Can we have a Cystal Tower and Coils rework?

[Arrius]

Both are significant for the story yet both suffer from under and overtuning:

- CT is just a DPS fest, where some bosses barely are able to do anything (Glasya, my beloved) due to the high damage output of the raid, unless they are forced via one-shot mechanics (like Phlegethon's Ancient Flare and Amon's Curtain Call).
They could do well to improve the bosses (HP and damage wise) and have them punish the raid more for ignoring mechanics. Not to mention seeing some of them the first time when bosses live actually long enough, making them more interesting again.

The Crystal Tower, in its current state, gives first-timers a false impression of how alliances work.

- The Binding Coils has a lot to unpack, lorewise, but nearly everyone does them on a high level to brute-force the content, if they even bother. Or worse, didn't knew it existed in the first place because of how obscure it is to find the quest starting it all.
And even then the one or other fight won't work due to certain mechanics (Hello there, Nael), which means you have to rely on others to help you. And the interest in that is nonexistant.

A few fights need to be adjusted and remade (like the lift and platform sections), but some of the encounters are really interesting and should be kept, just more adjusted to the current item level, streamlining them like they did on HW onwards.

Giving out new rewards in tandem with the rework definitely could help getting people back to the coils. There are great fights, lots of story and a pretty satisfying ending, which players should do before they tackle HW content, since clearing it also changes the dialogue of some NPC's.

And the cutscene. Come on, that alone is worth it going through that all.

[Saraide]

The Crystal Tower, in its current state, gives first-timers a false impression of how alliances work.

I want to highlight this part because on Xande you can just stack the 3 stack markers and get away with it.

[Jeeqbit]

CT is just a DPS fest, where some bosses barely are able to do anything (Glasya, my beloved) due to the high damage output of the raid, unless they are forced via one-shot mechanics (like Phlegethon's Ancient Flare and Amon's Curtain Call).

They don't need to rework it. They can just sync it to Minimum Item Level and the problem is solved. There are loads of mechanics in CT and they are both complex and devastating, if you actually do it Min IL sync. Currently, we are over twice the item level of LOTA and almost twice the item level of Syrcus Tower.

The Binding Coils has a lot to unpack, lorewise, but nearly everyone does them on a high level to brute-force the content, if they even bother. Or worse, didn't knew it existed in the first place because of how obscure it is to find the quest starting it all.

It's not really that obscure. You just talk to Urianger at a logical place where he is in the MSQ (The Waking Sands).

There could be a story version made of it though, and the current ones be renamed to include the (Savage) tag. They would do the story version very differently now, because they have already made story versions of these fights in future dungeons such as Paglth'an, the Ruby Weapon trial, an instance duty with Cid, certain Eureka NMs and the Fan Ail hunt which is a simpler version of Twintania.

you have to rely on others to help you. And the interest in that is nonexistant.

If someone makes a PF, someone usually joins and helps if it's unsynced. But new players do often tackle the coil raids synced in PF, which didn't used to happen in Stormblood. Getting a Minimum IL party to fill in Stormblood was barely a thing you could manage but now it's really common for them to fill.

A few fights need to be adjusted and remade (like the lift and platform sections)

I like T3. It's a fun little challenge, actually. Jump puzzle. Would be sad if it were taken away.

[CVXIV]

Honestly I think adjusting item level would go a long way for something like this.
We've had a stat squish previously yet things still die very quickly and it can get a bit boring.
I recall seeing someone mention that during the fight against Xande it can give new players the wrong impression about how multiple stack markers work too, since usually you do not stack them together like that because it would lead to wipes.

I understand that you can adjust your settings to have minimum item level and no echo, but it would still be fun to be able to see some of those mechanics during roulettes rather than with a set group of people but I do know something like it may receive a lot of backlash.

Regarding CT, I actually had a run where we wiped against Glasya and it was the first time I've ever seen it happen.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Crystal Tower raids have been powercrept by item levels, the stat squish of them only applying to HW+, unifying stats for old gear to not have HP and Defense discrepencies anymore as well as a LOT of potency adjustments upwards.

The highest tank potency at the time was WAR with Inner Beast (350) which had a damage penalty without Unchained. DRG's Full Thrust was 360 potency back then, BLM's Fire I and III were 150 and 200 base potency respectively. Many of the DPS actions were consolidated as well and produces a lot more damage with less actions than prior.

What CT raids need is a complete overhaul in HP and damage. Right now you can clear Syrcus Tower faster than 90% of dungeons. This leaves a vastly false impression about Alliance Raids and as a new player I'd feel very disappointed.

On the matters of Coils and by extension other old Savage fights

Tbh they are fine as is - what is not is the complete lack of incentive to go back and do them synced like at least once per expansion or two. Could make achievements like "Uncoiled again" for Coils of Bahamut or "Time Paradox revisited" for Alexander raids in Savage for synced clears (not requiring min iLv.)

Adequate titles or mounts for doing such would be nice. You know - how Blue Mage gets to have it, just like how we probably wont get solo or light party arena challenges anymore because of Masked Carnivale. If you can't tell, yes im jealous.

[Espon]

Alliance raids need an ilvl sync. It's sad that some bosses that once required a bit of strategy now go down before they even reach their later mechanics, especially since SE keeps designing bosses that show you what they can do first with a training phase.

As for Binding Coil, I'm fine with how it is. It would need a complete overhaul to how it currently works and that would cut into development time they could use for new content. Not only are the fights tuned to be difficult, but some of the raids suffer from Praetorium Syndrome as they have quite lengthy cutscenes. They would have to add a Normal mode with easier mechanics and move all the cutscenes to outside the duties so that people don't immediately bail upon randomly getting certain Turns.

[Ath192]

The Crystal Tower, in its current state, gives first-timers a false impression of how alliances work.

I vehemently disagree. I think The Crystal Tower, in its current state, gives first-timers a dead accurate impression of how alliance raids now work in this game, although they didnt use to. And that, is the saddest statement I will make today.

[CaptainLagbeard]

The biggest thing with Coils is that it probably should get a "Normal" difficulty version, since it's effectively a Savage Raid.

As for the CT raids, Labyrinth having been originally designed for 6 tanks, it definitely could use a redesign.

[mallleable]

I absolutely support reworking the CT raids. It would be hilarious if they replaced Bone Dragon with a Twintania clone so we can have alliance raid-scale Twisters.

[Thurmnmurmn]

I absolutely support reworking the CT raids. It would be hilarious if they replaced Bone Dragon with a Twintania clone so we can have alliance raid-scale Twisters.

I can only imagine how hilarious it would be to have 24 twisters going off at once.
No where is safe.