Suggestion: solo endgame duties

[Recon1o6]

As it stands, all endgame duties are full party only and are designed to be challenging and award high end gear (extremes/savage) or rare titles and glam (ultimates) dungeons always lag behind in gear because they are designed to bring the player up to a minimum for fresh max level characters and jobs

Currently the only solo content at endgame is your relic, and even though eureka could be done solo up till the arsenal, to even have a chance of completing the max level fates you needed to get in a party anyway.
Thing is the relic isn't hard, its just slow more often than not. There's not really anything to test the player's individual skill at their job that is not a party duty.

In addition, pretty much all solo duties have become jokes now what with options to scale down the difficulty for story players even though at least from the forums, most people found them easy to begin with or view them more as minimum competency barriers (which even then are meaningless given people still stand in aoes repeatedly after the difficulty option pushes you onto easy/very easy)
There's 3 or so fights that require a party in the story each expansion, yet we go from several solo duties (now that we have trust to grab all the gear and dialogue etc) to party ones


So to spice up endgame a little and make things less frustrating for players who play at awkward times or don't have a super high parse for statics, why not bring in solo duties at endgame with appropriate gear? It could even have some added rng and a lockout as needed to ensure someone couldn't just hop in and power boost up to high ilvls

Its already canon that the WOL cleared a lot of climactic battles solo, so for additional story and or settings then these could be revisited- perhaps Lord edmont's memoirs for a framing device

[Vidu]

Its not that I'd be totally against this idea, but just a few thoughts in regarding to your suggestion:

1) If you have trouble finding a static because of odd times, considering a different sever or even data-center might actually do the trick for you - an odd time in america could be prime time in europe. Just as a general thought.
2) If you have trouble finding a static because of "not super high parse", would this content really be for you? If this is supposed to be an alternative to Savage raiding, it should match the difficulty of Savage, right? So it would follow that someone who isnt doing Savage because they're not good enough at their job to raid wouldnt get very fare in this content either.
3) Currently only healers, paladin and RDM have a decent option to heal themself - our current solo-duties solve that by either giving us an NPC whos healing you or by letting you play as an NPC with a "heal on demand" button. How would you handle this for those solo duties? Give everyone some special potion?

[galbsadi]

3) Currently only healers, paladin and RDM have a decent option to heal themself - our current solo-duties solve that by either giving us an NPC whos healing you or by letting you play as an NPC with a "heal on demand" button. How would you handle this for those solo duties? Give everyone some special potion?

Not OP, and not totally for this idea, but that's actually an interesting way it could be done. Perhaps somewhat like the potion in Rathalos/Rath Ex where you have so many uses.

[QooEr]

I'm all for having more to do during endgame. The only endgame content worth running for not-aesthetical reasons is savage (and ex while u get ur savage weapon I guess)

Solo endgame duties could even have potential to bridge the difficulty gap between casual and high end content

[Eric_Riot]

2) If you have trouble finding a static because of "not super high parse", would this content really be for you? If this is supposed to be an alternative to Savage raiding, it should match the difficulty of Savage, right? So it would follow that someone who isnt doing Savage because they're not good enough at their job to raid wouldnt get very fare in this content either.

That's kind of the point, I'd rather them to "Learn" to "get good" on their own time instead of wasting everyone else time. Then when they are able to complete the solo "Savage" dungeon then they can come play with the rest of the end game people. Wouldn't this help encourage end game "talent"? They can learn in a "Shame free" environment and also learn at their own pace.

[Vidu]

That's kind of the point, I'd rather them to "Learn" to "get good" on their own time instead of wasting everyone else time. Then when they are able to complete the solo "Savage" dungeon then they can come play with the rest of the end game people. Wouldn't this help encourage end game "talent"? They can learn in a "Shame free" environment and also learn at their own pace.

Well yeah, that would be lovely and personally I'd like to see some things in the game - like Savage and Ex-Primals - locked behind a "personal challenge" (something like a slightly modified SSS-dummy) to ensure they actually know how to play their job.

