Difficulty spike?

[Seoulstar]

I'm a ilvl 205 AST and I was able to clear it. It took a while, but it was done. It's fun, it's healing intensive (at least for me it is). It gets my heart pounding. I just pray that people won't complain for a nerf like they did with the previous steps of faith.

[l1nk]

Got into full random party with only new guys, cleared on 3rd pull. Just dodge stuff and watch environment?

[Lambdafish]

I actually had an easier time getting through this than Seph HM, I love the nidhogg HM fight and I want no changes to be made (unfortunately the devs seem to listen to threads like this despite lots of outcry to keep content as is)

[WhaleLord]

A lot of content this patch was more fun and memorable due to the spike in difficulty as far as I'm concerned. Playing thru Weeping city gave me feels of the early days of Labyrinth and WoD, it was great.

[Judah_Brandt]

Don't quite understand the complaints. Cleared it within roughly three pulls on my first foray into Duty Finder. I actually very much enjoyed the Weeping City and Nidhogg's difficulty. Recognize that this is the end of the expansion, and the majority of players have had months to gear their characters for these fights. Many people are around ilvl230. Even if they were lower, it's still easily clearable so long as you don't expect the simple practices in the game not to be punishing.

There is very little in the Nidhogg fight in the way of damage, for instance, that can't be avoided. Every AOE is dodgeable except for the deafening bellow and if your healer can't handle such a simple concept then I don't quite see the need to hold their hand further. The Ahn Morn triple hit is a big flashing arrow that they've been using for almost a year's worth of content. Nothing in the fight is new, seriously. Quit complaining and make a PF for it if you can't clear. The big problem here is that Duty Finder is filled with people who whine because they don't want to learn, and turn everything into a soft noodle fight, then something moderately challenging comes along and they can't stand in the giant orange hitboxes we've seen forecver and take fire blasts to the face. The fight isn't hard, it's that people are so accustomed to not trying that the player base has become largely inept.

[MysticDecay]

Went in with a pug as a scholar and my friend as a white mage and as long as people stayed out the aoes we were fine. Had to raise some people more times than I would have liked to though, but we were all first timers, so it's expected. Loved the fight and loving the new increase in difficulty. The problem is with people rage quitting rather than sticking it out.

[Dylanjc]

Lol people crying about something being hard cause they can't clean it on the first day.... It's new content and if you learn the fight you'll beat it. Ps it's a heal check the dmg output is fine they do not need to change a thing.

[Sida]

A thing to consider that's not strictly related to the difficulty of the fight itself. It's a major patch day. At least my FC saw a handful of returners who have been away from the game for a while and I assume that's common phenomenom across the servers. So you have players who might not have been playing a while, and might not have geared up to top. That already sets the bar up.

I was healing the fight yesterday. As for the incoming damage, most of it was rather manageable as long as people dodged what can be dodged. That of course is not the case half the time. Good amount of healer players have been for a while wishing for content where they actually need to heal, to use their whole toolkit for their primary purpose. That of course means that you have amount of healers who have been doing it just because it's been the easiest thing there is to do. Now they actually need to pay attention and work for it. Culture shocks all around. Give it a week and people have learned it well enough.

[Warghoul570]

One thing the elitists need to realize is that most people that are doing Steps in main quest and have only the min gear level most likely aren't raiders and are going to struggle. My issue was so much the difficulty as much of the level of toxicity. Dealt with a lot of verbal abuse last night from the elitists scums last night. Fight was fusterating enough without having to deal with drama. Remember this is a freaking game not a freaking job.

[Karen_Cerfrumos]

Well last run of Final Steps the co-healer would not apply Regen at all. You know, the level 35 skill. But at least that guy knew about Cure III and Medica II, so there's that. No wonder healers "struggle".


Look, this fight is at least 150 hours into the game. People should pick up at least some awareness by that point. If not, then why is this even a game? Why not make everything a cutscene since people are so averse to learn even the most basic patterns? Where's the fun in spending those 150 hours literally flying from a hotspot to a hotspot reading, or - let's be completely reasonable here - skipping dialogue? If anything, the difficulty - and I can't put enough quotation marks around difficulty so I won't even try - should've kicked in several instances ago. That people who've come this far in the game are completely shocked that they can't just sleep walk through the gameplay portion of it is despicable. I can't even say that you need to be shrewd enough to see through some complicated pattern the game is throwing at you. Look at Weeping City. Most of the time the game will literally explain to you, in plain text, what mechanic is going on: "A hole has appeared in the web!" "Breaking the stack is dangerous." "Moving will result in an explosion." "Continuing to look at the boss will do something harmful to you". Likewise, the DPS requirement on the add check in Final Steps isn't very strong. There has to be SOME place in the game that tells you: if you aren't playing the game correctly, you cannot advance, sorry. And final boss of 2 entire years worth of storyline should definitely require at least a modicum of understanding of how to play the game.


And if you feel it's not about you but about people you got matched up with, well the game is still a multiplayer PvE game. Again, if in dozens of hours you still don't know that sometimes, just sometimes you need to cooperate with people around you and find people to play with, this might not be the game for you AND you're not good enough to be playing it. Go to Idyllshire. Shout for help. Ask how to deal with mechanics. Ask for assistance. Try again and hope for a better group - there will be better groups after day one when people understand what's happening in the fight better. If anything, the developers have been going way too soft on the audience and pussyfooted around for too long. For how much longer do you want your hand held?