2 people through titan EX(same for garuda, leviathan,t1-t5) at the moment, and its not even that hard to do it.
2. Having content that you can carry people through at its release is not something that we really need. If you can carry 2 through an encounter and you're not totally over gearing it, it means that those 2 are not needed, and that the tuning is not right.

[Litre]

Gear does matter, if you don't think so you're not playing the same game as me. Whole mechanics can be completely skipped by having better gear. So no it isn't 90% mechanics, it's way lower. And the more reliant it is on mechanics over gear- the better.

Yes, gear does matter, it varies from fight to fight, we're just saying more often than not it matters too little. Like you said gear is secondary to mechanics, I see nothing wrong with that, what's your number at? I think the game should be 60/40 mechanics to gear, and in harder fights end-game etc closer to 70-80/20-30 etc...


But the sad reality is for many PUGs running Titan EX mechanics is 100/0! Why? It only takes 2 people, to die to mechanics and only if the other 6 players were maxed perhaps they can salvage it

1. You can carry 1-2 people through titan EX(same for garuda, leviathan,t1-t5) at the moment, and its not even that hard to do it.

yes of course, if I wanted to help 2 LS mates clear I can find 5 top geared players and do it sure, but I'd say it's more the exception than the norm. And as the OP said, how is that fun for them? Here's roadblock content, you suck so just find someone to carry you, really? I could just quote the OP's words all day to your arguments.

2. Having content that you can carry people through at its release is not something that we really need. If you can carry 2 through an encounter and you're not totally over gearing it, it means that those 2 are not needed, and that the tuning is not right.

To which I said previously:

all these challenges can be surmounted with good enough gear, but only months after the content is released. This way the hardcore get a chance to beat it at the start and when they get better gear, they can help their guildmates through it later. This gives me an incentive to obtain that gear, which is also absent from the game due to the heavy reliance on insta-kill mechanics.

You're definitely a veteran player, but I feel you're not understanding me either, we (FFXI players such as the OP) don't mind 90/10 split or even if it's 80/20 or 70/30 as you say it is, it doesn't matter, as long as at the end of the day, if one day I can foresee a group of similarly skilled people (not carried) have an easier time clearing something. With stuff like Titan EX I don't foresee that, if nothing is changed even with 25% echo buff they still die, that's too harsh, they shouldn't need to be carried, gear should just naturally progress and if a fight is balanced properly even a fight that is 90% mechanics can be one day handled by overgeared players, as bad as they may be.

Thing is like the OP said:

Once again, this is not a post about making arguments like "well I think the game is fun because I can clear the contents" or "you just don't think it's fun because you can't clear the contents" .

To make such an argument is like having someone say to you "I have practiced, reviewed and studied hard to learn English and now I can read and write English at the top-university level and have no problems with daily English conversations so it's fun for me. A ton of people in the world also speak English, so if you work hard at it you can be just like us too!" (You'd think "what a snob!")

.....

[*]As for all those "but it's really not that hard, just do this and this and I could do this with my eyes closed, people cry too much" comments. That's the problem the OP tried to point out that the beginning of his/her article (the "learning English" part). It may be easy for you (more power to you), but it's not easy and not fun for many others, that's the whole point.

I feel that's addresses your comments pretty decently. You like your mechanics based content, great, lots already for you, that doesn't go the same for casual/mainstream players. Regardless people will vote with their time, when FFXIV is on the decline, it'll be because of the issues addressed by the OP.

[ruskie]

While I agree to a point on mechanics/insta death/gimmicks/etc... the thing is those need to be in for variety. Some things would just be boring if just face rolled. With no matter how many people or compositions. Frankly you can have fun/challange in current dungeons - and I do plenty and often - as do others. Think outside the box. I and many others have run things with non standard party setups and had soo much fun. Tam tara with only 2 dds and a healer because tank left... cleared it.... sastasha 3 dds and a healer... copperbell 4 dds(with acn and blm having cross class heals). Had ppl done titan hm with titan egi tanking him with 7 person group because the tank left.

So yeah there is fun to be had in even the current system.

But yeah a bit of randmoness in rotations could be good.

I know Yoshi says that randomness wouldn't be good. But... not have it just be random attacks... just a random ordering of the same rotation... so Titan hm for example could instead of stomp -> plumse go plumes -> stomps and so on(no I don't know the entire rotation by heart... I adapt on the fly). Nothing wrong with randomizing the rotation... and do it on each rotation restart. Same for ifrit... why in then out then plumes then whole arena... maybe first whole arena then the others etc.... Randomize the order of a single rotation. True you could get 2 MBs back to back in this case... but that's still survivable if properly handled.

[Gardes]

Japanese players with Japanese servers cant react to titan ex's plume? What kind of ping do they even have? 20? 10? 5?

Huh.

[AmnesiaHaze]

i fully agree , there are lots of better ways howto create challenge than the current system , its not really a challenge just requires you to memorize simple patterns and practice em a bit and on the other hand it doesnt allow any mistake which leads towards hostility from more experienced players towards less experienced players

some randomized battle system with actual AI rather than preset patterns would make each fight unique and challenging in a more interesting way, of course it had to be more tolerant towards one-mistake but could compensate that by the randomness factor which would lead the team to more mistakes in total unless they good as opposed to well prepared by studying patterns on youtube , also would put people on a more equal level because it would be more about observing and adapting as quick as possible rather than learning preset patterns and praying not to get a lag spike or get distracted for a second to not wipe the whole party

[Ooshima]

IDK - the fact that each and every one of the fights in this game is pretty much scripted and yet there are so many players who can't clear it, you guys sure you want battles with high degree of randomness?

Don't tell me that some players who can't clear things like Titan is due to lag. It's not that I do not acknowledge that latency is an issue. Because it is an issue, no matter a scripted fight or a random fight it WILL still be an issue. If you can't dodge 1x WotL you can't dodge 4x WotL (if you are that bad luck to get 4 in succession due to RNG) consecutively. It doesn't really change a thing.

If you can't observe a preset, scripted battle it will be even tougher to do randomized battles. It demands higher sense of awareness and able to react and decide your actions and counter actions at the snap of a second. These are all the traits of a top end player gunning for world firsts/rankings.

And not to forget, it will even demand lesser latency and better connection than ever.

And sorry that I would disagree - because coil 2 is a significant test of skill and a step up from coil 1. I have seen players who could comfortably faceroll coil 1 before echo facing difficulties in coil 2. You need skill to be able to push more DPS on DPS checks and gear only can help you with very little. If you don't have the discipline to watch for debuffs T7 will tear your party apart. If you do not have everything to clear T6-T8 and learn from it, you won't be able to clear T9.. Comparing T5 with T9, T5 was way easier (not because of gear, I'm comparing first attempts).