The Black Dragon Post Thoughts and Discussion + how you won thread

[Ceresa]

Pick-up groups will never be "good". If you want a good (according to your standards) run, play with premade groups that you know and trust. Complaining about pugs is like complaining that the radio plays shit music.

The existence of expert means there is clearly some interest in cultivating a matchmaking pool for higher quality randoms. Too bad Sega is retarded and doesn't manage the requirements properly to coincide with "hard" content releases.

No one sane is actually expecting their pugs to be milranduil tier, but there's a pretty big tier of acceptable between that and some fucking dunce that whores the sword without breaking points and manages to run up all 3 deaths.

And not getting one of those dipshits is the only challenge this fight presents. The dragon itself is garbage. It's the same fight, takes half damage (only really matters for DB and compound growth) and hits maybe 10% harder. If you paid attention at all to the red dragon fights for the past month this should be routine. Of course somehow people still die on Red and then bring their trash into Black.

Would have made more sense to increase the death limit like the forest trigger quest and just let personal deaths nerf your ranking/drops into the ground.

[Moffen]

Have you completed every Free Field on SH/XH?

Literally nothing of worth from doing this

Every ARKS Quest?

Tedious and annoying,still nothing of worth from doing this

Every Advance Quest?

Again,nothing worth from doing this. Only VHAQ is ran for EXP on low level characters,SHAQ costs too many caps and revolucio weapons are garbage and outdated

Expert Quest?

Extreme quest is super easy,rewards are outdated,the newer "hard" ones have suffered from power creep and the rewards are again,garbage

Challenge Mode?

Outdated,nobody runs this outside of a tiny fringe group thats on once a week.

Battle Arena?

Unbalanced laggy mess,annoying,cant buddy up with people you actually know,you're at the mercy of RNG to decide your team which will likely be garbage.

Ultimate Quest?

Zero rare drop boost running,you have a very tiny chance of getting anything. Because of this,Ultimate Quest is dead.
OT to NT exchange system for Slave/Nemesis is cancer

Have you got nearly all non-missable achievements?

Literally nothing of worth from doing this besides your own pat on the back.

Have you gotten every crafting achievement?

Huge gigantic waste of resources. You cant craft 12* units,so theres no point. You cant craft 13*s,so theres no point. Crafting techs to the highest level is a massive money sink and you can just request someone else do your tech or PA crafts for you.

Every gathering/fishing achievement?

Another thing thats not worth doing.

The game ends when you are bored of it, not when you complete the last released content.

It ends when theres stops being worthwhile content to run.
Dragon already isnt worth running because you can get val weapons as drops from the LQ,they're now super cheap on player shop.
Doing outdated content is not and never will be fun.
This is why people request for XH and XH+ difficulties on free fields and arks quest,this is why people ask for worthwhile drops. You are wasting your time for nothing otherwise,and nobody enjoys having their time wasted.

I absolutely hate this mentality of "Oh you must 100% everything in the game before you can complain!",its a stupid argument.
The game ends when relevant content becomes obsolete and the only time its worth logging in is for time gated emergency quests.
Dragon rematch is fun,its difficult,but its not rewarding in the slightest.
If you want cubes,solo PD nets you the same,if not more,in less time,and most people have an insane abundance of those triggers due to last years badge exchange worth drying up only a few months into the year.

Prob my longest post here but w/e
//rant

[Dark Mits]

snip to save space

1) Even if Sega made the requirements harder, what stops someone from surpassing those without cheating? It's not exactly hard to have a friend get it for you.

2) What guarantee do you have that someone who actually surpasses Expert requirements will actually try to perform well in EQs well and not just be semiafk while being on social media or playing something else on another monitor?

3) How exactly then can they make the dragon (or any boss) to be more of a challenge? Reduce the reaction window time for every ability to 0.1sec? Strengthen failure mechanic to "Party damage taken 1000"? Give X min limit like Gracia and set it too tight? The fallacy is that even if they did make the fight unwinnable for 95% of the playerbase, there would still be people in the 5% who'd cry that the fight is still not difficult. Also, let's not forget the outcry from "expert" players about the 80% healing debuff in some EP4 content.

4) Why exactly should us baddies be prohibited from joining hard content? How exactly are we going to be enticed to up our game if we never see the words "You failed" on our screens?

The above 4 points have been discussed to death in every single online game I've played, and I guess on forums for every online game ever created.

