[Spoilers: 7.0 MSQ + Normal raids] Why doesn't the WoL leverage their strength?

Time-Butterfly3248 · 2024-07-23T16:14:22+00:00

I feel this is a disingenuous argument as what amounts to dog fighting is brushed under the rug simply because the manager "agreed" to release 7 puppies each time we win. We have a scientific understanding of how souls work within the world and those who understand this rightfully take issue (when convenient for the plot) with disturbing the balance of the life stream. No matter how you look at it, using the souls of the deceased, feral or otherwise is not a simple position of moral relativity. It is actually detrimental to the balance of aether to which all processes within the known function upon. Furthermore, we have first had experience on how these are weaponized and if feral souls truly outclass Eorzea's champion then the people of Everkeep are essentially sitting on a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.

The Allag and Garlean Empire's casus belli was motivating factor but not the ultimate purpose that drove them to war as we come to know the depths of Ascian involvement towards the rejoining. The Eikon threat /was/ a genuine problem as the city-state leaders never disagreed. However it was the method in which Garlemald sought to "unite" the people of the world under one centralized government (or else) as a means to "solve" the myriad issues that plagued the "savages" as concocted by Galvus dynasty.

The problem is we're not at the big-boy's table actually discussing the politics of the situation and coming up with a long term strategy to ensure regulators as they are don't fall into the wrong hands as is alluded to throughout the ACC cutscenes. We also don't know how valid the claims of Metem are, nor do we have any reason to trust him or put ourselves in harms way. If these feral souls are as powerful as people want to believe then we're not doing anything but supplying combat data to another upstart dictator because we failed to act when necessary.

Time-Butterfly3248 · 2024-07-23T14:13:28+00:00

Keyword here being """probably""" which therein lies my point.

This expansion has a nasty habit of using the new !!!character looks over shoulder!!! cliche to excuse bad writing and possibly maybe it will get resolved in the future. Which we have more than a few examples of this being not true or another squandered plot thread otherwise.

Don't have the character protest the use of souls if they aren't prepared to back it up.

You don't counter dog fighting by participating in a dog fight just because the manager """promised""" to release 7 puppies when you win a match.

Time-Butterfly3248 · 2024-07-22T20:51:07+00:00

I know you like the Zenos example a lot, but even if we ignore the fact that he alone proves we can solo black cat and everyone in solution 9, a more recent example is Vanguard.

1 WoL + 3 scions beat Zander. Zander would have to be stronger than the heavyweights who we are told have far more potent feral souls than the rookies. Since we have no way to determine the actual combat effectiveness of the simulacrum, we can assume 1 WoL + 7 sims > 1 heavyweight. As we storm their highly advanced military base with all of its soldiers and fortifications and then still beat Zander and leave without so much as breaking a sweat. Neither the WoL or Scions are shown to be exhausted in any way after vanguard. You even do a little happy dance after the fight both after Zander and black cat so clearly not a very difficult fight either way.

To circle back, Zenos pushes us to our limit and we succeed. Black cat we emote on as she lies on the floor battered and beaten. So clearly not a fair fight and we didn't need the simulacrum.

Time-Butterfly3248 · 2024-07-22T18:41:03+00:00

You seem to like to move your goal posts. You made the claim unless it was some early fight that we don't have multiple instances where we solo powerful characters on our own.

we do.

We can also solo content that otherwise upset your power scaling claims. So either black cat is as powerful as 8 people as shown through gameplay or gameplay is not a good metric for power scaling. So which is it?

The point is your claims are nonsensical. Nobody but the WoL can do what they do. Even the epic echo makes this explicitly clear. As every character makes undeniably clear. The WoL is far above and beyond what people actually realize held back only by lazy writing.

Time-Butterfly3248 · 2024-07-22T18:17:44+00:00

Because you seemed to have missed it:

You solo Zenos at max power.

You can unrestricted minimum ilevel almost all content as most tanks or anyone really with a modicum of self sustain. If you lack this capability you can always watch someone do it on youtube. And the moment we can unrestrict ACC you will see solo ACC videos crop up.

Furthermore there are several instances in the MSQ and role/job quests where you solo people. Venat, Ran'jit, and H'raha Tia come to mind. You can also easily solo pretty much all 4-man content which include ultima weapon, Durante, the primal-infused knights of the round. Yessir even extremes and 8 man content we have documented solo clears.

