The disapointment that is Alexander

[Vertanius]

Agreeing with you, I have no desire to do alexander, everything about it looks dull and boring.

[StrejdaTom]

I agree that Alex story mode is easy, but it should be easy. It is here because people who can't raid wanted to experience the raid's story so it is fine.
IMO they shouldn't even put echo in savage later because of SM.

I don't agree with you on the artifical difficulty at all. From my experience my static was able to pass the DPS check on day 1 but we were failing on stuff like buff management for tank busters and mostly adds management. For A2 I don't agree too, I love the fight. As a BRD I have to think a lot when I can put a few AoEs between DoT refreshing and bursting some primary targets. It doesn't have any shiny new mechanics but it is definitely harder for me than A1.
My opinion will still be the same, artifical difficulty is always used by people who fail to master their rotation (not saying I have mastered it) or their class completely, sorry if you take it as an insult.

EDIT: Personaly I never was fan of stuff like "It is not difficult I haven't cleared it because of <random something>."
Momentally doing good damage in raid is part of each DPS and Tank class (and in some parts even Healers), it is not artifical difficulty, DPS checks are normal mechanics, you can't deny them only because you fail to pass them.

[HReincarnate]

snip

Fair point. I still view it as artificial difficulty because upping the numbers is a way of making something more difficult without changing the fight too much. Someone above me listed the ways the fight is different to normal mode but once you've done the normal mode fight, those changes are minuscule & easy to get used to since core mechanics are the same. Btw I'm a healer, but I can say that my group isnt good enough to pass those checks - yet we were able to progress past coils at a steady pace - because the extent of the dps checks was lower and they were more mechanic based. My complaint isnt that dps checks exist, its that they've been made harder while mechanics (especially A1S) have been reduced.

[razzgrizz3]

i finished all coils before and this raid tier is complete garbage imo im sorry. im already quite burnt out from farming the normal versions and am cosidering not even finishing the savage mode (curently on as3). again only tiny turns. something like fractal continuum looks 10 times more impressive design wise. again only 4 bosses, probably should say 3 because as2 is just a shody excuse of a turn. as3 i should say as well since its a recycled model.
the story is a joke sidequest.
not only have they cheapened the experience for raiders like someone said but there is also no cool rewards except for the weapon and maybe something else in as4 altho i doubt it.

with all this said i do wonder what the japanese side of the community thinks since they seem to be the only ones the developers will listen to.

[Verius_Nox]

Aesthetic wise, that's mostly just taste. I find the corridors and steam stuff very fitting for what should be a cramped place anyways as we're only traveling up the arm. A3's boss is actually an allusion to http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Liquid_Flame

Also considering the last boss, I see it being a function of Alexander itself, instead of goblin cronies or anomalies like the A3 boss. That's why it doesn't move, and killing A4's boss is basically taking a stab at Alexander itself.

Difficulty wise, normal is supposed to be really easy. Not everybody's skill level is the same, and Savage A1 is supposed to be more simple mechanic wise to get most groups started, just like how simple turn 1 coil was. So I don't know how much you were expecting from the early fights.

Story wise, it is not as epic as Coil of Bahamut, but the threat of a massive primal is pretty real, whether or not you can see it visibly to the land. Instead of sitting on our butts and waiting to see if it actually does something, we're taking an initiative on it.

As far as the raiding system as a whole goes, what exactly do you suggest? Not having story mode out before/during the difficult raid? If we put a wait on that, we'd see a thread just like this but in reverse, about how people can't see current stories and etc.

[Nadirah]

I'm still boggling at folks kvetching about the difficulty of the *first* boss.

Difficulty generally ramps *up*. Imo, first boss should give people false hope of completion because the rest is brutal.

[Riardon]

Alex normal is just fine with the difficulty. Not easy not too hard. It's just average and that's was the point to begin with. Alex story was somehow disappointing but I think the story with Alex is not over yet. Alex is still there and did not vanish even when we deactivate him. Goblins are still around. I think it's just not over yet. For some reason it made perfect sense to link Alex with the goblins. It matches in this game's plot. And let's remember Alex is not made by goblin nor he is of goblin origin. It just goblin who summoned him this time. I would like to see Alex in action though beaming his lasers and spread his wing to something poor and exterminate it. Be it the Garleans or something else. We just need to see him in action somehow. The interiors well they are average to me but that was the point. He is just a big robotic building I didn't expected to see anything more. They tried hard to match the size of the interiors with the actual size when you see him from outside.

[CosmicKirby]

If you're wiping on anything that isn't healer related in A1S, you're losing to mechanics.
The DPS check was doable without ESO weapons, and with them it's not even an issue if you're actually handling the mechanics in an intelligent way that ensures the dps can focus on their job.

(Sidenote: interesting to see how others did A2S, or even called it easy. Took my group about 4/5 raiding nights to clear it. Started with the NIN in the robot, then I had to do it as a MCH, probably because finding the bomb with a controller is difficult.)

[ValkyrieL]

I agreed that the whole raiding experience has been lost compared to coil.
Savage should of been released at same time as normal or before but due to tight dps check SE made normal mandatory. To get couple of pieces to beat enraged.

[Nadirah]

How similar were the hard fights to normals? A1S and A2S are nearly identical to the story mode fights and are complete excitement killers. A3, at least, has some differences and from what little I've heard of A4 it sounds like T13 levels of pain. Granted, SCoB wasn't much better but with the exception of T9, it had enough differences to be fun for a short while. I wasn't expecting anything revolutionary but at least give us something different instead of rehashing the fights with bigger numbers. Some of the EX primal fights did a better job than A1/2S.

Usually one, maybe two new mechanics on Mythic. Story(lfr) they *remove* mechanics present in normal and heroic. Normal and heroic are just numbers difference.