[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Anzaman]

Is it possible it wasn't an early pull and that Ixion had been up and another Ixion LS had been sitting waiting for 5-10 minutes?

Would be the first time. So far I've had messages from LS at the very instant FATE has spawned.

There was some rage at early pulling in zone chat, and one of them admitted that his system can't handle many players and pulled early.

[Kaelwryn]

I don't get the appeal of the Ixion mount, myself. To me it looks like a Disco Derpicorn. But I suppose you combine 'new and shiny' with 'I have it and you don't' and some people would ride around on anything.

Ixion has always been my favorite summon, lookwise, so to get him as a mount. YES PLS

[Katchii]

I'm not saying it happens instantly, or over night. I'm saying the design of the game frequently forces you backwards into old content (not a bad thing), that was barely engaging back then (a moderately bad thing) with newfound gear/power that makes it significantly more trivial (a bad thing). In a vacuum going to old content isn't bad at all. It has a lot of benefits. Going back to old content and steamrolling it isn't fun though (to me).

It hearkens to a specific issue that I don't think I'm smart enough to solve. We want to see and feel more powerful, but we don't want to trivialize things either.

In a traditional RPG you get stronger to face stronger foes, the game gets "harder" as you go on, despite you getting stronger. I don't believe that FF14 captures this essence terribly well. We're getting stronger, but we're facing on average weaker foes. Dungeons overall have been reduced (look at AV, PS, etc.) because they required more than a single iota of effort to succeed. EX trials have gone way down. Look at post Sephirot. compared to before that. Savage has gone way down. Pugs have always been present, but not clearing the first 3 fights within hours of dropping. Pugs, not statics. There are a few outliers like Shinryu and some of the end-game dungeons currently, but I suspect with 4.1 we'll have a new dungeon that offers nothing new/improved over the existing 3 end game ones (not gear wise, I mean engagement/difficulty wise).

There are a few solutions to this issue, but none of them feel good IMO. Basically, enemy scaling just like in Legion zones where the enemies always scale up to you, but instead of having a ceiling, they also scale up based on ilevel. That said, that makes player power progression feel pointless. Elder Scrolls Oblivion had this as a default setting, where enemies scaled up based on your character level, and honestly, it felt terrible. It made absolutely no sense for you to be in full Ebony level armor, as the Archmage of the Mages Guild, the leader of the Warriors guild, the head of the Thieves Guild and the Listener of the Dark Brotherhood and NOT being able to one shot a two bit burglar with a stealth head shot with an enchanted arrow, and not only that...have the in your face fight after that actually feel challenging.

I personally don't really mind having content that used to be somewhat of a challenge become trivial as your power progresses, so long as there still exists content that provides a legitimate challenge for those that want that, and as you've said, FFXIV does have that content, but it's pretty limited when compared to WoW's end game...which is also limited though it just has more than FFXIV.

I'm already at the point in FFXIV where I have a set of tasks to do and then once done, just log off. Since I'm leveling I run through the Trial, Leveling, and 50/60 Roulettes on the class I'm leveling and then run Expert...if I want to and my tomes aren't capped. Once that's done I really have no desire to stay logged in. I honestly don't like the way you get gear in the raids, having to farm specific tokens that every one else wants too, taking multiple weeks to get that one piece of gear when, to me, the i310 gear is fine for the normal raid and the tomes of creation give better gear anyway. Because of that, I don't really even care to do the raid content now that I've cleared it a few times, have seen the content and story, seen and know the fights and can help out friends and FC mates when they want to do it.

[Faroth]

Who told you that? I know I've never said that I ONLY raid for the challenge. It is the MAIN reason I play games, but it is not the ONLY reason. Has someone else specifically stated that? I'd be curious who.

Also - you didn't respond to my other post. Did you happen to see my revised Battle Arena idea? I'd like your thoughts.

It's a common claim on various forums that people want harder content for the challenge. Yet when there's no power reward, they have 0 interest and don't do said content.

I read it, but didn't have time to respond. I'll have to re-read it again to remember all the details, but I think my biggest thoughts were:

-It sounds like a group brawler's guild idea with various add-ons/debuffs to make things more challenging. Max level and static group focus most likely. Depending on how much it plays out, could be interesting.

