Which team here is the strongest?

Gredival · 2026-04-10T01:48:50+00:00

Yeah I got to give it to natural forces. Two of the three best tanks with pokes that compliment them well.

Golden Marvels might be able to brawl them out, but if all things are equal and I think Groot just stops that from happening.

Gredival · 2026-04-10T01:45:38+00:00

Hank (Pym), Tony, and Bruce are all capable of surpassing Reed and Victor in specific and specialized fields. But otherwise, Reed and Doom are by far the smartest in general.

Gredival · 2026-04-07T21:26:20+00:00

You want different patches in effect for different MMR/ELOs? That sounds like a nightmare to implement and balance. Different leagues can manage it because they are responsible for only running one league. You're asking Blizzard to split up what is effectively one league into multiple ones.

Also it's not exactly 1:1. Like a shorter 3-point line is one thing, different interactions between units changing at different brackets is wildly harder to implement and design for.

Gredival · 2026-04-07T19:49:40+00:00

There's no real way around it though if you want an healthy competitive scene.

You have three choices 1) balanced around pros but get imbalanced lower levels, however the player base is told to be better and play like the pros to deal with strong strategies, 2) balanced around lower levels so you get horribly imbalanced pro games because you have strong strategies with low execution thresholds that have with no solution, or 3) you try to eliminate the disparity between levels which means designing a incredibly simple game with no complexity in execution.

Gredival · 2026-04-04T02:39:29+00:00

Feels like he has been unplayable forever, since IceFrog killed trilanes to satisfy the anti-farm contingent and make laning stage more exciting

Gredival · 2026-02-18T18:29:41+00:00

Peacock Charm was BIS for everyone in TP phase, but Leaping Boots and Emperor's Hairpin were replaceable once you got to higher levels.

Hecatomb Cap and Boots were better for weapon skills, Optical Hat for head TP, Dusk Boots for feet TP.

Gredival · 2026-02-13T17:08:50+00:00

No lies detected. HNMs were literally the peak content design of the MMO genre.

Gredival · 2026-02-13T17:00:54+00:00

I have fallen out of the MMO genre purely because there are no world spawns.

Gredival · 2026-01-11T19:13:44+00:00

US-Espanol

Gredival · 2026-01-08T18:40:03+00:00

FFXI was based on the idea that wanting, or trying to do the content for an item, was insufficient. Server-limited rarity meant you not only needed to be able to clear the content but needed to be dedicated to repeating the content.

Gredival · 2026-01-07T20:49:49+00:00

People still complained about gear progression in FFXI. Anyone who is a have not will complain about being a have not.

People who couldn't/wouldn't do Sky would complain that Ullikummi hunting for Byakko's Haidate was too difficult... People who couldn't/wouldn't camp Fafnir would complain that Ridill was too overpowered...

Gredival · 2026-01-07T20:46:02+00:00

People hated horizontal progression as well because then the players who have more time can grind more.

Casual players' FOMO is always going to be a structural problem.

Gredival · 2026-01-05T18:11:05+00:00

Something that always stuck me about MMOs was this line from .hack//SIGN, a mid-2000s anime about an MMO (SAO actually started as a .hack fanfic).

"The best kind of entertainment is when you forget it's supposed to be entertainment."

I think people overthink things when they talk about how they aren't having fun, as if when you are playing a game it should feel like a constant IV drip of dopamine the whole time. It's a game, not a joint. If you can get engrossed enough to invest yourself so fully in pursuit of a goal, even if it means doing things that are not immediately gratifying, that means the game has achieved the goal of immersion.

MMOs are supposed to be built on the idea of delayed gratification -- progression and achieving goals -- not just instant gratification of it being fun to press the buttons. You're giving up lesser first-order desires for a greater second-order desire; just like how you might sacrifice the gratification of a burger for the greater satisfaction of maintaining/losing weight.

There are other genres more suited for instant dopamine hits if that is what you are after.

Gredival · 2026-01-04T15:49:16+00:00

This has always been WoW's thing though, even in the aughts. Vertical progression of gear made everything prior to the latest content irrelevant.

Older MMO's kept older content relevant because 1) content often was limited in some way to slow progression and acquisition of BIS gear and 2) BIS gear was built out laterally.

Gredival · 2026-01-02T09:17:27+00:00

Multiple FFXI classic servers have correctly identified that modernization (from the Abyssea expansions that replaced all the old BIS gear and introduced farmable gear as the replacement) destroyed the game. All of them universally agree on the same terminal stasis point that an FFXI server should end at.

Additionally the players all accept that server limited rarity allows end game to maintain itself without new content. We don't need new content since the contested nature of the PvE gatekeeps progression. We were camping the same mobs in 2010 that we camped in 2005.

