XIV Updated - SoF Nerfed!

[Steel Wolf]

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/topics/detail/4af393d0bac4c00047fed36f242cc71e9f20311f

 

Battle System

The strength of the Echo granted in the Final Coil of Bahamut has been increased.

The echo will take effect upon entering the Final Coil of Bahamut, increasing players' maximum HP, damage dealt, and healing magic potency by 15%.

* Unlike other instances, the strength of the Echo will not increase upon total party incapacitation.

 

The Steps of Faith has been adjusted as follows:

Vishap's maximum HP has been reduced.

The maximum HP of all enemies that spawn has been reduced.

Damage dealt by certain enemies has been reduced.

Damage dealt by Vishap's underfoot attack has been reduced.

Damage dealt by Bertha cannons upon exploding has been reduced.

 

System

The music played when riding the following mounts has been changed:

Sleipnir / Aithon / Xanthos / Gullfaxi / Enbarr / Markab / Boreas

 

************

So it figures that SoF would finally be softened well after myself and my hubby got through the thing. Awe well...maybe now alting won't be quite so scary a proposition.

[Melodia]

I can finally maybe do my daily trials again. Haven't clicked that queue in a while.

[Gegenji]

I'm rather glad they finally weakened Steps some. It's downright depressing to get it as the random in my Trial and see half the group drop immediately, leaving mostly new folk who want to get it done for the MSQ. I'm just curious how much all this damage/HP got reduced by - will it be a snore-fest now or just more forgiving in regards to mistakes made?

 

... Also kinda curious what the new mount music is...

[Warren Castille]

... Also kinda curious what the new mount music is...

 

They gave the mounts the trial music. Not sure if it's Final Phase music or not. Regardless, I've now got the urge to enable mount themes and farm Ramuh...

[ProvaDiServo]

... Also kinda curious what the new mount music is...

 

They gave the mounts the trial music. Not sure if it's Final Phase music or not. Regardless, I've now got the urge to enable mount themes and farm Ramuh...

 

!!!!!!!

 

 

LFG Leviathan pony farm!

[Elysia]

Well! ... ... that's... perfect timing. 

 

I'm actually about to get to SoF for the first time today. Maybe. Wish me luck. 

[Spethah]

I can officially be that asshole that says:

 

"What? Seriously? I got that done before the nerf and on the first try!"

[Warren Castille]

As long as the depleted health removes the crippling necessity of the Dragon Killers and snares, it shouldn't be much of a challenge any longer.

 

So depressing seeing someone go "I GOT THIS" and then missing every vital shot then wiping under 5%.

[allgivenover]

SoF will probably just be possible to win now even if you miss the chains and dragon killer device.

[Steel Wolf]

I'm....morbidly curious to try the Trials queue now to see how SoF feels after having run face-first into the thing as often as I have.

 

And I definitely will be riding my Sleipnir mount a LOT more.

[Melodia]

 

So depressing seeing someone go "I GOT THIS" and then missing every vital shot then wiping under 5%.

This is why I avoided the trials roulette. If there was a way to auto fail and restart it would have helped, but the time commitment involved only to fail so close each time...the reward was not worth it. Now....hopefully it's better.

[Virella]

Just did it onto Balmung for the first time.

 

Still don't expect people to come in and listen, and actually be an addition to the team. Oh no, it will be quite the same as before. Just that one dragon killer can be missed and things hit a lot less hard.

 

 

It depresses me that people come in there without any clue what they are doing, and not even bothering to listen, or look up a tiny guide despite all the complaining, nagging and whining so many have done. Bah, how much do I hate to carry people trough content while they do not deserve it at all. That said, you need about give or take four people who know what they are doing and you're golden.

But given people's attitude with "Gimme my carry plox" once they can hit that DF button, I fear this still won't be a solution to Vishap's troubles and some of the population unjustly being stuck onto it; that is until puglets have a change of heart in regards of putting effort in their clears. I'm just grateful we had a handful of people who knew/tried at least.

 

But yes, one dragon killer can be missed now with ease and still make it, but do not expect it to be a magical solution to Vishap.

[Erik Mynhier]

Nerf? BOOOO!!!

