Crystal Tower Controversy: Should Syrcus and Labyrinth be synced to minimum iLv?

[HyperiusUltima]

Because let's be real here. The problem we are seeing right now with Crystal Tower is the fact that Crystal Tower is steamrolled to the point it might as well be a misrepresentation of Alliance Raids as a whole.

However, a lot of pushback I tend to get whenever I bring up minimum iLv Crystal Tower with my friends is "It'll be too hard! It's required by the story otherwise people are going to get gated!"

Yet look at Dawntrail's dungeons. Have people been dissauded and unable to progress MSQ because of the dungeons themselves? No. The World of Darkness is the only piece of Crystal Tower content that isn't Steam Rolled into oblivion by overgearing, not to mention Syrcus Tower has mechanics that are COMPLETELY SKIPPED(Daybreak on Scylla, Platforms on 2nd Boss, DPS Check on Xande being extremely trivial).

But really: Just how is this representative of Alliance Raids when even VOID ARK has mechanics that require attention to? Crystal Tower is the only piece of Alliance Raid content that is so bare bones it might as well not even be there, even if it is required for MSQ to progress. The reason why they did this was because of 5.3, but leaving it in its current state does not represent the difficulty stated by any other Alliance Raid even at Lv 60.

"But it's supposed to be easy! It should be able to be done without any kind of trouble or difficulty!" That's the problem. Difficulty. Crystal Tower from what I remember back in ARR had a difficulty to it that was a step up from your average dungeon crawl. Healers had to pay attention to things that applied to them. DPS actually had to meet checks and watch adds. Tanks actually had to tank and live.

It's not rocket science. It's also why Crystal Tower is so BORING for a lot of people - we don't get to interact with things aside from just punching down on the boss repeatedly until it's dead. Even Amon doesn't stand a chance and we can punch him down outside of dealing with Curtain Call. Behemoth and Dullahan in Labyrinth get punched down before they get to do anything or implement any of their mechanics aside from Ecliptic Meteor. If Crystal Tower is simply "how fast can you punch down a boss" compared to Void Ark where mechanics are still active as ever for fail states, then why keep it as just punching dummies?

[Banggugyangu]

For those that don't remember or weren't around when these came out, minimum iLVL in crystal tower was REALLY hard... There are far too many players that are simply incapable of learning the mechanics adequately to clear with minimum iLVL. While I am definitely in the camp of not wanting them to be total facerolls anymore, Capping them at what the maximum iLVL when they came out was would be adequate, honestly. For Labyrinth of the Ancients, this was 90, Syrcus Tower was 110, and then World of Darkness was 130. Back then, we weren't killing scylla before daybreak, and glassya labolas had mechanics.

Personally, I'd rather see something more along the lines of a revamp to level sync where you retain your entire kit at your job's current level when sync'd lower, but you receive a potency penalty preportionate to slightly more than what each new ability adds to your DPS. By doing this, you would reduce the overall kill speed just enough to make mechanics necessary while not making the raids laborious. At the same time, you allow players to use their whole kit instead of the neutered level sync kit. To me, the main reason why low level stuff is boring is not because of the faceroll, but rather because of the nerfed rotations on most jobs.

[Jojoya]

Minimum ilvl? No.

Highest ilvl available at their respective times of release instead of 130? Certainly. That really should be the pattern for all content.

[WeakestZenosEnjoyer]

Yet look at Dawntrail's dungeons. Have people been dissauded and unable to progress MSQ because of the dungeons themselves? No.

Yes actually, that literally did happen.

We should just lock CT to a low ilvl though if we're not going to rebalance lower level kits. Even at min you'll skip mechanics which is why it's so hilarious at max. These fights were never intended to be striking dummies.

[Valence]

Even with a hard sync it'll still be a pushover due to powercreep.

But, less so, and i'm all for it. It's one of those duties that sprouts tend to either 1) hate or 2) get utterly confused by for the simple reason that it's not representative of the mode at all, and everything is rushed so hard that they're literally lost and left still trying to understand what happened when the duty is over. For the new player experience, it's actually terrible.

[Banggugyangu]

Yes actually, that literally did happen.

We should just lock CT to a low ilvl though if we're not going to rebalance lower level kits. Even at min you'll skip mechanics which is why it's so hilarious at max. These fights were never intended to be striking dummies.

Minimum iLVL shouldn't be skipping mechanics... When relevant, groups all at the iLVL cap weren't skipping mechanics, and min iLVL now is a slower kill than iLVL cap was back in ARR days.

[Arohk]

i would rather wish a rework of bosses to make it more interesting, i dont want this raid to take longer because it is already not that interesing.

[Toutatis]

I don’t think it would make it more interesting. Old content is old content. Let’s not make it longer.

.

But really: Just how is this representative of Alliance Raids when even VOID ARK has mechanics that require attention to?

Void Ark is a joke. I see more deaths in any of the CT raids than Void Ark.

[HyperiusUltima]

I don’t think it would make it more interesting. Old content is old content. Let’s not make it longer.


Void Ark is a joke. I see more deaths in any of the CT raids than Void Ark.

Void Ark looks like a joke, but you at least see everything that happens during it and not just slap the boss to the point you don't see anything. That's the problem we see in Labyrinth and Syrcus Tower. I wouldn't give a crap as long as we get to see all the mechanics, at minimum - every Alliance Raid after Syrcus does this. Those two are outliers because when they get to WoD, they wind up going "Why is it so hard now?" without even considering that the Alliance Raids are meant to be something a step up from dungeons in regards to the game.

Also, the 3rd Boss of Void Ark still wipes people to this day(in rare instances) and Echidna still can wipe people because the Tanks have no idea what they're doing with Serpent Adds. The 2nd Boss has mechanics where people can actually wipe by getting eaten or not hiding or just sticking everyone together with a DoT after running around with their heads cut off.

[Arohk]

Void Ark is a joke. I see more deaths in any of the CT raids than Void Ark.

I would agree that especialy te first one of the three is the worst Alliance raid, the environment looks unappealing, the bosses are a joke and the music is also bad.