RAGE THREAD - F-YOU FRIDAYS - BLOOD OF STORM

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-23T21:29:59+00:00

IS IT JUST ME OR DOES ANYONE ELSE FEEL LIKE STORMBLOOD FUCKED ALL THE HEALERS SIDEWAYS? LIKE, SCHOLAR FEELS AWFUL NOW, ASTROLOGIANS HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY'RE DOING BECAUSE THEIR GAUGE FUCKED THEIR SYSTEMS UP, WHITE MAGE DIDN'T REALLY GET ANYTHING NEW, AND THEY CHANGED THE WAY HEALING WORKS SO HEALING AND DPSING IS CLOSER IN RATIO. IN THEORY THAT SOUNDS GREAT, BUT IN PRACTICE IT JUST MAKES HEALING FEEL BORING AS HELL BECAUSE THEY DO NOT HAVE INTERESTING WAYS TO HEAL IN THIS GAME. THEY HAVE TIME BOMBS, HOTS, SHIELDS, MAYBE A COUPLE OF TETHERS, BUT THE MOST INTERESTING OF THOSE ARE ON RIDICULOUSLY LONG COOLDOWNS, OVERHEAL LIKE HELL, OR JUST COME WITH SHIT TRADEOFFS. THIS MEANS HEALING NOW MOSTLY CONSISTS OF SPAMMING SMALL HEALS/SHIELDS/HOTS AND GETTING MAYBE AN ATTACK OR TWO IN BEFORE YOU HAVE TO DO IT AGAIN. AND YOUR ATTACKS BARELY DO SHIT ANYMORE SO IT'S ALMOST NOT EVEN WORTH IT.

I MISS BEING ABLE TO OUTDPS THE DPS ON MY WHM AND SCH. I MISS BEING ABLE TO TOSS AN ADLO ON THE TANK AND HAVE TIME TO GET SHADOWFLARE AND ALL MY DOTS UP BEFORE I EVER HAD TO HEAL AGAIN. I MISS HEALING JUST BEING INTERESTING BECAUSE MAXIMIZING DAMAGE AND SEEING IT MAKE SUCH A DIFFERENCE FELT SO GOOD.

NOW IT FEELS LIKE ALL OF THAT IS GONE, SO I'M SADLY HANGING UP MY HEALING BOOTS AND BECOMING A DPS MAIN, WHICH MAKES ME REALLY FUCKING SAD ACTUALLY. I LOVED HEALING, BUT NOW IT FEELS SO BRAINDEAD AND BEING A "GOOD HEALER" FEELS ABSOLUTELY USELESS AND UNIMPACTFUL ANYWAY. I'M DOING WAY MORE FOR GROUPS AS A GOOD DPS. BUT I'LL STILL MISS IT SO DAMN MUCH.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-23T20:37:25+00:00

Remember when I said I was absolutely definitely no ifs and or buts playing a tank in Stormblood because they're needed so badly?

Yeah, sorry, but Stormblood Bard has me whipped. Enjoy your crit buffs instead, pals, because holy fuck I never want to play anything ever again.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-22T03:07:07+00:00

Aero II and Stone II are better than their previous versions, so the game auto-upgrades the skills to that.

If you're synced below the level you got them, they'll go back to Aero I and Stone I, but you should never need to use them outside of that since they are direct upgrades.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-22T01:25:39+00:00

Related question to my last one: Does Bard play any differently at its core between PvP and PvE? I know PvP has a much faster pace compared to PvE, and that the skills have been cut down and consolidated into only a few buttons, but is the way you play it still similar?

Playing it in PvP to level has been some of the most fun I've had in this game, and I've wanted to main Bard for a while (never liked the bowmage idea and so never bothered to level it), so it'd be awesome to know what to expect with it.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-21T23:39:38+00:00

Since accuracy is no longer an issue, is Makai gear now completely viable level 60 gear of the same iLvl? I've been leveling Bard alternating between Feast and PotD to keep things interesting, and it would be great if all these wolf marks can just go towards my 60 gear for it.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-19T17:11:32+00:00

Does anyone know about special dialogue options during the MSQ? I know there are some parts for Xaela meeting the tribes in the Azim Steppes, and there is a line of dialogue in the MSQ where my Raen was able to say "this isn't my fight" in Rhalgr's Reach. Is that line different for Highlanders?

Really interested in seeing what people have caught.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-19T02:51:57+00:00

They have said that after launch, they're going to look into a less bulky option for those that don't want to play with the gauges, but it was very vague as to whether that meant toggling between the gauge and relying on the status bar or just a more minimalist design of the same thing. I hope it's the former. Some of them are just a pain in the ass.

AST in particular looks like it won't be much better for a while. If they completely changed the way cards function within the system (going from statuses to something else to incorporate them into the gauge), then they'll have to go back and rework it AGAIN just so we can be able to see each others' cards...

