Job Quest woes from a noob

[Wicka]

I am not bothering to go through and pick up the quotes but,

I did have a pretty good party. Both role composition and player experience was good. 1 tank, 1 healer, 2 DDs.(would have been 1 tank, 1 healer, 1 DD, and 1 controller, but controller doesn't really exist yet.)

We tried several times and were wiped every time with no chance of victory regardless of strategy (save maybe some cheesy exploitation, and those are boring).

I am a strong gamer, and I enjoy handicapping myself to introduce more challenge when I become good at something (Inigo Montoya is one of my favorite fictional characters). I was not self handicapped for this quest and my party-members were equally capable (good gear and strong player skills).

As a veteran gamer who has played his fair share of games, as well as designed a few, I can say with no uncertainty that the 2 job quests I took part in were next to impossible to complete with the recommended conditions. As I like more difficult games, I have no problem with the freaking insane difficulty of the quests. My only issue is the misleading quest info.

I was once part of a team that designed a 2D platformer (think mario). And one of the programmers (a lazy ass-hole) accidentally broke the code that governed player movement on a 2D plane. This allowed the player to run into the 'background' that didn't actually exist and fall for eternity. And because it was too much work for him to go in a patch up his broken code he said he did it on purpose because the game was 'too easy'. Now, in order to play the game you have to concentrate this hard just to get to the first pitfall, 3 yards in front of you, without falling into the oblivion that is the forground and background.


Thats not challenge. Thats stupid.

[Jinko]

I'd have to say that the first battles in most of the jobs quest chains are fairly difficult, I've tried both Bard and Paladin as a lvl 30 and got owned, its cool though as I got a lvl 50 player to help me. :P

Like I said in another thread people complained that the quests where too easy and that's because they were on lvl 50 classes, its much more difficult at the appropriate level and I'm kind of glad, it gives a good reason to group up for this content. (I would also like to see this content level capped so even lvl 50 players were forced to take on the challenge)

We definitely need more content like this in future, I would agree that the dev team do need to make it more obvious what is easy and difficult quests though, something like the stars they use for guildleves.

[Alhanelem]

It's what I've been doing for most of the game, since there's hardly anyone to play with, and I've been fine until this quest, which, in terms of difficulty, sticks out like a sore thumb.

The jobs are the big new thing. Even if you're on one of the lower-pop servers, there should be people to do it with if you shout and have a little patience.

You should also have been clued in by most quests saying you can bring 2 people with you, but these say to bring 4, that this one was going to be more difficult.

You are complaining that content that was built for a small party was too hard for you to solo. You have no case.

[Jinko]

^ Except in this case when people have gone with 4 people at the correct level they have still found it nigh on impossible to complete.

[Alhanelem]

It must be just that one quest then. I did the first BLM quest with just 2 level 40s, no glitching or trickery or cheese.

If you can't do that quest with a full party well over the minimum level, then it might need tweaking. but you still shouldn't be complaining about getting owned solo, since it wasn't meant to be done solo.

[casker]

@Mireille

I would agree, they've made a lot of strides and I can tell too, as I am actually enjoying the game now. I just found this to be a huge lull, drag, deacceleration, whatever you want to call it, in comparison to all the other improvements they've made. Compared to the complaints at launch, this is relatively minor.

@Jinko

Yeah. I mean if they would just say that they also developed this in mind for level 50's or something I would be totally fine with it, knowing that they know it should be tweaked later. But when 2.0 comes and new people come, and it's still like this, I think a lot of peoples experiences will be like mine or Wickas.

@Alhanelem

A level 43 couldn't even solo it, as mentioned in this thread. But I could tell from my solo experience that it was 1) a massive difficulty spike 2) not going to doable for a group of 30's. To top it off it comes on the tail of a pretty hefty grind session. This will drive people away, I assure you, no matter how wrong headed it was of me to try to solo it and how much you attack that point which is neither here nor there.

The jobs are the big new thing. Even if you're on one of the lower-pop servers, there should be people to do it with if you shout and have a little patience.

You should also have been clued in by most quests saying you can bring 2 people with you, but these say to bring 4, that this one was going to be more difficult.

You are complaining that content that was built for a small party was too hard for you to solo. You have no case.

The other ones usually said 2, this one said 3. Oh boy, one more person, they were easy now it's impossible. It's misleading, and in any case it's not built for the level you get it, which is dumb anyway.

The ifrit quest at least FORCED me to get a group.

Ultimately I just see zero reason to give out content that is designed for 5+ levels above you. Why not just make the requirement 5 levels higher? Yes you can get high level people to help, but you shouldn't have to. Maybe you can grind it out, but you shouldn't have to. You should be able to do it with a group of 30's, when they give you the quest.

[Alhanelem]

Ultimately I just see zero reason to give out content that is designed for 5+ levels above you. Why not just make the requirement 5 levels higher?

So that you can get the stuff sooner? There were lots of things in FFXI that were hard to do at the first level you could do them. You just got someone stronger to help you. This was done on purpose, so that old and new players would meet and maybe spark some friendships and all that good stuff.

[Peptaru]

NO FRIENDSHIPS, i r too 1337 to hang with you, i gots timmy's to hold and trash to talk! now go get a LS so i can say that whatever shell it is sucks!!!

I liked helpin people in XI and i still do, its a great way to pass time and do some good. i know how fun it is to unlock stuff or gain access to new things, its nice to be able to help someone with it.

[casker]

It's kinda weird that people will get on my case for not wanting challenge, and then also say that you are supposed to have high level people run you through stuff. Great challenge!

NO FRIENDSHIPS, i r too 1337 to hang with you, i gots timmy's to hold and trash to talk! now go get a LS so i can say that whatever shell it is sucks!!!

That was just an asinine straw man laced with gibberish. Yeah, this is just about me being antisocial, even though I mentioned I've grouped up, and Wicka mentioned they couldn't do it in a group.

If you want to help people, do it. You can still help them even if the quests are properly tuned to the appropriate level. If SE did this to make people group up then there are better ways to do it than deliberately mislabeling the difficulty of content.

The design is dumb. A group of level 30's should be able to do level 30 content when they get it, especially if it's after a long grind. White Knights will be the death of this game.

[Riv]

Why try to do anything Job related, solo? The easy quests you could solo are from the past 1.5 years, now it's time to pony up for a little more challenge. And just because you have a group doesn't necessarily mean they are a good team of decent players. Surely you can't expect to do the entire game solo or with a rag tag group of people?