Dark Devices - Exploitation

[cainejw]

I've yet to see a realistic argument as to why or how this hurts other people.

Everyone will get to cap eventually. That's a moot argument. Also, you do not "learn your class" any more by playing lower levels. This is just an attempt to insult people who did things differently.

So the argument is soulbinding equipment? This argument dictates that soulbinding requires you to finish every FATE immediately but ONLY in this zone? That argument is tenuous at best. So now we're left with users deciding what is or is not an exploit. Unfortunately, that's not your place in this game. Your place is player. Your role is player. It is not GM or developer, so you do not get to decide this.

That leaves, "I don't like it when they do this!" Well, uh, sorry you don't like something?

[Tuskai]

you do not "learn your class" any more by playing lower levels. This is just an attempt to insult people who did things differently.

And yet why do I see Paladins consistently opening pulls with Provoke instead of Shield Lob, level 40 white quality spears in Garuda Hard Mode even though its the biggest damage race boss in the game and watching an entire party wipe because a Paladin missed a stun on Ifrit's eruption and the rest of the party just didn't feel like dodging the second and third explosions even though they're incredibly slow?

[ElHeggunte]

And yet why do I see Paladins... *snip for length*

Bad players will be bad. You could double the amount of time it takes to reach level cap and they still wouldn't learn, largely because there's no real penalty for repeated failure besides lost time and a huge repair bill. Even with harsher penalties they would still reach level cap eventually without really knowing how to play. By the time people start to "exploit" Dark Devices they've had well over 45 levels to learn their class and basic fight mechanics, if they haven't learned the basics by then they probably never will. There are players like that in every game: you have doers, you have learners, and then you have the type of player who just doesn't give a fuck.

If there were a more efficient way to bridge that quest-less gap between 46 and 49 people would feel less obligated to spam FATEs in the first place so that's on SE for the inconsistent progression design.

[Themis]

Bad players will be bad. You could double the amount of time it takes to reach level cap and they still wouldn't learn, largely because there's no real penalty for repeated failure besides lost time and a huge repair bill.

Sadly, this is usually the truth of it.

As for the design, it seems like the development aren't too bothered by this currently. But that is currently, and I expect many of these "exploits" are fixed up later on. It makes sense from a business PoV to let people level up to 50 as fast as they can. The more people getting to endgame (and not leaving because they are bored of levelling - which happens incredibly quickly these days it seems), the more likely they are to remain subbed; more income means the game can have a successful first few months.

People are having fun/enjoy the speed of progression. Happy customers are paying/staying customers. No developer likes players abusing/exploiting game mechanics, but a developer has a boss and a company to answer to.

Eventually things will even out and things like this will be sorted out as soon as. And then the rest of us paying customers (like those of us who like dungeons and don't want to rush through everything) can hope to see a fairer balance.

[Mayrissa]

And yet why do I see Paladins...

And this would not change regardless of how they got to the level cap.

Every MMO, ever, has bad players. Most of them get to the cap playing normally. If you have people who fail at LFR in WoW then you're sure as heck going to have people who fail at Ifrit in this regardless of if they've been 50 for 5 seconds or 2 weeks. From my own linkshell I've seen Legacy players do a worse job on Ifrit than some Non-Legacy players. There will always be bad people, or people who just simply make mistakes.

And most of the time it's because no-one actually bothers explaining anything and just expects everyone in the group to know it all and have foresight a psychic would envy. There was this one time where just one guy in the group who explained everything at the start, said stack in party chat everytime people had to group up. No-one died that run and Ifrit died promptly.

[cainejw]

And yet why do I see Paladins consistently opening pulls with Provoke instead of Shield Lob, level 40 white quality spears in Garuda Hard Mode even though its the biggest damage race boss in the game and watching an entire party wipe because a Paladin missed a stun on Ifrit's eruption and the rest of the party just didn't feel like dodging the second and third explosions even though they're incredibly slow?

You assume any of this is due to FATE leveling. Confirmation bias is a bad thing.

I'm also not surprised that the link to the developer calling this an exploit never materialized. That would be because it doesn't exist.

[Mortechai]

And yet why do I see Paladins consistently opening pulls with Provoke instead of Shield Lob, level 40 white quality spears in Garuda Hard Mode even though its the biggest damage race boss in the game and watching an entire party wipe because a Paladin missed a stun on Ifrit's eruption and the rest of the party just didn't feel like dodging the second and third explosions even though they're incredibly slow?

Because provoke has almost double the range of shield lob and sometimes you cant get close enough to use it without face pulling.