Player Opinions: ToAU

[Tajin]

People refusing a BRD, on salvage o.O holy shit...

[Lexa]

Well, my BRD isn't 75 yet, I was asking them for future reference.

If someone HAD said yes to my BRD though, that job would be 75 so fast their heads would spin around and fall off!

[Yutuyu]

I'm really disappointed with the way HNM events ended up with ToAU honestly.

The ones that spawn outside have crazy-wide windows, there's only 3 of them, one of which drops total crap. Cerb's only really useful to kill for the hides since so few people actually need an Algol, and the hides can be AH'd. And Khimaira's drops are all useless except Hauteclaire which is rare as hell, getting to Khim's spot is a pain, and it's a huge window.

People talk about how great Salvage is but if the 5% haste set effect on Usukane is correct, then my current haste gear (which doesn't include any HQ Dusk or anything specifically hard to obtain) is better than full Usukane for total haste percent by several points. Haste gear will probably outperform Ares too. And the Fastcast set is kind of sad. It's not really that the rewards "suck", they don't, but they're not in line with the amount of effort it takes to get them. Drop rates are terrible, it requires a highly coordinated group of people to succeed at it and some of my friends are simply not that good. Plus you have to use precious assault points on it.

Finally there's Einherjar which is just utterly-freaking-broken.

EDIT: Let us not forget the massive fail that was the 3 ToAU Beastmen Kings.

I hope WotG's endgame content is closer to what RoZ/CoP's was, leaning towards RoZ. Give us a challenging fight that actually drops a decent amount of items, instead of difficult HNMs that only drop 1-2 items of worth.

[Tajin]

getting to Khim's spot is a pain

Actually that is how every HNM should be IMO. Also, is not that hard getting there.

[Amele]

bards are made of win, sex, ballad, and more win in salvage.

I would go without any monks/ninjas/warriors before I'd go without a bard.

[Lordwafik]

So long as salvage is there, I don't see a reason to complain about a lack of sea/sky.

Sure it's fun at first, but after a while, sky/sea become mundane and you're doing it to get over and over till your items drop. Salvage cuts out all the crap and takes you straight to the items while still maintaining a twist (like Bhaf NM come from Ramparts wheras Arra NMs are all just up, You start off nude and need quick thinking for Cell distrib, etc).

You needed missions to get to Sea, to Sky, and then you needed missions to get into Salvage. The missions in that took place in the regions of Al'taeiruef; and Tu'Lia had the end game zones in them, well so did the missions that took place in the Alzadaal Undersea ruins. They all featured their endgame area within missions that took place in said areas.

The big difference between them is that the teir system isn't placed on the monsters and when you fight them, but rather the item peices (you need 15 25 35 to upgrade into a complete item).

The mysteries of fresh sky/sea are there, I remember the threads about Ix'Aern and how to find them, and they match the threads I read about the mystery behind Poroggo Madame, the mystery behind which doors give you access to what, mysteries behind the bosses, etc.

The "big boss" of the teir system is missing (2 mobs per Guardian, 4 guardians per kirin / (2 mobs per outdoor jailer, 3 outdoors per JoL, JoL % chance for an AV), however instead it's replaced by 4 bosses which are harder than any typical jailer to both reach as well as defeat.

All zones feature some of the best gear in the expansion which is a big reason people do the events.

The biggest and best feature that salvage has over the other two zones are real-instanced zones. Competing for monsters means nothing as all the competing comes down to lotting Furthermore completing items in salvage is possible with 6 people, including bosses, a very low amount compared to the amount you typically need for sea/sky.

PS : Before anyone starts cutting my post to bits and attacking it, grow up. This isn't a post about salvage being better than the other zones, it's about showing that ToaU does have it's "Sea/Sky".

Salvage needs more balance for jobs. Most people are adamant on only taking MNKs and possibly NINs for melees. Even when asked if people would take my BRD, which I already am in the process of leveling, and find fun, when it reached 75, they tell me no. MNK onry.

Your group is retarded, the chest took care of non mnks already, salvage getting fixed even more at this point will just turn it into dynamis, a 3 hour snore.

