Byakko... HM or EX ?

[Bourne_Endeavor]

You make it sound like ingenuity is a bad thing. Tank LB is a tool handed out to the players long ago, if people can't see past using it only when it is mandatory like A12 that is a limitation of their own.

If the possibility of skipping the second tiger with a tank LB3 was intended or not we will only know if the devs ever outright state it. But as others have said, they could have easily just turned it into insta-death no matter what if they really wanted.

There is no disrespect or disregard for the developers by being creative on tackling the challenges they put in our way, unless someone is outright cheating or using exploits.

We know it isn't intended because the devs outright acknowledged Skip Soar memes were due to an inexperienced programmer on the battle team. Regardless, tank lb cheesing just encourages people not to bother actually learning the mechanics. What caused a handful of wipes with Zurvan were the sheer number of people who couldn't do Soar because they never bothered with it. There isn't much "ingenuity" to ignoring mechanics entirely.

This kind of fits in to my point about Byakko Ex a few pages ago. Much like Sophia, the difficulty is perfectly fine for the reward that it gives. Byakko and Sophia both provide entry level weapons for the new patches and aren't nearly as good as a tomestone or savage mode weapon. Based on the ilevel of the weapon Byakko yields, I believe the fight is perfectly fine as is. Now, if Byakko yielded a 265 weapon that was superior to the tomestone weapon? I would absolutely agree that it should be significantly more difficult. But since it doesn't, it shouldn't.

Is Byakko "perfectly tuned" relative to his reward or has Savage equally become watered dumb compared to what it once was? Regardless, even if you wouldn't place him around Shinryu's difficulty, he shouldn't roll over with a decent party. He does. The only real challenge is getting competent people, which, in PF, can be a struggle on the levels of Ultimate, admittedly.

Titan EX hasn't been done at min ilvl for 3 years or more. A lot of people came and went during that time, using it as any form of example is dumb. Everyone had to do Royal Menagerie, just to get to endgame, as the first phase of a popular new expansion launched. If you wanted to try to do an ex primal synched you often looked at hours of waiting in queue.

The difference is Titan EX actually demanding competency from you. I agree, being ejected from the fight entirely probably isn't the best mechanic but he had far more in his arsenal. Frankly, Titan Hard Mode was more punishing than Lakshmi EX. That's what spawns the continuous complaints about how easy content has become. Forget the primals for a moment and look no further than dungeons. When was the last time an Expert dungeon punished you for dumb mistakes? Not on an a constant insta-wipe, savage level nonsense. Just old ARR equivalents where Stone Vigil ate you alive if you pulled a ton. Even The Vault has been labeled "too hard on new healers" when it was among the few to actually demand healing in lieu of Holy spam. Granted, Hell's Lid is hella better than Kugane Castle, I'll say that much.