Sounds a lot like the way it's been in WoW for years (or at least it was still that way last time I played). Or do you think this is different?First, I really don't remember exactly what WoW meta was when anymore, so I'm just going to compare FFXIV to the current meta.
In WoW, speed runs usually aim to skip trash, rather than engage. When you're skipping packs, you generally don't drag mobs along, because you don't want to accidentally engage. In FFXIV, trash is unskippable, for the most part.
WoW also has more trash than FFXIV. But the WoW trash generally has less health but hits harder. Also a WoW group has 3 dps instead of 2. Basically instead of a few large pulls, WoW tends toward many smaller pulls.
As well, packs in FFXIV have a lot of space between them, which I think makes the stop-and-start nature of gameplay more obvious. I think this lends itself to a good WoW group going through the dungeon at a steady pace. Not quite pulling multiple packs, but chaining from pack to pack quicker.
Another possibility is that WoW seems to be segregating the player base by ability this expansion. More geared and advanced players are funneled into more difficult content like Mythic+, while people generally only run the lower dungeons when they're undergeared, or just want an easy run.
FFXIV takes opposite tack, and often encourages better players to go back and play with newer players. A lot of the time this is good, but it does mean that "edge" tactics come to dominate, and start being applied in places they shouldn't be.
Now, that I think about it, this last possibility is probably the same as as older WoW expansions, when experienced players ran heroics for badges. That was a "go go go" meta as well. So ultimately, maybe encouraging veterans to play with new players is a bad idea.
"Now, that I think about it, this last possibility is probably the same as as older WoW expansions, when experienced players ran heroics for badges. That was a "go go go" meta as well. So ultimately, maybe encouraging veterans to play with new players is a bad idea."
ReplyDeleteThat was a big thing in Wrath, when you'd run a Heroic 5-man for the daily badges, and you'd accumulate a lot more of the lower level badges along for the ride. That gave you the chance to get the Tier 9 gear rapidly with the lower level badges and yet save up for the Tier 10 gear along the way. For the non-raider it was indispensible, particularly when tackling the Heroic ICC 5-mans. IIRC, Cata operated similarly, but I never bothered with the Heroic 5-mans as the go-go reputation in those instances put a damper on my enthusiasm there.
Agree with Redbeard. Running WotLK heroics killed my desire to ever instance in WoW.
ReplyDeleteForge of Souls, Pit of Sauron and Halls of Reflection were also my personal Hell. I was capable of running them with a group that belonged there - although I hated it - but I was not capable of carrying some of the people that would run those instances constantly in the hopes of a decent drop but did not belong there.
To be fair, I also discovered in ICC10 that I don't have the ability to split my attention and the reflex speed to be a good raider, so maybe I'm not the target audience for most theme park MMOs.
Halls of Reflection was it for me. If you didn't know to let the tank get a good hold on the trash pulls in the first half of the instance, you were dead. And worse, you couldn't get back in if you decided to release. I loved Pit of Saron when I first made it there, but the go-go-go mentality was a killer for me. Towards the end of Mists I went back and was soloing Pit of Saron for the Battered Hilt, and I found a lot of cool little parts that I never knew existed because the go-go-go crowd didn't want to deviate from the pattern.
DeleteYeah, some of those dungeons were a pain. I think it's a lot better in the current expansion though.
DeleteI've been running the Wow Wrath Timewalking dungeons for a week, going from level 80 to 92 (plus questing). It has been interesting to see people try to race through them, piling up many deaths. My Paladin has stayed alive and tossed emergency heals at tanks and healers so many times, I can't imagine any of my other characters making it through such tight spots. At level 92, most seem easy now except for the dastardly Pit Of Sauron. I'm sure I've been in there 20 times now, after having been in only once or twice previously. There is no go go go in this dungeon. There's almost always death on the hill going up to the final cave. Last night was the worst, with the tank dying at the very first mob encounter. It turned out the healer was a Shadow Priest....
ReplyDelete