Quote Originally Posted by Elkwood View Post
Except now the current claiming system makes it so first party to get hate or attack gets drop, also right now with the current system bots wont become prevalent until well after 2.0 Lets be honest the XI claim wars were all about the most sophisticated bot. No they need HNM that are not about claiming but are about the skill and challenge of defeating them.

HNM will only work if you can farm X and Y item turn them in for Z item and use Z item to pop NQ and A+B item from NQ drop to pop HQ
I'm all for force-spawn NMs like the WSNMs and Hakutaku, but if they bring back the Key Item system from Abyssea I'll be peeved.

I want HNMs, though. I consider myself semi-casual. I don't go too nuts over maxing stats, but I do spend a lot of time in-game. My biggest fear from this standpoint is missing out on a bit of lore or a cool cutscene if a challenge was too hard. Thankfully, at least in 1.0, nearly all of the story content was presented in casual-friendly challenges, while the more hardcore content only had at most an intro cutscene.

A prime example is the difference between In for Garuda Wakening and Taming the Tempest: the former (mini-Garuda) is difficult on a level appropriate for its place in the Seventh Umbral Era storyline, just like Sinspawn Genais's difficulty is appropriate for its occurrence in FFX. The latter Garuda (Hard version) provides an extra challenge to anyone wanting to defeat her at her strongest, but has no real bearing on the story's progression. Likewise, Catastrophe from FFX is a much stronger pallet swap of Sinspawn Genais, but is an optional boss unlocked at the Monster Arena.

I guess to paraphrase my point, I would hate to see Eorzea's wondrous and intricate lore closed off to players who don't have the time nor patience for hardcore linkshells, and HNMs (and hard versions of fights) are great ways to provide challenges without putting unnecessary mountains in the way of completing the story.

Edit: I really need to stop writing essay-long posts knowing full well nobody but the mods read them.