Grand melee [MSQ spoilers, I guess] & Relics

[Nalien]

So, SE... Lets talk...

That Grand Melee duty we had in the Main Scenario? That was amazing. Well done, truly.

You've got a problem now, though. See, I don't get why we can't have more content like that now... You've always given us these solo duties in the main scenario quests and Job quests, but this one really takes the cake and proves you can do a fairly good job of it, so now I'm wondering... Why can't we have stuff like this in the Relic quests?

Perhaps I'm in the minority here, but my biggest gripe with the Relic quests has always been the utter lack of epicness to them... 2.0 started out strong, but it was only down hill from there. The duties we needed to complete for our Relics in 2.0 had their problems, but IMO those problems stemmed entirely from the fact that the duties required 8 players. Solo duties do not have any of the problem, and they don't even need to be that challenging to create a sense of epicness, in fact the sheer fact that I was cutting down Grand Company grunts like butter probably made the Grand Melee feel all the more epic... Certainly made for an enjoyable quest, which is all I really want from Relics at this point... Currently the Relic quests are just a grind, and you even seem to be mocking your own grind with the quests at this point... It's... Not great...

Such a duty could even make for a fairly interesting way to work in a grind for future Relics... You grind for an item that lets you access the duty, and if you fail you have to grind another item to make another attempt, perhaps even with the same Echo mechanic in place since we have to pander to the lowest common denominator with these quests... Then we have situation where the level of grind is dependent on how good you are at the game, not how many runs of Alexander you're willing to put in per day or anything like that... You do the grind, face off against the trial, and if you fail it's all on you, grind again and beat it next time. That would actually be the kind of grind that I'd very much enjoy. It's not a case of grinding the same things day after day, it's broken up by attempts at the trail in order to progress. If I'm good at the game, I'm rewarded with a short grind. I'm I'm bad? Then I have a longer grind. Getting past such a grind then feels far more rewarding, because "I beat it!", where as the current grinds offer no such feeling. I haven't beaten anything by farming Unidentified items, nothing except my self respect as I'm left wondering "Why did I do this?".

So yeah... Whoever you had working on that Grand Melee encounter... Have him work on something similar for Relics... That wouldn't be the end of my gripes with Relics in this game, but it would be an amazing first step... These quests need something behind them to make them feel worth doing at this point... A "epic" trial is just the thing to do that, and after 3.2 I see no reason why you cannot work on something like that, even if it has to be unique to each Job for balance purposes...

[Warlyx]

u are asking for FFXI Maat (job testimony included)

and yeah melee missions was fun , easy but fun

[Nalien]

Huh, didn't think about Maat... Yeah, that's a pretty apt comparison...

Hopefully something with more character though, I don't want to beat up the elderly, I just got done beating up a handicapped guy... Hmmm, did ToAU/WotG Jobs still get Maat? I seem to remember Scholar having its own special encounter, something like that would be awesome. That or something similar to the Balrahn fight for the Mythic weapon in XI, in terms of story hype/importance would be great. Doubt they could just drop everything and work this into Anima weapons (assuming they haven't already), but given we're making a weapon with a soul this time around, a fight with the weapon itself could be very interesting...

[Warlyx]

they new jobs didnt fight maat , Blu fighted Raubahn (ring some bell? hahaha) the FFXIV even summoned Tizona, thats why i remembered the blu fight when doing that mission ,,every new job fighted his own special fight

[Urthdigger]

I would love a unique solo fight designed to push what a job can do for relic quests.

[AskaRay]

Dude I really want to do the grand melee again.

[Nalien]

Dude I really want to do the grand melee again.

It's a shame it was a one time duty, and not an actual trial... This and the Lv50 Machinist quest are probably the best designed story duties IMO, really wish they'd work a system whereby we can redo them...

I would love a unique solo fight designed to push what a job can do for relic quests.

I'd probably just be happy with a "Hard" version of the Lv60 Job quests... I'm sure they're not all perfect, but I did Scholars most recently, and I remember that very much being a fight you have to heal in...

If we're "reliving" fights like The Vault for our Anima weapon, why not do the same thing with some of the fun duties in the game?

[Ecks007]

I agree wholeheartedly with integrating special encounters for relics. Oh my god. To be honest I wouldn't even mind another series of 8-man fights against an epic monster/beast, but I do think fighting them solo would provide a more personally epic feeling for players.

I love the idea of pass/fail with the ability to retry after a bit of a grind (if you fail). Something based on personal skill to progress, rather than collecting (far too many) items to complete a weapon stage.

The Grand Melee was definitely a lot of fun, and I do agree we need more content similar to this in the game, period. Things like this are fun, even though it was pretty much easy (although, I did wipe to Raubauhn the first time because I didn't notice the swords were suppose to be killed until he was halfway into his skill going off ><, I thought it was something that I had to dodge).

I would definitely be okay with some challenging solo content for things like relics. Maat is a great example because every job had a fight tailored to them and they were really really difficult when the game was new. I still remember the first time I beat Maat as a Drk using a strategy another friend had told me about. It was a close fight but I had beat him and as soon as it was over I was typing to that friend with my hands shaking from excitement. I was hearing how so many people were having trouble beating him, but to have done it on the first try and having been such a close battle gave me as a player a huge sense of accomplishment. The only thing I ever had to grind in XI was experience points. (I didn't bother with XI relics, though I wanted one, the grind for that puts the collected process of 2.x and 3.x relics to shame in terms of overall grind (meaning it was a huuuuuge grind)).

[Nalien]

To be honest I wouldn't even mind another series of 8-man fights against an epic monster/beast, but I do think fighting them solo would provide a more personally epic feeling for players.

Same, but SE seems pretty adamant that Relics shouldn't be "challenging" to obtain. Biggest challenge I find with 8-man content is finding people competent enough to clear with, perhaps 4-man Trials would work better, but solo Trials like Maat completely take out the need to rely on other players, so probably the best we can hope for. Throw in the Echo buff and you've fool-proofed the encounter and given players a fairly rewarding encounter. Beat it first time, you've had a short grind and fun fight. Max out Echo and at least you've finally beaten it after a long grind.

I suppose they could always go back and use 2.x content like Extreme Primals, since we can do those unsynced now... Honestly, I enjoyed the second part of the Anima questline solely because I attempted to solo/duo all the dungeons I could. It was much more fun like that... "Casuals" can 8-man Shiva (Extreme) unsynced for a faceroll quest, while I can attempt to duo/trio it... I'd be happier with something like that, but it still doesn't add any meaning to the Relic quest... Something like the Balrahn fight in XI just straight up makes for an epic encounter...

[BrokenFox]

BRING MAAT BACK

BRING MAAT BACK