Yeeeah, A1S is a lot easier now that people are geared for it. Back during week one if anyone made any mistake at all outside of the very tail end of the fight, it was over. Wasn't complex or anything, there just wasn't any room for error at ilvl185 or so.
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Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward |OT| Raiders of the Void Ark
- Thread starter Trojita
- Start date
Yeeeah, A1S is a lot easier now that people are geared for it. Back during week one if anyone made any mistake at all outside of the very tail end of the fight, it was over. Wasn't complex or anything, there just wasn't any room for error at ilvl185 or so.
Personally, it's just that it was easy to coast by on "good enough" for a long time until now. Unless people want to wait another month+, "good enough" is not getting through A3S/A4S.
Well our scheduling issues this week (I mean last week this lockout) were due to people doing stupid things like using their PCs for alarm clocks instead of using a smartphone like a normal person 
But next 2 weeks is due to Asami's Las Vegas trip throwing off weekend chance. We still ended up scheduling 6hrs this upcoming week and 10-11hrs the next week. As long as people use normal alarm clocks, we should be good
So it's not as bad as other groups are experiencing, but sub-consiousely I think motivation is a key factor in why scheduling conflicts are starting to come up. Perhaps before you would schedule your IRL events around raid sometimes, or you would double set an alarm, as you were excited for the raid time. I don't think most people are excited anymore.
But next 2 weeks is due to Asami's Las Vegas trip throwing off weekend chance. We still ended up scheduling 6hrs this upcoming week and 10-11hrs the next week. As long as people use normal alarm clocks, we should be good
So it's not as bad as other groups are experiencing, but sub-consiousely I think motivation is a key factor in why scheduling conflicts are starting to come up. Perhaps before you would schedule your IRL events around raid sometimes, or you would double set an alarm, as you were excited for the raid time. I don't think most people are excited anymore.
irfaanator
Banned
a lot can change when raiding w/ the same group for 2+ years. at least schedule wise
Has this game been around 2+ years? I thought FFXIV 1.0 didn't have raids - just trials, and just ARR introduced raids.
Honest question that no amount of rewording has made sound non-bitchy so #yolo: Hadn't the other 7 people in the group been working on adds/Cascade a while before you joined?
irfaanator
Banned
well 2 years
Wow yeah it has been 2 years. I should have clued in with that event recently lol. I joined during 2.1 though.
Yeah - me, Asami, Korra, and Moara have been raiding together since I think February 2014. So that's a decent amount of time. I forgot when Arashi joined us and replaced Stanley - I think when we were progressing on T8. Skoje and Tira were with us until HW, before then, only job we had to cycle a bit was WAR.
Any raid group here keep a full 8 the entire time with no changes?
Yeah - me, Asami, Korra, and Moara have been raiding together since I think February 2014. So that's a decent amount of time. I forgot when Arashi joined us and replaced Stanley - I think when we were progressing on T8. Skoje and Tira were with us until HW, before then, only job we had to cycle a bit was WAR.
Any raid group here keep a full 8 the entire time with no changes?
I've somewhat limited experience raiding of course, but it does feel like schedules are a bit more difficult to finesse during the summer, and the tail end of the summer is probably double difficult since you've got people taking vacations and such.
As for Alexander difficulty. I really am torn on it to be honest. On one hand I do kinda want to clear something this difficult for once, but on the other hand the fact that so few people are clearing it after all this time sends up some alarm bells for me. The way this game is constructed, a lot of the side activities that keep people busy center around the eight-man raid. Relic? Well that's overkill unless you're raiding. Crafting? Well you can use the Gil to buy a house, or use it to finance your raiding. Extremes? If you're doing it more than once it's because you want the gear, which again is overkill for everything except raiding. Even Tome farming is largely overkill at this point unless you're raiding. You certainly don't need it for Everreap or Ravana. Etc etc.
If people are giving up on the later half of Alexander Savage, I fear eventually there'll be a drop off in other activities as well. If there's no goal in mind, there isn't going to be a lot of motivation for a lot of people.
