Feedback: It is time to re-balance old capstone trials

[Morphiana]

Like the Endwalker capstone fight was rebalanced, the other trials should be rebalanced as well. The capstone fights are supposed to be the WoL's confrontation with the big bad at the end of an important point in the MSQ. It isn't fun to steamroll them for the new player or the veteran. For example, Thordan may as well be a training dummy who collapses quite quickly.

Some may say "just do Extreme then". There's a few problems with that, the easiness of the normal boss dampens the story you're experiencing in that moment. Finishing the story and going back for Extreme doesn't have the same impact as experiencing the fight fully the first time around. Doing old extremes sync'd can be done but it is harder to get a group going for that than just using the duty finder for normal. Extreme sync'd is a higher difficulty than when these capstone's initially launched with their normal difficulty.

Others may say "just make a PF normal mode min ilvl group then" but most new players will not do this (or even know to do this as the game points you too the duty finder) and even if they all did that would only result in the roulette system having less variety.

There is a compromise to be had here. The fights can be brought back to be more close to how they were originally experienced. Except ARR's capstone fight of Ultima which was already re-worked, the trials I'm referring to are:

• Shiva
• Thordan
• Nidhogg
• Shinryu
• Tsukuyomi
• Hades
• Warrior of Light (Elidibus)

The first capstone trial in an MSQ of the base game or expansion and the last MSQ capstone trial before an xpac.

Some need more work than others. Tsukuyomi and the WoL for example, just needs to live a bit longer so more of the fight can be experienced. Shiva / Thordan / Nidhogg / Shinryu / Hades all need more attention. Of those Shiva / Thordan / Hades could use it the most. They're not fights anymore, they're training dummys with flashy effects who die too quickly, some before you even see all of their mechanics. It is also quite difficult to die in any of those fights. As a result, they do not feel like the conclusion of a piece of the MSQ but rather a let down on how easily they're defeated. They offer little to no threat despite the MSQ saying they are a big threat.

Ultima and Endsinger are tuned well at the moment. One simply allows you to experience the whole fight while the other does that plus brings back the difficulty as it is a much higher level trial. The rest need similar tweaks to be brought closer to the difficulty and play time it took to complete them at their launch.

[Banggugyangu]

Of all the trials you listed, WoL was the only one that was difficult, and it still is. WoL's difficulty is already above several EX trials, honestly.

[Valence]

Bringing a hard sync would probably go a long way already. The Final Day and the Interphos have one specifically to avoid people eventually skipping the whole second phases entirely. Why it's not been reciprocated to older ones as well when their own end level dungeons just preceding them have always had one, I don't even know.

[Arohk]

Of all the trials you listed, WoL was the only one that was difficult, and it still is. WoL's difficulty is already above several EX trials, honestly.

I wouldn't call a mechanic where you have to spam one button in the middle fo the screen difficult, yet people still fail it.

[Banggugyangu]

I wouldn't call a mechanic where you have to spam one button in the middle fo the screen difficult, yet people still fail it.

You're talking about the tank LB3? That's not the part I'm talking about. I've had multiple roulettes time out on WoL. Never had another trial time out, and as I mentioned before, I cleared Zodiark EX on a single lockout in EW early access with blind prog. The overall difficulty of WoL is just higher than other trials by a large margin.

[Arohk]

You're talking about the tank LB3? That's not the part I'm talking about. I've had multiple roulettes time out on WoL. Never had another trial time out, and as I mentioned before, I cleared Zodiark EX on a single lockout in EW early access with blind prog. The overall difficulty of WoL is just higher than other trials by a large margin.

I was talking about the "quick time event" where you are shackled and if one player fails you wipe.

The Problem is not that WoL is too difficult, but that all other trials are too easy.

[LibitIncarne]

• Shiva
• Thordan
• Nidhogg
• Shinryu
• Tsukuyomi
• Hades
• Warrior of Light (Elidibus)

Shiva is fine. Those mechanics you "aren't seeing" are only in the Extreme version.
Thordan deserves to be a joke. The WOL is full of dynamis at this point because they're still mad at two of their friends being dead by Thordan's machinations. Oh no, you don't get to see him do AUTO-ATTACKS while he has damage down. Very sad. Thordan is FUBAR and even doing it MINE doesn't solve the difficulty problem.
I don't really feel like Nidhogg is underpowered?
Shinryu might need a buff, but feels fine,
Tsukuyomi is fine.
Hades needs a bit of a rework. People are killing before the Black Cauldron longcast starts.
WoL is harder than Innocence. Why are you putting this here?

[Banggugyangu]

I was talking about the "quick time event" where you are shackled and if one player fails you wipe.

The Problem is not that WoL is too difficult, but that all other trials are too easy.

I disagree, and my point is that I've cleared EX trials on a single lockout and actually timed out on WoL. That puts WoL at a difficulty level at least close to EX. I'm not complaining about WoL's difficulty, just saying that it's substantially higher than other trials. I'll agree that most trials are easier than they should be, yes.

In all honesty, I'd personally like to see an overhaul to level sync where the full kit you have at your uncapped level is available and a negative damage modifier is applied to you roughly equivalent to the potential DPS increase whatever extra skills you have above the content may contribute. I'd be in favor of this being a bit overtuned so that being the level of the content is the highest DPS you can do while being above results in slightly less. This would reduce the steamrolling significantly without affecting the players who are appropriate level possibly doing their first run of something. We would see long-forgotten mechanics like Daybreak, but all-in-all the content would feel better to play due to having the full kit for your job.

[MasuraoTsukino]

I'd also like to point out, Shiva isn't the second ARR capstone trial it. Originally that honor would have gone to The Steps of Faith, before they reworked that into a solo instance, but now would be The Chrysalis, which I feel is fine in terms of difficulty.

[Banggugyangu]

I'd also like to point out, Shiva isn't the second ARR capstone trial it. Originally that honor would have gone to The Steps of Faith, before they reworked that into a solo instance, but now would be The Chrysalis, which I feel is fine in terms of difficulty.

The Steps of "Spend 20 minutes to wipe." -___- good riddance