So, how is Pagos?

[-Yuuna-]

is it possible to farm the light for my weapon in anemos?

[EmeraldAres]

I still have plenty of concerns with Pagos, but I want to talk about my favorite new addition to it: random "mutations" and "adaptions" that the monsters do like growing big, turning into different species, and even changing element randomly. Why can't I mutate and adapt in Pagos? The place is messed up anyway, so it might as well be possible for me to randomly become a 50 foot WHM that hits like a freight train or to transform into a manticore and beat the tar out of some mobs. It wouldn't happen all the time obviously, but having stuff like that appear out of nowhere would be hilarious and would help break up the monotonous grind.

[Aster_E]

I had taken a break from the game--my sub ran out right before patch, due to SE's glorious timing of spread-out content--and came back a day later expecting the Day 1 mess (a la., Anemos at 4.25 launch) to subside, people to have some idea as to what to do, and SOME level of efficiency to be found so we could all group up, have fun-but-not-as-SE-intended. I returned to find an instance white with salt rather than snow.

Challenge Logs to get to 22? That's nice, but the Log should only be a supplement than than a means to an end.

Mounts turned off again. Annoying. It was annoying in Anemos, we earned it in Anemos, and we earned the ability to mount up at level 21-ish in the main game. That a major function of the main game would be taken away for a place so expansive is just a dick move, to put it kindly. Oh wait, there's more! Lv40 dragons that awaken from their slumber and devour all of your hopes and dreams if you so much as move at normal speeds, so if or when we do get mounts in Pagos we'll have to still turn on the slow walk at every other corner of the northern half of the map.

The layout is purposefully built to disallow the free movement of trains, the mobs have to be killed mindlessly by the hundreds before NMs ~might~ show up, and SE still hasn't figured out that, maybe, some of us might want these FATEs to count toward Diadem NM or overall FATE achievements.I understand SE didn't necessarily want us turning Pagos into another stupid, boring train where people AFK and find actually enjoyable things to do, but a more proper response would have been, I dunno, make the NM experience more involved and engaging, making the other mobs more rewarding, even if they aren't tied to NMs, orthat like.

You know what they ~did~ add? A FATE that gives no exp, only a RNG-based chance at a bunny after spending so much time on this FATE, and the treasure being really unimpressive. This alone could have been done better by speeding up how long the FATE takes (and turn down completely the number of people needed for it), and providing a worthwhile buff to rewards from a certain element or the like. But nope. It's effectively a waste of time in addition to a grind heavy instance that has been literally built to be anti-fun.

Anemos was already a poor man's callback to FFXI, back when Korean MMOs were like that instead of faster paced like City of Heroes/Villains (out about the same time as XI) up to BDO right now. Pagos took the worst of Anemos and told us we ~must~ do it this time around, and oh yeah do some light grinding starting at level 25 (but hey, at least we collected two faulty magicites that couldn't be added to our wheels).

Oh yeah, I'd have loved to put a point or two into my defensive element while keeping the other five in offense, as DPS or healer. I understand this would screw with balancing, but I'd take that over this anti-fun experience we have now. Not "It missed its mark so it's not fun to me," but anti-fun. There might be some people who enjoy anti-fun things out there, but I was under the impression that they weren't FFXIV's target audience, as anecdotal as this might sound.

Just... WTF, Squeenix? Who hurt y'all as children, and why are you taking it out on us?

[Deceptus]

They put so many walls in the way to make that way harder than you may think.

You don't get a mount or access to the upper warps until very high level so everyone is slow

They put tons of chokes all over the map guarded by level 40 dragons that just slaughter people trying to run by.

The spawn rates are abysmal,

and finally they made it so anything that doesn't count towards an NM spawn is drastically more valuable to farm since they randomly just gift you with the 200% bonus exp on top of chain bonus

Just feels like the sheer amount of roadblocks they put in place will make that road pretty useless.

This is probably the best write up I've seen of Pagos. They Dev team made specific decisions to make the content harder and worse.

WHY?!