As for Alexander difficulty. I really am torn on it to be honest. On one hand I do kinda want to clear something this difficult for once, but on the other hand the fact that so few people are clearing it after all this time sends up some alarm bells for me. The way this game is constructed, a lot of the side activities that keep people busy center around the eight-man raid. Relic? Well that's overkill unless you're raiding. Crafting? Well you can use the Gil to buy a house, or use it to finance your raiding. Extremes? If you're doing it more than once it's because you want the gear, which again is overkill for everything except raiding. Even Tome farming is largely overkill at this point unless you're raiding. You certainly don't need it for Everreap or Ravana. Etc etc.
If people are giving up on the later half of Alexander Savage, I fear eventually there'll be a drop off in other activities as well. If there's no goal in mind, there isn't going to be a lot of motivation for a lot of people.
My group is definitely not normal since we've pretty much always had scheduling issues. July was particularly bad for us since it was 3-4 conventions back to back, but we had that issue last year too. We also always play what we like regardless of what the best comp is (we had no Monk for all of Final Coil, and we've had MCH/AST/double caster this whole time and don't plan to switch to DRK or have a regular DRG either so still missing INT down). Yet we cleared and have stayed together as a group this whole time. On top of that, on our good raid weeks we normally don't get more than 3 lockouts.
Yet we've still downed Savage stuff and will be seriously doing A3S soon (and wiping for a long time I am sure). And we don't really care if our comp isn't ideal either, cause we have still always cleared the content pre nerf (and at this rate will be in the same boat as everyone else on 3S regardless).
I personally think SE took a lot of lessons from the previous set of raids when designing this one. They designed clearing Savage with having gear in mind to the point that it's prohibitively difficult without it (you CAN'T do it). and this is by design. They also likely did more testing so that there was nothing like "old" Twisters f*cking with people, everything is laid out and you should know what you have to do to pass the current mechanic to move on to the next. And that's fine, as much as some may disagree I don't think asking people to need to gear up to clear the hardest content in the game is outrageous, especially now that they have the gobpages in place as a safety net against bad rng (even if i think the pages required is a bit high).
That being said, i want to see how they do the "catchup" mechanic in 3.1, with how much emphasis they placed on gear for this content vs the last. There's a weird thing in MMOs and a lot of other games about how "easy" stuff is to clear once a few people have done it, but I feel like A3/A4 have maybe humbled some folks for the time being. In 3.1 maybe that will change, but it's nice nice to me (as someone who's never been a front runner) to have a bit of quiet regarding how "easy" stuff is while my group is still working on/wiping to it yet still so far ahead of so much of the playerbase. It is probably selfish of me to feel that way though, so sorry about that.
.Gamer @ Heart
Member
Up until recently, we had 5/8 of the original (when i joined) from 3/14.
I cant imagine any group of 8 staying together that long. Syncing up 8 adult lives is tough unless 14 is literally all their main/only "thing" they do.
That's one of the few things my group can brag about. We have been the same 8 (9 including our gracious part timer who subs in when one of us has to stop or has net problems or w/e) since October 2013.
It may be partially cause we are so low key that we have stayed together so long. We all have to work full time jobs and some of us are in EST vs PST which would make job switching/keeping alts geared worse (if we cared), but we've still made it work out this whole time. Hope it keeps going, having a reliable static is really a load off my shoulders.
HylianScribe
Member
I thought we didn't start until April and we cleared T5 in May, but my memory is lying. My achievement log shows I got The Binds that Tie I on April 30, 2014 (so...close to May, but not quite). We started on T5 and took a bit of time on it, so I guess we did start either in March or early April. I know we had a few rounds of echo added before we cleared it.
I don't think so...for groups that stared in The Binding Coil and have people still raiding now. Sure there are groups, though.
