So, how is Pagos?

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

Well, when Anemos came out, through a bit of casual grinding I was able to gain about five levels a day and hit Level 20 before the end of the first week.

I'm still on Level 24 in Pagos with the same time investment.

[Eight]

Easily the worst content this game has put out yet by far. Hard to get parties, no one helps with raises and the grind is ridiculous. I've been in Pagos several times and I've literally made almost no progress due to it being impossible to make any group work without it disbanding. Not worth it at all or at least I'll wait till it's nerfed but I'm not wasting my time with this garbage.

[LinXiaoMei]

Currently level 26. I'm fine with the mindless mob grinding and what not. I'm not okay with the crappy Light Farming and inconsistency of NM spawning rates (with / without a tracker).
The fact that 2 NM's give me 1/5th of a bar towards a crystal is pretty absurd with the way the rates are now. On top of that, we need 31 Frozen Protean Crystals total? With Anemos, I got in and out of that place in 2 days tops.
Here, lord knows how long I'll be. It took me 2 hours just for 1 light gauge to fill up. Odds are, I'll wait until its nerfed cause this is ridiculous. I'm honestly fine with grinding but not with rates worse than anything I've ever seen before.
Even more boring than Anemos to be honest.

[Vasala]

Well after this week of grinding I will say that the spawn rate of NMs needs to be greatly improved. Especially the ones which require specific weather or are spawned by mobs that require specific weather or night mobs. Yes the cave idea is neat but it makes it even more difficult to help someone if a death occurs. In Anemos people were pretty good about saving folk but in Pagos with the dependence on chain farming and the high risk of trying to get to some areas it seems like people are less willing to help if someone gets downed while exploring or trying to get to one of the very infrequent NMs. Since the point seems to be exploring with the bunnies after the grind to 35 it would be a very good idea to remove the death penalty completely. Just having to start over from base or one of the aetherites plus the loss of the bunny seems like a big enough penalty without having to strip a player of potentially hours of grinding as well.

Ultimately even though the train in Anemos was not the most exciting thing it was at least more fun than what we have going on in Pagos currently. It also appears that due to the way things work in Pagos that as soon as a group gets 35 and gets their Louhi drops they do not have any desire to help spawn him for anyone who missed the initial rush.

[KyegimyaAsura]

Personally I'm disappointed. As someone that wasn't into Anemos in the beginning, but got into it, thanks to people I know, I was personally excited for Pagos and further weapon upgrades even with disappointment over armor not being included initially.

The way Pagos is right now is 100% an invitation to carpal tunnel syndrome. As someone who experiences it, playing Pagos for even a short period is a test on me, so I can't handle much chaining before needing a break. The grinding aspect from XI that they clearly want here is not as welcomed. You can't compare the games, since XI's actions per minute were so incredibly minor compared to XIV it's ridiculous. That's why the NM train was good. Sure, it invited a lot of leeching via people AFKing until pops, etc, but it also promoted socializing while people gradually got to 20, if they weren't already there. With the NM trains, you also didn't have to worry about what makes chains the most tolerable: making sure everyone is as close to the same elemental level as possible, because it does not take much of a difference to make the EXP take a huge hit (IE: killing the level 28 worms with a level 24 in a 22-23~ pt, you'll lose quite bit of EXP per kill with minor differences in kill time if any). It's bad enough that there's literally no room for much (no socializing, etc) in chaining other than slowly killing each enemy within the timer.

To wit, if SE is so bent on making this the way to do things, there needs to be either:
1) a level sync feature that syncs you to a target party member (XI feature!)
or,
2) get rid of the EXP penalties and gaps altogether.
and regardless of what else they do,
3) NMs should spawn more frequently.
Since #2 is wishful thinking, I won't hold my breath over that one. Also, the issue where the chain can still reset with an active timer is also in need of fixing. Also, the EXP loss on returning from death is just horrible. That needs to stop. Pagos seems to have a toxic community in that regard. People would go out of their way to raise people in Anemos while they don't here. Yes XI had EXP loss, but it was capped at like 2,400 from a death! Losing over 200k (as seen from the user below my post) is just beyond awful. Anemos's friendlier environment made the EXP loss much less of a concern. I've read of a lot more people losing experience in Pagos in the first week than I did the entire time Anemos has been around!

tl;dr: Due to the NM train and frequency of pops (and people who would help with Raises), Anemos was good for people, Pagos is the polar opposite. You can't help any friends who are behind much, nor can you join any friends who are ahead much with the way gaining experience works in Pagos. It's mind-boggling. I have friends who don't even want to enter Pagos because it's such a grind fest...friends that I know would love to work on relics, but the grind turns them off so fast in a hurry and I totally get why.

