Comments from the Devs

[Kurokikaze]

Yeah, SE would NEVER do this.

They need to learn how to design staged fights where the boss doesn't move from their spot or starts out moving then goes to a specific location after a certain amount of damage has been done to them.

It can and has been done already. SE just needs to get with the time.

[Enygma55]

They actually have a boss design that uses the environment to some extent within the Aurum Vale.

The entire zone is an environmental hazard, the mini-boss forces everyone to constantly be on the move and the Final Boss moves around to fix points forcing you to navigate around poisonous damaging toxic pools.

Melee and Ranged has their advantages and disadvantages in this zone. Those encounters are very well designed IMO for what limitations the game is imposing due to the gfx engine. Not your basic tank & spank. Everyone needs to be on their toes or they will die.

[Grey Jorildyn]

People have kinda figured out the best ways to minimize all the fights into basic tank and spanks. The mechanics are a step forward, but they are still nowhere near bordering on ultra-movement or anything like that. Just take a look at any of the videos out there for the four bosses--not a whole lot of movement happening.

[Lucavi]

Just show SE a video of the Professor Putricide fight if you want them to learn what real mechanics are.

That fight was... God. Even when it was "easy" because of our gear and experience, it was never actually "easy". One wrong move still wiped the entire goddamn raid during the last 10%, its just that you knew what NOT to do so well that you didn't, well... do it.

SE has plenty of time to learn, though. Its not until 2.0's launch where people are really going to start flipping their shit if things turn out to be more of the same. I'm actually surprised how accommodating the community has been recently in regards to giving them essentially a "do-over", but time heals all wounds, I suppose. Its been a long time since the initial shock of having launch run exactly the same as the final beta.

[Kurokikaze]

Just show SE a video of the Professor Putricide fight if you want them to learn what real mechanics are.

That fight was... God. Even when it was "easy" because of our gear and experience, it was never actually "easy". One wrong move still wiped the entire goddamn raid during the last 10%, its just that you knew what NOT to do so well that you didn't, well... do it.

SE has plenty of time to learn, though. Its not until 2.0's launch where people are really going to start flipping their shit if things turn out to be more of the same. I'm actually surprised how accommodating the community has been recently in regards to giving them essentially a "do-over", but time heals all wounds, I suppose. Its been a long time since the initial shock of having launch run exactly the same as the final beta.

Or the famous dance. lol

[Lucavi]

Fuck yeah, Heigan.

[Kurokikaze]

For those left out:

[Cichy]

Seems like a very small percentage of players enjoy tough fights though. Every god damn fight I go to in XIV if you try to suggest something peoples response is "Dont tell me how to play." Cuz of that this BLM AF 5 was a nightmare.

[Corrderio]

People have kinda figured out the best ways to minimize all the fights into basic tank and spanks. The mechanics are a step forward, but they are still nowhere near bordering on ultra-movement or anything like that. Just take a look at any of the videos out there for the four bosses--not a whole lot of movement happening.

Curious, what's the typical PT setup for Aurum/Cutters?

Seems like a very small percentage of players enjoy tough fights though. Every god damn fight I go to in XIV if you try to suggest something peoples response is "Dont tell me how to play." Cuz of that this BLM AF 5 was a nightmare.

That's pretty sad since BLM AF was the easiest fight for me.

[Kaylia]

Just show SE a video of the Professor Putricide fight if you want them to learn what real mechanics are.

Al'akir is probably one of the best example of entertaining fight with ton of movement mechanics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...0L9mN7PA#t=32s
Phase #1: Dodge tornado, avoid getting thrown off the platform by knockback, avoid lightning, avoid ice storm
Phase#2: Manages the adds, dodge tornado and burn it asap (before the debuff stack too high)
Phase#3: the platform break, everyone start flying, then you have to stay away from each other to not spread a debuff while staying out of giant thundercloud.

The whole fight was badass and pretty cool looking

Most encounter designs have been pretty badass lately if you ask me. Raid design on the other hand..not so much, but the fight themselves were cool.

