Patch 3.1 Information

[Laurima]

Add Aetherochemical Research Facility to the expert roulette, would bring some much needed variety to the humdrum we currently have.

Thordan like Nael Van Hardass. Oh that should be a blast

[Velhart]

Savage clear numbers are lower than expected.

For the next Alexander on 3.2, it'll probably not use the same Normal/Savage division.

Would be nice if there was some clarification to this. Do they mean to actually make a proper Normal/Savage set up like Second Coil of Bahamut? Alex(Normal) currently is not a well designed method. So would first tier Alex(Normal) just be a lesson to the team and make it actually challenging here on out like regular SCoB/FCoB for the second tier? I would love that, I know people who like the little to no effort mode currently in there, but the game needs to fix this issue because there is no middle ground in these raids and as Yoshi-P says, lacks the man power to release a Easy/Normal/Savage mode.

Amount of people raiding is dramatically lower than it was in 2.0. A lot of once well established statics broke up from Savage. Easy mode at best only favors things in the short term. Very quickly people got what they wanted from there in just a few short weeks and people lost interest in it quick. This type of mode is -fine-, but it needs to be complimented by a Normal/Hard mode. We need the challenge of SCoB/FCoB levels and have Savage there for the very hardcore, to really show the best of the best.

tl;dr: Just copy WoW's raid structure from the pre-Cataclysm era (since you said you cannot do a three tier difficulty structure). Done

[RiceisNice]

You need coordination to be able to clear it. It is a bit similar to T9, and also will have a lot of gimmicks from 2.X EX Primals.

Knights of the Round using Divebombs.

3.1 Expert roulette will be composed by only the two new dungeons.

Goddammit. That's not a "roulette", thats a coin flip.

Paladin's main problem is the compatibility with current contents.
Adjustments will be made to address TP issues, but no adjustment will be made to Paladin's DPS.

Here's to changing the meta of raiding so it's not emphasized on tanks contributing to dps and instead test them on...well..being a tank.

...

This just leads me more to believe that Yoshi/the devs doesn't know what he wants to do with the likes of savage mode. They wanted it to be highly tuned that only a small percentage of players would have it cleared, similar to SCoB...so just how high of a clear rate were they expecting? Did this want this to be the to-go to raid for your average players or normal mode (in this case, it's incredibly undertuned if people can ignore mechanics in DF on the first day of release)

Also no information on crafting recipes and more crafted glamour. I want my aranche shirt for MCH if you're just gonna give MNK and NIN our kirimu coat, dammit.

[Velhart]

This just leads me more to believe that Yoshi/the devs doesn't know what he wants to do with the likes of savage mode. They wanted it to be highly tuned that only a small percentage of players would have it cleared, similar to SCoB...so just how high of a clear rate were they expecting? Did this want this to be the to-go to raid for your average players or normal mode (in this case, it's incredibly undertuned if people can ignore mechanics in DF on the first day of release)

I don't know what they were thinking to begin with. There is really no content in this game that properly prepares you for Savage mode in Heavensward content itself. Bismark/Ravana EX are really the closest things, then again they are not going to help you with the strong amount of mechanics and DPS checks AS3/4 require. Content right now is set up that it is so easy that you are bored and don't feel like playing till 3.1 anymore, or Savage is so hard that people are not influenced to take it on and wait till other content comes out.

It is really interesting that developers thought this was a balanced set up. Seems kind of amateurish to be honest. Again, I have no particular issue with Savage, we do need more over the top hard content for the very hardcore. This is more of a complaint towards Normal Mode's structure.

Void Ark: to refrain people to leave the instance once they have their chestpiece drop: make it so it's only the last boss that gives it?

Simple, no?

EDIT: got beaten by Neophyte You got my like sir!

