This is one of those cases in which interesting, innovative mechanics are marred by a certain clumsiness of design. This event is inflating the value of the currency item drop, just because it only moves close to the intended conclusion when there's massive participation. And there hasn't been massive participation since the first night of the event.

Over 40 players quickly dispatching bombards and kings, plus a bit of luck, can do the last few minutes of the fight with ease, but alas, those conditions exist no more. Now, when the initial fever is gone, only an average of 6-7 players are to be found outside of Ul'dah at any one time, and that barely, at peak participation hours. The crescendo of the fight's last few minutes, with lots of kings spawning near the balloons, is too much for these few participants to handle.

Neither is the spawn rate the main culprit in this hurdle, which I have the feeling could be handled by about 10-15 players under other circumstances. Rather, the speed (or lack thereof) with which the bombards and kings are consumed and disappear seems to cause a lot of dead debris close to the balloons, making the participants unable to detect, see, and target the approaching, alive bombards. For some reason, it feels that this effect is not intended as one of the few real difficulties of the fight.

Perhaps, more attention and testing will be needed next year.

R