[Sendra]

The only thing I dislike about ToAU is the spawn of hypocrite allafags who bitch that n00bs can hit 75 easily because of it, and that it ruined players by making them forget how to skillchain.

Absolutely everything about ToAU was win, tons of "extracurricular" content that would get you tons of epic gear and are tons of fun to boot. It spawned very little rare/ex gear that people considered the par, so there isn't much stress when working towards a salvage piece of an Assault set. As well, it made meriting a lot easier and require less dedication, where it used to be a tormenting task.

[Vigilia]

I love ToAU. Assaults win, the missions were great, for once I could just chill and watch a story unfold and not panic about cap 30/40/50/60 gear or farming bomb clusters or wyvern scales to just get something done. Aside from the lag, the new city and besieged is great. And when they added the warps from starter towns to WG it only got better- now I can keep my HP in Bastok with easy access to OP warps for old areas, access to my storage and still be just 300gil away from Whitegate and from there a silver coin away from Jeuno. Getting easy XP is amazing. It made FFXI awesome for the more casual player that still has to hold on to their full-time job or spend family time.
Also from personal experience and coming from a LS that doesn't camp HNMs much (nobody has the time, nearly everything we do is in one way or another for the lack of a better word: "scheduleable"), Hydra is quite possibly one of the least camped NMs in the game making it an awesome training ground to go slap around. It's also a short run from town so even the most directionally challenged n00b can get to it without aggroing (much) unlike its practice target predecessor Jormungand.

I also thoroughly enjoyed CoP missions and still like it as a whole. Only thing I ever wish for would be that there wouldn't had been those damned level caps. Beautiful zones like Riverne sit empty apart from occasional NM hunters because getting cap gear is too much hassle. That, and in the end you never really do get to go to Tavnazia. You just see it in the distance with some dragons circling over it. I suppose a lot of CoP can be summed up as a wasted opportunity for adventure which left many with a feeling of disappointment. I have a pipedream that Tavnazia will be included in the pre-war areas of WotG to be able to visit it before its ruin.

ToAU just handed it all for you on a plate, everything we see we could go and get. And most of it is short and sweet, stuff you can do when you only have couple of hours to play in the evenings. You can schedule a bit of assaults here, or some salvage there or just go merit for an hour or two. You don't need to round up massive numbers of people, you don't need to pay a million gil to get in or be killing an identical doll thousand times over for a pop item for a god that just might give you some pants. Assault points rock, you can for once be rewarded for exactly the time you put in. Shame that Einherjar and Salvage are still a bit bloody random. And ooh, I adore runic portals, no more travelling for half an hour or more just to get to a merit camp. Don't get me wrong, Sky in small doses is still fun and I love Dynamis but it's a logistical nightmare trying to organise 36 or more people when only half of them are actually paying attention to only go a year and a half without seeing another Surcoat drop. Doing ToAU stuff is like going to a health spa in comparison. 8)

[Lordender]

The only thing I dislike about ToAU is the spawn of hypocrite allafags who bitch that n00bs can hit 75 easily because of it, and that it ruined players by making them forget how to skillchain.

This is what aggravated me the most out of ToAU is the fact that previously in the old days if you sucked you didn't get many invites to parties for the most part and if your LS sucked you wiped fast on HNM. SE really dumbed this game down to where any brainless LS can kill harder HNM with the most gimp players, they took alot of skill out of the endgame because SE dumbed the game down way too much.

[sunb1ind]

I'm really disappointed with the way HNM events ended up with ToAU honestly.

The ones that spawn outside have crazy-wide windows, there's only 3 of them, one of which drops total crap. Cerb's only really useful to kill for the hides since so few people actually need an Algol, and the hides can be AH'd. And Khimaira's drops are all useless except Hauteclaire which is rare as hell, getting to Khim's spot is a pain, and it's a huge window.

People talk about how great Salvage is but if the 5% haste set effect on Usukane is correct, then my current haste gear (which doesn't include any HQ Dusk or anything specifically hard to obtain) is better than full Usukane for total haste percent by several points. Haste gear will probably outperform Ares too. And the Fastcast set is kind of sad. It's not really that the rewards "suck", they don't, but they're not in line with the amount of effort it takes to get them. Drop rates are terrible, it requires a highly coordinated group of people to succeed at it and some of my friends are simply not that good. Plus you have to use precious assault points on it.

