Bring back 1.0 Notorious Monsters please.

[Arkine]

Unique monsters that appear in the middle of group of mobs of the same family. (A big Bat in the middle of a group of bats) That we can kill to get special items of various levels from.

1.0 rules: pops every 5-10 minutes, but won't pop if nobody kills the mobs in its location to spawn it, and it has a chance of dropping the loot.(25-100% depending)

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This would be fun to have as it would give players more ways to obtain leveling equipment and weapons. We can also have some high lvl ones with higher level items that don't compete with endgame loot. (Like lets say a Lv48 item that is iLv62) and of course glamor gear.

Those aren't hard to implement, so it can also introduce gear to carry people over to the new set of content. (NM Goblin, needs 2-3 people to kill, drops a Lv51 iLv95 Chest maybe? green quality, can't be sold or desynthed)

Equipment doesn't have to belong to sets, it can be just a unique item: NM A drops a helmet for WAR and nothing else, while NM B drops a Spear etc.

This system was replaced by FATEs when XIV came out and lets face it, nobody likes those.

I'd love to see NMs back!

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Oh Ark! Please no! FFXI NMs were terrible!

I know right? That's why this thread is asking for NMs that are under FFXIV 1.0 rules, with maybe a little dash of FFXI blended in to keep things interesting.

*Low Respawn times OR force spawns.
*High or 100% Drop rates.
*Unique loot of all levels and styles to help with lvling, catching up with new content, and glamor.
*NMs will have special abilities or have strange properties to make the fights interesting.

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But Ark! We have HUNTs!

Hunts only serve Lv50 player and anybody under 50 who manages to get into a PT. The respawns on S and A ranks take too long, and cause drama with how every player on the server wants to get in on this.

NMs by comparision are less dramatic and serves a wider player base.

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Useful stuff to read.
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BlaiseArath Wrote a nice example of how this could work!

that would be worse than XI's system , however I more than appreciate you making a suggestion and compromise ^^

Daily however, wouldn't be too bad. However, A force pop system might work. There's just not enough "Go solo stuff" content, and NMs could be that solo content. Dungeons you can technically enter solo and roulettes, but its all partied stuff. I don't want everything in this game for DoW/DoM to be solo, but some real tangible solo content, open world or not, could give a lot of people something to do when they just don't want to run the same dungeon for the 30th time. NMs were always more of a "Well, I don't want to do anything end-gamey right now" thing in XI, at least for me... and they were a nice distraction even if they were useless.

I think XIV has the potential to add NMs in a way that won't be too horrible for people who are cautious against the idea, but in a way that makes it fun enough that those who crave an NM type experience will enjoy it. I know I've posted examples before, but I'll do it again to show some of you how it might be handled in a way that won't interfere too much with the status quo but add variety and life to the open world as solo content, or even small group content. Let me just paint a picture by showing you what I mean.

-Example NMs-
Panzer Percival:

Beetle NM in Middle LN, timed spawn 5-10 minutes. Spawns near the level 3~ Beetles. Is level 5 and can drop one of 3 items.
*Level 5 Pink Tier Daggers - I'd rather see green unique gear instead of rehashed pink stuff personally - Arkine
*Level 5 Pink Tier Great Axe -
*Level 5 Pink tier Grimoire -

Elder Goobbue:

NM Goobbue, timed spawn 10~minutes, can spawn in any of the "Farms" near the crystal in Middle LN. Is level 20. It can drop up to two items
*Level 20 Pink DoM Head armor (75%)
*Level 20(I.lv25) Green armor: "Elder Robe", DoM - Has Earth Resistance +2 as a unique bonus among the other stats. (25%)

Though that doesn't mean they have to be only non-endgame soloable content.... If we want to think outside the box.

-Example "HNM"-
Krabkatoa:

forced pop Mini-crab NM, can be spawned using Quu Stew, a level 50 1 star culinary dish. (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Krabkatoa) - Is level 90, About on par in HP and attack as Fenrir. It will have access to a unique AoE TP move called "Venom Shower", deals moderate amount of damage and inflicts a poison effect that can stack multiple times. Also uses "Mega Scissors", which is conal and has no ground marker, but will reduce anyone whos hit to 10% of their max HP and reduce their enmity. Among those offensive abilities, It can use "Bubble Curtain" and "Scissor Guard" once every seconds which will cycle it between -50% melee damage and -50% magic damage. Only one can be up at a time. Can drop up to 2 of 4 items.
Blue Tier Level 95 DoM Pants - Unique attribute Water Resist +3
Blue Tier Level 95 DoW Pants - Unique Attribute Water Resist +3
Blue Tier Level 95 DoM Ring - Unique Attribute Poison Resist +2
Blue Tier Level 95 DoW Ring - Unique Attribute Poison Resist +2
Unique Drop: Half full Quu Stew (25%)(See West. LN)