Seems like a very small percentage of players enjoy tough fights though. Every god damn fight I go to in XIV if you try to suggest something peoples response is "Dont tell me how to play." Cuz of that this BLM AF 5 was a nightmare.

This mentality can be changed however. When no one is challenged for years, the playerbase is going to object more to difficulty. It's still important to have content for everyone including casual, but you need something relatively difficult to entertain your hardcore playerbase.

[Lordender]

Fuck yeah, Heigan.

Haha, I remember a guy in our guild getting kicked out of the raid because he had youtube blasting this song while he was dancing over vent during this fight. The raid leader epic nerd raged.

[Elcura]

The biggest problem with SE adding movement based fights right now is well... obviously, the clumsiness/clunkiness of spell casting and using abilities. I would love more things like Ifrit and fights shown in those videos, but it would only be frustrating as hell to get things done with the way things are currently.

At the very least they should make abilities able to use on the run, animation wise that could still look good. WS I get, probably a lot harder to get away with animation in that regard without making things look a lot less impressive (though I would like both, I'm on the fence about getting rid of WS animation lock, maybe because people need a sense of vulnerability?) Though in general, with the combo system how it is, things are going to be messy no matter what.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Curious, what's the typical PT setup for Aurum/Cutters?

Hmm each boss has its own setup so people are changing jobs between the battles. I don't know what the "typical" setups are as people are still experimenting and they don't post videos every night after raids and stuff, but what I've seen is nuking setups for Coincutter/Chimera, WAR/BLM hybrid burn for Princess, and MNK/BLM hybrid for Mistress. There is an emphasis on 3/4 of those fights basically. Of course Archers are also being used but I think the community is spending more time futzing around with jobs and leaving ARC out of the mix, with the exception of BG which used ARC its first kill iirc.

This mentality can be changed however. When no one is challenged for years, the playerbase is going to object more to difficulty. It's still important to have content for everyone including casual, but you need something relatively difficult to entertain your hardcore playerbase.

This is why a lot of MMOs incorporate "hard/heroic" modes in end game. Yeah, let the casual have their fun, but also challenge the hardcores. It's a matter of tinkering with variables and/or raid size and it works well to keep people occupied a little longer. Wish we had that in XIV sometimes.

[Corrderio]

Sounds interesting. Glad it doesn't seem like a stackfest yet.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Sounds interesting. Glad it doesn't seem like a stackfest yet.

The raid design is such that you need both single target and AoE damage around or near the boss so jobs like BLM and WAR are getting called up from the minors for this patch.

Probably the most disappointing part of the patch is in the area of tanking. WAR is a way better tank on single-targets than PLD is. GLA also has more survivability and different (arguably better) utility than PLD. Because WHM is so powerful, the healing utility PLD provides is kinda meh. They have all these extra spells to heal themselves and others, but no way to get MP back themselves (remember this problem from XI???) because they can't sub Sanguine Rite. It's kind of a problem for the game when WAR can easily get over 4100hp but PLD is barely pushing 3400 on a good day in AF gear (and hardly anymore DEF than GLA).

[Corrderio]

Hopefully they fix that soonish. Hopefully I get a shot to try these raids when I move to Aegis. Haven't done anything but check my retainers since I got my PLD/BLM/DRG AF.

[Cichy]

Hopefully they fix that soonish. Hopefully I get a shot to try these raids when I move to Aegis. Haven't done anything but check my retainers since I got my PLD/BLM/DRG AF.

Same here, attention spam of people in shout groups is like 5 sec so been having really frustrating time.

[Kurokikaze]

I'm hoping server merger makes the finding people situation better... Though I'm a little concerned that the merge is gonna bring lag. We all remember the lag due to overcrowding at release...? These are the same servers.

[Corrderio]

Same here, attention spam of people in shout groups is like 5 sec so been having really frustrating time.

This is the reason I don't want to touch Darkhold for my MNK AF. I already see myself dying before Ogre.

[Kaiyoko]

This is the reason I don't want to touch Darkhold for my MNK AF. I already see myself dying before Ogre.

Your server must be really bad then lol. Saronia pick ups can be bad but Darkhold lol?