Finally there's Einherjar which is just utterly-freaking-broken.

EDIT: Let us not forget the massive fail that was the 3 ToAU Beastmen Kings.

I hope WotG's endgame content is closer to what RoZ/CoP's was, leaning towards RoZ. Give us a challenging fight that actually drops a decent amount of items, instead of difficult HNMs that only drop 1-2 items of worth.

amen to all of that said

TOAH's missions were watered-down and weren't anywhere in the league of FFXI's mission storylines. Assault was the only instanced format that worked, even if some of them were lame to do. This expansion only succeeded in providing some relief with the lack of pick-up and play gameplay elements. Everyone I know shares the same opinion with this rushed bullshit content they gave us this time around. I don't know why you even count the jobs and 2hd updates, that has shit to do with the 30 bucks you spent for the exp pack.

I'm actually looking forward to next expansion though, I don't see how they can screw up a storyline that they probably already had pre-planned out. I'm hoping they will combine everything that has worked well into this one and everyone can get mcridills from new HNMs while riding in their pimped out Deloreans.

[Gwynplaine]

Everyone I know shares the same opinion with this rushed bullshit content they gave us this time around. I don't know why you even count the jobs and 2hd updates, that has shit to do with the 30 bucks you spent for the exp pack.

The post I made was more about the change in attitude, and direction SE took during ToAU rather than the polygons you obtained on the CD.

[Not Kuno]

Salvage is not the sky/sea of ToAU because you can't go in with your LS and do stuff. It has a 18 person max and usually you don't want to go in with more then 10 people anyway. Sky/sea are good because if you have a bajillion people you can always farm different pop items at once, but when it comes time for the popped stuff anyone can get the loot. If you try getting 30 people into 3 salvage zones I don't want to imagine what will happen if certain stuff dropped in different zones and etc. It's just not the same when you force groups to shrink down like that.


And I can't believe I forgot about the ToAU beastman kings. Man what a fucking waste of times those are. Prime example of the "super ultra crazy hard fights with no reward" problem. I don't think anyone cares they are crazy hard as long as they drop stuff worthwhile.

[Lordwafik]

Salvage is not the sky/sea of ToAU because you can't go in with your LS and do stuff.

Oh?

It has a 18 person max and usually you don't want to go in with more then 10 people anyway.

I don't remember the last time my LS had more than 18 people in a single zone for sea/sky, and we have nearly double that in LS members.

Sky/sea are good because if you have a bajillion people you can always farm different pop items at once, but when it comes time for the popped stuff anyone can get the loot.

I don't see the big problem with splitting up - it's more efficient for salvage. Being able to interchange items wouldn't be so bad, like in limbus, but I'd gladly take the inability to do that while having an instanced zone.

And err... when it comes time for popped stuff in Salvage, anyone can get the loot too, just take them in the zone.

If you try getting 30 people into 3 salvage zones I don't want to imagine what will happen if certain stuff dropped in different zones and etc.

If I took 30 to salvage, I'd let them know in advance that bitching isn't tolerated.

[Lordender]

I can honestly say that i thought the ToAU beastmen kings(while worthless) are some of the most hectic fights in the game. I don't see why we can't get a key item from a ??? when it dies that can be traded for large amounts of IS so they are atleast worthwhile.

[Gwynplaine]

Don't forget the Beastmen HNM are really just part of the Besieged system. I think the real issue there is with the incentives the Besieged NM system offers all around. The idea is to get players to stage attacks on key nms to weaken their offense. Many of the NM's are quirky and kind of interesting to fight, but why bother if besieged can be won anyway and the immediate award is just an extremely situational equip piece.

Strangely enough, this seems like a failing of one of the expansions major features, and really it doesn't even seem to have hurt it in the end.

[Spira]

So long as salvage is there, I don't see a reason to complain about a lack of sea/sky.