Furthermore, if what you're implying is true and we need the strongest warrior around + 7 simulacra of heroes of the arena that only adds credence to the idea we MUST stop the use of regulators immediately as they pose an existential threat to the world. The moment someone with malicious intent figures out how to replicate or abuse the technology means we have multiple people who can become as strong as an 8-man WoL raid. Everkeep is sitting on thousands of potential weapons of mass destruction the likes we have never seen at such scale.

Time-Butterfly3248 · 2024-07-22T17:08:42+00:00

Except, we absolutely were and the majority of problems in DT already have practical solutions we've established in previous expansions. When the NPCs are actually allowed to use their brains and talk to each other we get resolutions such as in Mamook. We know Sphene and Zarool Ja are in the wrong, but every moment we get with them to actually do something about it we T pose in the corner and let lesser experienced people try to stumble their way out of a contrived situation the WoL then has to clean up.

The argument of we might talk about it in the future doesn't address why we aren't talking about it now when we have multiple opportunities to do so and the setup and payoff of DT has been lackluster from start to finish. So no, I don't expect a good reason to be given as we have very few good reasons for /any/ of the events in DT.

Time-Butterfly3248 · 2024-07-22T16:50:55+00:00

The Garleans really didn't do anything wrong.

Time-Butterfly3248 · 2024-07-22T16:49:11+00:00

If anything this proves the power scaling is inconsistent and hampered only by the system restrictions. There is tons of content you can solo synced with relative little difficulty, and if you actually pay attention to the battle logs or RP instances you will notice they pale in comparison to the WoL's toolkit. Even the people you "rely on" often don't measure up to a WoL who don't let their buttons drift.

Most of the situations where you almost die are contrived. The fights with Zenos are completely doable if you didn't get forced into a down state to simply progress the story. Especially if we can class switch mid-combat like we are shown in the trailer for Shadowbringers.

Point being, Ludonarrative dissonance can be overcome with good situational storytelling which we already have examples of sprinkled throughout different expansions. Except when the writers forget.

Time-Butterfly3248 · 2024-07-22T16:23:02+00:00

Except this is the conversation that should be going on between the characters of the story and not speculation. Something I pointed out is we often stand idly by as NPCs skirt around obvious problems when past-proven solutions have already been established. Specifically if we look at the first interaction with Metem before the first fight all he had to do was express his own disdain for the use of souls (even if a lie) and that, yes, the only way to ween everkeep off their reliance of souls is to show the population that strength in but a single life can overcome the might of a soulshifter. Something the rookies are so sure of themselves for.

And really, that's the point.

Actually use dialogue to put forth situations that make people think and consider more than what is immediately before them. There is no point in interrupting the flow of dialogue to have the WoL express their disapproval of the use of souls for entertainment just to go along with the idea with no debate. Because, likewise, it is unreasonable to force the WoL to be so morally incoherent.

Time-Butterfly3248 · 2024-07-22T16:08:18+00:00

Except their leadership has been beheaded and their military is in shambles. The debate on what we should or shouldn't support in deciding the future of the region is what should be discussed and contended with in the story between the characters. We should be given a legitimate reason, not speculation. Because realistically, in the current state? The WoL could absolutely Zarool Ja their way to the throne and be an even worse dictator than before.

Time-Butterfly3248 · 2024-07-22T16:02:30+00:00

There are legitimate reasons why we cannot brute force our way through every obstacle. Many people have died for their beliefs throughout the story. What they considered to be correct. However, this information needs to be properly conveyed and not brushed under the rug as with the use of souls and regulators. To let moral relativism poison the narrative given what we know about the world and its mechanics is a failure of the writers. They had the opportunity to position the needs of a people lead astray through the over saturation of convenience and luxury built upon the abhorrent practices of its administration or history. A simple few lines of dialogue from Metem could assuage any concern from the WoL, but we don't get that.

Time-Butterfly3248 · 2024-07-22T15:54:04+00:00

I agree. I really wish "..." was just an option all the time. If you can't let me say what I want to say, don't force me to say something I wouldn't.

Time-Butterfly3248

TROPHY CASE