5) I think that the personal ranking system exists for Atrum. My run had 2 deaths, and I was 1 of them. I got B and the score card mentioned 1 incapacitation. And I agree that the ranking system for the entirety of the game should be personal and should have great impact on player rewards.

snip to save space//rant

But notice what you said: "Nothing worth". You just said that you play for reward and reward alone. And I didn't say that you have to 100%, I said "The game ends when you get bored of it". Since you do not have anything to do to improve your character, congratulations, you have completed your personal PSO2 progression. I haven't. Different players try to get different things out of their games.

[Ceresa]

1) Even if Sega made the requirements harder, what stops someone from surpassing those without cheating? It's not exactly hard to have a friend get it for you.

2) What guarantee do you have that someone who actually surpasses Expert requirements will actually try to perform well in EQs well and not just be semiafk while being on social media or playing something else on another monitor?

3) How exactly then can they make the dragon (or any boss) to be more of a challenge? Reduce the reaction window time for every ability to 0.1sec? Strengthen failure mechanic to "Party damage taken 1000"? Give X min limit like Gracia and set it too tight? The fallacy is that even if they did make the fight unwinnable for 95% of the playerbase, there would still be people in the 5% who'd cry that the fight is still not difficult. Also, let's not forget the outcry from "expert" players about the 80% healing debuff in some EP4 content.

4) Why exactly should us baddies be prohibited from joining hard content? How exactly are we going to be enticed to up our game if we never see the words "You failed" on our screens?

The above 4 points have been discussed to death in every single online game I've played, and I guess on forums for every online game ever created.

5) I think that the personal ranking system exists for Atrum. My run had 2 deaths, and I was 1 of them. I got B and the score card mentioned 1 incapacitation. And I agree that the ranking system for the entirety of the game should be personal and should have great impact on player rewards.

1. S Phaleg. S Solo PD. Even S the more recent Omnibus for a start. Phaleg and PD have largely been powercreeped but solo content exists, they can make more of it. Certainly better than collect badges in a recycled seasonal EQ to buy shitty units.

2. Just because you can't guarantee 100% doesn't mean you don't aim for 100%.

3. Have his fire pillars linger. Like Loser's tornados. Have the entire floor turn hot. Like Loser. If you're ever at a loss on how to make something harder, go steal from Loser, the best fight in the game. Anything is more interesting than literally the same fight but with a death limit out of your control.

4. Join it in non-expert XH? Harder expert reqs won't take away anyone's ability to run content.

[Dark Mits]

Snip to save space

Good points.

1. But I remind, a player can again ask a friend to beat it for them. I am certain that in Expert player circles there is at least one player who had it unlocked by someone else, or who unlocked it for someone else.

3. But then players would complain that Sega is not creative and recycles the same fights. Why not have something creative and game changing? Why not make it so that Step/Dive/Mirage do not avoid damage entirely but instead reduces it by 50%? Why not nerf PP regen to the ground so that players have to start thinking outside of maximum dps and instead dpp and make it a very tight time trial? Why not make a boss where there is no weak element but instead healing when hit by certain elements, and switch those elements every minute during the fight? Why not make a new mechanic where players are Panicked (uncurable by Anti) and have to maneuver through a small maze of fire to get back to the boss? A mechanic where the boss has to be aggroed and moved to certain parts of the arena to become vulnerable? And hundred others that exist in other games.

Why does everything have to be about reaction reflex and reaction reflex alone?

4. I did that. That's how I beat it. And I'm by all definitions on this forum a "baddie".

[Aexorcet]

Not always. It's a lottery. Sometimes you get lucky and get a group that plays like pros, and sometimes you get people like me, who play Healer/Buffer instead of Damage Dealer and therefore pretty much means that you are 1 active person less in the group.

My question was sort of rhetorical, I have the same experience, it varies. Outright terrible groups don't seem that common though, or maybe my definition of terrible is strict.

XH Free fields aren't exactly too much dependent on development time. Just slap a blanket X% hp/ Y% atk on mobs. The problem is how can they entice us to play such harder content when they can't just make everything drop 7*+

Yeah, I'd like XH everywhere. I'd rather play for gameplay than drops, so even if nothing dropped I'd end up in XH free fields.

Why does everything have to be about reaction reflex and reaction reflex alone?

It provides more replayability. Puzzles, tricks, and gimmicks tends to get easier over time and eventually trivialized. Also, changing the game too drastically can remove the appeal that draws players in the first place. There should be more to the end game than lightning reflexes and super inflated attack and HP though, I agree there.

Why not make it so that Step/Dive/Mirage do not avoid damage entirely but instead reduces it by 50%?

