- Group content not being challenging or rewarding enough.
That's not what I said. I said nothing about the rewards and I specifically said that the non-raid content offers
zero challenge. Like, it's actually a chore, because there's no stakes and no chance of failure. One of the main problems with leveling to 50. It's like playing a game with god-mode on. It's fun for about 5 minutes.
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There are other stuff that I actually agree with you on (I find it stupid that a higher GS won't make shit 'easier' for me to clear) but this has been the request from Johnny Casual for quite some time --- not wanting to be held back because he has less time to play a game than someone else and it not being 'fair' that your gear lets you progress through content quicker. Thus LA loves to equalize a bunch of stuff. In short, since I believe we agree that LA doesn't do much to innovative the genre and is fundamentally an MMO, this really seems like the shit that you should expect. The design changes from launch to S2 (and the 'praise' they've received from players for it) clearly indicates that they're going to keep pushing this style of stuff out for the foreseeable future (more mini-games, etc) and I'd be fucking shocked to see them try to take on the fundamental issues you have with group content. It just seems like it's run it's course for you and is clearly in the 'not fun' category unless I'm mistaken (it's a sincere question, not trying to be a dick)?
Trying out new classes is fun, figuring out a build that I like and then taking it for a test run is fun. But, I just want to be able to then go do some content where that actually means something. They used to let you go into Chaos Dungeons that you were below the GS requirement for, you just had to go solo, because it prevented your from queueing for groups. That was fun and challenging...then they recently removed that ability.
The season 2 changes were widespread and done to many different game systems. Not just raiding. And that was when they removed all the ocean minigames. They are obviously going to keep throwing shit at the wall and keeping what sticks. There's no reason to think they won't eventually get it right.
People keep referencing WoW and FF. Yeah, I know all that shit, played WoW off and on since launch, played Shadowlands, was terrible, I agree. Played FF off and on since launch, actually enjoyed some of the raiding, if not the time-gating. But, I pretty much burned myself out trying to level all my alt jobs in PoTD. Got the expansion before this one, but wasn't in the mood.
That being said, there are many, many other MMOs with raiding/group content. Some are better than others, but most of em are different from those 2. There are ways to make the raids difficult that don't involve running around collecting shapes and making holes in the ground, or turning into clowns with clown abilities.
It's not the fact that higher GS doesn't make shit easier, it's that the entire profit model of LA is trying to push players to spend real money to upgrade their gear, while at the same time making that upgraded gear meaningless. It's retarded.
I'm going to be playing in NA when it launches. And hope I can find a guild/static that doesn't suck and see if I can do the raids with real ping and not want to smash my monitor. At this point I'm mostly playing RU out of habit (and nothing better to do), and the simple fact that it's going to be hard to let go, because of all the side shit I've accumulated that's going to take literal years to regain in NA. The songs/emotes/giant hearts/masterpieces/estate levels/skill points/ENGRAVINGS/island hearts/gathering skill levels etc etc.
And, last but not least, as I've also stated many times, in addition to the great combat, the graphics/visual and sound design/music are pretty fucking amazing. I'm really hoping that one of the delays for NA has to do with getting the upcoming DX11 update, but that's probably just wishful thinking.
PS I'm not the only one who has issues with some fundamental designs in the game. Other people in this very thread who have barely started playing are already seeing and agreeing with some of the issues I've raised.