The Novus Grind

[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.

[Marael]

There is one thing I'm uncertain about regarding these bomb adds; I've heard that each bomb only deals a certain amount of damage, and it's only if all of them explode at once that you risk death... can anyone confirm?

As an ilvl 99 BRD, the bombs seem to hit me for 1500-2000 dmg each. They explode on contact and move at sprint speed so you cannot outrun them. I failed my first try on that map. I got hit by two and pulled through with 1500ish HP remaining on the first set and didn't notice the second set pop for a few seconds. I managed to kill one before they went off but three of them was too many and it killed me. I have just over 5k hp on my BRD with food.

[Jeykama]

I've soloed my maps since the first few, but after having lost two maps to the recent 90k spree, I've been bringing a friend just for insurance. You'd think I'd would have learned from losing so many crafts to DCs as well `-`

[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.

[Felis]

They aren't "used" to it. It's been that way up until novus that you do the solo portion by yourself.

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.

It should be recommended, not required. So people, who can do them solo, still can do them solo.

[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]

---

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.