Yesterday I participated in a synced Coil 1 run, minimum I-level, no Echo. It was a bitch to do, REALLY hard, and frustrating. BUT it was also strangely.....fun. Even with each attempt and failure it was thrilling and fun to do and it made me realize something.
I find synced old hard stuff MORE fun to do than hard new stuff.
Why is this? I think a big part of the reason is the different challenge doing older stuff synced presents.
With newer stuff you have a full 'kit' of 80's abilities, all the special tricks, spells and so forth, LOTS of different things to use, try, and remember.
BUT, with older stuff you......don't. You are STUCK with whatever you have in your older kit whether it be 50-60-70. And you know what? It makes it MORE fun to do it!
For example, I nearly always do older synced stuff as a healer. Now in dungeons, you barely use much healing in 50 and under dungeons so many of those spells are not much use. But in something like a ex primal or Coil it is a TOTALLY different story. Attacks in those hit HARD, people take a LOT of damage and you need to use nearly EVERY spell you have to help win that fight.
This means things like cure 1 and regen are actually needed. In fact, as a WHM at 50, you have only 3 cures, 2 medica's and only ONE instant cast heal with a LONG recharge time. You do NOT have ALL those Lily instants and the other instants the higher levels have. SIX heal spells, THAT'S IT!! And believe me, you WILL be using ALL of them on old hard stuff.
Also, it is VERY easy to burn though your MP when healing since, like I said, things hit VERY hard in those fights. Remember, NO instants except for Bene. This means MP conservation REALLY matters and believe me, in those fights, you WILL burn through MP FAST all the while praying for Lucid dreaming to come back up quicker. ;p So spells that conserve mp like cure 1 actually need to get used. You try to spam cure 2 and medica 2 all the time and you will find yourself in BIG trouble with no MP to heal when needed.
This makes for a VERY different type of fighting strategy then current hard stuff and honestly, more satisfying for me. I have fewer abilities to worry about and I work out how to use my limited actions to help win.
I know many HATE getting older stuff or doing older stuff because they want to use ALL the fun advanced tricks. but honestly, sometimes its just TOO much. More is NOT necessary BETTER people! Learn to work with what you have even it that means that you don't have a lot.
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You had different tools back when coil was relevant. But they were less self sufficient. You had a Bard for MP, physical dps could mantra for you at key points. Dps had a larger defensive toolkit to alleviate some healing. MP was increased by gear back then too, so you heals weren't as taxing on your MP as they are now.
Honestly I have been having a good time working on previous expansion relics myself. Gives me a lot to work on yus yus
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