Depending on the kind of enemy this is implemented on, this could get annoying because it's basically just telling you to stop and heal every so often. Or it's going to make you burn through automate. That would be the case if there are many wide reaching attacks that you would normally have to dodge. If there aren't those kinds of attacks then it's a game of positioning to avoid attacks, which are already encouraged by giving enemies powerful one shot attacks, status effects (freeze mostly, or actually potent versions of burn/poison), stun, etc. Unavoidable damage just doesn't sound fun. Maybe in very moderate use, but a whole fight based around it isn't something I'd want to see. My biggest wish for damage is to tone down player healing significantly so that things other than one shots become concerning.

Why not nerf PP regen to the ground so that players have to start thinking outside of maximum dps and instead dpp and make it a very tight time trial?

Just PP regen rate? Wouldn't be all that bad except that some classes's core skills would be killed (PP Convert becomes literally pointless). If it's all forms of PP regen, then there will be a lot of boring sitting around and doing nothing. I think this in the first form I described could be an OK boss mechanic, but I'm not sure about imposing it for an entire quest.

Why not make a boss where there is no weak element but instead healing when hit by certain elements, and switch those elements every minute during the fight?

I don't like element weakness in this game. It mostly just comes down to color matching the enemy's weakness icon and Sega forcing you to collect a weapon an absurd amount of times. I'd rather see something like status effects of all kinds become usable on bosses and you could choose your element in order to change some aspect of the fight in your favor.

Why not make a new mechanic where players are Panicked (uncurable by Anti) and have to maneuver through a small maze of fire to get back to the boss?

I don't like this one, it just replaces the combat with something less fun. I don't really like Mother's zondeel attack or Double's gates either (and it slightly bothers me that these people trying to kill you leave nice openings for you to avoid their attacks).

A mechanic where the boss has to be aggroed and moved to certain parts of the arena to become vulnerable?

Having the position of the boss matter could be nice, but I imagine that this would be unpopular if it was too easy for a player to pull the boss the wrong way unintentionally or not. You could mitigate it by just giving the boss increased defense instead of invincibility.

Not trying to shoot down any of your ideas, I just like discussing this kind of thing.

[echofaith]

I am happy their new content is forcing people to stop relying in moons so much. Though ideally, solo content with death limits(to avoid doll spam) would the best imo.

[Flatflyer]

I honestly find it ironic that people both simultaneously complain that content is too easy while also complaining about expert requirements "not being enough"

You can't have both your constant party of super elite dps masters and difficult bosses without alienating the other 90% of the playerbase who havent invested months into this game, and cant actually get the gear they need to get better because of expert matching taking up all of the players who could potentially help them succeed.

if you want a "challenge" then try soloing EQ bosses, or hell, "solo" it with a normal matching party so you can atleast help others who are struggling move further on with the game.

[Aexorcet]

I honestly find it ironic that people both simultaneously complain that content is too easy while also complaining about expert requirements "not being enough"

You can't have both your constant party of super elite dps masters and difficult bosses without alienating the other 90% of the playerbase who havent invested months into this game, and cant actually get the gear they need to get better because of expert matching taking up all of the players who could potentially help them succeed.

if you want a "challenge" then try soloing EQ bosses, or hell, "solo" it with a normal matching party so you can atleast help others who are struggling move further on with the game.

My thought on it was leave the normal stuff as it is, then make the harder stuff optional. Example, the normal XH version of the quest fills CF's, drops 13/14*, etc, so no one is missing out. Then the expert version gives you a little extra CF completion, drop chance, etc. Also let them count as different quests to get around the quest run limit. Sega could also let us rerun quests over the limit without rewards for the purpose of helping other players.

[echofaith]

I honestly find it ironic that people both simultaneously complain that content is too easy while also complaining about expert requirements "not being enough"

You can't have both your constant party of super elite dps masters and difficult bosses without alienating the other 90% of the playerbase who havent invested months into this game, and cant actually get the gear they need to get better because of expert matching taking up all of the players who could potentially help them succeed.

if you want a "challenge" then try soloing EQ bosses, or hell, "solo" it with a normal matching party so you can atleast help others who are struggling move further on with the game.

I think the problem with bad players isnt much about getting the gear and resources, but about their skills, and their priorities. We been getting a lot of welfare since EP 4 thanks to CF, and even with lower end stuff like say Revo, the difference of not using a maxed ipad wont even add 4 extra mins to an EQ duration. As someone said before, giving a monkey a sword wont make it a ninja.

Then you have players who dont know how to prioritize. They have 5 slots units with rushed 150 atk and almost no HP or PP, while their weapon is just the default from CF(+0, and 20 element). Not only is bad spent meseta, but getting 1HKOed constantly more than kills any extra DPS your ATK focused units would have provided. Not saying getting KOed is bad, but if you are going to die so often and your dodging skills cant fix it, then at least try to affix something smarter.