Am I the only one that sort of kinda likes the nerf to SoF?

[AlexionSkylark]

Actually, SoF FORCED people to cooperate. If they still refuse to do so, well, it's THEIR problem. They shouldn't have the content spoon-fed to them. Let them wipe till they learn how to properly behave in a MMO.

[Fyce]

SE don't "need" to cater to low-tier playerbase

Contradicting yourself from a sentence to another aside, with this one you clearly show us that you have absolutly no idea what kind of player are currently making the MMORPG playerbase, and that you don't know how the market is evolving either.

Wanting "these idiots" to go away is just simply not an option. That's what I meant by "deal with it", it was actually not a trolling attempt. You have to deal with the market evolving and the need to adjust content to the masses (really, the word speaks for itself), especially when said content is needed to get to the very first expension of the game.

You are underestimating the impact and the consequences if you suddenly remove half of the playerbase just because they are not above the average skill level.

Besides, the fact that you find that fight easy doesn't mean that it was for everyone. Again, you are ignoring a big part of the community by simply thinking that your experience with this fight is the same for everyone. It's not. SE have the numbers, you don't. If they though that it was needed to increase the number of people able to complete this trial, so be it, we are not making the game, they are.

On a final note: why do you even care? You've cleared this content already and have no need to go back to it. The only reason why you would do it is because it's a part of the Trial Roulette. Even then, I'm pretty sure that you don't want to deal with bad people making your runs a failure over and over again or even people leaving just before the fight even start.
You have absolutly no valid reason to ask for this fight to remain like it was at launch. None.

[Odett]

The word "casual" keeps being thrown around. Casual does not equal bad. SoF was cool in the sense that you needed to actually communicate to get things done, so it was nice to have content outside of Coil that required you to do that. It's a very easy fight if you LISTEN, but not many people are willing to do that, sadly. I was hoping (and still hope) that the difficulty (for lack of a better term, because the fight is not difficult if you listen) would be foreshadowing for Heavensward. You don't want to listen or cooperate? Maybe you shouldn't be playing an MMO in the first place. I'm tired of content being nerfed because people QQ about not being able to faceroll fights.

[Yumi_umi]

If only SE added a vote reset....
All of this QQ about difficulty nerf would be like only 1 or 2 threads.
It would keep the difficulty but would allow more attempts and make it more salvagable if an attempt messes up to a point of no return.

[Viridiana]

The least you can do is accept that they should be able to purchase Heavensward and keep paying their monstly sub so SE can make the hard content you want.

You're right. That is the least we can do. . .Why are we aiming to do the least, again? Why aren't we trying to better people? To inspire them to better themselves?

[KisaiTenshi]

Solution for everyone:

Add SoF (Hard) with the original mechanics with ilevel not synced. ilevel sync the existing SoF to 110.

[SDaemon]

Solution for everyone:

Add SoF (Hard) with the original mechanics with ilevel not synced. ilevel sync the existing SoF to 110.

Because players queued into SoF in droves to experience the challenge pre-nerf. No one ever instantly abandoned duty to avoid the fight entirely....wait.

[CGMidlander]

Steps was not casual unfriendly. One of the chat/socializing linkshells I'm in is filled with casual players and none of the 100-someodd players there complained in chat about it being unbeatable. The complaints were mostly limited to people in df bailing after loading in. But to get around that, the casuals formed parties of their own on pf and cleared with other casuals no problem.

Steps was only a roadblock to people who can't read or people who throw fits when somebody tells them what to do.

Not all casual players are the same as the aforementioned morons. They might not be geared optimally, perform rotations optimally, or land all their positionals...etc. But most can read and can handle the one or two tasks required of them in Steps.

[OranKells]

Abandon rates say otherwise.

I'm sorry, but it's just flat misinformation for taking opnion as fact on this. The raw numbers were the deciding factor of the nerf.

It needed to happen, and needed to happen now. There's little over a month until heavensward and there should be no major obstructions keeping people from participating in the baseline experience they paid for when purchasing the expansion.

Those who rely on the 'get gud' argument really have no sense of economics.

This was not that major an obstruction. I think it needs an easier reset button but, this trial was not that difficult; if you could just think it through and actually pay attentions to mechanics instead of burning it down. But also would it be so bad if there were any obstructions?
I appreciate SE wants everyone to experience the basic story. And maybe it isn't fair to just pick five eight teenagers with attitude out of nowhere, just tell them to stop Rita Repulsa and expect them to save the world. A team is only as good as its members.

However the way this game shoves echo down your throat every time we fail a story quest. I see level 50 paladins who don't know what shield oath is, Black mages who spam fire 3 and ONLY fire 3, and they get through it because nothing challenges them at all to learn how to play better.

I just want one fight to be a skill check. Not a gear check, not a dps check, Something simple, that shows you know your ABCs can count past 10 without taking off your shoes, and can tell the difference between a ladybug and a chimera. I feel like this fight accomplishes that, there needs to be something that keeps the bad players from advancing until they get better.

[TouchandFeel]

IMO, Steps was not hard in the least and did not need to be nerfed.

What it did need was basic stuff that it should have had from the start; these being a rest on a full wipe, more of a reward to get people to want to redo it (accessory, minion or card drops or more tomes) and potentially moving it from trial roulette to main scenario roulette due to the current much greater completion time necessary for Steps.

It is incredibly easy if you do the simple mechanics the fight was designed with. The real problem comes from many people that have completed it and know the fight don't want to go back and do it again, which hopefully the above suggestions would help with. Then there are the non-majority but ever present group of players that don't know the content and don't want to listen or learn and just expect everyone to "go go go" and carry them so they can clear and get the loot. Unfortunately I can't do much about these people since you can't help those that refuse to be helped (outside of carrying them and I personally do not support carrying dead weight). While fewer than those that want to learn and beat it, they create more of a burden on those that are already having a difficult time making it even harder.

Those are the main issue that I see with Steps, nobody wanting to do it again, which leaves those that want to try to clear it but are not quite able without the assistance that could get them the win and then the lazy and entitled subset of players, that while not the majority of the player base have a noticeable detracting influence on the game experience for many players.

Or at least that is how I feel about the problems with and subsequent nerfs to steps.

People should be able to clear this content and not be locked out from HW, but those that are too busy watching TV while poking at a single key on their keyboard to spam one ability, if they can't clear it well too bad. They shouldn't expect to beat or win at a game if they're not even really playing it.