Suggestion: Party Finder "Practice Mode"

[Raqrie_Tohka]

The key points / counterarguments I seem to take from Vidu's standpoint is that, and from others:

1. Difficulty is demanded by players, and it is only logical that SE designs raids to be difficult, to both entertain and challenge these dedicated players.
2. The urgency to gain rewards is not actually that high as even purely via tokens or low efficiency raiding, you'll be well geared before the next tier of content hits.
3. Any changes will substantially alter the nature / form of the content, not to mention will be difficult to code / implement. Current doability does not warrant dismissal of the viability of current content as a natural and balanced form of progression in the game.
4. Other people point out there are no existing examples of such a system in similar game design, probably for good reason.
5. Other people point out be careful what you wish for: Systems were not meant to be slotted into each other, or modified to address singular problems.
6. The actual efficiency of the key idea under inspection (no-death / wipe practice mode) is doubted, or questioned to not target actual problem points.

I think some of those would be quite difficult to discuss. Not to mention SE seems to have their own raid design philosophy already, and what a raid "should be". How the game should provide its entertainment efficiently, etc.

However my own motive for thinking up this idea, was mainly for the following points:
1. Having to re-run all prior mechanics before seeing later mechanics is highly inefficient, especially when factoring in the inconsistency and inefficiency of PF practice, with people leaving, failing randomly, new groups and tactics and positions every group.
2. Not having to worry about death will lessen mental pressure on players. This is a good thing. They will learn better when happy.
3. Being able to run a whole fight coherently from start to finish, players can focus on the actual mechanics, observing raid, memorize timing and rotations, experimenting with raid cds. Try out new tactics and strats.
4. A successful run does not mean the end of a night of raiding. When I practice music I don't stop when I happen to do a piece perfectly. You can also run it again and again until you can do it in your sleep. At any rate, being a "successful" run by definition is much more satisfying than wiping in PF more times in 1 week than you've done for the whole expansion.
5. If the general efficiency of the whole playerbase increases, SE can experiment with new forms of content, new content scheduling, new design philosophy. Utilizing this system and data from it to create even more creativity and content. It's a compounding effect. It's all about creating "systems", with better PF tools, etc.
5. Having a leisure mode allows helping out others, such as FC members, practice before they "go out into the wild" and find their own clear groups.

[LalaRu]

Doing the hard stuff without the "hard" part is just tasteless.

[Dzian]

If savage raids aren't meant to be doable in Party Finder then they should outright say so.

They are meant to be doable in party finder. They're even designed to be doable with raid finder groups. The design concept is log in jump into raid finder and go accessibility.

The only reason people dont use raid finder is because too many idiots who never entered a fight can go into raid finder and click duty completion instead of practice. And ultimately waste everyone else's time.

If you look at the jp side if the game (or at least used to be the case I'm a bit out of touch on that side.) But raid finder works very well over there because people ove there generally dont queue for things they aren't capable of. Where over here people feel almost entitled to queue for whatever they want and be carried by the rest of the group.

I don't think I've actually used raid finder since farming Susano and Lakshmi early 4.0. Never really had the time for farm parties but jumping in raid finder for 2-3 quick clears was usually quick enough.

The other issue is the lack of scaling difficulty. 99% of the game is actually harder to lose than it is to win the line is so low. And the other 1% is a sheer vertical line that shoots into orbit...

[KalinOrthos]

The other issue is the lack of scaling difficulty. 99% of the game is actually harder to lose than it is to win the line is so low. And the other 1% is a sheer vertical line that shoots into orbit...

Eh, semantics, but I'd say it's more steps. Progression through the story, and therefore access to further content, has you going against trials that are actually mildly difficult for the average player, hence why Ravana, Lakshmi, Shinryu, Tsukiyomi, and now Titania and last MSQ trial tend to be such painful experiences when you see half the party sitting in "Viewing Cutscene" when they zone in, especially when they were current content. And this isn't a knock on the average player, but the fights demand a bit more attention than the none-at-all the zergfests that the level 50 trials have become need.

On further reflection, one thing I actually kinda liked about Blade and Soul was their practice room. You could practice specific mechanics on bosses without actually progressing in any meaningful way. The problem is, Blade and Soul required a lot of personal responsibility, and mechanics were very much on you, solely, and you are the only one who tends to get punished, whereas fights in this game are tend to be group focused, and failing one thing will cause your other party members to die, ie Vice and Virtue on E1S. With the battle system we have, having a "practice room" would be very untenable, and you're better off just finding a Practice party in party finder to learn the fights.

What you suggest, OP, is basically what we already have; just add "practice" to your party finder thing and just learn mechanics as you go through the fight. If you've already done Eden Normal and the other trials, then you actually have a somewhat decent idea of the mechanics you'll have to go through, with some new twists that can be learned via a guide. If you're the type of person to go in completely blind to a fight, you do so to the detriment of your entire party. If it's for low stakes dungeons and normal/hard mode trials? It's fine, there isn't much issue there. For Extreme and Savage? You're actively making things worse on your party for doing so.

[Canadane]

Raise.
It has no zed.