The challenge log was a great addition when it happened during Anemos, as it encouraged some chaining while being rewarding. Sure, it was meant for catching up, but with the amount of experience needed to level from 20 to 35 which is significantly higher than I imagine anyone expected, it's clear that is now also lacking. Sure, at early levels in Pagos, it can get you a level and then some, but it likely won't take long until that's not the case, unless it scales by the EXP needed to level even more (spoiler: it most likely won't). Adding a third tier (or more, but trying to be realistic in what I hope for here) to each would help a bit more. With the absurd EXP requirements, I personally feel it's necessary.

[Tsumdere]

I tend not to post on my main due to people bothering me in game about my opinions, but this just broke me.

I died on the way to a NM very close to an aetheryte. Plenty of people around me. I did not get a single raise. I sat there for several minutes calling in shout and MY OWN PARTY asking for a raise, and was ignored by everyone. Eventually, a literal angel (I wish I could name them here because they deserve praise) came to raise me but I dc'd right as I accepted the raise. When I came back, the raise did not go through so I asked again. And ignored. I lost all of my exp I had worked for over several hours (holding together groups at my level is hard). WHY? What did I do wrong?! I was with a party. I was not alone. My own party ignored me because their EXP is more important than mine, even though it would have taken them 3 seconds to raise me.



They only started responding to me 10 minutes after I died and spawned back. Saying it said I was in base (and was struggling to load into base despite my internet being fine). No s***. I timed out.

I'm so happy SE decided to release this piece of content that fosters so much loathing and bickering between players.

[jpmeyer]

Giving it a little thought, I have some ideas of how they could hotfix Pagos to make it more bearable. This is assuming that they aren't going to completely rework it (which, they should) but leave most of everything intact.

1. Increase NM Spawn Rate and Improve Chain Mob EXP.
2. Level Sync
3. Remove Death Penalty
4. Add Mounts.

I completely agree with all of these points especially #3. I wanted to casually explore Pagos, and take screenshots (as this is a huge part of the game for me) but I am unable to due to being afraid of deleveling due to death and people not raising me. Why would people break their endless chain grind to help raise someone at this point? With Anemos, everyone was in the "train" always helping others, and you only needed a few people to help kill monsters to spawn an NM. It encouraged people to work together and have fun in shout chat. Now this is no longer the case and outside of challenge log (which appears to taper off around level 23) I do not wish to return to Pagos until they add some kind of heavy nerf. Very disappointed in something that was supposed to be "casual side content".

[Claviusnex]

I completely agree with all of these points especially #3. I wanted to casually explore Pagos, and take screenshots (as this is a huge part of the game for me) but I am unable to due to being afraid of deleveling due to death and people not raising me. Why would people break their endless chain grind to help raise someone at this point? With Anemos, everyone was in the "train" always helping others, and you only needed a few people to help kill monsters to spawn an NM. It encouraged people to work together and have fun in shout chat. Now this is no longer the case and outside of challenge log (which appears to taper off around level 23) I do not wish to return to Pagos until they add some kind of heavy nerf. Very disappointed in something that was supposed to be "casual side content".

It isn't as much about breaking the chain but if they go to rescue you and die on the trip they have a high risk of being hit with the death penalty too.

[Rangar]

You will get mounts at 35, it's basically the reward for completing the zone, beyond that, SE wants to restrict moving. That's something you HAVE to accept, even if no one here likes it.

[Hyperia]

At first, I really disliked Anemos due to its very slow and hard startup. Then the train happened and oh wow, did things change for me. I found the zone engaging, fun and I met many new friends which I still have to this day.

Fast-forward to Pagos…

Pagos is not fun in its current form, its actually down right mean and punishing. The last time I went in, I left and my hands were literally trembling in pain from trying to tank for all of the challenge logs. I have seen a total of two NMs and getting to those were very dangerous. I saw people begging me to rez them while I went by, but all I could do is console them as PLDs don't have rezzes and I ran out of P-tails. Every time I went in there, I found myself watching the clock, wondering how much longer I will need to be in there. That was it for me... once I felt that way, I knew it was over for me. Everything I have read here is further reinforcing my feelings that this is not the right content for me. My friends miss not being able to play with me but I am too low level and there too high. In fact, we cant play with any of each other as we are 22, 24, 28 and 30.

I was sooo hyped for Pagos after learning to love Anemos, now I'm crestfallen about it all.

I suppose I am just joining the self help group as I know they don't listen to us much anymore. I heard that we are considered noisy Americans that rant and complain about anything and everything in an incoherent manner. That may be the case but still... ignoring us is done so at great risk.