Quote Originally Posted by KaldeaSahaline View Post
What latter? I think you didn't finish your thought here.

Your example mechanic is incredibly unclear (a result of your haste to get out the door I assume). I just don't think the jobs have the tools to do what you're entailing.
The "latter" referred to the second possible role of a mechanic, to create a point of decision, rather than signalling the start or end of a period enforcing uptime/movement. This is vacant from most mechanics, as most cannot be answered in multiple, strategically distinct ways, but would be necessary to allow for fights to be answerable in multiple ways (or, by every generally reasonable composition) when limited to such a small selection of the job roster while retaining their threat overall.

My haste then has a lot to do with the ambiguity, but it would also help if you could pick a few current Savage fight from which you'd like for me to try to create 4-man designs so I could work towards a concrete goal when crafting the example encounter.

In the meantime, I'll think over which dungeons or dungeon bosses I think would make reasonable candidates to be the first to throw Ex modes onto.

For clarification of the above, though (breaks between bullets for each line break):
  • I've no idea what the snatched player will be doing; it didn't seem relevant to the idea of what must be adjusted or permitted to allow a light party to deal with party size reduction when each member accounts for 25% of the party (and potentially the whole of the given role) down from 12.5% (and half of said role). I'd assume surviving some manner of role-adapted mini-encounter, killing... a role-adapted ghost(?), or the like.
  • In that example, the encounter, mostly as similar. Let's say for instance that TBs, severe raid damage, and DPS checks occur at predictable intervals, as does the chance of getting the player-loss mechanic, such that the light party must decide who they can do without for the upcoming mechanic. If the separation is meant to be purely a punishment, rather than a decision, then that changes things a bit.
  • Impact changes only by nature of what's coming up; it's on the party to mitigate that impact by choice or through perfect mechanical execution (again, depending on if it's a decision or punishment).

  • Which is why it's important that the boss damage be modified to split-damage (e.g. with minor flat defense and max HP down or the like), at which point positioning is enough to make up for a lack of tools.
  • Again, if its split damage, that's far from a matter of "low enough that..." The initial or maximum eHP of two melee (or two melee and a Surecast healer at that) on average is higher than a tank outside of popped CDs. The issue is their sustainability -- especially if, say, naturally more affected by a given debuff than a tank would be. It needn't change the damage dealt from the strong initial levels at all, only HOW it is dealt.

  • Fair enough, especially when facing a rigid final enrage without bonus damage phases (e.g. Doom chimneys*, Shin tails, Red Ravana, Titan hearts*). *Yes, not actually bonus damage, but it easily could be.
  • That depends on the fight, imo. AoE timings, for instance, can be incredibly fight-specific, with noticeable DPS advantages for conserving or pooling certain resources.

Will be fairly busy tonight; rough draft should be up within a few days, though, here and then maybe on a new thread -- though I imagine the necessary depth would scare most away from that thread immediately.