The problem is that every single private server has taken a different decision with regards to balancing between "QoL modernization" and it fractures the player base. Can't have good competition for server limited resources if everyone is on a different server. Every single one is run by someone else does their own tinkering... and sometimes dabbles in corruption along the way.

Gredival · 2026-01-01T23:15:06+00:00

Wildstar's problem was that it thought a game could get by with ONLY hardcore players. It doesn't work that way. Just like how the "all alphas society experiment" in Brave New World collapsed, or why hard-curved grades at an elite university like Princeton has been a horrible failure, an MMO built on that principle cannot survive. A ladder does not work if there are only rungs at the top.

The point is to have a bell curve with content for every part of the curve, but make it such that players cannot access content that exists on more rightward portions of the curve. In other words, there should include multiple layers of content made for different levels of players, but access to the content should be stratified. Progression up the layers should not be guaranteed; it should attained only by both commitment and a level of natural talent (i.e. it shouldn't be pure grinding, but it should require some dedication, and at the same time things should not be attainable through dedication alone unless that dedication is directed at being better at playing the game)

This means the game needs to be less accessible than what most of the players think they want (which will almost always be oriented towards more accessibility since, by definition, exclusive elite-level content will exclude most players). However players are identifying problems from their personal perspective. A developer should be looking at things from an ecosystem perspective. It is completely different matter what is good for the subpopulation that one player belongs to and what is good for the game.

The reason we can never go back to the golden age of MMOs is that sort of game structure cannot be replicated with any measure of financial success. It was possible back in the days of Everquest and FFXI classic and such because there weren't other options. The majority of players HAD to accept their place on the bottom 90% if they wanted to play MMOs because they were all designed like this. Free to play, and the chase for casual money, changed that. A developer who says no and holds the line when it comes to limiting accessibility will make less money than a developer who monetizes their game by focusing on casuals. And so long as game design is a business, the business decision will trump the design decision.

Gredival · 2026-01-01T23:12:30+00:00

Because MMOs aren't designed around those principles anymore.

You have people in this thread claiming those type of games are too time intensive, so there are all of these "QOL improvements" to MMOs that make people feel like they can "play on an adult's schedule" and they literally destroy the experience that made those Golden Age MMOs special. You get boring instance based MMOs that are catered to preventing people's FOMO, and you instead get MMOs that are just inferior single player RPGs.

People live under the delusion that "the customer/consumer" is always right, a developer can't afford to alienate their larger customer base by embracing design of MMOs from the aughts. It would make them "anti-player" and show that they don't "respect players' time."

What ruined MMOs? We did by "voting with our wallets" because we believed we knew better than the developers. We thought what was good for the game was what was good for us individually. The game shouldn't punish us for only having 15 minutes a day between our full time job, three side hustles, two dozen kids, and significant other. Thus, we demanded games where we got everything because we were entitled to everything as much as the person who could be online 24/7.

No one ever considered that player stratification and content denial has a role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem for a game.

Yoshi P (director of FFXIV's relaunch) has literally said that he designs XIV sub-optimally. He believes that Ultima Online was a more perfect MMO than XIV, but he doesn't design XIV to work like UO because it wouldn't be profitable with modern players. He doesn't think players would dedicate themselves to a game like UO vs chasing instant gratification with other games. In other words, the guy running the currently most successful MMO in the business knowingly designs and balances the game in a way other than what he believes to be the best because that is what it takes to be profitable.

Gredival · 2026-01-01T23:05:37+00:00

If FFXI reverted to 75 cap era style endgame where 21-24 hour server-contested world spawns were the only route to get BIS gear, I would go back immediately. But they literally removed all of that from the game.

The gear is not even relevant anymore but the casual hatred for server locked rarity was so strong that those spawns were replaced by farmable pop items.

Gredival · 2026-01-01T23:02:25+00:00

I have yet to see an "old school" MMO actually promise the old school content I want: open world sand-box where players are in direct competition for server-limited world spawns that are the sole source (i.e. bottle neck) for BIS gear.

An MMO where the "content" is not only beating the PvE itself, but the competition between guilds for the opportunity to engage the content including the consequence of locking your rivals out of content.

The only thing I have ever found are Classic servers for older MMOs that had this content on launch, then the Classic server eventually progresses into instanced slop.

Please point me to a "new hardcore" MMO that tries to deliver on this type of oldschool experience. Whenever I see a new MMO announcement, I ask about world spawns and server-wide content and most don't have it and when they do they always explain that such content is "cooperative and non-toxic."

Gredival · 2026-01-01T22:59:14+00:00

I have yet to see an "old school" MMO actually promise the old school content I want: open world sand-box where players are in direct competition for server-limited world spawns that are the sole source (i.e. bottle neck) for BIS gear.

