Alo (Savage) Weapons being accessible from Advanced is a joke.

[KatsuOhara]

With the introduction on A Merchant's Tale (Advanced) and Criterion, the ester required to obtain the Alo Criterion Savage weapons is now available from content that is unarguably MUCH easier than Alo Savage.

Now this wouldn't be an issue if Alo Savage already wasn't considered as difficult if not MORE difficult than Ultimates. Unarguably obtaining an Alo weapon was more difficult than clearing UWU, UCOB and potentially TEA. However these weapons are now available from content that is as difficult if not slightly easier than Extreme fights (I'm speaking about AMT (Adv)).

I would just like to point out that Yoshi has previously criticised mod creators for visual mods which allow people to access Ultimate weapons without having to clear the fights which results in those that legitimately obtained the weapons feeling like their achievement has been devalued. Yet low and behold SE has now done this themselves, they have essentially made an Ultimate weapon available to be accessed from Extreme difficulty content seemingly to make up for a lack of rewards from Variant/Criterion dungeons.

While yes, currently to exchange these esters, you need to have cleared Alo Criterion to unlock the exchange, however the difficulty jump from Alo Criterion to Criterion (Savage) is essentially the same as a savage to an ultimate. Now, if you were only able to get esters via this alternative method if you have already cleared Alo Savage, then I guess it may be okay, but the fact that you can get it from ADVANCED let alone Criterion is just a joke and genuinely offensive considering the time and effort put into clearing Alo (Savage).

If we are going to set this precedence, then should we expect UWU and UCOB weapons to be obtainable via an alternate method? Because if not, why are Alo weapons the exception here?

I'm just really disappointed. I put time and effort into content that was generally ignored by the player base and genuinely enjoyed doing it just for SE to make all that time and effort meaningless. The SINGLE reason for doing Alo Alo (Savage) aside from a title has suddenly been removed.

[Jeeqbit]

If they've done this then I agree it isn't so good to remove the unique motivating reward from content.

[KatsuOhara]

Yup, roughly 8 runs of Merchants Tale (Advanced) will get you the ester for an Alo weapon.

For reference I'm not a hardcore, god tier raider. I cleared the current savage tier in 5 weeks. I've never done blind prog, I always enter fights with a guide, and I managed to clear Merchants Tale (Advanced) blind in a single instance. For reference it took me MONTHS to clear Alo (Savage).

So yes they have most definitely done this.

[Ath192]

I have to agree. This could all have been solved by providing unique rewards for the new criterion. This is feedback they knew. Not only did they recycle rewards but to top it off they recycled a very unique reward people had to sink a lot of effort into.

TBH with the info I’m hearing I’m not touching he savage version of this variant and quite frankly it’s a disappointment they literally ignored all the feedback regarding rewards and put multiple attires on the mog station store. Couldn’t they have borrowed one of those as the reward for the savage version?

[Valence]

Don't tell me that after devaluating eureka/bozja expensive rewards in OC, they're doing the same with criterion now? Tonedeaf much?

[HammAndCheese]

The people I know who have done Alo (savage) are pretty happy they can get more weapons easier now.

[KatsuOhara]

Not to mention recycling old rewards will never feel like the new content has a good reward structure or incentive for doing it. It will just devalue those rewards and now suddenly nobody will care to get them?

And still, after all of this, ESPECIALLY those of us that already have our Alo weapons, the only reward of value from the Criterion is the Genie mount, which while cool I will admit it, is not worth hours and hours and hours of my time progging and grinding.

I was so so SO excited, the Advanced was a WHOLE lot of fun, but maybe I'll come back to the Criterion one day when I'm bored and have nothing else to do but it's just not worth my time. AND I just feel horrible that my proudest achievement in this game was suddenly devalued so much. It just hurts ������

[KatsuOhara]

Oh I 100% agree, I think it's awesome that I have another method to get more Alo weapons cause they still look awesome, it's just they no longer have the value of being a trophy for clearing Alo (Savage) anymore which has overnight killed the entire reason to do that content. As I said, if it was only for those that cleared Alo (Savage) maybe it would have even enticed people to go back to Alo and try for the clear.

[Dakam]

People can buy the ester with advanced yes, but to have access to the NPC that even let you use it, you need to have beaten Another Aloalo at least once to unlock Savage aloalo.

So anyone who have never touched that content and buy an Ester through Advanced will find themselves in a pickle, lol.

[CNitsah]

They've done that with every fighting content in DT. OC gives every rare mount of Eureka and and the southern front. They're destroying their older content themselves. It's weird...