- I'm not a huge fan of the "absolutely no indicator an ability is about to wreck you" designs. Bit of lag made one of the Samurai job quests a pain with that weird hairless dog monster lizard creature having a "raise arm, take 30% of your HP" being hard to gauge. I don't necessarily need the full radius glowing until the attack, but a quick flash rather than just "the animation tells you." Because good f'ing luck getting healers to stare at a boss model for an indication they're about to get hammered when they're looking at health bars to get people topped off. XIV isn't as bad as WoW, but even some fights with larger bosses, your screen is filled with a part of the boss as melee DPS. You simply can't see all of the model to know what position their arm is in.

- If this replaces roulettes, it creates the new problem of new players having 2+ hour queues (as tank/healer even) while waiting for someone else to queue since nobody at higher levels runs them in favor of these. Need new carrots added to roulette to get players to run those.

- As you noted, I have no clue what rewards would be a favorable carrot. Relic could actually be included, though, as higher risk/reward avenue for light grinding. Sure, you can run other stuff for 12 relic light/shiny power, but this would reward 36 relic light/shiny power. Might take longer per run, might be a total waste if you wipe and don't finish, but higher risk/better reward. Could do the same with gear pieces/tomestones, but you don't want 2 hours a day completing your needs for the week, so making this higher rewards would just mean 1 hour per day and you're done, thus defeating your purpose to some extent.

- Still found your jab at the end insulting.

[Kazgrel]

Not to mention if you do dailies you're in the Forelands and SoC anyways, so...plus you get Seals that are relevant to SB still. I've been stockpiling Mark Logs for the inevitable upgrade items, but you could flip them for Materia or get the toys and whatnot.

I have both of the minions and the barding already...plus nearly a stack of crack clusters (as I affectionately refer to them as). I'm doing as you are and saving up the log books in hopes they're used to purchase upgrades for Creation gear in 4.1.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't get the appeal of the Ixion mount, myself. To me it looks like a Disco Derpicorn. But I suppose you combine 'new and shiny' with 'I have it and you don't' and some people would ride around on anything.

It's a unicorn that emits lightning from it's ass...what's not to love?

- - - Updated - - -

I'm already at the point in FFXIV where I have a set of tasks to do and then once done, just log off. Since I'm leveling I run through the Trial, Leveling, and 50/60 Roulettes on the class I'm leveling and then run Expert...if I want to and my tomes aren't capped. Once that's done I really have no desire to stay logged in. I honestly don't like the way you get gear in the raids, having to farm specific tokens that every one else wants too, taking multiple weeks to get that one piece of gear when, to me, the i310 gear is fine for the normal raid and the tomes of creation give better gear anyway. Because of that, I don't really even care to do the raid content now that I've cleared it a few times, have seen the content and story, seen and know the fights and can help out friends and FC mates when they want to do it.

The normal raid loot system is...well, meh would put it very nicely. I took a totally different approach to it this time around; I simply went in the first two weeks and hit need on everything, more or less, then took whatever I got. Sure, I could go in with the "I must get these items on these weeks" approach to it, but that leads to exactly what you described, where you have to run the same boss over and over (in the same week) just to get that one spring/shaft/whatever. This week, I would *like* to get 2 springs in order to obtain pants upgrade, but if that doesn't happen, /shrug, I'll end up with 330 pants 2 weeks from now (getting chest this week) and I could then obtain pants for tank or healer.

That said, it's been far easier to target the pieces for head/gloves/feet because everyone obsesses over the stuff for legs and chest.

[Daws001]

I keep forgetting about Ixion. Now that I'm at 70 with my preferred job (RDM), and finished the msq, there's a bit of that overwhelming feeling of "Okay...now what? Where to start?!" I've pretty much kept my head down just powering through dungeon leveling that I forget how much else there is to do in this game.

[Katchii]

The normal raid loot system is...well, meh would put it very nicely. I took a totally different approach to it this time around; I simply went in the first two weeks and hit need on everything, more or less, then took whatever I got. Sure, I could go in with the "I must get these items on these weeks" approach to it, but that leads to exactly what you described, where you have to run the same boss over and over (in the same week) just to get that one spring/shaft/whatever. This week, I would *like* to get 2 springs in order to obtain pants upgrade, but if that doesn't happen, /shrug, I'll end up with 330 pants 2 weeks from now (getting chest this week) and I could then obtain pants for tank or healer.

