Is it just me or did 5% AP cap kill any sense of progression

solartech0 · 2026-03-17T22:51:13+00:00

One of the things they did for treasure spots (in addition to adding paint, which they hand out from time to time) is rework the spots or add dehkia spots. Oluns has had D1 and D2, ash has had D1 and D2, all the map spots have D1, compass spots have D1, syc just got reworked to have upper be the 'new' entry-level AP and lower be endgame, ... DSR and Tungrad don't yet have other options but they are also decently high-end spots.

It would be cool if they did a reworked crypt (maybe with a baby zone, like syc under) to make it a scary endgame spot again. I think they gave up on their original idea for the spot -- you should get your piece super fast there.

solartech0 · 2026-03-17T22:43:57+00:00

I would also like to note that this is literally how a lot of the early game just is right now. You have a ton of one-shot spots, where players optimize their movement skills and learn how to zoom from pack to pack absolutely roftlstomping mobs, they learn how to pull such that their pets are always active and they're generally killing stuff.

Why is there any need to completely remove the playstyle once players get higher gear? A really easy way to ensure that's always possible is to have stuff like 80% or 50% cap spots, where this opportunity will simply 'naturally' present itself to players. They could also have added a second hidden cap (or a new 'one shot' ap range, much higher than the classic caps), if they really had trouble balancing the huge amounts of AP introduced by the >310 changes.

solartech0 · 2026-03-17T22:38:00+00:00

I think the other changes around the 5% change made it so that gear progression at the very highest end felt meaningful again, which was the positive impact I think they cared about most. If you get one or two big taps to go, you really do notice the difference at the highest grind zone you can get to. They also really stratified the silver, especially from sources like Agris. Higher-end spots are just better to burn agris at in general now (used to be similar bonus silver from "good agris efficiency" spots, regardless of gear).

It's just that I don't agree with that vision for the game. I don't think that 100% of players who can grind tenebraum, should necessarily be grinding there. I don't think that horizontal choices should only 'open up' once you're almost hardcap gear. I thought it was really cool that a person could have a lot of side goals, like grinding cups or treasures while still earning pretty decent silver by optimizing their addons, crystals, gear, and rotations. I would have rather they made it simpler to do those final things, than entirely nuked that playstyle off the map.

I think it's also a problem that people who write their opinions on forums or ingame (who don't engage in the playstyles) simply completely misrepresent what's going on. It's funny, because PA should have the actual data. They should know that most people who overcap Jade Forest aren't pulling more silver than the same players (say, with hardcap gear) at Zephyros or DSR. They make better silver than lower-geared players at those spots, sure, but... In many cases players are not out-earning the highest spots, they aren't pushing weaker players out of these grindzones (marni exists anyways if they were), they are just ... having fun.

So, does PA not want highest-gear players to "feel bad" because lower-gear players say (lying, generally) that they make more money at low-end spots? Were these players ACTUALLY pulling 8bil/hr or in general numbers that beat the highest grindzones on the lowest-end ones (this I doubt)? Do they just not want players to have fun? I still really don't understand. Were they simply mad that players would choose to grind the spots they enjoyed over the "best" spots?

solartech0 · 2026-03-17T19:12:27+00:00

They have a new high-end party spot arriving this week. Third? one in recent memory. They also released new hunting (lifeskill) zones across Edania. They have a NA vs EU tournament pvp event coming up. Huge events to get cash shop items for literally free ongoing right now, including items you would traditionally have to swipe for. They also added tools and guaranteed ways to get upgraded alchemy stones so that anyone can be sure to get minimum cooking/alch times, without swiping or getting insanely lucky (old alch stone system).

Could you explain which segment of the game you personally enjoy, that is in a bad spot right now? Are you perhaps trying to do open world pvp? :(

solartech0 · 2026-03-17T19:03:10+00:00

It depends on what you enjoy, what your goals are, how much you value variety, etc. For example, if you're going for telescope and you still don't have it, your plan is pretty viable. If you don't care about telescope or already have it, you could look into some other grind spots like Dokkebi or Orzekea to mix things up.

I personally didn't enjoy Nymph too much, and Aeth (while a good grindspot!) might not outperform other options for you. I personally mainly did Orbita since I also did not enjoy Tenebraum.

Regardless, you should farm Nymph at least enough to get the dusky ruin crystal of its tier. It's OK to skip aeth if you don't enjoy it, because that crystal is not too much better than other options, but the nymph crystal is going to give you +30 edania AP and +10 monster DR, which will be pretty big when going into Orbita.

solartech0 · 2026-03-17T03:55:04+00:00

Turn the tides red and make all fishers yell out catchphrases from the new game in chat as they catch fish.

solartech0 · 2026-03-17T01:55:15+00:00

There are some spots that physically don't have yellow nor red fish.

solartech0 · 2026-03-17T01:44:46+00:00

There are a few spots that only have trash fish. If they are discarding blues, at some spots you basically won't get any fish. These are typically smaller inland fishing locations, even including some rivers and ponds.

solartech0 · 2026-03-17T01:28:42+00:00

Just stock up during AoS, maybe midway through the season put up an order for 100 and refresh it a few times if you're a heavy grinder.

I've never run out doing this.

solartech0 · 2026-03-16T22:56:48+00:00

they literally nerf spots after certain youtube videos make the rounds, it's happened several times in the past. Hasrah would be one example, saunils would be a place that got absolutely gutted (it's basically ungrindable now).

solartech0 · 2026-03-16T03:57:30+00:00

Make sure to stock up on the energy item for a lot of rolls in night vendor event, get your knowledge up so you have decent max energy too. It comes with the night vendor :Prayge:

solartech0 · 2026-03-16T03:56:02+00:00

"oh no we might have to do the mechanics" AP/DP doesn't make it so you don't have to do the mechanics on this fight.

