Discussion : How to boost Alexander attractiveness ?

[Februs]

Snip.

Savage, technically, but one is tied to the other, and there's really no way around that. Let me explain.

Savage Alexander does minor tweaks to the existing mechanics of the Normal fights, but for the most part the only "difficult" thing about Savage Alexander is that they upped the Dps requirements to be absurdly high. The problem with this kind of method of increasing difficulty is that it is temporary. Once gear item levels get higher (I'd wager around ilvl 225-230 for "skilled" players and around 230-240 for "average" players) Savage Alexander will be easy for everyone who has the balls to try it. There won't be anything "savage" about it, because even mediocre players will be able to clear its most difficult feature just by getting better gear which they will naturally be collecting with each new patch. For something that has the name "Savage," that's a problem.

The only way to truly make fights have lasting difficulty is by revamping mechanics so that the mechanics (not the Dps requirement) is the basis of the difficulty for the fight. For example, T5 was difficult because of divebombs, dreadknights and twisters. Even at current gear levels, those three mechanics can wipe a group that doesn't know how to deal with them. High Dps makes the fight easier because each phase change goes by faster, but no matter how high your Dps is, you have to be able to do the mechanics to clear the fight. If you can't, you wipe. Mechs are not skip-able or easy in T5 (or 7, 8, 9...etc.).

Savage Alex does not use mechanics the basis for difficulty is because the Normal version mechs are pathetically easy or non-existent. There's no real way to make Faust, for example, any harder than he already is using mechs, because there isn't any. The same goes for most of the bosses. A3, for example, ups the dmg output and the Dps check by obscene amounts, but the mechs aren't harder. There's just more of them. Instead of one tethered pair, you get two. Instead of one set of water jets you get two (see a trend?). They did add two additional mechs which forces you to either split the small hands or stack them and pass some status debuffs around, but otherwise, the fight is almost identical to Normal. There's just more of it, and the Dps check makes it difficult to manage, for now.

Now, I don't think that they should put Normal Alexander through any major mech revamps, since it is adequately done for casual players; however, making it easy does not mean that they should simply avoid putting mechanics in the fights entirely. Especially because the Savage versions of the fights will be hindered by the easy mechs (or lack thereof) in Normal. Remember that Savage is a modification of Normal, not a reinvention. That means that the only way to make Savage harder in a meaningful way is to have mechs in normal that can be tweaked to be more difficult. That would probably increase the difficulty of Normal mode a little, but right now all the fights are tank and spanks... so I don't see a problem. If making Raid fights more difficult than a tank and spank is not acceptable, that this shouldn't even be called a Raid.

Also, when I said players that come back over and over again, I meant coming back to that particular content, not to the game. Obviously the mass majority of the players are "casual" (I include myself in that); but how many "casual" players ran the coil more than once? Better yet, how many casual players even bothered to complete the first Coil or even get into the Second or Final Coils? They might have stuck their toe in the door when the content came to DF, but they don't come back for seconds. Especially considering that, by the time the content makes it to DF, the gear you attain is obsolete. This content (Savage, in the case of Alexander) is not meant for casual players. So why is it hindered by the casual version of the dungeons? Further, I highly doubt that SE wants to make content that people forget about as soon as they don't have to run it anymore. They're having that problem with they Crystal Tower raids right now. Those were aimed at casual players... and they seem to be really working out...

[KarstenS]

most part the only "difficult" thing about Savage Alexander is that they upped the Dps requirements to be absurdly high. The problem with this kind of method of increasing difficulty is that it is temporary. Once gear item levels get higher Savage Alexander will be easy for everyone who has the balls to try it.

You should do it yourself before you write such posts. Your profile doesn't look like you've seen much of savage.

A1 and A2 are toned easier, to be like FCoB. But A3 and behind, gear will not carry you.