Krabimanjaro:

What can be considered an "HNM", an open world coil-type boss. Popped by trading a Half-Full Quu Stew to one of (5?) ??? near the Ship Graveyard. As far as power, is about on par with ~Turn 6 boss in terms of HP and attack potency. Has same abilities as Krabkatoa, however, will now have access to "Giga Scissors", which is now a mid-range AoE instead of conal, and reduces everyone hit to 5%... This move will only be used after "Venom Shower" at 75%, 50%, and 25% HP.
**Phase 1 of this fight will consist of him switching between Bubble Curtain and Scissor Guard every 30 seconds, which has the same effect as Krabkatoa. It will use Mega Scissors in this phase, as well as Bubble Rinse, a short range AoE that removes up to 3 buffs on a player and deals 500 damage for each buff removed.

**Phase 2 begins at 75% HP, it will use Venom Shower followed by Giga Scissors, this will reduce anyone in range to 5% HP, and the poison of Venom shower will kill them off in 1-2 ticks, it repeats this at 50% and 25%. During Phase 2, he will now use Bubble Curtain or Scissor guard every 20 seconds, and gains access to Brine Shower, a mid range AoE that can inflict Paralyze and Blind as well as Poison. During this phase, he will mark 1 target, shortly after he will turn and use an Instant cast Mega Scissors in the direction of that target.

**Phase 3 begins at 25% HP, It will spawn 2 Krabkin, which will have a Cover effect on Krabimanjaro. They are relatively weak, but when they are spawned, Krabimanjaro will begin readying Krabtastrophe, which will draw in anyone fighting it and inflict a powerful gravity. The only way to interrupt his casting is to defeat the adds and damage him before it can go off (similar to 100,000 needles). If successful, he will resume his normal Phase1/2 patterns. It will also gain one new mechanic. Every so often it will mark 2 players, they will be bound in place after 5 seconds, and 2 Krabnami's will spawn on the NM and walk toward them slowly. If they reach their target, they will use a TP move called "Wave of Destruction", which will KO the target and deal damage to other players in range equal to half of that players maximum HP.

**He can drop up to 3 of the following 5 items. All have a unique attribute of "Water Resistance +5" and "Poison Resistance +5" on top of their normal 4 stats.
*Item level 110 DEX Ring
*Item Level 110 STR Ring
*Item level 110 VIT ring
*Item level 110 PLD/WAR Body
*Item Level 110 ROG/MNK Body

(The Body armor will look something like this ^^ : http://www.ffxiah.com/screenshots/29547)
Hint: ITS CRAB ARMOR

What this does is add another avenue of gear for players, as well as give SE more chances to introduce a variety of sub stats for jobs to make them happy. For instance, SMNs being upset at the slew of Spell Speed on coil gear could opt for NMs which might have DET instead, or Crit. In the same way ROG who don't like the Skill speed on some of the Gloam gear can opt for the NM/HNM route for gear with maybe crit rate. It would let SE add more variety in sub stats by adding more than 2 armor choices for end game.

The difference between endgame and mid game NMs:

Mid/Low game NMs would be timed spawn, every 5-10 minutes or so, and drop reasonable and level smart gear for players who wish to boost their low level performance, but not offer such drastic bonuses over normal gear. Much like how dungeon gear works now compared to HQ crafted/Meld.

High level NMs/HNMs would be forced pop with an item, one either gathered in a dungeon or crafted (Giving crafters something to benefit from here). These can range from level 90~100 catch up gear, all the way up to the same level as the current Item level gear. Obviously balance would be tantamount here, and perhaps a weekly restriction on the Higher item level NMs would be a great idea.

So, whats the benefit?

Open world challenging content that can be done solo by low levels, or even require groups for some of the harder stuff. All while offering another venue for Square to introduce Item level equipment with a variety of sub stats to hopefully keep everyone happy. For those scared of NMs, the harder ones could essentially be thought of as open-world coil bosses, that you pop using items gathered or crafted, or even dropped from other NMs, making it balanced would be the key here, and obviously things like daily/weekly lockouts for the higher tier NMs/Drops would not be a bad idea nor would I be against it.

The above text shows a good example of how NMs can be implemented.

While I'm not sure if NMs should have loot that is on par with raid gear, I'm sure it can be implemented in a fair way.

Maybe Mid range NMs can drop items that drop bigger ones.