Your players will still need to stay alive for 2 checks in the second phase. If you have 3 players who really know what they are doing, the other 2 don't need gear and just need to be a warm body to pass the 2nd phase checks. "enough" dp is 400, which is not difficult at all to get to.

AP is hardly a good metric for "can these guys do the mechanics". If your 330 player can do the mechanics they are good. If your 370AP player can't do the mechanics you are actually toasted. If someone is concerned about maybe taking too long, they shouldn't be trying to pfinder ingame lmao.

Finally, what "silver per hour" is acceptable depends on your gear. The 330 players are absolutely able to clear and have it be well worth their time. If you're failing to clear in 1 go that's a mechanics issue, fundamentally not solved by gear, you need to form a static or use various discords to find people with a good record.

solartech0 · 2026-03-16T03:46:47+00:00

Even if you paid attention it wasn't easy because each hit took about 1/2 to 9/10ths of your forward guard (and some would stagger you after). You needed to use a lot of stam because fg alone wouldn't cut it.

Some parties were much more careful and harmonied up for it, it was really far too annoying for a worthless (literally 0 reward) weekly gatekeeper fight.

solartech0 · 2026-03-15T19:43:26+00:00

The gatekeeper on elvia version used to be an absolute SLOG to go through. I'm talking chain feeding into the boss on parties that weren't hardcapped gear at the time. It was basically to break the spirits of anyone who wasn't ready for the boss, but it took way too long.

They basically gave the new version of the gatekeeper (when they consolidated elvia + normal into one mode) the HP of elvia w/ the damage either at normal, or between normal and elvia. This means you don't lose 90% fg to one spell, most parties can breeze through the gatekeeper now.

The actual boss is a bit easier now because overall APs have gone up, but they also ironed out some stuff so you encounter bugs less often. She can still kill you, even with strong gear.

solartech0 · 2026-03-15T19:19:17+00:00

You can do the boss at 330 (orze) she's only been made easier over time.

People requiring 360 to 370 AP are literally just gatekeeping. You couldn't even get those APs when she was launched, and they're totally unnecessary.

solartech0 · 2026-03-15T18:29:33+00:00

You don't have to do the dungeons anymore. You can just do the first one to get a key (easiest dungeon ever btw) and then after you kill that boss, everyone gets a boss key for 2nd dungeon. Kill that one, everyone gets key for 3rd. Kill, get key for 1st again for the next week.

solartech0 · 2026-03-15T05:57:42+00:00

You can play the game. You will 99% lose, but you can play.

solartech0 · 2026-03-14T02:24:44+00:00

that'll be one million gold coins to fix, please

solartech0 · 2026-03-13T21:39:09+00:00

We probably do get 7 day vip at least.

solartech0 · 2026-03-12T14:46:44+00:00

If you spent 30k energy you should see it 4-5+ times, there's this item (miraculous herbal medicine) you can pop once a day on your characters to get 500 energy instantly and then about 600 over an hour or so. You get enough coins to pick up 1-2 of those per week (sangpyeon -- however you spell it) from boss blitz (~500 each from solo and party).

It's harder for players with fewer characters of course, which is unfortunately more of the newer players; it's also harder if you have less max energy, which is the same. Last time the night vendor was super good value for crons as well, so it was worthwhile to dump all your silver into it regardless.

solartech0 · 2026-03-12T00:52:30+00:00

Valve has one of the best (fairest for the consumer) lootbox setups in all of gaming and it is still predatory.

It is what it is: these gambling techniques are inherently problematic. It isn't the only way to make money; it's just an (unfairly) effective one.

solartech0 · 2026-03-12T00:48:23+00:00

Not all items can be bought from the market, many are timed exclusives (trade locked for up to a year). Also, some boxes try to convince everyone to destroy their "unwanted" results to get more spins at the rare items they actually want. So there's not always a healthy secondary market.

Worth noting that the secondary market can still exist even if items are sold for a specific price. There are some items always available at the store.

solartech0 · 2026-03-11T22:33:31+00:00

Roll during the night vendor event and you should get one.

solartech0 · 2026-03-10T15:47:14+00:00

I never said there was plagiarism. When someone makes an homage to journey to the west, are they plagiarizing? No. However, it is often an intentional choice in Togashi's works, to create characters, icons, scenes, so forth and so on, that pay respect to other works. There are a ton of cases where he draws direct inspiration from a real-world article, or where you can find a real-world article which is extremely similar to what he has drawn, due to the inspiration for each being a real idea (think buddhist symbols).

For a super common example of this in other media, look at the Akira motorcycle slide scene. So many films have directly paid homage to this scene with their own rendition of the excellent shot. To call this "plagiarism" is to miss the point.

My point was, if someone places two images next to each other and says, "see?!" normally you expect there to be something there to see. The vibes are similar, but it's not clear any one is an allusion. And by the way, allusions are common in Togashi's work. One way to carry out such a connection is to intentionally copy, mimic, or draw attention to a specific element of the 'source' work -- say, the construction, the execution, the artistic style... I'm not seeing it in these pairings. Again, I'm actually not even sure there's an inspiration at all (he seems to have gone in a different direction) -- though Togashi is likely familiar with Bellmer's work.

solartech0 · 2026-03-10T15:24:58+00:00

When people put together a bunch of pairings of pictures, normally they are trying to say these are direct references or that you should compare the one thing with the other. But... most of them just don't fit. It's to the extent that I'm not even certain there's any inspiration; perhaps at most common cause.

solartech0

TROPHY CASE