A little late to the party.

[Eye_Gore]

So I finally got around to finishing the first part of the main story to unlock all the goodies. I started on the relic weapon. My Giantsgall Longsword and I have been on many adventures, but it was time to retire it.

So I made it up to the hard mode primals. Just poked around a bit to get some info on them as to what to expect. Started up Ifrit, eh not so tough got through it no issues, got run over once but didn't really damage me that much.

Garuda. After reading some stuff about it was like "oh maybe a bit more of a challenge". I didn't even get a "Hi" off on the keyboard and the fight was on. This thing went down way faster and easier than when I did it in the story mode. It was dead in about 5 minutes, or so it seemed. A DPS tanked both adds and had them dead in a matter of seconds. By the time the first group of adds died so did Garuda.

Am I that late in the game that most people are way too over geared for such content? Its almost like the healers could tank and take it down. I felt bad going into Titan for the other tank ( i think it was him). That at the start said they were new and asked for any tips. I got off that I was new to it also, but the party already started bum rushing Titan so I jumped in to get the pull ahead of everyone. All I saw was a "just dodge" for a tip come up. Not much of a challenge either. On to the extremes, maybe a bit more of a challenge.

It just seems that with the gearing up going on some of this content needs to be adjusted somehow to compensate. I don't really do the big hunts that often, maybe if I'm in the area. I can see why they are down so fast. Though on the other hand I guess the hard mode primals are for people just starting to gear up, but with the roulettes you just end up with folks way over geared for such content.

Maybe some type of active HP adjustment based on the average Ilvl of the party? Don't know how or if that would work, but maybe something along those lines. Anyways on to the extremes.

[Millerna]

The HM primals are a joke with the current iLvl people have, which is unfortunate, especially for people who haven't done it yet.

That said, Titan HM was a pain in the ass when people weren't overgeared

[Defteros]

The HM primals are a joke with the current iLvl people have, which is unfortunate, especially for people who haven't done it yet.

That said, Titan HM was a pain in the ass when people weren't overgeared

people still wipe at Levi HM because no one bothers with activating the converter.

[Dargondarkfire]

people still wipe at Levi HM because no one bothers with activating the converter.

that's because everyone wants to ignore all mechanics and just tank and spank everything. i lost count of how many times my DF finder groups wiped trying to beat ultros to get that minion.

[Eye_Gore]

that's because everyone wants to ignore all mechanics and just tank and spank everything.

When I did Chimera fro the relic quest. I asked if there was anything special they wanted me to do, placement, where to pull too, that sort of stuff. "Just tank and spank" was the reply. I fought FATES that were harder than that thing. Its funny people always say watch a vid or read a guide. If you do when you get to the actual fight, nothing happens with the group like the guides or vids say. If adds spawn and they say I should tank them, I do, then have the group say leave the adds the DPS can handle them" Or if I OT and the info says you should stay to the sides, only to have the MT say stay in front, or if I stay in front only to be told to move to the side. Maybe the guides need to be adjusted for iLvl also.

[Hiruke]

Its funny people always say watch a vid or read a guide. If you do when you get to the actual fight, nothing happens with the group like the guides or vids say.

That's what happens when you show up to content a year later. If you're doing current content, I guarantee you're not ignoring mechanics. Probably no one is going to make updated guides for stuff that is ancient, because the strategy is either going to be the same, a natural progression of the same strategy to account for higher iLVL, or a "ignore everything and just murder it" scenario. How they are able to bypass mechanics should be clear if you understood the mechanics to begin with from the video. Either way, your first time or two in DF should quickly let you know what strategy people are making popular these days.

[KaedrianLiang]

that's because everyone wants to ignore all mechanics and just tank and spank everything. i lost count of how many times my DF finder groups wiped trying to beat ultros to get that minion.

make a PF group, advertise that the group will run it 8 times so everyone gets one. Over those 8 successful runs the group sharpens its edge on mechanics and experience with the fight. Don't allow notorious quitters to join the pt.

[Ashkendor]

The HM primals are a joke with the current iLvl people have, which is unfortunate, especially for people who haven't done it yet.

That said, Titan HM was a pain in the ass when people weren't overgeared

Yes. Yes it was. I remember needing a PF to beat it for my first relic because DF couldn't do it.

that's because everyone wants to ignore all mechanics and just tank and spank everything. i lost count of how many times my DF finder groups wiped trying to beat ultros to get that minion.

A lot of people are used to Levi EX where you get a spinning dive before you have to activate.

@OP - the content is old and has been recycled for Nexus light farming now. Nobody wants to sync back down to the item level where they'd actually need to do mechanics because it makes the fight 2-3 times as long for the same amount of light. Since they just doubled the light, I really don't see that happening. If you want to experience it as it was back in the day, you'll probably have to put up a party finder asking for people in lower item level gear.

[Kosmos992k]

@OP - the content is old and has been recycled for Nexus light farming now. Nobody wants to sync back down to the item level where they'd actually need to do mechanics because it makes the fight 2-3 times as long for the same amount of light.

You mean....if there was some form of ilvl sync, people would...have to actually *play* the content? Shocking!

No, but seriously, why does everything have to be done so damned quickly? If you actually had to do the mechanics it might make the fight a bit longer, but you know, you might actually have to...um...think and...er...work together. That's a whole lot more enjoyable - and inline with the point of an MMORPG - than burning the boss, ignoring mechanics, and raising the dead afterwards.

Running content and ignoring mechanics relegates what is meant to be a game you play, to a chore you must do. If some want to treat the game as a chore or job, that's their choice, but I honestly think it's wrong for the developers to facilitate that by not balancing older content against newer gear with an ilvl sync.

[Purrfectstorm]

No, but seriously, why does everything have to be done so damned quickly?

Since someone already referenced George Carlin I'll add that he also once asked: "Why is it that everyone that drives faster than me is a maniac and everyone that drives slower is an idiot?"

Point being, when you haven't done the content/only done it a few times, you might want to take your time and really understand it/experience it but once you've done Garuda HM literally hundreds of times, there's nothing more to see. You just want to get through it for whatever grind (light, demimateria, or whatever) so you can get on to more enjoyable content.

I really enjoyed the primal fights when I first did them. You couldn't ignore mechanics, they were challenging. But nowadays, I'm part of the "let's get this over with" crowd. And this is what happens when you have a system that puts veteran players in with newer players. The benefit is newer players get faster queue times but the downside is they don't get to experience content as it was originally designed.

I mean pick your poison but I personally think a player can't join an MMO after a year and expect old content to ever play as it was originally designed. Even with ilevel sync, you get 7 veterans in Titan HM and 1 newbie and they're dead and get carried through, only it takes longer to queue AND to win. They'll never know the frustration of actually having to be an asset in such an old fight, wiping for hours and then finally getting it down. They can still get that same feeling on new content though.

As another example, imagine a player getting into the game now with all that's changed: roulettes, challenge log, retainer ventures, desynthesis, gear moved to different locations, higher level tome items, etc. The game being the same experience for brand new players was never an option. On the plus side, most of the changes have been for the better, it's easy for new players to catch up to veteran players, and new content will be hard/challenging for everyone. If you add ilevel sync to primals, all that will happen is it will be harder/longer for new players to catch up, it will do nothing for the "purity" of the experience. I'm against dungeon ilevel sync for this reason also.

Anyway, the best solution for a new player who wants to see what the fight was like originally is to get a group of 8 players together in i60/i70 gear, turn off echo, and try it out. I really don't think that SE should force this on veteran players though, it'll be lose-lose for everyone in my opinion.