But this didnt seem the idea the OP was aiming for - not to me, at least. That sounded a lot more like "giving savage loot to people who cant actually earn savage loot because they dont play on a savage level". Maybe I've gotten to cynical with the years, but I've met plenty of people who had no real buisness in an ex-primal party (so, a level below Savage) with no idea how to play their job properly and showing no intention to learn. And I wouldnt be surprised if those people would then start complaining about how those solo duties are to difficult and they shouldnt have to work that hard.
People can already practise their rotation in a shame free envoriment - it being called Stone, Sky, Sea - to see if they have their basic job-skills and gear down enough to beat the fight. Yet... so many people I see during farms dont seem to do that already.

[grinkdaboy]

it's nowhere near ideal but the blue mage stuff is kind of like this

[Recon1o6]

Well yeah, that would be lovely and personally I'd like to see some things in the game - like Savage and Ex-Primals - locked behind a "personal challenge" (something like a slightly modified SSS-dummy) to ensure they actually know how to play their job.

But this didnt seem the idea the OP was aiming for - not to me, at least. That sounded a lot more like "giving savage loot to people who cant actually earn savage loot because they dont play on a savage level"

Apologies for the late response, but that was not the idea I was aiming to give. I was genuinely struggling with how to word it. That said I completely agree with you on SSS needs to be modified to actually test player skill including some possible mechanics since atm they aren't very comparable to the fights they are supposed to represent. Not to mention, a ps4 player literally has no method outside of getting a parse without a pc player but that's a discussion for another thread.

The idea I was going for was an alternative loot earning system that does not require duty finder or party finder for matching with other players in order for tokens/loot/tomestones, yet is still challenging enough to earn endgame gear or at least something like glamour items or other sought after rewards on a weekly basis and most importantly- makes sure the player has a certain level of skill to get said gear, but with enough variation/rng like I said in the OP to change it up so they retain said skill when earning it each time.

That said you raise a good point I had failed to mention: difficulty levels could be an addition to this content- savage gear for savage skill as you say or extreme gear for less challenge. Standard raid difficulty for the more casual player who due to work has gotten home at 3am at night for example and can't raid because everybody's gone to bed.
It would help alleviate the main barriers a new raider has: gaining a parse. A ps4 player outright needs a pc player to assist them. But many players are capable of doing savage, even if they prefer safety over uptime which would cause a lower parse and thence no static.
It would also fix the timezone issue- a player shouldn't have to move data centres and leave behind fc, friends, house etc just to raid at decent time. If they can get gear when they have a chance to play, it would be better for the player as a whole.

For your third question, that is ultimately dependant on the duty design. Healers already don't get brilliant conviction (self healing in solo duties) and PLD/RDM can heal themselves easily. The heal on demand button is one possible solution, a buffed version of the currently used brilliant conviction buff is another.
Personally, I would take away brilliant conviction from PLD and RDM. I would also suggest something for DNC to have a partner with so they aren't penalised either, or change it so they have a buff anyway to make up for no partner.

[Vidu]

The idea I was going for was an alternative loot earning system that does not require duty finder or party finder for matching with other players in order for tokens/loot/tomestones, yet is still challenging enough to earn endgame gear or at least something like glamour items or other sought after rewards on a weekly basis and most importantly- makes sure the player has a certain level of skill to get said gear, but with enough variation/rng like I said in the OP to change it up so they retain said skill when earning it each time.

(Yes, I'm picky with what I'm responding to atm - apologies)

Are you aware that this is already an option? Considering that you can currently run the three level 80 dungeons that are part of the story (Amarout, Chateau and Anyder) with your Trusts - provided you've leveled them high enough, which seems to be a fair requirement to me, since people would still have the option to use the DF/PF/pre-made party if they prefer not to put the effort in OR should have already have them leveled if they prefer to play solo - and earn loot and tomestones that way.

[Recon1o6]

I had already covered this point in my OP on the very first line- the dungeons that are coming out per patch are always designed to be bare minimum gear to enter current content, and even then they do not drop weapons. They are made to be catch up and played for story, not endgame progression

Since they are always lagging behind, this was one of the reason I'm proposing solo duties as endgame progression.