That said, it's been far easier to target the pieces for head/gloves/feet because everyone obsesses over the stuff for legs and chest.

This is exactly why I just don't really even see the point in doing the raid at all, because I'm going to replace whatever I get from the raid with better gear from tomes eventually anyway and I don't care about having anything much higher than i310 at this point because i310 is perfectly acceptable for all of the content I actively participate in anyway. I don't do Extreme Primals and I don't do Savage. Primals mainly because I have very little patience for wasting time in a learning party that doesn't actually get anywhere or learn anything LONG after I know the fight but I still can't get the kill so can't get accepted to the non-learning parties and I don't care enough about doing it to make my own group.....and Savage just because I don't care about that level of content. Savage is weird to me because it fits the challenging content niche and the gear is better, but if you're able to clear the content without that gear, and there's no content after (because Savage is the highest level of content) ...what's the gear for besides letting you clear content you've already cleared, and is a very small amount of content, again and again...just faster?

[Kazgrel]

This is exactly why I just don't really even see the point in doing the raid at all, because I'm going to replace whatever I get from the raid with better gear from tomes eventually anyway and I don't care about having anything much higher than i310 at this point because i310 is perfectly acceptable for all of the content I actively participate in anyway. I don't do Extreme Primals and I don't do Savage. Primals mainly because I have very little patience for wasting time in a learning party that doesn't actually get anywhere or learn anything LONG after I know the fight but I still can't get the kill so can't get accepted to the non-learning parties and I don't care enough about doing it to make my own group.....and Savage just because I don't care about that level of content. Savage is weird to me because it fits the challenging content niche and the gear is better, but if you're able to clear the content without that gear, and there's no content after (because Savage is the highest level of content) ...what's the gear for besides letting you clear content you've already cleared, and is a very small amount of content, again and again...just faster?

I have helm, gloves, boots and belt from Omega normal, and those will last me for another month at minimum before I get around to replacing them via Creation gear. So they are worth it in that regard. That being said, as a omnicrafter, I can now opt to craft 320 gear now, so I could indeed ignore the raid entirely, exception being O4 due to the item you need for buying the 330 weapons. Crafted gear isn't an option for everyone (because that shit can be crazy expensive).

I can only speak for Susano thus far; decided to finally start running that for a weapon (because, despite being a crafter, I find there a higher level of satisfaction from getting weapon from a boss kill). Took me a grand total of 3 or 4 pulls to get a clear. This fight is ridiculously easy compared to some of the other primals I've done when (semi) current. The hardest part now, funny enough, is finding farm groups who don't feature people doing shit tier dps. My learning group had better dps as a whole than a couple of the "farm" groups I ended up in. That's tested my patience more than actually learning the fight.

[Katchii]

I have helm, gloves, boots and belt from Omega normal, and those will last me for another month at minimum before I get around to replacing them via Creation gear. So they are worth it in that regard. That being said, as a omnicrafter, I can now opt to craft 320 gear now, so I could indeed ignore the raid entirely, exception being O4 due to the item you need for buying the 330 weapons. Crafted gear isn't an option for everyone (because that shit can be crazy expensive).

I can only speak for Susano thus far; decided to finally start running that for a weapon (because, despite being a crafter, I find there a higher level of satisfaction from getting weapon from a boss kill). Took me a grand total of 3 or 4 pulls to get a clear. This fight is ridiculously easy compared to some of the other primals I've done when (semi) current. The hardest part now, funny enough, is finding farm groups who don't feature people doing shit tier dps. My learning group had better dps as a whole than a couple of the "farm" groups I ended up in. That's tested my patience more than actually learning the fight.

I'll have to try it out then, because honestly I haven't even stepped foot into an Extreme Primal this expansion yet. I was scarred for life with the HW primals.

the i320 weapon from Susano is something I do want since getting one higher than i310 will be a LONG time from now it seems.

[The Casualty]

I'll have to try it out then, because honestly I haven't even stepped foot into an Extreme Primal this expansion yet. I was scarred for life with the HW primals.

Susano, Lakshmi and even O1S and O2S should be pretty doable by pugs, granted O2 is a definite step up in difficulty due to requiring everyone to actually do mechanics at least somewhat well.

