So... This is the "improved encounter design"?

[KageTokage]

The general pacing of the mechanics feels better and there's a lot less "dead" periods where the boss is just sitting there auto-attacking people for several seconds before the next mechanic starts.

They're also much more prone to auto-attacking during mechanics, too, which puts legitimate pressure on the healers to keep the MT alive at times.

[localareanetwork]

The normal mode content is a lot better but savage+ feels the same.

[Oizen]

7.2 sounds like cope to me and more "it'll get better next patch bro", I'll believe it when I see it and I expect nothing.

[Akonyl]

I think the encounter design was suitably improved, tbh. It wasn't by much, but I also don't expect them to immediately crank the raids into weird experimental 100% territory, because that'd likely just cause kneejerk complaints about it, even if people are ultimately receptive.

3+4 are fairly typical savage fights, but I did think 1+2 felt a lot more dynamic than previous early fights. 2 is kind of a letdown, with how much is stack/spread memory filler, but the mostly-rng towers in Beat 1 and yolo lines do feel more interesting to me than the typical savage mechanic where it's just "follow this raidplan". And I enjoy seeing platform destruction come back, in the form where you can actually jump over edges again (unlike e9s or p12s), so I hope to see more weird arena destruction in the future, too.

The boss healing in 2 is also kind of neat, as a new way of making a fight punish failure without just triggering an immediate wipe. But I think that's also probably an example of why they didn't just immediately go crazy, because from the horror stories I've heard it's also inordinately punishing PF vs how punishing it was to the more hardcore crowd, with how quickly it died vs a typical 2nd fight in the race, while I hear a bunch of people lamenting m2s in party finder because heals make the enrage so much more annoying for pf.

I could do with the fights being a bit harder, but honestly I had a ton of fun with em week 1 and I'm hoping to see more in that vein with the next tiers.

[Volgia]

Well, I don't know... ever since SB at least, Savage 1-4 has always felt like a breeze compared to 5 - 8. At the very least the spike in difficulty between O1S/E1S/P1S was very significant against O5S/E5S/P5S. Although I always found 6 and 7 to be pretty chill. We'll have to see if the second tier is more savage than this savage.

[CaedemSanguis]

Well, I don't know... ever since SB at least, Savage 1-4 has always felt like a breeze compared to 5 - 8. At the very least the spike in difficulty between O1S/E1S/P1S was very significant against O5S/E5S/P5S. Although I always found 6 and 7 to be pretty chill. We'll have to see if the second tier is more savage than this savage.

first tier is always way easier than 2nd/3rd tier, since 4.0

[Asari5]

didnt he say it wont come in 7.0 but 7.2 because that decision was made not too long ago and they cant include it in 7.0. and he apologized in advance it might be more difficult than intended because they have less practise with the stuff to come

which led to some people believing it gets more difficult

[CaedemSanguis]

didnt he say it wont come in 7.0 but 7.2 because that decision was made not too long ago and they cant include it in 7.0. and he apologized in advance it might be more difficult than intended because they have less practise with the stuff to come

which led to some people believing it gets more difficult

yeah, they want to introduce "wow style mechanics" so I think they will wait for ultimates/2nd/3rd tier and criterions to implement it

they cant risk a first tier to be too hard, but a 2nd/3rd tier being too hard it's less of a trouble, and with ultimates/criterion savages they can go crazy with the wow style mechanics

[Valence]

Hasn't even cleared half of the tier
feels the need to criticize it
lmao

Do you know what game you're playing? Never expect a deviation from the norm.

I'm on the final line to clear (sabbaths) and I hold the exact same view as the OP. I'd rate those raids within the "pretty good category", but the very good category of the same old model and gimmicks. It's still chokefull of spread/pair/light parties mechanics, clones, chariot/dynamo, etc. The raid quality is good, but it's the model that's getting incredibly stale, and considering they promised new surprises and a willingness to work on making encounters creative again, then so far, I think they failed pretty hard, and i'll change my opinion the day they have actually something to show for it.

I dont know how many times people need to say it, but play a game for what it is NOW, not for what the dev says it will be in the future. If you're not enjoying it, why are you playing?

No need to get into strawmen either. Nobody here and especially not the OP has said that they have stopped enjoying the game.

The new encounter design includes the current savage fights, but there is some context:

The first tier is always intentionally easier to account for people adjusting to job changes, new rotations and new players. Then they make it tougher as people are used to the new expansion's gimmicks.

People asked for encounters to get less homogenized, like jobs, and the devs have promised that they were working this expansion on making the encounters more creative. So far, they're not a lot, that's what the OP has been saying. Nobody talked about difficulty. Nobody is contesting that the first tier is always easier. We weren't promised more difficult fights, we were promised more creative and unique fights.

But honestly when compared to another one of Yoshi's recent declaration on how "they're quite happy with their current model" right now, I think we're just expecting them to change the game model when they're not willing to. So I'm not holding my breath for anything actually pleasing our crowd here.

[Raikai]

I'm on the final line to clear (sabbaths) and I hold the exact same view as the OP. I'd rate those raids within the "pretty good category", but the very good category of the same old model and gimmicks. It's still chokefull of spread/pair/light parties mechanics, clones, chariot/dynamo, etc. The raid quality is good, but it's the model that's getting incredibly stale, and considering they promised new surprises and a willingness to work on making encounters creative again, then so far, I think they failed pretty hard, and i'll change my opinion the day they have actually something to show for it.



No need to get into strawmen either. Nobody here and especially not the OP has said that they have stopped enjoying the game.



People asked for encounters to get less homogenized, like jobs, and the devs have promised that they were working this expansion on making the encounters more creative. So far, they're not a lot, that's what the OP has been saying. Nobody talked about difficulty. Nobody is contesting that the first tier is always easier. We weren't promised more difficult fights, we were promised more creative and unique fights.

But honestly when compared to another one of Yoshi's recent declaration on how "they're quite happy with their current model" right now, I think we're just expecting them to change the game model when they're not willing to. So I'm not holding my breath for anything actually pleasing our crowd here.

Exactly. I see a lot of people here mentioning "difficulty" and it's defnitely not the point: they could've made the first tier easier while implementing a new model of encounter design.

I personally think it doesn't make a lot of sense to start the expansion in one note and suddenly near halfway through (when .2 comes) they completely change something as big as High End encounter design. That just seems off putting to say the least, because if it would scare people in the .1, why it wouldn't scare the same people if we get that in .2?

And I'm still having enjoyment in the game despite everything, but I'll probably take a break until 8.0 if the encounter design doesn't change much in 7.2. Again, not because I think the stuff we have now is poorly made, on the contrary, but I'd defnitely need a 'palate cleanser' from their formula.