A token system is good as well, but once you'll have enough tokens.. you'll move on and never come back >.<

The problem with that is that it makes sense. It is frustrating with the amount of gear that drops and the effort needed to deal with 24-people is quite a hassle at times and all just to never see a piece you want drop and when it does, the three other members in your group who want it also lot it. It would greatly benefit itself in making a point system. If you do the dungeon at least 5 times, you can trade 5 points towards a piece you want, but points reset if you lot on a piece of gear for the week. Points reset each week and it gets you in there plenty of times as SE desires.

[TheUltimate3]

This just leads me more to believe that Yoshi/the devs doesn't know what he wants to do with the likes of savage mode. They wanted it to be highly tuned that only a small percentage of players would have it cleared, similar to SCoB...so just how high of a clear rate were they expecting? Did this want this to be the to-go to raid for your average players or normal mode (in this case, it's incredibly undertuned if people can ignore mechanics in DF on the first day of release)

Perhaps they wanted it to be grind head against wall difficult, but expected the playerbase to well "git gud" and clear it anyway?

I mean, wanting your playerbase to be awesome is an admirable goal, if the past few months are any indication such a desire/expectation is...misplaced.

[RiceisNice]

Perhaps they wanted it to be grind head against wall difficult, but expected the playerbase to well "git gud" and clear it anyway?

I mean, wanting your playerbase to be awesome is an admirable goal, if the past few months are any indication such a desire/expectation is...misplaced.

There's no middleground is why it becomes a problem. You want people to get good? Those that geninuely do want to get good have to curve toward it rather than spiking upwards. Alexander normal honestly does nothing to prepare the expectations of a typical player when stepping into Savage as far as the difficulty curve is concerned. Infact it sorta does both undersell and oversell the expectations imo; Fights are both aren't entirely different or interesting (1, 2 and i hear 4), and fights that become mechanically different and tuned to the point that one mistake at any time during a 9~10 minute fight will lead to a reset (3).

A1 to A1S would have if it weren't the fact that the fight itself is relatively boring and keeping everything the same + one more mechanic (resins actually drop resins).
A3 to A3s introduces new mechanics that would be fine, but the lack of curve to how highly tuned those mechanics are leads to problems of it's own. You're going to wipe the moment a lubricant gets through or a liquid gaol walks over a puddle, with no chance of recovery. That's fine and all for savage mode...but I wouldn't say it's the ideal range to slam as the "to-go-to" end game content versus catering to the 1% top players.

It's also where having a third tier of difficulty would be nice if it was the option. You just want something that's open to the majority of the player base, while at the same time keeping something relevant to teh high end (and if you're going to have to nerf savage, you're essentially taking the latter option away since it kinda defeats the point of it being ball-busting hard to begin with, if that was what they were aiming for)

And it's just on my own, but savage has gotten me so burned out on Alexander in general, that I can't be assed to gear up my alts with proto-gordian gear. It also doesn't help that the fights are so undertuned that people regularly expect to clear it while netflixxing or afking, pulling less than their weight intentionally otherwise.

[TheUltimate3]

Snip.

They moved under the impression that they wouldn't need a middle ground because they expected everyone to "git gud". Like I said, admirable but misplaced.

[Colorful]

They moved under the impression that they wouldn't need a middle ground because they expected everyone to "git gud". Like I said, admirable but misplaced.

Funny how they do that while nerfing every other piece of content that's already incredibly easy. I'm 99% sure it wasn't them expecting people to git gud, but rather to make it so world first players don't clear it in a week or two, which is still in poor design as it was a locked behind gear and not mechanics for them.

[Xau]

Goddammit. That's not a "roulette", thats a coin flip.

expert coinflip

also SE overstimated the average skill level of most raiders, most likely they did expected what a good amount of raiders where nearer to first world raiders skill level, thats what i do believe

[Neophyte]

• They are thinking about how to prevent players mass leaving in the middle of content (referring to how many Bards would left at WoD's 2nd boss, only aiming for the chestpiece), but it will be difficult.

Chests only at the end of the raid (2 per Boss) - done.