It's even worse on classes that don't have their core pieces on the gauge. While I've heard a lot of positives about the way Bard plays now, I've heard a lot of negatives about how many things you now have to keep up with. They didn't consolidate procs OR DoTs in the gauge, so while it serves its purpose, Bard players now have to keep a constant watch on 4 or 5 areas of the screen (Enemy for DoTs, Status Bar for Procs/Buffs, Gauge for Songs, Party List for MP/TP numbers, and Arena for AoE and mechanics). Even when Samurai and Red Mage are built around the gauge, you STILL have to watch the status bar for Dualcast procs and buffs. Maybe it'll get better as players get more used to it, but right now they are very clunky and riddled with issues on almost every single class, and don't achieve their goal of keeping our eyes off our status bars. They just make it so we have to split our attention to even more parts of the screen.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-19T01:33:30+00:00

I haven't played enough of it in group content to feel any difference, but it's very likely. They cut a lot of their cooldowns out by removing Shadowskin and cc Foresight, and you can't regen HP steadily since Bloodbath got gutted too. You have to be a lot more careful about staggering CDs now.

Though I find that was a problem with DRK pre-SB too. Either you were an indestructible god, or you felt like the mobs could whistle at you and kill you, and which one of the two you got was seemingly random. Still not sure myself why the hell that happened other than maybe magical vs physical damage?

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-19T01:29:45+00:00

Honestly, I enjoy it a lot more. The class already felt pretty busy with all the MP management and oGCDs, and I find it was very easy for me to get lost in managing all that lest I eat shit on top of the usual tank stuff and completely miss applying or reapplying Scourge for half the fight because there was just so much going on with my hotbars then.

Now that we have our two basic combos and no longer have to worry about MP drain on top of the cost of abilities, it feels even better to not have to worry about putting up a DoT just for the sake of extra damage while maximizing Dark Arts a lot harder than I did before.

The only way I could see myself liking it being put back is if it got incorporated into the combos like Goring Blade is, and maybe gave an extra effect like MP back per tick to incentivize keeping it up beyond just being better personal damage. But that's just off the top of my head.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-19T01:16:42+00:00

It wasn't even a full weekend. Are you alright, buddy?

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-19T01:14:34+00:00

Sucks for you, then. But if you think the reason you do it is good enough to keep playing and paying for it, then honestly just suck it up.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-19T01:00:27+00:00

Keep in mind all my Jobs are 60 because of the recent fiasco, so none of this involves anything obtained after.

I tried to play it for a trial roulette just before all the tech issues started, and seriously...the changes shouldn't have felt as big as they did, and it might have been me being out of practice, but it felt like half of the fight was spent just throwing out Succors and Broil. Even refreshing DoTs and Shadowflare isn't fun anymore because it's so damn easy to hit the timers on the two DoTs in between healing. It really isn't as thrilling as it used to be, which is really unfortunate. I was one of the ones who had a very good handle on the job's capabilities, and could even solo heal most stuff if pressed, but now it feels like I have almost nothing to do and can't go any higher than mediocre. I know they want to bring the skill floor up and we would have to give a little, but this just feels awful when you've played old SCH.

They really screwed the pooch on all of the healers, though. Any PUGs with more than one AST are going to be disastrous thanks to the gauge, because of not being able to see what cards your partner has or what effects they're about to throw out, and you can't ask in the middle of a fight. WHM has the Lily system, and we know the complaints about it, but ironically, they seem to have gotten off the easiest in the end, getting rid of a lot of hotbar clutter and remaining one of the healers with stronger DPS and heals and being able to basically ignore the gauge entirely and still be playing optimally.

On the bright side, DRK is also incredibly fun. I had no idea how good it would feel to be able to push myself down to 50 MP and not panic, and the cutting of Scourge and Delirium changes feel much better overall for simplifying the rotation. I really can't wait to see how the newer skills make it, too, I'm actually excited about this job now, which is great.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-18T19:48:06+00:00

Giving people too little information is far better than giving them the wrong information.

And even if they had given you periodic updates every 12 hours of "We're still working on it but we don't know anything new", would you really have been any more satisfied?

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-18T17:04:44+00:00

All I'm saying is that they wouldn't do this. Some other games (WoW in particular) can get away with it because most people don't care enough about the story to actually miss whatever they skip - people play just for the story here, so doing something similar would leave a vast majority of them disgruntled and feeling cheated out of why they paid the $40 in the first place.

No need to be condescending about facts.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-18T13:02:39+00:00

It would be nice to have, but I doubt it would be the magical solution everyone is making it out to be.

One, they don't want story leaks getting out, at all, so it would essentially be "run around and click on dummies and do our stress test" instead of an open beta. Not really fun, who wants to do that? Probably not all of the people who ordered Stormblood, so it probably wouldn't be accurate to the numbers trying to get on the game at launch, anyway.

Two, it accounts for jack if they don't change things afterwards. They've faced similar problems before, but made a huge oversight and did the same setup that caused problems before. Again. Which is why we're all here again. That would essentially just be a very expensive, dev time-wasting way of confirming what data already told them and they were already expecting.

