Hi All,

There are definitely positives and negatives to both sides of the argument.

As much of a thrill it was to claim Nidhogg or King Behemoth legitimately in the original days of FF XI, looking back on it, it's outweighed by how many times you've lost the claim or got the claim but had no drops. It's staggering how many hours / days of one's life were wasted just *standing around* for hours and hoping you outclaim other groups, and have the whole experience ruined by Claim Bots.

That's just not fun.

On the other hand, having an open claim system does have its problems as well. As Darkstar pointed out, if it's based on the amount of damage everyone contributes, a high powered LS can stroll in to any HNM fight and out-damage the original claiming party and end up with the drop.

Perhaps a "Tiered System" is necessary. As an example:

* 1st Hit = Access to Loot Pool 1 (which has certain rare items / drops)
* Most Damage Done to HNM = Access to Loot Pool 2 (other rare items)
* 2nd Most Damage Done to HNM = Access to Loot Pool 3 (some other item(s))

So that way, even if you won the initial claim, your party has a Loot Pool 1 chance regardless of if anyone else comes along to help. Others, then, have incentive to try and win access to Loot Pool 2 or 3.

But that still won't solve griefing problems as Meowie and others brought up (like triggering Spike Flail / some Boss Attack to wipe out your party on purpose)).

Ultimately, though, I think Tirion and others brought it up best:

* It should be about the challenge, excitement and skill of defeating some End Game Content, instead of standing around for hours every 3 days and seeing who has the fastest spamming fingers (or fastest claim bot).

Is competition good? Sure. But unless SE can 100% Guarantee that they have programmatic defenses in place to detect Claim Bots and ban them on the spot, I'd rather have instanced content that requires us to plan, strategize, challenge us with the fight itself (and the accompanying journey to get there), rather than have a flashback to Nidhogg of XI's early days.

Let's see what they have in store for us; and hopefully our friendly Community Rep can bring up our questions / concerns to Yoshida-san.