Patch Notes are up!

[Starcade]

Totally belaboring the point i made a little bit back, but does the change to SoF somehow invalidate your eventual win after 30 attempts? Or is it a case of 'I walked uphill to school, both ways, through 10 foot snowdrifts, at absolute zero-so everyone else should too!!!!!!' ?

I think there has to be a real look, on the part of Square-Enix, as to what level of play they are willing to accept with respect to their playerbase as they enter 3.0 content.

It's clear we have a borderline-incompetent playerbase, if you take it as a whole. It's just time that SE has to take a real look at it and wonder if the $ and quantity so far outweigh the quality that the players who are good are going to have very little to really do.

[Natashio]

Anyone care for some french fries...

[Jamein]

In this patch we bring you brand new FFXIV tactics and strategies!

Enter instance
Place face on keyboard
roll face across keyboard
Get loot

In all seriousness, people were screaming for SoF to be nerfed about 5 hours after it was released. So I am amazed it took this long to nerf it.

[MagnamStyle]

i don't see how reduced HP means an easier time.. faster yes, but easier?... uhhh

[Starcade]

I think SE underestimated just how much of a hurdle SoF would actually be when done by eight random people. The mechanics are pretty nifty, but the unforgiving nature of the battle made it a real pain in the ass to do in DF. You miss a couple of dragonkillers, you mayaswell just all AFK until the thing resets and pray that half the party hasn't left in the meantime. It's just a matter of effort vs reward - right now it requires too much of the former for not enough of the latter, so many people just automatically leave when they land on it.

I think SE clearly OVERESTIMATED the skills of the playerbase -- a playerbase weaned on Windower-XI and cheats and bots and all that kind of crap.

This is one of the largest reasons I loved Steps forcing people out of 123 Kick 123 Kick... You could almost bot that. You can't do it on unnerfed Steps.

[Krylo]

To the people complaining about 'Carebears' and 'Casuals' and 'Poor players making SoF easy'.

Stop.

They weren't the problem.

The problem was the people who cleared day 1 and abandoned.

Which is to say the problem is that SoF has no rewards for the time commitment and was mixed in with trials that take 1/4th the time, and were so over geared that wiping never happens.

This nerf will do little, if anything, to help people clear SoF, because the people who already cleared it still won't get anything for doing it, even if it only takes them 15 minutes and 0 wipes, instead of 60 minutes and 3 wipes. It's still a more 'efficient' use of time to leave, and spend your 30 minute lock out leveling another class/crafting/doing literally anything else.

Everyone else: Stop pretending it is/was too hard for you to complete when you never even got to run it twice within an hour time period to learn it. I've never left an SoF group (except once last night after 4 other people already left, and with apologies to the other guys--but I really didn't have a half hour to wait for it to fill at 6am), and have never seen a group not improve with every attempt--except my first one on day 3 of patch, when the tank (who blamed everyone else, and had already cleared) refused to hold aggro where he should. I've hardly ever seen a group without the potential to win.

This 'EVERYONE IS TERRIBLE SE NEEDS TO NERF' rhetoric is completely BS. Unless by 'terrible' you mean impatient, and by 'nerf' you mean 'add rewards that are worth the time investment required to get them'. In which case, yeah, okay.

[Starcade]

To the people complaining about 'Carebears' and 'Casuals' and 'Poor players making SoF easy'.

Stop.

They weren't the problem.

The problem was the people who cleared day 1 and abandoned.

No.

I didn't clear it Day One -- it actually took me a couple weeks of headbanging and watching players completely and deliberately IGNORE the needed mechanics.

And, regarding your "rhetoric" people like me are taking: The playerbase is (largely) terrible (as in incompetent without being handheld or third-party-programmed) and this isn't a "nerf" -- it blows up the fight.

[Spiritreaver1217]

It's the case of the skill level of the playerbase. It's a legitimate concern...

Sorry, forcing a low skilled player to redo a fight blocking progression will likely cause a rage-quit more than a sudden improvement in skill.

Optional content(Raids, EX Primals, etc.) getting nerfed into the ground...you know? I still son't see a problem, because those that want a challenge are usually in the first groups to attempt the content.

I don't understand this attitude at all...

Read and agree with whole post.

[Crescent_Dusk]

I think there has to be a real look, on the part of Square-Enix, as to what level of play they are willing to accept with respect to their playerbase as they enter 3.0 content.

It's clear we have a borderline-incompetent playerbase, if you take it as a whole. It's just time that SE has to take a real look at it and wonder if the $ and quantity so far outweigh the quality that the players who are good are going to have very little to really do.

Let me think......YES. Sorry Mr. Skills, deficient players make up the majority of the playerbase and they pay the same monthly sub fee.

If you are so hardcore, try clearing Alexander without guides and without echo when Heavensward releases. You'll see that there is plenty to do when you aren't mimmicking successful strategies you had to put no effort into figuring out.

[Duelle]

Considering it is a Main Story Trial, it would have been changed one way or another. People would like to blaze through the MSQ once the expansion hits and they make new characters,
with SoF being the final stepping stone which they don't want to trip over.

Hey! Quit using logic and and stop trying to understand the repercussions of having old content cockblock people years from now when Heavensward is old news!

PS: You're 100% correct.