[Granyala]

Savage is weird to me because it fits the challenging content niche and the gear is better, but if you're able to clear the content without that gear, and there's no content after (because Savage is the highest level of content) ...what's the gear for besides letting you clear content you've already cleared, and is a very small amount of content, again and again...just faster?

In order to have an advantage when the next raid tier is released.

Personally, I'll check Omega normal out but unless my buddies invite me, I doubt I'll farm it for gear.

[Kazgrel]

I'll have to try it out then, because honestly I haven't even stepped foot into an Extreme Primal this expansion yet. I was scarred for life with the HW primals.

the i320 weapon from Susano is something I do want since getting one higher than i310 will be a LONG time from now it seems.

Susano is down there around Ravana/Bismark level difficulty, if that. I did most of the HW primals while they were current or close to it. Susano honestly shocked me at how easy it was. Take a look at a video for it (most of which are less than 5 mins long) and you should be golden.

[Katchii]

In order to have an advantage when the next raid tier is released.

Personally, I'll check Omega normal out but unless my buddies invite me, I doubt I'll farm it for gear.

While a valid point, by the time the next raid tier releases, everyone who's trying should pretty easily be able to have at least one complete set of i330 creation gear and have most if not all of it enhanced to i340, the same as current savage gear. At the same time, once the next raid tier releases, the tomes will change making i330 gear easily farmable. Which ti me just makes doing Savage, at least the really difficult ones (if V1 and V2 are pretty puggable I may check them out), more trouble that they're worth.

Thanks @The Casualty and @Kazela for the information, I'll definitely be checking both Ex Primals out soon.

[Granyala]

While a valid point, by the time the next raid tier releases, everyone who's trying should pretty easily be able to have at least one complete set of i330 creation gear and have most if not all of it enhanced to i340, the same as current savage gear.

Ah forgot about the upgrade versions, was thinking of WoW for a moment.
Indeed, in the long run there is not much reason to do savage gear wise and I believe that is intentional design.
After all, they only want people that WANT to raid savage to raid savage, compared to WoW, where Blizzard is trying very hard to bribe people into higher tiers of raiding by implementing an obscene difference in player power.

[Florena]

Ah forgot about the upgrade versions, was thinking of WoW for a moment.
Indeed, in the long run there is not much reason to do savage gear wise and I believe that is intentional design.
After all, they only want people that WANT to raid savage to raid savage, compared to WoW, where Blizzard is trying very hard to bribe people into higher tiers of raiding by implementing an obscene difference in player power.

Higher difficulty should grant better gear.

[The Casualty]

Higher difficulty should grant better gear.

And it does. You get to have all the best gear for a whole patch cycle, and then just when they are getting ready to drop the next tier, they allow a catch up for everyone else - which is largely unoptimized non-raid gear. And your weapons stay 5 ilevels above everyone else's even with the catch up. It's just not night and day with ilevel/performance differences.

[Melsiren]

Higher difficulty should grant better gear.

I always felt that was a plebeian hook, and I will never argue against gear being a solid motivator because it is.

I can speak from personal experience, bragging rights in the form of unique cosmetics, limited time titles, limited time mounts, and limited time achievements (Or Achievements you can date check to show you did it when it was "hard.") have been the best motivators for me in the past. I also acknowledge I am not the core of the MMO player base.

But @Granyala has a point, offering higher level of gear for content is a low hanging fruit when it comes down to bribing players to do content. The gear is a fine reward for players who would do the content because they already enjoyed it... but for other players the content becomes a choir.

Yet again, from my own personal experience, I never enjoyed the concept of Mythic + in Legion. I did however grind my face off on Mythic+ every single week so I could get the gear it offered. I did this so I could better help my raid team out, which was the real content I enjoyed. I like to use the Mythic+ example because it's the closest thing to a replacement challenge modes had when I left WoW. (Right as Trial of Valor was released.) I loved challenge modes on the other hand, I did it for the reward of course but I enjoyed the journey as much if not more than the destination.

Over the course of MoP I helped 12 different groups out with getting full Gold Challenge modes, and each time I enjoyed it. In comparison I cannot say the same about my Mythic+ experience.

