Goodbye Garuda Hard?

[Mercutial]

I think Ultima hard is still a fun trial to do because there's no way to over gear past the ball phases. You will always have to be on guard for those.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's a DAMN SHAME this fight has been lost in purgatory for so long. It is so much fun at any level. The design, mechanics and music are all top-tier awesome. Maybe SE can find a way to incorporate it into a future relic quest or have it pop in Trial Roulette or something. I miss it.

[LaylaTsarra]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's a DAMN SHAME this fight has been lost in purgatory for so long. It is so much fun at any level. The design, mechanics and music are all top-tier awesome. Maybe SE can find a way to incorporate it into a future relic quest or have it pop in Trial Roulette or something. I miss it.

I had to run it the other day on an alt. It was surprisingly difficult given many running it were in fact new players with mostly level 50ish gear.

[Alberel]

This is SE's fault to a large extent for forcing players to rerun old content for their relic/zodiac. When players are told they need to farm something over 100 times to finish they will do it in the fastest way possible. If SE had been a bit more imaginative and given us some new challenging content to clear instead you wouldn't see Garuda steamrolled like this so much.

Also, imposing an artificial restriction such as an iLvl cap would result in the opposite extreme: you'd have groups failing to clear the fight due to one or two first timers and people rage-quitting all over the place. I think the majority of players would much rather not waste their time with that on their 50th run of the trial. If you want to make it challenging for yourself just get some players together to run it in the gear it was intended for.

[Niqote]

To be fair... We have been farming Garuda since 1.0.

Perhaps its time for a new trial category with a better reward in it.

[TriksteR]

Fun fact: Garuda (HARD) is easier than Garuda ("EASY") nowadays.

[NaliaBrown]

Fun fact: Garuda (HARD) is easier than Garuda ("EASY") nowadays.

Truth. Story mode Garuda is still one of the hardest trials for me just because of the level sync.

[Yumi_umi]

Garuda story mode is the only version that forces u to do if not all of the mechanics from start to finish.
Oh well we all remember the days of hugging the left wall in garuda hm.
Stay away from pillars or it'll break = wipe! Looool

[LineageRazor]

For folks claiming that syncing Garuda HM will mean there will be a lot less people running it - this is probably true. However, currently there are WAY more people running Garuda than there, by all rights, should be, due to her being an easy source of lights/pulses. Add a sync to reinforce mechanics, and Garuda won't suddenly be something no one does; rather it will return to being on-par with Ifrit and Titan HM in the number of folks signing on. That's not so terrible.

Whether it's better for a newbie to be carried past once-difficult content with ease so they can get on to more current content, or whether it's better for the newbie to experience the fights "as they were meant to be experienced" really depends on the newbie, I think.

Personally, I think the sync is a good idea, because I found learning Garuda HM to be fun, and want others to be able to experience that fun without being forced to jump through hoops (acquire mid-level gear, party-finder a like-minded group ALSO with mid-level gear, etc). That's just me, though; others might have the opinion that obsolete content is obsolete, and it's better for newbies to push past that crap asap; it was fun once, but those days are past - on to new fun!

[Ayrie]

Stuff

Because titan and ifrit hm are so balanced in terms of people running it. You do realize ifrit and Shiva are just behind 'ruda in terms of light window excitement?

[Kiara]

Perhaps from a wistful, "this might be fun" *in principal* point-of-view, forcing a level sync on old content seems like a way to "keep it challenging" or "like the way they originally intended it," but in reality it causes more frustration than "fun."

* Level syncing old content undermines the player's feeling of *growth* and advancement over time. After clearing old content, you progress and "level up" / earn better and better gear, and one of the BEST feelings in RPGs is being able to *feel* that your character is now far more powerful than it used to be.

Level syncing stuff back to original restrictions means you'll *never* feel like you've really powered up or gotten stronger as a character. There've been RPGs over the years that had monster / level-syncing to keep up with your level, and it felt pretty awful. Because every single fight, every single dungeon is a hard / long battle. It's *good* to have content that becomes easier the more you gear up / power up.

Yes, it's very easy because we're so overgeared now, but it's also a great feeling that reflects your efforts from gearing up over time.


* And with the Dev Team funneling players to rehash OLD content (repeatedly) for stuff (Animus Books, Relic Light Grinding, etc.), level syncing old content would just slow down progress to a CRAWL. It would be flat out *awful*. There's no way in hell players would bother grinding Garuda or earlier battles for Light if it took 5 - 7 times as long as it does now. It would inflate the grind to astronomical levels.

No thanks.