Discussion on Solutions to the Current Issues of Elite Marks

[Nutz]

I'm not sure how easily it could be coded, but I think it would be helpful if they drastically reduced the respawn time of the marks (particularly the weekly hunt), but added a cooldown for credit such that if you got full credit on Naul (for example) you can't get credit for him again for say, 4 hours. Maybe make it so that you can't even attack him if you're in your refractory period. This should allow others to get credit more easily and without the dilemma of claiming or waiting for others. The only problem is it might make it too easy for several groups to go about hunting elite marks with almost no down time at all.

[Soleless]

Base hp of all ranks definitely needs a boost. People will show up to kill these mobs if the rewards are good enough (and they are), so not being able to solo a B rank shouldn't be an issue. Maybe implement whatever they did to the behemoth/odin fates that made getting gold rank easier, assuming that's something they can do for hunt mobs.

I'd hate to see Hunts being capped off or limited in some way. I love being able to take a break from dungeons, get a party going and chase down these suckers down. It's a great change of pace.

[Donjo]

I posted the brunt of this in another thread, but it would seem to apply here as well. Here's some views on some currently suggested solutions, as well as a couple I've thought of myself.

1. Implement an aura that increases monster defense/HP in real time proportional to the current number of players attacking it. Alternately, just make them all beefier across the board.
An okay idea, to be sure. However, if SE was actually capable of doing this, FATEs would already be doing it. I'm not sure if this would ever happen. An alternate solution would be to institute the current system of FATE scaling: scale Mark HP proportional to the number of players who participated in the last kill. However, with the mobs of players we're dealing with, this would leave B Ranks un-soloable, which goes against the explicitly stated ideal of B Ranks being soloable.

2. Remove Sands/Oils from the possible rewards. Alternately, increase their price dramatically.
This is probably good. A possible compromise would be to just remove the Blood Splattered Logs from being buyable, attach them solely to S Rank Marks, and slightly increase their drop rate. This may reduce Zerging on A's and limit the mobbing on S Ranks only to those who are persistent enough to fight through low drop rates from low spawn rated monsters. I know we hate RNG, but if skill isn't going to be necessary, we need some RNG to reduce access to the highest tier of gear outside of obtaining them in raids.

3. One hit on the Mark = Full Credit. No in betweens.
A great idea in theory, but also quite abusable. There'd be no end to people popping all around the world, hitting every mark exactly once, and then sitting back and reaping all of the rewards.

4. (My own suggestion) Lower Myth and Soldiery Amounts, massively. Possibly do the same with Allied Marks themselves.
This one's about ratios. I can waltz around a zone, find a lonely B Rank Mark, and destroy it. I get 30 Myth and 10 Soldiery for this. For 3 minutes of work I performed alone, I obtained more Myth than the highest tier 8 man Extreme Primal fights, all of which take much longer... and don't even get me started on A and S ranks. They simply give far, far, far too much of these currencies for the amount of work necessary to kill the monsters. I'm not sure if the Allied Seals should be reduced, but perhaps they should at least be limited(Maybe 75-100 a day, or 750 a week?) when one considers that some people have managed to accrue enough for a Sands of Time in a single day.

5. (My own suggestion, deux) If you were not in the zone when a mark spawned there, you can not get credit!
Here's a controversial one. It'll kick Hunting LS's right where it hurts, but it will ensure that those who actually, well, hunted for a mark get their due credit. B's and A's would be just fine. S Ranks, being the creatures of "solve a riddle, do this specific thing, and then kill the monster" that they are, would simply need the coordination to get enough people into the zone before attempting the trigger. As for those poor LS', they'd go from a tool for zerging every hunt around the world to tools for communicating and coordinating the triggering of S Rank Marks.

[Mattiux]

1. Implement an aura that increases monster defense/HP in real time proportional to the current number of players attacking it. Alternately, just make them all beefier across the board.
An okay idea, to be sure. However, if SE was actually capable of doing this, FATEs would already be doing it. I'm not sure if this would ever happen. An alternate solution would be to institute the current system of FATE scaling: scale Mark HP proportional to the number of players who participated in the last kill. However, with the mobs of players we're dealing with, this would leave B Ranks un-soloable, which goes against the explicitly stated ideal of B Ranks being soloable..

This solve part of the issue in an easy way ^^

May you can introduce something like a Footprint which spawn BEFORE and Near the next spawn of the Marks, in that way in evrything more like an hunt following and tracking down the monster.

[Morningstar1337]

I posted the brunt of this in another thread, but it would seem to apply here as well. Here's some views on some currently suggested solutions, as well as a couple I've thought of myself.

Liked on both threads. (Though I'm a little weary on that last one) Personally I think the marks for the daily hunts should be increased to compensate (in addition to the cap idea)

[Fawkes]

Make daily marks worthwhile, either by increasing their reward or maybe making them repeatable or something. Then maybe they would actually be an alternative and Elites wouldn't be the only way to get a decent amount of seals in a reasonable amount of time.

[TheRogueX]

I know bumping threads is probably frowned upon, but this system really needs to be fixed. It is absolutely untenable as it is. SE has really screwed the pooch on this one.

[Yumi_umi]

Just buff the hp and attack to that of behemoth or odin and then call it a day.

[Roris]

Buff HP and defense, increase their damage and give them more attacks. Buff rank B to be at least as hard/last as long as 1.0 NMs that got turned into FATEs like Downy Dustan or the FATEs from daily hunts, rank A to about the level of Natalan FATEs before they got nerfed or stronghold FATEs or maybe stronger since I'm bad at remembering their strength and S ranks at least up to the level of Gorgimera or that Cyclops FATE in Coerthas, maybe Odin or Behemoth levels. They also need their display priority fixed to be like them.

[Heat]

the only solution to this problem is to add a cap on how much you can collect seals each week, like 450 each week.