[ko_]

Well, apparently THEY REALLY hated the nm train and this is their answer. Well played se, well played. We know how they feel now, but that kindof spite is going to get them in trouble. Even if I agree with it. But they should do something and give players a bone. Or just drop this content.

[Remus]

[Souljacker]

Well, apparently THEY REALLY hated the nm train and this is their answer. Well played se, well played. We know how they feel now, but that kindof spite is going to get them in trouble. Even if I agree with it. But they should do something and give players a bone. Or just drop this content.

This is SE's way of operating and we as players have historically accepted it. Their go-to is ALWAYS to punish the player instead of redesign the content in a way that encourages the play they want. People fishing for queues? Give them a penalty. You know what other games did? Took away the option to select a "fresh" instance or not and everyone gets in whatever RANDOM DUNGEON THAT IS RANDOMLY PICKED FOR THEM.

Other games have this right. SE has it wrong.

Housing a problem? Let's not fix our stupid design and instance the content so that every player can have a house and not have to worry about losing it (like XI and every other game seems to have), let's punish the players for owning a house by demolishing them if they have to take a break. That will solve the problem.

Players are doing content in a way we didn't anticipate? Why create a PTR so we can see how they will use it before launch? That's a waste of time when we can just punish them in the next iteration of the content for misbehaving instead.

I'm letting my sub lapse and this time, despite enjoying being with my old friends from XI again, I'm not coming back. SE clearly hates their players. The game just isn't fun.

[ko_]

This is SE's way of operating and we as players have historically accepted it. Their go-to is ALWAYS to punish the player instead of redesign the content in a way that encourages the play they want. People fishing for queues? Give them a penalty. You know what other games did? Took away the option to select a "fresh" instance or not and everyone gets in whatever RANDOM DUNGEON THAT IS RANDOMLY PICKED FOR THEM.

Other games have this right. SE has it wrong.

Housing a problem? Let's not fix our stupid design and instance the content so that every player can have a house and not have to worry about losing it (like XI and every other game seems to have), let's punish the players for owning a house by demolishing them if they have to take a break. That will solve the problem.

Players are doing content in a way we didn't anticipate? Why create a PTR so we can see how they will use it before launch? That's a waste of time when we can just punish them in the next iteration of the content for misbehaving instead.

I'm letting my sub lapse and this time, despite enjoying being with my old friends from XI again, I'm not coming back. SE clearly hates their players. The game just isn't fun.

Yeah a PTR wouldve fixed this before it was a problem I'm in full agreement there 100%. Must be a Japanese thing cause I never seen Japanese devs provide us with a PTR. It's been mostly western devs who do, proving the east clearly don't understand their western fans. Sega has this problem too and capcom also in a few games to name a few.

[Remus]

Yeah a PTR wouldve fixed this before it was a problem I'm in full agreement there 100%. Must be a Japanese thing cause I never seen Japanese devs provide us with a PTR. It's been mostly western devs who do, proving the east clearly don't understand their western fans. Sega has this problem too and capcom also in a few games to name a few.

From what I have noticed Japanese developers prefer to keep things as a surprise instead of testing to make sure it's right. A lot of the time they have good ideas but they have such a small sample size to actually try it (usually only internal) and they say it's good so they presume most will have the same opinion but that generally isn't always the case (I mean who thought Diadem on the team was good to release?).

[Riardon]

From what I have noticed Japanese developers prefer to keep things as a surprise instead of testing to make sure it's right. A lot of the time they have good ideas but they have such a small sample size to actually try it (usually only internal) and they say it's good so they presume most will have the same opinion but that generally isn't always the case (I mean who thought Diadem on the team was good to release?).

The Devs who are not actual players and never play the game enough to understand how a gamer feels/thinks/wants.
They don't have time to play enough with their product if at all to actually test it properly.
They think as coders and not as gamers so many things are good on paper but they suck in reality.
That being said can't see how they sould implement an actual PTS without having massive leaks about the story and dungeons/features way before release.
This is why they will never do a PTS.