Observations From Someone Trying Eureka for the First Time in 2022

[AmraTheDestroyer]

Eureka is the best content this game has and BA is the best raid they made.
Im hoping for a new kind of eureka in the next expansion.

ps.Didnt like Bonja that much

[Jettinson]

This is very true. Traveling to NM loc means player do not gain any experience during transit. Unless it's an NM train that pops within player's current lv, I typically advise folks to just mob away because that's just way faster, leveling wise.

When folks unlocks access to LAs, things gets even smoother with how cheap broken Wisdom+Bloodbath L (only requires conceptuals!) & Reflect farm (lv41 - lv60) is.

Even going full defense works if you are lacking stuff, Platebearer + Protect/Bloodbath has honestly made my trips to high level mobs a breeze for a DPS

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

Eureka was designed to be a lot like FF11, content that many people were requesting at the time, hence why it's so harsh.



Except it has been nerfed into the ground as it used to be much more difficult. Before it was nerfed, you were unable to use mounts until max level and there was no massive echo effect to boost your stats. Even fighting enemies that were the same level as you would likely get you killed without a party, and NMs could 1-shot you with almost any attack if you were not a tank.

I've stuck my toe in Eureka since those nerfs. They aren't enough to get me back in there. The mobs are all still massive hp sponges. I was able to solo single mobs in Eureka when it first launched without any risk of dying. It just took a year and a day. Then there's the whole separate leveling system. When I say "nerfed into the ground" I mean I wanna be able to go in there as a lvl 90 (or higher) and one or two shot packs of mobs with impunity. The experience in Eureka is distasteful. I don't want to be in there any longer than I have to be, and right now, how long I'd have to be in there is too long for me to be willing to subject myself to such an unpleasant experience.

No, I'd rather live without the glams and TT cards (which means I'll never be able to finish my TT collection or certain TT achievements since some cards/npcs are locked behind doing the bulk of Eureka/Bozja) than to spend my precious game time doing things I don't enjoy. As I said, if Eureka and Bozja never reach a point where I can just solo steamroll my way through them at a pace I find palatable, I'll just continue to pretend they don't exist. The aggravation just isn't worth it otherwise.

[SamSmoot]

I always died within 5 minutes of leaving the base, and it took nearly that long to kill each mob. Gave up after 30 minutes.

[dspguy]

So, 2 days ago, I entered Eureka for the very first time. I want to point out some observations I noticed about my time there, and raise some concerns I have.

(1) The punishing leveling system
(2) Eureka penalizes you for working with others
(3) You can't change jobs once you leave the base/home area

The leveling system was a move away from simply following quest markers. That's how newer generation MMOs are, including FFXIV. This was a move away from that. The death penalty puts a "fear of death" into the game that hasn't existed in FFXIV... ever. If you die, just return and run back and do it again. In Eureka, you might need to ask for help to get to some areas without dying. Or you might feel a sense of accomplishment if you happen to sneak by a bunch of enemies on your way to your destination.

This game has no death penalty. Putting one into it in a completely optional part of the game is just something different.

You are always "penalized" for working with others. You have to split loot and exp. The difference is that nearly all other FFXIV content, the kill exp is a fraction of the reward. There's a bigger reward for completing, for example, leveling roulette. So while maybe you only get a tiny amount of exp/kill in a full group in Eureka, you get a large amount by completing challenge logs.

Also, Eureka FATEs are just like any other FATEs. Enemy spawns, show up and beat it up. Get exp which is NOT dependent on the number of players present. If anything, your exp/hour goes up by clearing it faster with more players.

Not being able to change your job on the fly simply requires a player to think about what they will need to succeed.

Luckily for the OP, this is optional content. I was a little turned off my first time in there since it was a lot to process. I think the elemental wheel was a good idea, but ultimately it boiled down to spinning the wheel to the proper enemy weakness and that was about it. It wasn't like they added spells or something that you could use to exploit these weaknesses.

[Moebious]

Eureka isn't for everyone, like Deep Dungeons.

Personally, when I was new to Eureka, I wasn't particularly excited about the place but after each Zone was completed, it started growing on me. The Zone's own special system at first seems daunting, but once figured out its rather fun, with few unlucky exceptions. And as already noted, in most cases, if you are unlucky to die, as long there are players in the instance, will most likely always come to your aid, res you, even in the most terrible of locations.

Eureka is just one of those special instances which require you to research a bit more than usual, similar to Deep Dungeon, which is also what lured me to it in the first place.

As already pointed out before, once you get to Pyros, and unlock Logograms, it all can becomes incredibly easier, if you know which ability to get. Getting plague bearer and protect L on dps for instance, both from very cheap logograms which can be bought from marketboard), makes you tanky+ as tanks, especially on Dragoon and Reaper.
Henceforth most things become incredibly easy, as long you make good use of logograms.

I've been in Eureka enough that one of my retainers is full with each zones' crystals, if only there was more uses for them past relics, or that they made Eureka become a different means to getting current gear or augmentation mats, for midcore players, would be nice.
And I honestly wish they made a lvl 90 synced version of Eureka too, with bonus glam/rewards, plowing through Eureka with 90 kit would be incredibly fun, even if it meant having to re-level elemental levels etc.

In any case, the turning point is usually when you complete Pagos, literal Frozen Hell. But super fun place afterwards.

[Xeronia]

I would suggest if someone higher level does want to party with you have them go SCH or SGE as they can focus target you and put shields on you outside of party which can allow you to hit higher level stuff while not nerfing your exp and can resurrect you if anything goes wrong. I have done this for all my friends until they hit Pyros where actions help the experience a lot more (and breaking leveling via reflect spam on sprites dependent on weather).

[RokkuEkkusu]

For Anemos, they might need to change the way the level 1 Sabotender NM fate "100,000 Needles" move works for those who start off Eureka solo.

Currently, it is a stack marker that does a fixed 100,000 damage. If it worked like Qarn (Hard) in which enough damage can interrupt it, that would have been fine. However, the stack marker cannot be interrupted or ignored this time, so those who are solo and don't have a team are probably out of luck. The irony is that other NMs that are higher leveled are easier mechanically because of heavy-hitting stack.

For Pagos, it's terrible and needs a complete overhaul. Those sleeping dragons don't help either.

For Pyros and Hydatos, I mostly like them. The only notable thing is to give tanks the ability to use "Dispel L" in case Ovni shows up and the healers/dps forget to bring it.

In short, I like Eureka overally, but Pagos need a lot of work.