Edit: Future spoilers: I don't think I'll be doing progression raiding if I'm still playing XIV come 4.0. I'll do it on catch-up patches when best strategies are available, am well (over) geared, and people who have cleared it can run it with me to give me "cliff notes" sessions so I can get clears but also learn the fight so I can contribute to helping others clear as necessary. Basically, no more raid schedule. The raid schedule mentality has caused me to put raiding before a lot of other things, and while I am enjoying this time raiding, this has to end at some point. I'd like to get back to playing other games again and working on game related projects in my free time.
We started before SCoB was released which was in March, so I just assumed February but maybe we started earlier in the March month.
We're 6/8 of the original from December 2013 on. Watching people move on due to work/school has been sad indeed
Honestly, as much as I hate to admit it, yeah it's going to have to end at some point for me as well. The strain it puts on my schedule is just a bit much, and there'll come a day when I either make a move or my work schedule changes and I just won't be able to put in as much time.
I hope I can find some other central aspect of the game to keep me somewhat occupied between major patches, when that happens. I mean obviously I won't be playing as much, but I'm still a very goal oriented gamer, so without a goal....
I'm honestly not sure? I asked that question the day I joined and we hit A3, as to how far they had seen. They mentioned they had technically seen Cascade once (to the best of my recollection now) but the issue appeared to have been getting to add phase consistently. That had not been an issue the day I joined because chest day/ironing out some of the kinks that had been happening. We were actively formulating the strategy we were using when I joined but yeah I think there had been some work done on adds prior... my understanding is that it wasn't much. Maybe Felix could more adequately answer this? I don't know the depths of my current group's history, and I'm sorry if it came off like I was being all high and mighty. Definitely not intended.
You should have probably talked to their bards for tips instead of looking for reasons to push for Infinite Time.
I've been thinking of end point myself lately, whether that's 4.0 or later. Honestly, if I quit progression raiding I'll just quit the game.
My situation is different then yours though as all I do in game is raiding + whatever is the quickest way to cap Eso each week. Don't play the game at all outside of that. I also decided to only level tank jobs going forward and nothing else to reduce amount of gear farming I have to ever do.
I'm surprised you don't take action now though. Because you spend way more time doing things like pony farming and PVP, then you do progression raiding. If you want to spend more time playing other games - you could give up trying to get the latest mount or levelling up every job and you would have hours upon hours available to play other games.
Poison pots don't work anymore, sorry.
Yeah, that I had to bug Raijinken to get from Lauren and his bard.
wompwomp
TastyOreoFriend
Member
Eh, even with goals I'm finding less and less reason to log in. Before I was all about capping Eso/scrips, but even with I'm beginning to play maybe 2-3 times a week if that. "Cap/currency/Bang out alex items see ya next week!" isn't a enough a reason to keep paying 12.99 a month for me I'm finding. I've tried so hard to get into crafting as well, but I find that the only crafts worth a damn right now are the most annoying to make shit for ACH/CUL. Not to mention crafting and gather are such a mess right now. You couple that with the fact that there's virtually no accessible mid tier content and I'm beginning to wonder why I play at all.
I thought Destiny might be enough to fill that hole. I wound up quitting that game maybe a month after I bought it however cause the grind in that game can be extreme if you set your goals on particular guns. It was just a prettier Warframe that didn't have half the feature set.
I'm hoping MGSV is the game that cures what ails my FFXIV fatigue between sessions, but I have a feeling it probably won't :/
HylianScribe
Member
PVP farming at its current rate is because I neglected it for all of 2.0 and am trying to catch up ASAP. Once I'm there in like a month, I will just make sure to do the weekly stuff so I steadily progress towards any future PVP related rewards. Pony farming was a bit extreme, but that's dead now since they seem adverse to making mounts drop on EX primal anymore (or rather we'll likely know for sure after TGS Live Letter if they'll be doing them). Plus knowing now that they'll up the drop rate and allow unsynced parties ... I wouldn't push so hard again. Job leveling I'm doing only DRs and calling it a day from now on for non-healing classes.
Galen?