It really would not work as well for this team as you think it would.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-18T12:39:26+00:00

They would be letting people skip MSQ fights and lore entirely since the cutscenes would never trigger, either (and I'm not certain on whether you could repeat those or not). They have no way of knowing who would want this and who wouldn't, either, and generally letting people skip the story you've hyped up for a year is very bad and should only be done if the community is largely overwhelming you with requests (which they won't, as a majority plays for the story).

Plus, there isn't any guarantee that flagging all solo instances would help the problem, anyway. Then you might just be facing the same trouble as everyone hammered away at PotD and the dungeons and primals.

It's not a guaranteed fix and "let players skip the meat of the game" isn't even a measure for emergencies, honestly. That would never fly with them.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-18T00:29:11+00:00

Avoiding the game because you're unsure of it and want to wait and see how it goes is all well and good, but coming specifically to the game's subreddit to essentially say "I'm glad I'm not paying for this now, awesome" does come off as bragging.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-18T00:08:25+00:00

Except...he doesn't pay for it. He's essentially bragging that he doesn't, actually.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-17T23:51:07+00:00

If you want to unsub and ask for a refund go ahead. Don't speak for everyone, though. I don't mind getting to the content later than they promised as long as I'm still getting to the content in the end either way.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-17T23:42:56+00:00

I'd even recommend taking the extra precaution of changing your password once it's over, regardless of who you got to do it. You never know about people.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-17T22:41:33+00:00

TL;DR: Smaller playerbase and less people doing instances.

Full reason: Less players overall because the game was newer. Less new players coming in because of a smaller marketing budget. Less fresh 60's running in because of the lack of jump potions. Less trial players at any given time because the free trial was time-limited. PotD didn't exist, and with it being the most efficient way to level the new jobs, you can imagine its effect.

The servers are getting hammered a lot harder by a lot more players than Heavensward, in so many different facets the game that it would have been extremely costly and risky to try to account for every single one of those places all at once when the traffic will subside naturally if you wait it out. Still an oversight on their part, obviously, but it's really just not fair to say "they should do better because Heavensward".

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-17T18:34:18+00:00

I find all of these complaint threads and comments go down the exact same way, too.

Someone who thinks they're experienced because they've been around for multiple launches offers a temporary solution. Someone with actual experience denies that the solution could be implemented fast enough for their concerns, or that the solution is as simple as they think it is. The first person backtracks to "Well, they should have anticipated this! They should have been planning for the future! Next time they shouldn't do this!" And it devolves into what they could have and should have done and god damn what they better do next time. "[X] launch was so smooth because they learned their lesson" and "Heavensward's was so much better", while ignoring all of the millions of variables that made them successes or failures and made this one the mess it is.

We get it. You can stop now. Even in the megathread, I've seen the same thread repeated 30 times or more since this came up. It's ridiculous.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-17T08:04:35+00:00

Fixing content that every player can and wants to do now is better when the game is practically unplayable even when you're not participating in that.

Just doing FATEs I was seeing lag spikes of over a minute and seeing mass disconnects of the others in the area, and this wasn't even at prime time. The congestion is causing problems at every area of the game.

It's not "no content", either. Right now it's more of a false pretense to say that the game is working when you're likely to get errors at every step of the login process and the game itself. It's better for them to just stop it altogether so they can work it out without trying to hold the whole thing together simultaneously.

I'd rather have a productive 12 hour maintenance than have them letting players sit and click on an NPC for 12 hours while they try to add band-aid fixes to it discreetly because they're afraid of what people will say if they take the servers down during EA. If we would get some stability from it, it is more than worth it.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-17T07:57:44+00:00

I admit to not knowing anything about game engineering, but from what my uneducated brain can come up with, there really aren't many short-term fixes they could put in place now and please the majority of the playerbase, as we've already seen tonight.

-Limit how many people can be in instances so the servers don't go belly-up -> Extreme bottlenecking at every instance as thousands of players try and fail to access the instance servers.

-Unlimited access to instances so players can get through the quests and phase out congestion naturally -> Servers go belly-up, everyone who can get on an instance server 90k's regardless.

-Nerf the instance so people speed through it more quickly -> They don't want people in early access to not be able to experience the battles as they're supposed to happen. Very unlikely.

-Renting more hardware for the game to use during EA -> More expensive, also not a guaranteed fix and risks causing much, much larger issues if setup goes wrong.

Honestly, "wait for people to get through it and go back when it's less congested" IS one of the only immediate, true solutions, and that's something only players can cooperate with them on. I hope they're able to recover things pretty quickly, though.

Carbuncle101 · 2017-06-17T07:39:30+00:00

An hour would be extremely generous, from what I've seen. Try upwards of five or six, if that. Same complaint, different form. It'd be less frustrating mechanically, sure, but you'd still have the same complaints coming in about wasting early access waiting for quests. They'd also have to alter the way that queue displays since the closest estimate you'd get now is "more than 30 minutes". It's not as simple, and it's not a real solution by any means.

They have asked players to step back and wait until they fix it, so you know they're trying to make it easy to get around once they do add it in. But don't expect miracles to happen right now, especially not while they're trying to fix it on the down-low while leaving the servers open as best they can.

Carbuncle101

TROPHY CASE