The problem with the gear rewards carrot on a stick lies with the fact that some players (like myself) will feel obligated to do content we would not do. Warcraft is plagued by this, for better or for worse and I think that was Granyala's point.


In terms of FF, I feel the difference in gear from their raiding structure is fine, and I -think- I remember reading that super savage when it is added will not offer power as a reward which is a direction that motivates me more than power ever could.

[Kazgrel]

Probably the hardest thing about Susano EX right now: Finding a group. "Wait, what? There's almost always at least 1 group in PF". About that...

- ilvl 315+ required; I've seen as high as 318. I lol'ed (for the record, I'm at 313 on BLM, 310 DRK and WHM). Sure, I could craft gear and be 320 right now if I reeeealy wanted to, but I've been just getting gear via Omega normal + Tomestones thus far. Not in a savage static, so I don't see a pressing need to get all that crafted gear the moment it dropped.

- Groups set requiring "meta" comp: I've seen at least half a dozen different group entries where the DPS jobs were locked to jobs that are "meta". RDM, BRD, NIN, and either MNK or SAM (usually the latter). I mean...it's Susano. My learning group (that cleared on pull #3 or 4) was me (BLM) and 3 RDM, ffs.

- DPS spots? What DPS spots?: Those suckers fill FAST. I would almost think they added 2 super popular DPS jobs or something...to be fair to RDM and SAM, though, I suspect this might've been an issue anyway.

Feels bad to simply create another group when there's 10+ groups posted already, but I can't get in any of them for the reasons stated above. 5 totems down, at least 5 more to go...

[Wrecktangle]

Would be the first time. So far I've had messages from LS at the very instant FATE has spawned.

There was some rage at early pulling in zone chat, and one of them admitted that his system can't handle many players and pulled early.

Fair enough. I just never bought into the "early" puller notion. I just treat it as I'm late. What may be early to you isn't early to someone camping, and so on. What may be early to the dude who got there in 10 minutes wasn't early to the dude who got there in 5.

There are a few solutions to this issue, but none of them feel good IMO. Basically, enemy scaling just like in Legion zones where the enemies always scale up to you, but instead of having a ceiling, they also scale up based on ilevel. That said, that makes player power progression feel pointless.

In my once posited dream MMO it actually had a system like this and I was ok with it. The idea that because I'm some accomplished adventurer shouldn't mean that a wild wolf or some two bit thief isn't a threat to me, it still should be. It's a weird distinction I know, but I'm genuinely ok with it. In my MMO even with better gear and levels It might only make me 5-10% stronger than had I been level 1. The difference was that all that experience and skills have honed sub-stats and skills which would make the wolf or thief encounter much less dangerous as I'm well equipped to handle both more threats, and more dangerous threats. Almost to the idea that the world levels up alongside you, thematically it makes sense, and mechanically it'd just be based off your own character.

You mentioned previously that leveling "the feeling of progression and unlocking new potential" is what draws you. I think you'd have quite liked my theoretical MMO. It's the same idea I'm preaching here. You acquire new gear, but you don't necessarily "feel" more powerful because you're now facing more powerful adversaries/creatures. In fact, i'd argue even if you felt a tiny bit weaker it wouldn't be a terrible thing. If you had put on your old gear and wavered into these new waters you'd feel terribly outclassed, or if you never upgraded your gear, you'd find that those pesky wolves have become battle hardened over the years or more desperate and vicious. That two-bit thief stole a pretty new dagger and coated it with a poison concoction he learned. You can draw thematics off the situation easily to justify the power increases of the world, and STRICTLY IMHO it sounds a shit ton more compelling than what modern themepark MMO's are doing.

-It sounds like a group brawler's guild idea with various add-ons/debuffs to make things more challenging. Max level and static group focus most likely. Depending on how much it plays out, could be interesting.

I could easily see pugs and LS's created to do it for sure. It's just dungeons with a little more difficulty and randomized mechanics. Not sure it draws any conclusions to brawlers guild, since it's mostly dungeons.