 

No really it wasn't that hard but I get compensating for.... um.... bad pugs? Especially since its a wall to the expansion. But seriously it wasn't hard if everyone did their part.

[Warren Castille]

But seriously it wasn't hard if everyone did their part.

 

dutyfinder.exe

[allgivenover]

Duh, the hard part of ANY content in this game is coordinating everyone doing their part.

 

Titan EX is easy if everyone does their part.

Final Coil turn 4 is easy if everyone does their part.

[Spethah]

But seriously it wasn't hard if everyone did their part.

 

dutyfinder.exe

 

In all seriousness though, it's a very simple instance but people's dick waving egos get in the way. It was sad when the only way I could get my friends through that trial was to gather as many people as I could that knew the fight so we can nail it first or second time.

[Dravus]

Ugh. That sucks. 

 

Steps of Faith was a lot of fun for me due to how hectic it felt. The need to adhere to mechanics made it very immersive and truly feel like a race against time. Was it frustrating if people ended up with a bad group? Yeah - but that applies to most PvE content and generally speaking outside of abysmal groups it's possible to succeed if someone steps up and guides everybody else.

 

I snagged Garuda's mount not too long ago so the mount music change is pretty nifty. I have Odin's mount too so I'll likely hunt down the others to complete my collection.

[Warren Castille]

In all seriousness though, it's a very simple instance but people's dick waving egos get in the way. It was sad when the only way I could get my friends through that trial was to gather as many people as I could that knew the fight so we can nail it first or second time.

 

I had a similar experience. To sound like an elitist standing on my soapbox, it's the first MSQ portion to require you to actually handle intro-to-raiding mechanics. Chrysalis has the bog-standard "kill this to not die" bits, and Levi has "click this to not die" but SoF has multiple instances of one-attempt mechanics. Failing them usually means you all die, unless you've got comparable-to-raid-dps numbers.

 

It's possible to get it on the retry, like anything else, but it's also simple for vital mechanics to get dropped because someone jumps the gun or mistimes or the ever-popular lag spike gets them. If you can do it, it's super simple. If you can't do it, it's borderline impossible.

 

You know, just like Titan EX. You either dodge landslides or you don't.

[Merri]

... Also kinda curious what the new mount music is...

 

They gave the mounts the trial music. Not sure if it's Final Phase music or not. Regardless, I've now got the urge to enable mount themes and farm Ramuh...

 

It's dependent on the primal music in question. If it has phases, it's the post astral flow music from what I've seen. For example, on Gullfaxi, it starts Titan's theme right after he uses Earthen Fury. Where as with Xanthos, it just starts with the beginning of Garuda's theme since there's no transitions.

 

I imagine Shiva's and Leviathans start post astral flow, and Ramuh and Ifrit are the full songs.

[Manari]

I just did this trial for the first time last week (of course they would nerf it right after I do it) and like most things I do, I am forced to use Duty Finder. Of course I had watched the video to see what I was in store for, and my first reaction to the video was "Wow... this is a lot of coordination to ask of a DF party." And it really was. We went through a few rage quits before we finally got a group of people who would all listen and do what they were supposed to, and also not miss with the Dragonator or whatever this game calls it. I didn't go up there and fire it, so I honestly have no idea how easy or hard it is to hit with it. If it's anything like using the Dragonator in Monster Hunter, then you certainly have to use some intelligence before just pressing that button.

 

But this is good news since this Trial is part of the Trial Roulette, and I wasn't looking forward to seeing that one come up again.

[Spethah]

In all seriousness though, it's a very simple instance but people's dick waving egos get in the way. It was sad when the only way I could get my friends through that trial was to gather as many people as I could that knew the fight so we can nail it first or second time.

 

I had a similar experience. To sound like an elitist standing on my soapbox, it's the first MSQ portion to require you to actually handle intro-to-raiding mechanics. Chrysalis has the bog-standard "kill this to not die" bits, and Levi has "click this to not die" but SoF has multiple instances of one-attempt mechanics. Failing them usually means you all die, unless you've got comparable-to-raid-dps numbers.

 

It's possible to get it on the retry, like anything else, but it's also simple for vital mechanics to get dropped because someone jumps the gun or mistimes or the ever-popular lag spike gets them. If you can do it, it's super simple. If you can't do it, it's borderline impossible.

