Rivenroad (Hard) Discussion and Strategies Thread

[NefGP]

Neither Airship nor DM were as hard. Airship could be a little expensive with the CCBs and yes, it was pretty damn punishing at the time - but I still feel this fight trumps them both. You at least had a break between each battle, and there was some room for error - as long you had a solid plan and stuck to it you could win. That's how I got through CoP, sheer skill. I don't have multi-million double-meld gears or fancy, heavy darklight armor that seems to be mandatory to survive his BS. What are people charging for lunar curtains anyway?

Neither fight forces you to lose outright from an unavoidable AoE that will more than likely wipe the party for one thing. And the hardest part of DM was getting enough people who knew what they were doing - the fight itself was not that bad save for possibly EV - but that's why you killed her last. Hell, it was even possible to 1-shot the fight with 18 BLM all casting Thundaga 3 simultaneously (not the easiest thing to do but hey).

And Suppanomimi was a MUCH better earring than this thing - Brutal too. Like I said, it's the fact that the majority of the playerbase that beat the main story got absolutely nothing (a series first) and then we're given a very short time to attempt a ridiculously hard fight for what amounts to a cool but hardly game-breaking trinket. Dick move on SE's part.

Uh, didn't influence the story? DM basically took the place of the Ark Angels mission - you had to kill 5 either way to progress Zilart, just if you fought them all at once you got something special for it. Beating Zilart also gave other benefits later on as well, so no, it was not irrelevant.

Nael = Rani but with a significantly less impressive accessory (and no brew lol...)

[Avarghaladion]

I agree with this assessment. The better part of a decade later and many of XI's storyline reward items are very good. This was especially true prior to the level cap being raised when all of them were basically must-haves. Supa and Brutal still hold water, as does the WoTG reward earring for many jobs. I don't think I've lost in DM or pre-nerf CoP missions but we went 1/10 on Raven. Even still, I would have preferred that they average the difficulty of normal and hard modes, made it one fight, and given the earrings as the reward. The only thing I can think of is that they didn't want to make it look like they were handing out amazing, 2.0 unattainable gear to 1.0 players.

[Madruk]

I still think it's patently wrong for Yoshi to have done this - withholding the White Ravens for people who win the Hard Mode fight.

XI *always* rewarded you with some nifty accessory at the end of each story arc. Honestly, the ravens feel about on the level with Rajas Ring - but CoP wasn't nearly so brutal in totality. Hard & punishing in parts, but nothing that couldn't really be dealt with by a good group and preparation. It didn't require absolute flawless execution at every moment with every single action, leaving zero room for mistakes. It didn't force force people to have omgwtfpwnzor equipment just to stand a chance.

And then there's the time limit to even attempt this, the biggest slap in the face of all. Nice way to show appreciation for everyone who was dedicated enough to see the story through to the end. If the ravens were on the power level of say a relic weapon, then I wouldn't really be taking any issue here - a fight this hard warrants an equally strong reward, or a commemorative achievement & unique title.

THAT is what they should have done. Give everyone who beat the main scenario the Ravens, and let the hardcore crowd attempt the Hard Mode fight for their e-peen achievement/titles - kind of like how with FFXI they added the "Afterglow" effects to the 99 relics as a final upgrade that required an insane amount of work (of course, this only came about AFTER people rightly cussed Tanaka out for making the quest too hard in the first place, and so they separated the final weapon stats and afterglow bonus into 2 separate quests).

Hell, for a fight this hard they should have handed out D Rings.

I think the reward is a tad underwhelming, but that's about all I agree with. The fight isn't as difficult as you make it out to be.