HylianScribe
Member
Oh yea, it's F2P now. I should at least give it a try at some point. I've also heard about these other F2P games called League of Legends, DotA 2, and Rocket League. I should maybe play one of them.
You're setting yourself up for failure. Take a break from the grinds
Play some 10hr games
Eh, Capping Esoterics isn't really a goal to me, that's just something that happens. Running Alex NM isn't really a goal either. I've got all the gear I want for my main class, and most of the gear I'll want for my off class.
The thing is, I'm really not burnt out on the game. I still enjoy running dungeons, the various Trials, light crafting, gathering, etc. My problem is that I'd like to have the option to drop raiding, but still have some big central project to work on.
I mean, aside from Extreme Primals there really isn't good mid tier content to work on. I dunno, maybe sky island exploration will end up filing that gap.
irfaanator
Banned
bro
./gasp guild wars :O!
Lies, I care. Panda should go back bard. I miss Foes Req.
I'm kind of in the same boat. I levelled ninja up because I wanted to switch from BLM. I've hit 60 on ninja and have been grinding times to go into Alexander. I got a bit worn out on dungeons so I decided to try PVP and honestly I really enjoy Seize it's actually pretty fun.
I find now that scaling back abit is actually more enjoyable than always having to push so much and at this point I'm honestly ok waiting for echo to complete some of the end game content. I rather just enjoy the content than bang my head against a wall crunching numbers just to clear some of the content.i feel like there is enough little things I can do when logging in that keep me busy enough that I'm not getting as bored anymore.
I'm looking forward to getting started on the new relic and this time I wanna make sure I'm on top of it rather than playing catch up.
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
I really want that new Ninja esoteric gear but I'm only level 55 orz
Well and I miss Panda being able to Second Wind using missiles. And me being AST pre-buff was rough too.
I'd take our current setup in a heartbeat over having to do FCoB without Dragon Kick again though. And ironically, we have one of the best possible setups for floor 2 despite not changing a thing
irfaanator
Banned
whats the issue(s)
Main issues I'm having is with Form Shift+Pb combination. I frequently forget that after Pb runs out the combo doesn't continue from the last skill you used. I usually wind up pressing a button for like 5 secs before realizing I can't use the skill. With Form Shift I'm just not used to starting in Coeurl first.
dark_chris
Member
I got the Firion outfit and its pretty freakin cool!
irfaanator
Banned
yea idk new monk opening stuff since they added a bunch of new skills. yea PB just allows you to use moves w/o a form and I believe if it hasnt changed you can fit 5 skills in PB so you just gotta keep that in mind
Doing my dailies and got Fractal Continuum.
It started off okay. No one waited for buffs at the start and kinda rushed off, but hey. It happens. Anyway, we get to the second boss and the tank (See: derp knight) starts talking about his phaser and crapping on our Machinist for his low dps (apparently I was doing better while healing...). When the fight starts he runs around the room and releases the enemies as soon as they're able. At this point I just stop healing him because he's acting like an arsehole to the dps in chat. The boss does his first 1111-tonne swipe and we wipe because there are no more enemies to release.
Then he flies off the handle and says we're all bad at the game because he didn't die fast enough and rage quits. Fun fun fun
It started off okay. No one waited for buffs at the start and kinda rushed off, but hey. It happens. Anyway, we get to the second boss and the tank (See: derp knight) starts talking about his phaser and crapping on our Machinist for his low dps (apparently I was doing better while healing...). When the fight starts he runs around the room and releases the enemies as soon as they're able. At this point I just stop healing him because he's acting like an arsehole to the dps in chat. The boss does his first 1111-tonne swipe and we wipe because there are no more enemies to release.
Then he flies off the handle and says we're all bad at the game because he didn't die fast enough and rage quits. Fun fun fun
So I noticed after now finally reaching the heavensward level 60 quest and having to run a few fates tomorrow to get there. But I barely see anyone doing fates in the expansion. It's almost all exclusive still to Northern Thanalan......why is that? Unless I'm missing the new hot spot for fate leveling