we cleared aloalo savage last night! and because i liked it so much (and it's sort of an ultimate-lite) i want to talk about it. (most of us didn't play these jobs, though; i just don't like the red mage weapon.)
aloalo island has three versions: variant, criterion, and criterion savage. variant is casual content for 1 to 4 players; the enemies scale based on how many players are in the instance. i did aloalo variant when it came out, and about a year later with a friend. variant dungeons have 12 different "routes," although in practice there's just three different paths and the things you do along those paths lead to slightly different boss mechanics. it's a neat idea, but unfortunately there's very little longevity to the content: once you get through all 12 routes, there's little reason to go back unless you're farming cosmetics or collectibles. (i had to redo the secret route of aloalo about 10 times to get the last triple triad card i needed from it... which was a real pain in the ass, because the secret route requires doing very specific actions to proceed.)
criterion, on the other hand, is more difficult content intended for 4 players. curiously, it cannot be outclassed with better gear: you're locked to the level it was when it came out. this means that it's still got teeth, even an expansion and a half later, and you have to do it right. additionally, resurrection is restricted: each player gets one rez per boss fight that they can use on a fallen player.
the structure of criterion is a couple of add/trash pulls between the three bosses. the adds here do NOT fuck around: they're mini-bosses in their own right, with mechanics you have to respect lest you die. there's also environmental hazards — the first add pull of aloalo has tornados moving through the arena that you have to avoid while you're fighting the adds.
all that said, once you clear each boss you get a checkpoint, so you can work on each one at a time. and since you do have one rez per player, it's fairly forgiving; you can screw up and still progress. since it's only 4-player content, the mechanics aren't overly complicated... in theory.
in the savage version of a criterion, however, you cannot rez. at all. you must clear all 3 boss fights and all add pulls without anyone dying. additionally, you only have a set amount of time to finish, so you can't stop between encounters.
now, to talk about the bosses...
( Read more... )
anyway, we're going to try and clear a few more times tonight, so wish us luck! aloalo is the only criterion savage with decent rewards (shiny weapons) so we started here, but we're hoping to go on to the other two. rokkon terrifies me and i haven't even stepped into it yet...
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larissa
