Can it still be called a "raid" anymore?

[Hakuro89]

Why is it still called a "raid" when it drops you straight into a circular/square room with the boss in it? Isn't that a "trial"?

I think 8 man raids need to take a page out of the 24 man raids' book and make them actual raids again. When you queue in and it just drops you into a fight with the boss, it's boring. You could structure it to have multiple bosses, each with it's own loot pool. 1-3 mini-bosses that drop minor things like upgrade tokens or rare crafting materials, just to name a couple things off the top of my head. Alternate paths that change the way the raid works, maybe even optional puzzles or battles that reward you with additional cool stuff for clearing them. I think the last time we had a raid that legitimately felt like a raid was, well, T1 & T2. The first had a mini-boss as a gatekeeper with actual mechanics you had to pay attention to, some trash between it and the boss, and honestly what I considered an interesting fighting area with multiple platforms at staggered heights. The second had alternate paths that changed the way the boss at the end behaved depending on the route you took, which is something I'd like to see more of.

Alexander tried to follow this shtick to a degree with Faust & some trash mobs (plus an entire trash pull for a "boss", but we don't talk about that), but Omega completely dropped the ball on this. Every fight was just a boss fight by itself and nothing more.

I'm sure some are going to spout something like 'that's too much wasted time, just gimme muh loot', but personally, I find the way raids are currently structured to be extremely shallow & lacking, no matter how colorful the actual fight is. I just wish they'd do something to spice them up a bit, or at least not just give us a trial fight and call it a raid.


Edit: For the record, spicing up raids =/= more bland trash. It feels like some came to the conclusion I wanted more useless trash, and I don't. I would, however, like pre-boss raid combat to be rewarded, be it with drops or mechanics that carry beyond those battles themselves.

[Rhus]

Hmm personally ... that's too much wasted time, just gimme muh loot

[NekoNova]

Hmm personally ... that's too much wasted time, just gimme muh loot

And that's exactly why all this is happening

[Rhus]

They should do away with the fight next expansion. Just queue up into a room containing the loot boxes. We open them and can re roll on them as often as possible with the higher numbers having less of a chance of appearing. Now do you keep rolling or stick with that 62? Only then someone claims "I rolled a 84" ... congrats you just entered SAVAGE. You got 2mins left. Now go for your clear! xD

Oh and I do agree with the original point of the post. Alex had this to an extent and was good. Omega offered nothing the four lords couldn't. In fact line the four lords story up and it's very little fldifferent to omega. Story - fight - story - fight. Yet we got that set up twice in stormblood

[Shurrikhan]

Hmm personally ... that's too much wasted time, just gimme muh loot

Killing the boss takes X time, yet it's usually considered commensurate to the reward.

How would, say, taking Y time to kill mobs prior to the boss and X-Y time to kill the boss thereafter make it somehow "wasting time"? If progress on all parts -- not just the boss -- are reset with each death, it's literally just variation in the style of the encounter, much like add phases, but with more movement and greater variation in scenery.

Thus far it's only been used to flesh out the raid setting -- to better sell you on the ambiance and raid concept, so to speak -- and would do probably far better if all CDs were reset upon entering the boss room so that people could have fun with popping early CDs rather than feeling hesitant to use them or obliged to suicide at the beginning of the boss fight for the CD reset, but it doesn't have to be only that.

[Jaggerjack]

i wish there were more raids like Obs sanctuary,

[TabrisOmbrelame]

Imagine doing a raid like one of World of Warcraft, just to name one Ice Crown Citadel.

If I remember correctly it was 12 boss in the same instance. Well the timer in this kind of content is useless xD

[Zumi]

Well they did add BA and there is monsters you have to fight in between bosses.

[Sorcerious]

You already do the same bosses for 6 months, you want us to do the same trash over and over again too?

I personally prefer this kind of thing, where it's just you, 7 peeps and the boss. This scenery and all that is just fluff that people get tired of after 2 runs. And while it can be nice the first or second time around, if you run it at least 26 times... it's a waste of time. 2 times were it's nice, 24 times where it becomes an annoyance. Draw your own conclusions.

[Ceasaria]

SE could take the structure of BA and apply it on new raids.
Let's say for example you have the trash and then for the 1st boss, you have to split your party in 2 (1 tank, 1 healer, 2 dps) and you have interactions to do between the two party (like raid 24 Atomos trash).
When you beat a boss, the progression is saved (like a slot of PotD), so if you leave with your group, you would return after this boss.
And after, you have trash --> boss, or puzzle & trap between or after or before, etc.
I enjoyed BA so, I want to believe we could have this adapted for a raid 8 man.
The sensation of danger is missing in our actual raids.