Sure it's fun at first, but after a while, sky/sea become mundane and you're doing it to get over and over till your items drop. Salvage cuts out all the crap and takes you straight to the items while still maintaining a twist (like Bhaf NM come from Ramparts wheras Arra NMs are all just up, You start off nude and need quick thinking for Cell distrib, etc).

You needed missions to get to Sea, to Sky, and then you needed missions to get into Salvage. The missions in that took place in the regions of Al'taeiruef; and Tu'Lia had the end game zones in them, well so did the missions that took place in the Alzadaal Undersea ruins. They all featured their endgame area within missions that took place in said areas.

The big difference between them is that the teir system isn't placed on the monsters and when you fight them, but rather the item peices (you need 15 25 35 to upgrade into a complete item).

The mysteries of fresh sky/sea are there, I remember the threads about Ix'Aern and how to find them, and they match the threads I read about the mystery behind Poroggo Madame, the mystery behind which doors give you access to what, mysteries behind the bosses, etc.

The "big boss" of the teir system is missing (2 mobs per Guardian, 4 guardians per kirin / (2 mobs per outdoor jailer, 3 outdoors per JoL, JoL % chance for an AV), however instead it's replaced by 4 bosses which are harder than any typical jailer to both reach as well as defeat.

All zones feature some of the best gear in the expansion which is a big reason people do the events.

The biggest and best feature that salvage has over the other two zones are real-instanced zones. Competing for monsters means nothing as all the competing comes down to lotting Furthermore completing items in salvage is possible with 6 people, including bosses, a very low amount compared to the amount you typically need for sea/sky.

PS : Before anyone starts cutting my post to bits and attacking it, grow up. This isn't a post about salvage being better than the other zones, it's about showing that ToaU does have it's "Sea/Sky".

I'd like to agree with you, because I see your point on the similarities, however.. the big differences are these..

Sky/Sea are all open-world zones with free limitless entry. With Salvage Remnants, you need to pay assault points per entry, each time you enter there is a time limit and you can only bring up to 18 people. And you kinda have to give up small group farming because if you can manage to do that anyway, you won't be able to enter again the same day.

I'd quite have enjoyed it if they made 1 more zone to complement Salvage NMs and such, but was purely open environment..

[archibaldcrane]

I wonder if Einherjar in it's exact current state, was the first event released in ToAU instead of the last, if it would've been more utilized. Now that the Hueg liek Xbox linkshell thing is pretty done, it's a giant pain in the ass to get your 36 together. But at ToAU's onset, those monster LSes were still around and in force.

[Yutuyu]

The whole comparing Salvage to Sky/Sea thing is just ridiculous. You can find some similarities between almost ANYTHING, that doesn't mean the two things are actually similar in light of the glaring differences.

Sea/sky is not timed in any way shape or form, you can take as long as you like fighting the mobs. There's no entrance fee. These zones are breath-taking from a graphical point of view and fun to explore. You can also XP in them if you like. And around the time of their release having access to them was a benchmark accomplishment for any player.

Salvage is... pretty much the same repetative patterns used over and over again, you enter with not even 2 hours of time, it's instanced, etc. etc. etc.

[Lordwafik]

I'd like to agree with you, because I see your point on the similarities, however.. the big differences are these..

Sky/Sea are all open-world zones with free limitless entry. With Salvage Remnants, you need to pay assault points per entry, each time you enter there is a time limit and you can only bring up to 18 people. And you kinda have to give up small group farming because if you can manage to do that anyway, you won't be able to enter again the same day.

I'd quite have enjoyed it if they made 1 more zone to complement Salvage NMs and such, but was purely open environment..

I was counting the whole Alzadaal Undersea ruins / nyzul area. You can roam there all you like, the chambers inside them are the only things timed ;p

[Not Kuno]

I'm sure saying "don't complain" works fine in a Salvage linkshell but in a HNM ls that does sky/sea/kings/dynamis/limbus/v2 etc etc, finally getting a rare drop and having it not go to who deserves it will make people pissed. My post was in regards to HNM lses that have to balance other events and such. It's nothing like sky/sea where you can just do whatever you want, farm as little/much as you want with as many/few people as you want.

I mean don't get me wrong, I love salvage. It just sucks as an HNM ls event as only 18 can enter among many other reasons.