- I'm not a huge fan of the "absolutely no indicator an ability is about to wreck you" designs. Bit of lag made one of the Samurai job quests a pain with that weird hairless dog monster lizard creature having a "raise arm, take 30% of your HP" being hard to gauge. I don't necessarily need the full radius glowing until the attack, but a quick flash rather than just "the animation tells you." Because good f'ing luck getting healers to stare at a boss model for an indication they're about to get hammered when they're looking at health bars to get people topped off. XIV isn't as bad as WoW, but even some fights with larger bosses, your screen is filled with a part of the boss as melee DPS. You simply can't see all of the model to know what position their arm is in.

Enemies still have cast bars. You just don't see the areas that are affected by the attacks so you need to think quick on your feet (i.e. for Titan, you know WotL spawns underneath players. You wouldn't know who or which so you'd need to be aware and adjust. You'd know the edge of the room falls off each time, but you wouldn't know exactly where, so safer to be safe and eat a tiny bit extra damage. The harder piece would be determining landslides location. You'd need to look where he faces and be fast and safe. This is a good example that maybe if you got that modifier you'd use your points to reroll the debuff because you don't feel like dealing with a no telegraph, 50% faster cast speed, 30% damage and hp Titan.

- If this replaces roulettes, it creates the new problem of new players having 2+ hour queues (as tank/healer even) while waiting for someone else to queue since nobody at higher levels runs them in favor of these. Need new carrots added to roulette to get players to run those.

Wouldn't replace roulettes at all. You'd have people who like challenges doing these possibly, and people who like watching netflix, doing regular roulettes etc. Very well could impact queue times somewhat, but not the end of the world IMO.

- As you noted, I have no clue what rewards would be a favorable carrot. Relic could actually be included, though, as higher risk/reward avenue for light grinding. Sure, you can run other stuff for 12 relic light/shiny power, but this would reward 36 relic light/shiny power. Might take longer per run, might be a total waste if you wipe and don't finish, but higher risk/better reward. Could do the same with gear pieces/tomestones, but you don't want 2 hours a day completing your needs for the week, so making this higher rewards would just mean 1 hour per day and you're done, thus defeating your purpose to some extent.

- Still found your jab at the end insulting.

Ideally, by time such a complex system sees fruition they'd have revamped some reward structures and itemization/materia so that they could offer commensurate rewards off that.

Mind clarifying what piece you found insulting? I didn't see anything there, but it's possible I missed it. Was it this my last post or an older one?

This is exactly why I just don't really even see the point in doing the raid at all, because I'm going to replace whatever I get from the raid with better gear from tomes eventually anyway and I don't care about having anything much higher than i310 at this point because i310 is perfectly acceptable for all of the content I actively participate in anyway. I don't do Extreme Primals and I don't do Savage. Primals mainly because I have very little patience for wasting time in a learning party that doesn't actually get anywhere or learn anything LONG after I know the fight but I still can't get the kill so can't get accepted to the non-learning parties and I don't care enough about doing it to make my own group.....and Savage just because I don't care about that level of content. Savage is weird to me because it fits the challenging content niche and the gear is better, but if you're able to clear the content without that gear, and there's no content after (because Savage is the highest level of content) ...what's the gear for besides letting you clear content you've already cleared, and is a very small amount of content, again and again...just faster?

What datacenter you on? I can help tank the primals for you if you're on Primal. Cleared em both countless times.

My learning group had better dps as a whole than a couple of the "farm" groups I ended up in. That's tested my patience more than actually learning the fight.

I found much higher success in learning groups than 'clear' groups. Clear groups and farm parties are like literally rolling the dice to see what you get and because of the expectations it devolves extremely quickly. Learning parties are always people who are trying to learn and are infinitely more coachable.

- - - Updated - - -

- Groups set requiring "meta" comp: I've seen at least half a dozen different group entries where the DPS jobs were locked to jobs that are "meta". RDM, BRD, NIN, and either MNK or SAM (usually the latter). I mean...it's Susano. My learning group (that cleared on pull #3 or 4) was me (BLM) and 3 RDM, ffs.

There's actually a bug with this. If you're a BLM and you leave a PF group the slot you left will say BLM only. So it's possible in the process of farming, or vetting, they kicked/left and their job lock stayed.

[Katchii]

Fair enough. I just never bought into the "early" puller notion. I just treat it as I'm late. What may be early to you isn't early to someone camping, and so on. What may be early to the dude who got there in 10 minutes wasn't early to the dude who got there in 5.



