Armada of Demise Expert Mode Requirements

[Dark Priest]

"statics" don't work in this game, this isn't FFXVI where you can plan your endgame runs based on everyones time, you will more then likely have to depend on random players due to the wide variety of times they have EQs, this just isn't that type of game.

[Stormwalker]

I dont understand how people who play this game everyday, get handed the best 15☆ weapons in game with another hand out already here along with multiple rare drop boosts to end game content with Bode tier and above units cant clear 1yr old+ XQ and a 3month solo trigger despite all the power creep we've gotten. Just learn your class, whats so hard about this?

This is very off-topic, so I'm just going to say that what is easy for one person isn't necessarily easy for another, and leave it at that.

[vantpers]

Not everyone has the same type of "skill". It is very common to have great expertise in one department and consider it to be easy and wonder why everyone else cannot perform the same, and have low expertise in something that others can perform without effort.

The new Expert requirements require that players have mostly great reflexes to avoid failure, and then good judgement on what actions to perform to maximize damage output when reflexes are not required, so as to get S rank. A player may have reflexes in the order of F1 drivers (ie ~0.1sec) but struggling to learn what PA/Tech to use depending on situation (or what build/spec to use, what weapons/affixes etc). And on the other hand, a player may have the skill to be able to easily determine the build etc. required for a specific challenge/situation, yet have low reflexes and therefore die to enemy attacks because they couldn't avoid them on time. There are even more types of "skill" required for video games (memorization, inventory management, coordination with actions of other players, prediction of enemy counteraction depending on player's action etc.), but those are not required or tested for Expert Matching in PSO2.

I think I had said it in another thread, but with the Expert requirements becoming harsher, the majority of players from god-tier all the way to "I don't know what's going on" will experience higher quality[*] runs. The players who will have worse experience are those who were Experts before but not now. Here's an eye-tormenting graph done in Paint to explain what I mean:

Spoiler!

[*] By quality, I mean faster dps

The graphs don't work like that. Bisecting a normal distribution doesn't yield two normal distributions unless my lack of education in statistics is showing again.

[Dark Priest]

The graphs don't work like that. Bisecting a normal distribution doesn't yield two normal distributions unless my lack of education in statistics is showing again.

He's basically trying to say the "mid tier" players are going to have a worse time now, since they aren't poor players but are not high enough to be "experts" so they will suffer now by being with the other low-to-mid tier players.

[vantpers]

He's basically trying to say the "mid tier" players are going to have a worse time now, since they aren't poor players but are not high enough to be "experts" so they will suffer now by being with the other low-to-mid tier players.

I am still graph triggered since it makes it look like average gear player is suddenly extremely rare occurrence after Sega hits the old expert requirement. It does show the general rule that non expert will be less unbearable on average and expert faster on average.

[Dark Mits]

Yeah, that was my bad... I completely effed up the presentation. My point was exactly what Dark Priest said; ie. that everyone will have on average faster and more reliable runs, except for the old Experts who are now non-Experts which will now on average have slower and less reliable runs.

[Stormwalker]

Yeah, that was my bad... I completely effed up the presentation. My point was exactly what Dark Priest said; ie. that everyone will have on average faster and more reliable runs, except for the old Experts who are now non-Experts which will now on average have slower and less reliable runs.

I could live with that if the rewards structure of the new EQ wasn't double-stacked to favor faster runs, though.

By this I mean that faster runs rewards you twice: first, you get the rewards from the extra sector 1-2 runs themselves, and then you also get the rare drop rate bonus in Sector 3.

The fact thst they released this EQ the same day the expert match requirements changed makes it really feel like s kick in the teeth.

[XrosBlader821]

But see, this is where we disagree. If you have many real life obligations, like work, family etc then yes, it is impossible to reliably arrange 12man runs. However, I can clearly remember that we didn't have trouble back in WoW days

I wish I was 12 again too.

Memes aside along with RL obligations there are also timezones to deal with. In WoW you probably didn't have any reason to interact with people outside your timezone. As a EU player playing a JP game with mostly US friends I can tell you that getting 12 man MPA, even on days wen I can f*ck around, is near impossible for me.

[Kondibon]

But see, this is where we disagree. If you have many real life obligations, like work, family etc then yes, it is impossible to reliably arrange 12man runs. However, I can clearly remember that we didn't have trouble back in WoW days to gather 30+ people for a whole 3 hours, 3 days per week, and many of us were actually working and/or having families.

That's my entire point though. 30 people for 3 consecutive hours 3 days a week is something you can schedule around, and have everyone work out when would be the best time to do it. EQs straight up don't allow that because they happen at preset times spread throughout the day, every day of the week. You can't organize them on your own time.

The difference with PSO2 is that the content does not require that much teamwork and "out-of-combat" preparation to get things done; 12 people are still pretty much needed for a smooth run for an average group, however you can still do it with 10, 8, 6, or even entirely solo if the remaining people just stay determined; the only negative being that it will take longer. Fully premade groups do not grant such great benefit compared to pugging that it would become "meta" to go premade, and that's why forming full or even large premade groups isn't really widespread.

Having seen what premades in PSO2 can do, I disagree. The benefits of having a full premade group are huge. Heck, like I said before, even just one or two premade parties will probably clear faster than a pug. The reason it's not done often is simply because it's not practical.

But still, we do hear complaints from both camps (current experts and current non-experts) about the quality of pugs. Which is why the old "go make your own group" is and should really be the only viable answer. Expecting an automated system to find 3/7/11 other like-minded, and similarly performing individuals is something which I doubt that it can be accomplished even with the most advanced AI systems currently in existence, let alone for a simple online video game.

To clarify, my issue is that telling people to make their own groups is as useful as telling other players to "git gud". Yes, Ideally people should make their own groups, but my point is that EQs really bad for scheduling that, and expecting it of people is really inconsiderate. I'm not trying to say that expert matching is some be all and end all that should only match the best of the best. I don't even like the expert matching requirements because of how easy it is to just cheese them with a class you're good at then just do expert matching with whatever you want. Outside of extreme cases the expert requirements don't even really do what they're meant to do.

But we did have a thread where we were discussing that some pugs in guruguru (like current UH) are not playing according to "meta" which is to follow a specific circular path, and instead they go and create spawns out of the path of maximum reward per minute.

There's always going to be stuff like that, but it's a lot less common, and like everything else, it stems more from problems in the quest design. People coming in might not know which way everyone is going, or might want to go another way for some reason, but this is obviously a case where making your own group is a lot more practical, so it's not as common.

[Meteor Weapon]

The fact thst they released this EQ the same day the expert match requirements changed makes it really feel like s kick in the teeth.

You had a whole two months to complete the expert requirements before it kicked in. Unless you were busy irl theres no excuse to it. You're better off completing the requirements now instead of keep on complaining about it.

You want faster runs? Go get expert. You can say its flawed or anything but its the only viable thing to get a faster run.

Now, imagine if they put Masquerade lv30 as a requirement.