The Novus Grind

[Vahlnir]

Whilst the alexandrite maps are indicated as being soloable that does NOT mean they will be EASY to solo. They all CAN be soloed and none of them have unavoidable mechanics but you would be well advised to take at least one other player with you to ensure you don't waste the map.

This is how I feel about the Novus grind in a nutshell. I feel comfortable soloing them but I know that isn't for everyone. There's also Monster Hunts coming in 2.3 so maybe that'll give people an alternative if they don't like maps.

They should've specified with those 3 maps that 2 players is required or that there's a high ilvl requirement. They did mention you need high ilvl for some of em.

Well, they definitely don't require 2 people but some would find it easier that way, which I respect. I do agree with ya on letting people know that they may need better gear to solo them. Perhaps putting a "*__ilvl preferred*" tag on the maps themselves would help, or something like that, just to spare people the confusion.

[Arkista]

Maybe you should take someone with you? I take my wife just incase, All she does is sit there. I wait until I have 4 maps and do them all at once. Some of them are pretty crazy, I don't know how someone less than ilvl85 would be able to do it solo.

[Roris]

The maps are fine, if you're good you can solo them, if not it's always better to just do it with a buddy, hell just one buddy brings them down to Boarskin map difficulty level. Doesn't stop the rest of the relic quest from having no sense of adventure whatsoever.

[Marael]

I have quite enjoyed soloing my maps so far, well, soloing + healer stance chocobo, so I guess it's not really soloing, but close enough. I've gotten the golem map a few times. I got my ass handed to me the first time. Losing my map was incentive to do better the next time. The one with the morbol where it binds you for 30 seconds before using bad breath was a lot of fun to figure out too. Once you know what to do, and if you're geared up enough and know your job well, it's pretty easy to pull through it. But I like that there is the danger that if I make a mistake, or am not skilled enough, I could lose my progress for the day. I've had a lot of fun with the maps. If you do them solo, they're challenging and require you to both be geared and skilled. That was what I felt was missing from the atma/animus stage. It was all just mindless spamming. These maps, however, make you actually play your job, and play it well, if you want to solo them. I like the quest just the way it is. If anything, a few even more challenging maps would be welcome in my book. The chance that you can lose your chance at alexandrite just makes it more fun to me.

[Canadane]

So far I've not found a map I couldn't do by myself.... and my chocobo.
But I'm surprised that so many people were unaware that maps crumble as you open the chest. It's like they don't read, or have never done any of the other maps in the game.

[Iriadysa]

It really shows what kind of people play this game when we hear complains all the time about:

- Content is too hard, I can't be carried if I die!
- Content requires super human reaction times and >10ms latency to beat!
- Content is not telling me it's going to be hard, why isn't there a warning?!

I honestly wonder if these are the majority or they are simply very vocal. I can imagine how hard this must be for Yoshida and Co.

A game like XIV really needs a relatively high playerbase to keep up with the content production rate it needs, so obviously it's important to listen to the majority of your players and make sure you keep the happy enough to stay while hopefully catering to other players as well. Thus, if the majority of players is like the ones we find in the forums -players incapable of tackling any content that requires reaction times of less than ~400ms, that dislike surprise challenges and for whom dying with consequences is a personal offense-, I can only assume Yoshida will be forced to cater to them.

I suspect we are already seeing steps in this by making the primal trio no longer a roadblock to easy Leviathan weapons. We'll probably have our answer by 2.4.

[Alukah]

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You might like the "I died - lose progress for the day" thing, but not everyone wants to take months to upgrade a weapon, this game has enough time sinks as it is.

Not everyone enjoys having their time wasted, at least have the decency to respect that.

Whenever I read responses to thread like this all I see is people belittling others for not enjoying the same things they enjoy, very often taking things to the extremes (not everyone asking "make it easier" mean "make it a faceroll")

[Alberel]

You might like the "I died - lose progress for the day" thing, but not everyone wants to take months to upgrade a weapon, this game has enough time sinks as it is.

Not everyone enjoys having their time wasted, at least have the decency to respect that.

Whenever I read responses to thread like this all I see is people belittling others for not enjoying the same things they enjoy, very often taking things to the extremes (not everyone asking "make it easier" mean "make it a faceroll")

Thing is your time is only being wasted because you seem to refuse to take other players with you to do the map. Like I said in my previous post they are indicated as soloable because they ARE soloable, they're just difficult. If you cannot solo them then take friends and you will never waste a map again. There is nothing for SE to change or fix here.

[Iriadysa]

You might like the "I died - lose progress for the day" thing, but not everyone wants to take months to upgrade a weapon, this game has enough time sinks as it is.

Not everyone enjoys having their time wasted, at least have the decency to respect that.

Whenever I read responses to thread like this all I see is people belittling others for not enjoying the same things they enjoy, very often taking things to the extremes (not everyone asking "make it easier" mean "make it a faceroll")

Oh no, I dislike losing my progress. However, you have to understand that the sole reason you waste your progress is because you tackled the challenge at the hardest setting possible: alone. You can make things easier for yourself by bringing a second person, at which point any of the map monsters becomes a bore fest. (Side note: I'm not doing Novus because I cannot stomach the atma grind, but I've done all the maps helping a friend numerous times).

In other words, you are the one wasting your time by choosing a path you cannot tackle. And after doing that, you complain about it.

[Osmond]

Im on the novus grind myself, but I wasn't upset at it, yet it felt more of a relief from grinding on animus books. 1 thing that ppl seem to forget that the devs already posted before the patch comes out or after is that 2 things to let u know beforehand. U can do it yourself or u need ppl to help you out. That alone lets u know that there is a NM that will have a mechanic that will overwhelm you or 1-shot you. If you go alone and face these NMs w/o some help, that's your fault. If u knew u needed ppl to help out why not ask your friends, FC members, random ppl through PF? U have plenty of options to choose from. What I don't get is that players still get annoyed even though they were told that this was gonna happen and rage close to quitting, it makes no sense.