Hunts Experience Post Hot Fix

[PreetWilson]

I understand that the Hunts are not exactly being played in the way that they are supposed to be played. I understand that rank B and A monsters aren’t meant to be pummeled by a legion of players. I also understand that the whole point of hunting is to find a monster and kill it; waiting for people is not obligatory or mandated, nor should it incur the wrath of the entire hunting community. I am aware and I perfectly get all that. But the fact of the matter as it stands now is that hundreds of players are participating in hunts at any given point and NMs are being swarmed by practically all of them. On a very heavily populated server, such as the one I belong to, the HP boost of the marks has made little to no impact whatsoever due to the sheer volume of players participating. The atmosphere encompassing the hunts is as it has been, still much too thick.

There are players who are forever stuck in the loading screen zoning into an NM area, and such never make it to the mark and are left feeling helpless to keep up with the rush; while others who are escaping the loading screen are consistently dumping their gil in teleportation fees just to find out that the mob is dead or are riding out to area and watching the mob die in front of their eyes just as they arrive. And then there’s the ones who do make it and manage to score in a hit who end up with a measly 2 seals.

And most of these players, that I personally know and am familiar with, are not just lazing around waiting for other people to do the work of finding the NM’s and simply trying to cheaply cash in on the finds. No, rather they are actively participating and helping party members in inquiring where and what zones to scout and are then making the effort to roam around and search every nook and cranny in hopes of finding one.

Some players are left no other choice but to forcibly grab aggro on the mob and run it away and reset it just so that people would have a chance to arrive and could hit the mob at least once. I understand their method maybe seen as wrong, but their intentions in utilizing it are not wrong.

The bottom-line is the hordes are not going away anytime soon because the carrot at the end of stick is just insanely tempting and scrumptious; and everyone wants it. As it is now, you cannot force players to play the hunts as they were intended to be played, neither to obligate respectful behavior and courtesy, nor not to resort to employing third party apps on the hush hush to get an edge over the mania.

I understand and appreciate SE’s quick attempt to address and alleviate some of the stress and agitation with the hunts, but it seems to be pale and little to nonexistent in a heavily congested server.

[Deuxclydion]

I concur somewhat, but also disagree somewhat. This varies heavily by time of day in my experience - late afternoon to late night tends to see the heaviest concentration of players, while even on a populated server like mine the hunts are low in activity during the early to mid-morning.

That being said, the developers might take a look at how Blizzard implemented a similar system on the Timeless Isle in World of Warcraft's patch 4.3 and the social dynamic that resulted. I remember teeming hordes of players waiting for Tsulong to spawn for a crack at his rare mount, and while Blizzard had the foresight to let the rare spawn's health adjust dynamically with the number of players attacking it, it was also capped at a certain ceiling. And with the sheer number of players attacking, Tsulong would go down literally in seconds.

Also, forum protip: Editing your post allows you to exceed the 1000 character limit so that you're not forced to multipost.

[PreetWilson]

Sorry about choppy post but it was exceeding the max characters allowed and so I had to split it up.

[PreetWilson]

This varies heavily by time of day in my experience - late afternoon to late night tends to see the heaviest concentran of players, while even on a populated server like mine the hunts are low in activity during the early to mid-morning

Understood but not many are able to play during the early morning hours (hence the ease in hunting), including myself due either work or school.

[PreetWilson]

Also i believe it is now harder to get full credit, which doesn't make any sense to me given what was stated in the hotfix.

[Erudain]

You can edit you post and go over the 1k characters

[HumsterMKX]

They just die too fast on my side. Imagine, the "bluffed" S rank mobs die under 1'30...not forgetting it disappears and reappears from time to time, making ppl unable to target them. Just imagine the speed it will die if ppl can target them.

[Thayos]

Would be cool if mark NMs were invulnerable for the first 5 minutes of spawning, and at the point they could be damaged, their HP scaled according to people in the zone. That would pretty much guarantee adequate HP while also giving ample time for people to get there.

[CrystalWeapon]

Would be cool if mark NMs were invulnerable for the first 5 minutes of spawning, and at the point they could be damaged, their HP scaled according to people in the zone. That would pretty much guarantee adequate HP while also giving ample time for people to get there.

I was thinking of something similar the other day but having it trigger a massive regen for x mins if the mobs hp dropped by a large percentage too fast. Your way seems easier to put in.

[AlrikRouge]

So far, I must have gotten lucky as things seemed to have improved for me after the hotfit.

However, I still think an HP boost is necessary. B is relatively fine now, but could be 2x. A should have been 10x (though 7x could have worked) and S should have been 10-15x.

At least now on A rank, the one I managed to partake in last night, I could actually see the percentage of health drop by 1% at a time (took a whopping 20 seconds to die). Whereas before, it looked like it was a 5 second zerg - I got a swift cast F3, and one F1. And if I procced, might have gotten another F3 in. But definitely not able to cast more than two fire spells.

So I saw an improvement. Let's see what happens on the weekend though....