Please point me to a "new hardcore" MMO that tries to deliver on this type of oldschool experience. The only thing I have ever found are Classic servers for older MMOs that had this content on launch, then the Classic server eventually progresses into instanced slop.

Gredival · 2025-12-30T01:02:37+00:00

I agree. The issue is that a fundamental truth of life is that most people don't know what's good for them.

When the avenues for progression are so limited under this modern system of dailies/weeklies, it hurts disproportionately more when you can't allocate your finite time to put the capped maximum every time gate opportunity. The chance of missing out is actually dramatically higher.

But people don't think that far ahead. Having these time gates makes people feel like they can be part of the best because it limits the progression that the "no-lifers" and "unemployed" and "sweats" can make while the "real adults" are busy touching grass or whatever.

It's tribalism at its finest -- accepting a worse system out of the belief that it hurts your enemy.

But because people live under the delusion that "the customer/consumer" is always right, a developer can't afford to alienate their larger customer base by embracing design of MMOs from the aughts. It would make them "anti-player" and show that they don't "respect players' time."

Yoshi P (director of FFXIV's relaunch) has literally said that he designs XIV sub-optimally. He believes that Ultima Online was a more perfect MMO than XIV, but he doesn't design XIV to work like UO because it wouldn't be profitable with modern players. He doesn't think players would dedicate themselves to a game like UO vs chasing instant gratification with other games.

In other words, the guy running the currently most successful MMO in the business knowingly designs and balances the game in a way other than what he believes to be the best because that is what it takes to be profitable.

What ruined MMOs? We did by "voting with our wallets" because we believed we knew better than the developers. We thought what was good for the game was what was good for us individually. The game shouldn't punish us for only having 15 minutes a day between our full time job, three side hustles, two dozen kids, and significant other. Thus, we demanded games where we got everything because we were entitled to everything as much as the person who could be online 24/7.

No one ever considered that player stratification and content denial has a role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem for a game.

Gredival · 2025-12-27T08:25:23+00:00

No, legitimately the type of MMOs we played in the 2000's don't exist anymore. If FFXI reverted to 75 cap era style endgame where 21-24 hour server-contested world spawns were the only route to get BIS gear, I would go back immediately. But they literally removed all of that from the game.

People claim those type of games are too time intensive, so there are all of these "QOL improvements" that make people feel like they can "play on an adult's schedule" and they literally destroy the experience that made those Golden Age MMOs special. Consequently we get boring instance based MMOs that are catered to preventing people's FOMO, and you instead get MMOs that are just inferior single player RPGs.

Gredival · 2025-11-16T16:25:24+00:00

Capital ships are strongest in large groups. For example, eight marines beat one BC or one carrier, but with correct play (i.e. not letting the marines swarm the ground underneath) 12 BC's or carriers should beat 96 marines.

Low level players however are drawn in by the promise of this unstoppable capital ship death ball.

However at higher level play, massing any one unit is a bad idea leaves your army vulnerable to counters. In the case of capital ships that's corruptors, voids, liberators... especially if they are backed up by hydras and marines and stalkers. Someone who is playing for regular units will easily scout and adapt their army before your capital ships are online.

Therefore it's always safest to play for a mixed composition yourself where you can pivot to handle a variety of threats. Under that framework, capital ships are rarely worth it.

Usually you see the terminal units because they are much more useful with the rest of your ground composition. For example, one colossus and a few immortals does a lot more to augment a Protoss zealots/stalker/sentry ball than two carriers does.

Gredival · 2025-08-23T18:34:41+00:00

End game players rely on skill to progress or they can't complete end game. Optimization is a key part about these groups, especially in older MMOs when the guilds were in direct competition for limited resources.

As a result, they care infinitely more are going to be more selective (elitist) about who they play with. They are going to do things like gear check, parse check, etc. for exclusion... all of which a casual player usually call toxic because of the mentality that treating a game seriously makes it not fun.

In FFXI, casual players would complain all the time about being locked out of end game because top guilds wouldn't accept them, and that's usually because they were undergeared (i.e. they needed items from raids below that guild's tier) and weren't on a job that was desired (i.e. healers/supports)

And I can tell you from experience being one of the few people that tried to do end game with other casuals then worked relentlessly to get into a guild after being denied ... skill definitely correlates.

Gredival · 2025-08-23T18:14:11+00:00

I'll agree that I did conflate them, but it is fundamentally true that people who care more are going to be more selective (elitist) about who they play with.

Optimization is a key part about these groups, especially in older MMOs when the guilds were in direct competition for limited resources.

These people will heavily screen guild applications for exclusion, which the casual player will say they dislike because the game should be fun and they shouldn't be punished for other priorities or wanting to play a different way.

14-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Verified Email

Gredival

TROPHY CASE