When do the training wheels come off?

[SturmChurro]

My alt is both a returner and a new player. I actually want the new player one back.

Dumped that novice network trash though on it, worthless chat spam. Anyone new reading this don't bother with Novice Network.

[Forever_Learning]

Ah yes, the era of 2.x. When Swiftcast required you to get THM to lv32, leaving many healers without it. The time of Brayflox status struggles for SCH, WARs without Provoke. Hell, I'll take you way back: Pre-2.2 WAR. That just sucked.

X| So many deaths.

Needing THM for swiftcast or anything else like that was a normal part of the game back then. In order to even unlock a job, you needed one class at level 30 and a separate one at level 15 - which is why my maurader is level 15 and never touched for years. If someone didn't do that, and remained as say CNJ until level 50 - as much ridicule as you give someone today without their soul stone.

Healers without swiftcast?

More like any level 50 healer without swiftcast would be kicked from any party and told to go level up THM to get swiftcast, which wasn't difficult to do nor take very long; probably as long as it takes to go from 1-50 today.

Brayflox? I was a scholar in ARR, you needed to blow your CDS, and basically spam heal to keep the tank up. It was easy. The scholar having issues were the ones who wanted to spend all their time doing DPS and just let EOS heal, so when they actually had to prioritize healing, or spend a fight doing nothing but healing, they would fall apart.

Ultimately, you've described how some players back then were very bad. Competent players had little issue with ARR, we pugged coil.

My alt is both a returner and a new player. I actually want the new player one back.

Dumped that novice network trash though on it, worthless chat spam. Anyone new reading this don't bother with Novice Network.

Another posted already responded, but I will also say that my time with the novice network on Gilgamesh has been great.

I returned in February, but because I haven't reached level 70 yet (too distracted by all the side content), the novice network has become my defacto FC and I absolutely love it. EVERY SINGLE QUESTION is always answered, or there is a major attempt to answer it. I feel I can ask anything, without fear it will be considered too stupid. They've spent time explaining rotations to me, game systems, basically, whatever I ask about. When people arent asking questions, people chat, yes, but the minute there's a question, everyone goes into answer mode.

I also know Gilgamesh is one of the more "hardcore" servers, so that may have an impact.

[Zhamkyong]

I think i will be a mix of bad and good here, so to speak.

Someone mentioned above that the game should force the new players to go into the Hall of the Novice to learn the basics of combat, and while i have to agree on that term at the same time have to disagree. While it's true that the game should have a way to teach, it is the responsability of the player to learn. I may be biased in my way of thinking because i have played videogames since... the Megradive? So it may be just a force of habit that i have, but it's the responsability of each player to learn their kit. When i tried the game on the beta, no one explained to me how the system worked, or what gear i should be using. I played the game through trial and error. Some players claim that the dungeons do not teach anything, but in reality it's the best scenario to learn by ourselves to use our skills in a appropriate manner, little by little until we reach max level. We cannot blame a game, any game, that it has little means to teach or inform it's new batch of players when some of them skip all the dialogues and windows without even read them. Example: A level 50 Gladiator in Aurum Vale? That's user it's at fault, not the product... Since now the game tells you that you have to earn the Job Crystal when you reach level 30.

When do the training wheels come off? -> This one is easy, level 30.

It's when we get our Job and shit starts getting serious. We are now at level 80, a game cannot stay "newbie friendly" forever. If it is, then we have abominations like Steps of Faith, where the difficulty it's an absolute joke. A party can complete this... thing, without even doing a single mechanic right. How can we ask a new player to use his/her kit like it's meant to (not for Savage, just for NORMAL difficulty), if we just let them pass every challenge with no effort?

Edit: I forgot a last thing:
I do not know about you, but i am here to play, and that means to learn how to use everything that involves the gameplay.

[wereotter]

I think i will be a mix of bad and good here, so to speak.

Someone mentioned above that the game should force the new players to go into the Hall of the Novice to learn the basics of combat, and while i have to agree on that term at the same time have to disagree. While it's true that the game should have a way to teach, it is the responsability of the player to learn.

Before you can get the quest for Sastasha, the MSQ does actually direct you to the hall of the novice to learn the basics of your role.

[Zhamkyong]

Before you can get the quest for Sastasha, the MSQ does actually direct you to the hall of the novice to learn the basics of your role.

Yes, but it's optional. Or i am mistaken about that?

[Rhais]

Yes, but it's optional. Or i am mistaken about that?

You aren't, all you are required to do is talk to a person in the hall of novice, you don't have to go through it at all though. I don't know why so many people believe making that mandatory will somehow make the majority of the playerbase competent in endgame anyway, it wouldn't change a thing.

[Zhamkyong]

You aren't, all you are required to do is talk to a person in the hall of novice, you don't have to go through it at all though. I don't know why so many people believe making that mandatory will somehow make the majority of the playerbase competent in endgame anyway, it wouldn't change a thing.

That's why i said what i meant: It's the responsibility of each player in the end. The tools are there but if a player wants to be carried or be lazy no matter how many you throw at him, he will do nothing to change his playstyle. That's why i call The Steps of Faith an aberration, it was that kind of barrier you need to apply that kind of challenge the game needs at some point. But it got so watered down that instead of a challenge it's a joke. It became a joke the moment they nerfed it, come to think of it.

[KageTokage]

I'm not the sort to call people out for playing a class wrong unless they're doing something seriously wrong (IE, SCH not using their fairy, tanks not using tank stance), but they sure as heck won't get a commendation if they're, say, a healer not DPSing at all.

Dumped that novice network trash though on it, worthless chat spam. Anyone new reading this don't bother with Novice Network.

This is kind of a poor generalization to make because the NN environment differs drastically on different servers.

On Cactuar, if people ask questions they'll without fail be answered within a minute or two, irregardless of whatever other silly discussions may be happening at the time.

I do know from server hopping how toxic and spammy the NN on other servers can be, though...

[Alexandre_Noireau]

Never.

Level 80 dungeons are exactly the same as level 30 dungeons. And all content.

This game has no difficulty curve, just 4 difficulty tiers.

1.- Boring. (90%)
2.- Boring with more than 30 imputs per second. (5%)
3.- Actually engaging. (4%)
4.- Stupid. (1%)

[Kaethra]

Never.

Level 80 dungeons are exactly the same as level 30 dungeons. And all content.

This game has no difficulty curve, just 4 difficulty tiers.

1.- Boring. (90%)
2.- Boring with more than 30 imputs per second. (5%)
3.- Actually engaging. (4%)
4.- Stupid. (1%)

This is pretty accurate.

There was a point in time when the regular dungeons were a bit of a challenge in 2.0. But since then, our potencies have gone up each expansion and its rendered alot of these dungeons trivial because of it. I do remember running Stone Vigil and normally having to Sleep one of the large birds in the 3x pull or watch your tank get wrecked. Or switch from AOE to ST on the sprite pulls so they don't Blizzardx3 your tank to death.

Right now dungeons from 15-60 could do with a bit of scaling, increase mob hp by 25-40% and their damage by 10-20%. And have a bit more restrictive item lvl scaling when you're scaled from a higher level. For example, if you're doing Auram Vale, you should be scaled to item level 45 or 50, not any higher.

I also believe any content not in the current expansion should have item level scaling to 5pts higher than its minimum (or its level if it had no minimum). I like the idea of getting better gear to make things easier, but we can have that for current expansion stuff. Take off those benefits for old content and let us have our nostalgia back. And I don't believe everyone would struggle, they would simply adapt, as they did when all the content was current.