What is the point of Eureka?

[Songwillow]

I don't want it handed to me, but I want the work to be reasonable, especially in what's supposed to be a game for entertainment. Pagos isn't, and it soured me on the entire experience.

I have heard that Pagos is something that everyone loathes, what is wrong with Pagos that induces such hatred? I still wonder if Eureka is even worth doing at this point or if I should skip it like Diadem.

[MrThinker]

I have heard that Pagos is something that everyone loathes, what is wrong with Pagos that induces such hatred? I still wonder if Eureka is even worth doing at this point or if I should skip it like Diadem.

Pagos had several design points and changes from Anemos that a lot of players (in my experience at least) did not particularly enjoy. The first was the levelling experience. Initially, it had lower NM pop rates compared to Anemos, and the NM's also did not give as much exp. This resulted in the 'NM FATE train' that was the most popular method of leveling in Anemos being unable to be used effectively here. After this realization, people discovered that the most efficient method of gaining exp was through chaining the kills of mobs around 5 levels higher than the groups, and so became the preferred method of leveling. However, constantly killing mobs with little to no mechanics while constantly hitting buttons due the fast pace of ffxiv actions is a draining experience (not to say there weren't those who did enjoy it). To top it off, since chains have time limits, dead people who were requesting assistance would be ignored since everyone was focusing on completing their current chain, so the unfortunate players would be forced to respawn and lose exp/delevel.

Then there was the map design, and it's interactions with NMs. Pagos was essentially divided into 2 areas, north and south, with only 1 path allowing players up. This choke-point was guarded by the then-infamous Lvl40 Frozen Void Dragons, and players unaware of how aggro types worked would constantly get one-shot. To safely traverse this path requires the player to patiently work around the mobs. This means they would be slow getting to areas in the north. This would not usually be a problem, except for players around level 24-30, all the mobs they would need to efficiently level were in the north-west, as well as the level-relevant NMs. Luckily, an aetheryte existed there, BUT could only be attuned at level 29, when the player in question would almost be moving onto the next area. Now imagine if an NM popped in the south, getting there would be pretty easy, but then the players would have to walk ALL the way back to where they were before, and lets not forget when the northern NMs pop, the even lower leveled players would get left behind, accidentally getting one-shot and left for dead. This is compared to Anemos, where alot of high level players would offer rides to get the low-levels to the NMs on time.

The last thing to consider is the 'Light-grind', a necessary component in all steps of the Pagos stage of the Eureka weapon. Originally, the amount of Light people would receive from both mobs and NMs was arguably poor, and the fact that receiving Light from mobs appeared to be mostly RNG except that the odds seemed to improve with high level mobs and specifically the Dragons. As such, I have been told that there were quite a few toxic arguments over the best 'light farming' spots, though I never saw this myself. The devs also kept teasing about what they said was the most effective way of gaining Light, though to this day I am uncertain on whether they revealed what it is/was.

Nowadays, Pagos has received significant nerfs that make it alot more bearable than to what it was before. Challenge log exp increases, increased NM pop rates as well as increased NM exp were good band-aids, though people still complain about getting Light for their weapons (I do not remember if they increased Light gains eventually).