Normal/Savage Alexander complaint

[Akiza]

Normal mode content should always come out before hard mode content it's game design 101. People complaint about having to do normal mode raid before hard mode want story and gear exclusivity which will anger 80% of the player base. There isn't a game on the market that lets players complete hard mode before beating normal mode since every game forces players to go through normal mode to unlock hard mode difficulty of the game.

[SasukeUchiha81]

Don't worry, sit back, take a break! Come here and everyone keep yelling how hard it is, how its too much! And SE will come in, NERF it after the top tier Raid groups complete it, then every raid group will be able to do it! That is their MO isn't it?

[Nadirah]

We need real raids that isn't just 1 path of trash then a boss fight and we need to have at lest 2 full party's in said raids.

But yes VargasVermillion I can get behind your suggestion only problem is that the people who would prefer doing the story one will whine till they got their way.

Only ones I see whining are whining about normal in general.

[Nadirah]

Speak for yourself, 40 man raiding was glorious. So much more epic than the theme park fights we get now.

72 might be a little much though.

You must not have been the raid leader.

Never again. Was worse than herding cats.

[Nadirah]

If we must have a normal mode for people who think they can't raid then I'd prefer savage come out first, then the easier mode for catch up. Story isn't as big of an issue it's more the fact that half the fight is pretty much spoiled and you know which bosses are coming up, takes away from the excitement of progression. I think there's still a lot of room for improvement with the raids in general though but that's another thing altogether.

Except you'd still be farming normal for the leg up the gear gives.

[Reynhart]

What I still don't understand is why they release content "backwards".
Crystal Tower was supposed to be available at launch, but was delayed, so we got i90 from Coil and few months later, i80 from LotA.

Why didn't they release Void Ark BEFORE Alex Savage ? This way, people would have farmed Alex normal, then Void Ark, and then Alex Savage, which would have probably avoid this sense of doing only the same fights back to back.

[Melixy]

When I did Coil, I felt rewarded by three things-- the story, the gear, and the challenge. And I firmly think you can feel rewarded for all three of these. Does it suck that players got locked behind hard fights that required good luck finding pug groups or finding a good static? Yes. It does suck. I felt bad for a lot of my friends when they couldn't get through FCoB. And I later helped some of them clear the content when it wasn't locked so they COULD experience it. There should be story stuff available for people who can't do the hardcore stuff.

But having a rehashed version of the "casual raid" seems a little unfaithful to the hardcore raiders. Could we cope with it? Sure. But I don't think it's the best thing SE could give to us. It's not the best compromise. I'm bothered by the lack of new story in Savage, but I could easily overlook that if the bosses themselves were not, for the most part, just their counterparts with a few mechanic differences and their damage output being significantly higher.

Here's my suggestion-- have Savage be a mini-arc in the story. I'm not really saying have it be its OWN story, but have it be something that's not really through the Wandering Minstrel (Because while that's a good idea, it has the tendency to get overused if one isn't careful, and that darn bard tends to get carried away-- I'm already mad at that guy for singing about Nael dropping rocks on my head during Heavensfall, he needs to tone it down some.).

What I'd personally suggest is since we've cleared out this robot and it's still around, have Savage be an attempt by the WoL to explore Alexander for more secrets. There doesn't have to be many cutscenes and doesn't have to be much dialogue. Maybe some dialogue from Cid going, "Hey, I want you to check out where you previously were in Alexander and see if you can find anything on how to get it to disappear for good." The bosses could then be leftovers from our first jaunt into Savage. For Gordias, I'd imagine the first floor could be a haywire/malfunctioning version of the Oppressor that's rather upset at you for beating him up, maybe second floor could be like some Illuminati gobbie warlord that's mad you made his buddies go "gobbieboom", etc. A mix of old fights and new-- new mechanics, new faces to bash in. It'd certainly make Alexander Savage feel a little more fresh and people wouldn't have to worry about being locked out of a very bare minimal story (that really just serves to introduce the new bosses).

[SendohJin]

What I'd personally suggest is since we've cleared out this robot and it's still around, have Savage be an attempt by the WoL to explore Alexander for more secrets. There doesn't have to be many cutscenes and doesn't have to be much dialogue.

your idea is worse, creating any dialogue exclusive to Savage is bad.

[Melixy]

your idea is worse, creating any dialogue exclusive to Savage is bad.

Creating dialogue exclusive to Savage is bad? Even if it's just one or two lines at the start of the Savage quest? A quest literally anyone could do by themselves after clearing Alexander NM?

Why? It's not gated by anything the average populace wouldn't already be clearing, aka-- the "story mode". The rest of the questline would just be beating the difficult bosses in an 8-man raid.

[Miscreant]

Creating dialogue exclusive to Savage is bad? Even if it's just one or two lines at the start of the Savage quest? A quest literally anyone could do by themselves after clearing Alexander NM?

Why? It's not gated by anything the average populace wouldn't already be clearing, aka-- the "story mode". The rest of the questline would just be beating the difficult bosses in an 8-man raid.

The story used to be part of the drive for clearing coil, I would rather just experience Alexanders story through Savage without going through the normal version.