Hey!
Hahahaha, totally slipped my mind that you actually got that too. Was referring to a certain reddit thread.
I think the craziest thing to me at least, is that the more powerful gear is ONLY coming in the form of relic draws. So where as the game in the first year was possible to master with well honed skills and gear acquired by other means, this second year looks like a completely new ball game. I spent 400 mythril on the current Cloud banner, which took months and months to save up for. Going forward I can't see myself keeping up with the relic draw rate unless I start spending real money to up my odds of getting the power creep gear. The gear that's only accessible through relic draws looks damn near mandatory when I glance at what the Japanese game is dealing with. I'm going to REALLY hope I luck out on lucky draw banners because 25 mythril each time seems a lot safer than burning 50 with the same odds. This second year of ffrk is going to be interesting.
Well, two counterpoints:
1) Hones are still just about as important. A lot of the good 5* skills complement lifesiphon spamming, and in some cases actually do more than the BSSB autoattacks (e.g. Saint's Cross is straight out better than Cloud's Whirl Slash, the Barrage replacement is on par with a lot of the single target BSSB moves) This isn't taking into account the stat buffs that blowing a BSSB gives, which I feel is the *real* advantage, whereas the damage output from the SB itself and the autoattack skills can be approximated with 5*s.
2) Other than the baseline of 3++ event reward gear, which already did fall off, what I meant with my post is, let's just say we make a case for 3 11-pulls, and we take some of the objectively hardest content contemporary to those pulls (I'll use the examples from my post):
- Rinoa's event Parade Float. 5*s were 10%, you had a far easier time if you got Valkyrie or Betrayal Sword. (For the record, I didn't, and didn't actually bother)
- Brynhildr. 5*s were 10%, you had a far easier time if you pulled Blitz Sword or Boon. (For the record, I didn't)
- Bahamut SIN, 5*s are 13%, you can pull a BSSB, an SSB at 1% each, you had a far easier time if you pulled Fusion Sword. (For the record, I didn't)
- (taking a current endgame JP example) Nova Dragon, 5*s are 13% (i believe), there are multiple SSBs per banner. You have a far easier time with an RS BSSB. (soon to be multiple per realm available in the pools) (For the record, I probably won't lol)
In each case, again assuming 3 11 pulls in recent history, (and I fully admit I'm pulling these numbers out of ass just to make a relativity point about how the carrot on a stick tends to be a certain spitting-distance from a completely average pull) you could make the case for the top 10% having a far easier time, and the bottom 10% struggling, and some low percentage outright being insurmountable.
Of course, it's not so clear cut as "pull some RS gear" because there's also tentpole relics like SG at the start of the game, to Boon/LH, to a short-lived Lulu's Focus and Planet Protector, to the upcoming Yell, etc. and it's a completely valid point that someone without any of the Trinity is going to have far less wiggle room than someone with all three.
The thing about this power creep design is that even if you have an unlucky streak somewhere and get completely shafted over to the point where you really can't beat content, if you keep saving Mythril to the point you can pull again, your 'chances' are, by all reasonable measure 'reset' simply due to power creep within the banners themselves, and endgame content being tuned around contemporary banners and the average gear level then. (I believe you experienced this with OWA banner, actually, as an aside. All jokes aside, that's also what I experienced with the 1/44 streak, which I then subsequently caught up on just by averaging out)
And again, I'm not saying there isn't any difference. My main points are - the power creep is balanced out by the average gear level coming up alongside it, and that content honestly can be cleared with a much lower average than what you see in videos. (This, of course, does take a lot more patience and/or a heightened sensitivity to RNG, etc)
I'm willing to play ball and start messing with low-gear runs with 1-stamina Ultimate+s. That's really why I'm playing FFRK anyway - it's as much a puzzle game as it is a nostalgia trip for me.
