So, how is Pagos?

[Souljacker]

And in your 30's you need millions of exp to level so you're doing that chain at least 10 times. That's 300 mobs for a level. Not exactly great gameplay.

So between 2 and 3 hours of constant, mind numbing fighting for a level. Non-Stop Fighting.

You can hear the bones and tendons in your hands and your migraine begging you for a break.

And that's only providing you even get into a party of people all with ideal level ranges, get to camp alive, and everyone stays to play for that entire time. This game isn't designed for that kind of leveling and the playerbase isn't used to it. In XI we would actually plan to be in a party for a minimum of an hour after getting to camp and would actually look for our own replacement if we had to go and the party was going to continue. It's really crazy how SE has completely forgotten how it even worked.

Or *why* it worked, for that matter. It worked in XI because the process was a lot slower and more forgiving, and camps weren't nearly as crazy dangerous to get to as they are here. No seriously, they weren't. About the hardest camp to get to was probably the camps where you went through true sight Imps, but even then they were placed carefully and with forethought so a little patience got you to your party.

NONE of that is present here. Every single mob is true sight\sound because there's no stealth spells or meds, and the pathing is so random there is absolutely no way they didn't purposely program it to hurt the exploration experience. That's not what we remember from XI. At least, it's not what *I* remember.

I remember making my way through Konschadt Highlands carefully through the goblin patrols and the occasional ram pop. I remember the bats in the tunnel in the dunes that aggroed to sound, and normally some high level was wandering around and would kill them. Or with some careful planning I could kill them myself at around 16-17 depending on job. Same thing over in Qufim Island - The Dancing Weapon was about the most dangerous thing there on your way through and it could be stealthed through but usually someone was there to help kill it. And it stayed dead for a really long stretch. There wasn't much at all dangerous in the jungles because we could hop on the chocobo there at Kazham. The camps in Garliage were all easily accessible and didn't need any stealthing - not even the bottom floor camps that were alternative to the Nest (and that was super easy to get through too). The camps in Aht Urgan were all easy to access, especially once you got all the runic portals. I think that Mt. Zhayolm was my fav place to go - I liked the crawlers up there.

I'm really stretching my memory here but I can't think of a single camp that is anywhere near the level of unforgiving with mob placement, spawns, or terrain as this new map. So like, this idea that it's some throwback to an earlier time just isn't accurate, or other people have a very different memory of how leveling and getting to camps actually was in XI.

It was a relaxing experience. It wasn't a freak out stress getting to the camp every time (first time is always exciting, but here in Pagos it's just stress EVERY time), it wasn't a freak out because other parties would try to mpk you because 6+ groups are all camped on top of each other and competing (at most we'd have 2-3 parties at a camp and very rarely did we go out of our way to hurt one another's xp), and there wasn't this expectation that you never. stop. moving. for. a. single. moment. because of a GCD. Most of all, people *stayed*. They *stayed* in the party. And if they had to go, they generally gave notice. Here? Folks just drop and you're lucky to even get a courtesy "thanks for pt".

This game wasn't designed to handle this kind of play. It's why we didn't do it in Anemos. It's why rather than even play Pagos, I logged out for the last three days and cancelled my sub. It's why this particular iteration of the content is doomed to fail.

XI was a great game. I wish we could see more of what made it great come over here. I do NOT want this dev team's interpretation of it. They don't have a clue about their own game.