 

You know, just like Titan EX. You either dodge landslides or you don't.

 

You would think that after running the story and their trials that you would learn some things. I did Halatali hard before Levi HM and I learned that clicking things tends to save your life. So when the "PUSH ME" happened, I caressed that device and boom we all lived. There's also a little common sense as well. Big thing, big feet, you go under it and SQUISH. Makes sense. Now the adds being at the front is less of a previous experience/common sense thing but it's definitely something you figure out after the first failure especially when you're on cannon fodder duty. 

 

From my experience of running that trial now seven times, all successes due to a majority premade, is that every sod that's not in that premade tends to be a little...egoistic or didn't think about checking advice from anyone or anything before. No, I'm not expecting you to read an in-dept guide but for goodness sake at least ask for/check for advice!

 

Put aside your differences in demege pur seecunds and itum revels and focus on what's in front and together you sun of a beach.

[Leggerless]

The worst part is they didn't need to debuff the instance.

 

They could've done just these two things and still retained the dungeon's difficulty, giving a reason to re-run the instance:

 

1. Incentivized the run. Make SoF drop a rare pet, land dragon mount, or even some glamour gear. From now til the time that Heavensward is released, I can almost guarantee that people would farm that run just to get one of these items.

 

2. Removed the reset. What happens when everyone dies and cannot recover? You have to wait until Vishap goes ALL the way down to the last gate and destroys it for an instance reset. Changing that will decrease the amount of people that will leave because it heavily reduces the penalty for failing a run of the instance.

 

All in all, if you know what you're doing, it's simple.

[Gegenji]

The worst part is they didn't need to debuff the instance.

 

They could've done just these two things and still retained the dungeon's difficulty, giving a reason to re-run the instance:

 

1. Incentivized the run. Make SoF drop a rare pet, land dragon mount, or even some glamour gear. From now til the time that Heavensward is released, I can almost guarantee that people would farm that run just to get one of these items.

 

2. Removed the reset. What happens when everyone dies and cannot recover? You have to wait until Vishap goes ALL the way down to the last gate and destroys it for an instance reset. Changing that will decrease the amount of people that will leave because it heavily reduces the penalty for failing a run of the instance.

 

All in all, if you know what you're doing, it's simple.

 

Yeah, the biggest issue with me has always been the whole "welp, gotta wait until he trudges all the way down now" aspect of it. If things go bad, being able to "wipe it up" allows for more attempts and, hopefully, more successes.

 

And I'm always up for a chance for a prize from a trial. Chrysalis would do well getting one too. Heck, even Leviathan and Shiva ended up getting Triple Triad cards to try for.

[Kellach Woods]

The biggest problem with SoF was what Leggerless said above.

 

It would have worked fine if people could, y'know, actually get something out of it. Hell, run it like you did Odin where you can get stuff that's outdated and obviously for glamour purposes!

 

And yeah... not only that but you have to sit through at least 30 seconds of cutscene and seeing duty failed that are COMPLETELY UNSKIPPABLE. Just that was enough for me to say fuck this.

 

For those of you arguing that it's a good intro-to-raid mechanics, I'd say it's an extremely poor one. Because in a raid, if you fail the mechanics, you die, womp womp you get to try again. in SoF if you fail, you get to WATCH EVERYTHING GET DESTROYED, WASTE A TON OF TIME, SEE DUTY FAILED AND THEN START ANEW. Which is a lot more infuriating than just butting heads against a brick wall because you can't just go "okay we fucked up this failed, this succeeded let's get back in there!"

[Dravus]

Incentives are definitely needed. Particularly for stuff people find tedious. I don't like content to be nerfed unless there's no viable alternative. It makes stuff boring and whilst I'm sure some people have fun pulling half a dungeon and burning it down that just doesn't interest me in the slightest.

 

Take Pharos Sirius for instance: people whined that it was too difficult and now Siren hits like a wet noodle. The dungeon was also completely optional and whatever interesting mechanics Siren once had are no longer dangerous because you can literally count on surviving anything she throws at you unless something goes terribly wrong.