FFXIV and Risk vs. Reward

[Toguro]

First of all, I don't know what is going on with people are talking about when they say "Want stronger more dangerous overworld enemies? Diadem!" No. Diadem is not a dangerous overworld.

Diadem: Diadem is basically a scripted thing as soon as you get in. You can only play it a certain way. You kill monsters to get star ranks and get gear. Or you gather. That's it. Gathering is already broken. You can't use sneak. That's not difficulty, it's stupid. Why not just have sneak unusable? Why not use the enemies that don't use sight as the only ones that can find you? No. Everything can find you. Now, Diadem HM so far, is broken. You go inside and there are no groups. You can be the only 8 out of a map that's supposed to have 72. When this happens, your Diadem was is over before it even starts. You won't be killing any star ranks by the time you retire from your job. You CAN'T go out alone because you CAN'T kill anything alone.There's no in-between. There's no difficulty just death. And then those strong enemies with like 3million HP have no mechanics. Just AoEs that you can easily dodge. And after 5mins of smacking them mindlessly, you get that juicy ilvl150-ilvl180 piece. I'm not going to talk about star ranks. Those have like 90million HP. In HM, with the drop nerf, there is only one way to play. Zerg it. Have 72 people zerg it because lets face it, there's nothing in Diadem. You can't play Diadem with only 8 people. It just doesn't work. It's broken. You find a coffer in a "dangerous" cave, "Woooooo a ilvl150 belt!!!".

You have a map so you know exactly where you're going at all times. I've had the most fun running around panicking in a cave because the team split up and scattered in a place they should NOT be scattered. It is a cave right? Dark, dangerous cave. I had no idea where I was going and those monsters could kill me easily. Diadem does not give that feel ever but it's supposed to be exploration. You EXPLORE. How are you going to explore something if it's already on the DANG map!!?!

Here's a thread one the Gamefaq complaining about the same thing.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/67805...eborn/72944093

[Gaddes]

Now, Diadem HM so far, is broken. You go inside and there are no groups. You can be the only 8 out of a map that's supposed to have 72. When this happens, your Diadem was is over before it even starts. You won't be killing any star ranks by the time you retire from your job. You CAN'T go out alone because you CAN'T kill anything alone.There's no in-between. There's no difficulty just death. And then those strong enemies with like 3million HP have no mechanics. Just AoEs that you can easily dodge. And after 5mins of smacking them mindlessly, you get that juicy ilvl150-ilvl180 piece. I'm not going to talk about star ranks. Those have like 90million HP. In HM, with the drop nerf, there is only one way to play. Zerg it. Have 72 people zerg it because lets face it, there's nothing in Diadem. You can't play Diadem with only 8 people. It just doesn't work. It's broken. You find a coffer in a "dangerous" cave, "Woooooo a ilvl150 belt!!!".

Yeah, For HM they really need to put something in place where the game makes sure your party is placed in an instance where there's at least one full party in there as well. It's incredibly frustrating to spend the time and resources gathering people up for Diadem Hm and enter just to find the instance completely empty, or with a handful of gatherers.

Also, yeah killing star ranks in there as a single party is practically impossible, if you're unlucky and get a Wisent or one of those Brontosauruses or anything that doesn't have incredibly basic mechanics. How awful it is to smash your head against hp-sponge mobs in a single party for a chance to spawn a mob you have no chance of beating. Maybe they should handle it like FATEs, where if there's only one party in the instance, the mob's HP is scaled accordingly.