Heavensward raids will have a normal and hard mode

[Deadwing]

snip

Yeah, that's perfectly fine, too.
I don't think having a "story" version is a bad thing, but I'd like to see it below Normal and Hard, I guess. Since the current Savage mode drops the same loot as the standard (Hard, in my model) it just makes sense in my head.

Also, I forgot to mention the beauty of having normal mode drops on par with currency gear- we'd see a lot more gearing options in the mid-tier than we do right now. As it stands, your gearing options if you want to be non-raider max ilvl is a full set of currency gear. For DRG last patch, that sucked. The amount of skill speed on that set is unreal.

[Zumi]

Maybe each raid will be buit into the main story quests for each patch. Normal = story mode with no loot. Everyone gets to see the story. Hard mode raid is where the loot drops where mechanics can 1 shot you and wipe the raid. This is exactly what they do with new primals now, hard mode = story no loot, extreme = loot. They just replaced hard with normal and extreme with hard.

[HakuroDK]

Maybe each raid will be buit into the main story quests for each patch. Normal = story mode with no loot. Everyone gets to see the story. Hard mode raid is where the loot drops where mechanics can 1 shot you and wipe the raid. This is exactly what they do with new primals now, hard mode = story no loot, extreme = loot. They just replaced hard with normal and extreme with hard.

I would be more interested in the raids to be structured similar to Crystal Tower, story-wise. Have it feature characters from the main story and allow the main story to get it started, but let it branch off into its own thing from then on.

[Evangela]

It's obvious. how can you expect them to sell an expansion pack full of content that 80% of the players can't do?

we already have storyline primal trials and the extreme mode of them.

[Firepower]

What I would like to see would be casuals can farm for tomes to get gear that can be upgraded, raiders can get +10 ilevel gear from coil. (as we currently have)

Put in normal mode coil with same ilv as tome gear (non upgradable, similar to CT). Make the final boss drop from the normal mode coil a few upgrade pieces to upgrade tome gear and use perhaps a CT style restriction to 1 armor or accessory loot and 1 upgrade loot per week. Throw in some craftable and minions for normal coil and it will not be ignored but I can't imagine would enrage hardcore raiders as it doesn't hand out the highest teir of gear and only allows a small fraction of people access to the higher ilv loot after the final boss which could be tuned to be somewhat difficult.

I remember back in 2.0 the majority of people farmed coil 1-4 weekly and left 5 alone as the high allagan weapons were only i90 then plus twintania was very difficult in comparison to t4. You could have some kind of tuning similar to that for normal coil where teir 1-4 pose some level of difficulty but not overly too difficult and have the final turn require a much more co-ordinated effect, thus splitting your playerbase into a more equal standing.

Casuals - tome gear (upgraded at 0.5 patch with access to 24 man raid drops)
Mid teir turn 1-4 - tome gear + extra loot per week
Mid/upper teir - tome gear + extra loot + 1 upgraded to raid teir
Raid teir - tome gear + extra loot + 1 upgraded + raid drops

With approximately 6 weeks between patch starting and 0.5 coming out that would allow potential players to accumulate (assuming the same gear costs today):

casual - 2700 tomes = ~6 pieces of gear (depends on body/leg/acc choice of gear)
mid teir = 12 pieces of gear (full set of gear)
mid/upper = 12 pieces of gear, 6 pieces upgraded to raid teir (dependant on choices of tome gear selected, if a weapon is available and requires 3 weeks worth of tomes they would have weapon and a lesser amount of gear upgraded)
raid teir = 6 pieces upgraded to raid teir + raid drops which can vary wildly due to the lockout, progression of statics, bugs and RNG.

By that point release of the 24 man raid it would allow casuals and mid teirs to upgrade their gears by choosing to use their weekly lots on the upgrade items. The hardcore raiders should in theory be close to full max ilevel and doing raids for BIS gear or weapon drops. The assumption would be that the hard mode raid would also be tuned to be more difficult in gear checks to soften the acceleration of gear acquisition by hardcores by the introduction of the normal coil.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Maybe each raid will be buit into the main story quests for each patch. Normal = story mode with no loot. Everyone gets to see the story. Hard mode raid is where the loot drops where mechanics can 1 shot you and wipe the raid. This is exactly what they do with new primals now, hard mode = story no loot, extreme = loot. They just replaced hard with normal and extreme with hard.

I really don't like how they do the post original trio Primals, one and done HM is not a good idea. There needs to be a reason to do them multiple times.

What I would like to see would be casuals can farm for tomes to get gear that can be upgraded, raiders can get +10 ilevel gear from coil. (as we currently have)

Put in normal mode coil with same ilv as tome gear (non upgradable, similar to CT). Make the final boss drop from the normal mode coil a few upgrade pieces to upgrade tome gear and use perhaps a CT style restriction to 1 armor or accessory loot and 1 upgrade loot per week. Throw in some craftable and minions for normal coil and it will not be ignored but I can't imagine would enrage hardcore raiders as it doesn't hand out the highest teir of gear and only allows a small fraction of people access to the higher ilv loot after the final boss which could be tuned to be somewhat difficult.

Sound pretty good except I would not want the NM final boss dropping upgrade tokens. Save those for the Hardmode Raids and the every other patch 24 man CT replacement.

[Erepio]

I really don't like how they do the post original trio Primals, one and done HM is not a good idea. There needs to be a reason to do them multiple times.

i agree with this...a simple solution for me would be for HM to drop a minion of the primal or atleast have % to drop one (kinda like the crafting mat or onion knight)

[RazeLandale]

I guess it depends if normal means middle ground difficulty or pug n faceroll. I mean, wasn't raid finder one of the big things that lead to wows decline? It made the hardcore player go 'what's the point?' and the casual player 'beat the game' and they both stopped playing.

[Sadonix]

Comes out too slow,at a very obtuse pace. It's one of the things that they should've seen this come to fruitation right when designing game content. It's not like this is the first game that ever done this..what the hell are you thinking ?

One of the things I've noticed in this game is that they constantly make any content outside of coil raiding more and more grindy and tedious,while never actually touch on the raids itself(and before some dufus try to bring up t6-8 as counterargument,I mean an actual,relevant raid,like those final coils)

i70 guaranteed IV materia ? Great,nerf them next patch. nexus relic farming too easy ? Time to ramp up the challenge ! Fishing for desynth materials ? Here,let's make it harder and take out some rewards so they have to spend even more time !

Meanwhile I've yet to see a single actual "nerf" to the raiding content. And I don't mean those stupid t6-8 either,I mean while the contents outside of coil get more tedious,why are the (current) coil itself never been included in this treatment ? You want people to spend more time fishing,or crafting but you never seem to do the same to raiding. Want people to spend more time in your game ? Why not increase weekly lockout to dual weekly lockout ? Decrease loot drops ? Nope ? Well,not a surprise really it's pretty clear you favor raiding over other contents(which translate to a preferential treatment to a certain group of customers)

Sorry my sub is running out soon,and so is my patience-without refill.Springbreak next year just has too many lovely video game attraction Raiding is fun,but I don't want it to eclipse all other content,like how this game is managed.


No worry though now they've got one less "casual" to "cater" to. Now they can make their dream of "hardcore" community come true !