In my once posited dream MMO it actually had a system like this and I was ok with it. The idea that because I'm some accomplished adventurer shouldn't mean that a wild wolf or some two bit thief isn't a threat to me, it still should be. It's a weird distinction I know, but I'm genuinely ok with it. In my MMO even with better gear and levels It might only make me 5-10% stronger than had I been level 1. The difference was that all that experience and skills have honed sub-stats and skills which would make the wolf or thief encounter much less dangerous as I'm well equipped to handle both more threats, and more dangerous threats. Almost to the idea that the world levels up alongside you, thematically it makes sense, and mechanically it'd just be based off your own character.

You mentioned previously that leveling "the feeling of progression and unlocking new potential" is what draws you. I think you'd have quite liked my theoretical MMO. It's the same idea I'm preaching here. You acquire new gear, but you don't necessarily "feel" more powerful because you're now facing more powerful adversaries/creatures. In fact, i'd argue even if you felt a tiny bit weaker it wouldn't be a terrible thing. If you had put on your old gear and wavered into these new waters you'd feel terribly outclassed, or if you never upgraded your gear, you'd find that those pesky wolves have become battle hardened over the years or more desperate and vicious. That two-bit thief stole a pretty new dagger and coated it with a poison concoction he learned. You can draw thematics off the situation easily to justify the power increases of the world, and STRICTLY IMHO it sounds a shit ton more compelling than what modern themepark MMO's are doing.



I could easily see pugs and LS's created to do it for sure. It's just dungeons with a little more difficulty and randomized mechanics. Not sure it draws any conclusions to brawlers guild, since it's mostly dungeons.


Enemies still have cast bars. You just don't see the areas that are affected by the attacks so you need to think quick on your feet (i.e. for Titan, you know WotL spawns underneath players. You wouldn't know who or which so you'd need to be aware and adjust. You'd know the edge of the room falls off each time, but you wouldn't know exactly where, so safer to be safe and eat a tiny bit extra damage. The harder piece would be determining landslides location. You'd need to look where he faces and be fast and safe. This is a good example that maybe if you got that modifier you'd use your points to reroll the debuff because you don't feel like dealing with a no telegraph, 50% faster cast speed, 30% damage and hp Titan.


Wouldn't replace roulettes at all. You'd have people who like challenges doing these possibly, and people who like watching netflix, doing regular roulettes etc. Very well could impact queue times somewhat, but not the end of the world IMO.


What datacenter you on? I can help tank the primals for you if you're on Primal. Cleared em both countless times.


I found much higher success in learning groups than 'clear' groups. Clear groups and farm parties are like literally rolling the dice to see what you get and because of the expectations it devolves extremely quickly. Learning parties are always people who are trying to learn and are infinitely more coachable.

As far as your dream MMO, it's not a bad idea, where skills are accrued rather than player power and those skills make content more and more trivial, but the enemies are still threatening, you just have far more tools and more effective tools in dealing with the threat so as long as you're using your brain and paying attention it should be trivial, but if you're not you can still get pretty chewed up. You still feel a progression. In the enemy scaling scenario, at least in Oblivion, you didn't ever feel a progression since the enemies were meant to scale to what your power was so no matter what your tools were they were essentially scaled and changed to adapt to them so you felt just as powerful at level 50 as you did at level 1...which is stupid IMO.

Artifact weapons are a great idea with their horizontal progression, but the vast majority of the abilities you get from them are passive which doesn't feel great sometimes, some aren't and those are great, but as I said, MOST are passives. The things that I like are the new skills and abilities that change how you play, add a button to your rotation, add a decision to make at some point in your play time. Gear simply increasing your power level but not changing how you play gets a pass, because you're getting new gear and changing how your character looks (unless you choose to glamour/ transmog over it) and there are several pieces so it's meant to be a gradual progression of power which at some point CAN change how you play since you get more procs, enemies die faster, or in WoW's case makes one build more powerful than another.

As to the enemies not having telegraphs, those abilities actually do not have a cast bar whatsoever currently. Second boss of Sohm Al (Hard), that one big add in between the second and third boss of The Aery, that enemy in the level 56 SAM quest...no cast bars on those, just physical animation tells.

I play on Excalibur, which is on the Primal data center. Much obliged.