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

[Garlyle]

Indeed. But we both knew this would happen as a by-product of an advancing MMO regardless of the current scenario. Fights will always become outdated in time, due to increasing iLvl and echo-like buffs, which is fine. In the case of T4, the challenge for those who did it in the 5-7 month time span before 2.2 had run it's course, and in most cases throughly (which is why I enjoyed it when I did). In time even T5 which has been thrice nerfed (including Echo buff) will simply be outdated by iLevel as well.

Yes, but there's a drastic difference between how long it's going to take T4 to be little more than high powered mobs, and how long it's going to take T5 to be little more than that.

To side-example, as gear increases, more during Titan EX will be ignorable - you can eat more plumes in a bad dodge, you can eat bombs without fear of being KO'd; eventually you may even be able to survive superbombs -> geocrush. More DPS will push phases faster, reducing the amount of time you have to screw it up. That's inevitable, although they're still severe enough that it'll be a while before that happens. And there will always be parts of Titan EX you have to deal with - gaols and landslides. And that will retain Titan EX as a challenge to many people when that happens. And it will retain Titan's identity as a unique piece of content at that time, instead of just fading into mountains of identical trials.

[ZReport]

Yes, but there's a drastic difference between how long it's going to take T4 to be little more than high powered mobs, and how long it's going to take T5 to be little more than that.

To side-example, as gear increases, more during Titan EX will be ignorable - you can eat more plumes in a bad dodge, you can eat bombs without fear of being KO'd; eventually you may even be able to survive superbombs -> geocrush. More DPS will push phases faster, reducing the amount of time you have to screw it up. That's inevitable, although they're still severe enough that it'll be a while before that happens. And there will always be parts of Titan EX you have to deal with - gaols and landslides. And that will retain Titan EX as a challenge to many people when that happens. And it will retain Titan's identity as a unique piece of content at that time, instead of just fading into mountains of identical trials.

I agree wholeheartly to your sentiments, so much so that I posted a very similar response to you on page 4, lol. To that end, it's fine as well; the "challenge" is still preserved for a while longer for certain fights (Titan EX, T5) -- the win will be justified for anyone involved who is relatively new to said fight. More gear does trivalize the fight somewhat, but as you mentioned, it only trvializes the portions that players should have otherwise been able to dodge regardless. The real challenges will still be around, completely ignoring your iLvl/Echo.

However, I do believe it will get to a point where even these fights can be carried, or at least in the case of T5 recoveries mid-battle recovery from partial wipes will become possible. It will then become fights based on actions of a few who are super geared and can dodge everything, therefore carrying the rest of the party who was otherwise knocked out for a time. Biggest example being Titan HM, even before the Echo addition. A very geared tank, healer and two DPS can carry four others in that fight now. Of course the scenario would change in Titan EX, two over geared tanks, healer, 2-3 DPS, effectively limiting the carry to about 2-3 people.