[Chaos]

If we're going to get to the nitty-gritty of why PvE is having severe issues, then I'd suggest that we move the potshots to a topic in Fruity Rumpus General.

....Anyways, to get straight to the point, I feel that the following parts are exactly why PvE is a slog right now:

1. Outside of early game, monsters lack the AI, equipment, skills and in some cases, the stats to properly challenge players and their more diverse/focused skillsets and greater equipment. Most bosses suffer from these same issues, with certain exceptions (Decarabia, while not perfect, is an excellent step towards a challenging boss)

1a. This largely has to do with high-level party content: While the Black Beast Raid's first two stages are perfectly fine, the raid boss, Seto, has a very good stat set but not only lacks both the momentum and the skillset to properly pressure and damage players, but is also vulnerable to easy shutdowns. (Silence killing his near-entire moveset, damage taking out his Isendo easily....)

2. PvE is being used as a stepping stone to get to PvP.

3. Somewhat tied into #2, but progression boils down to leveling up to 60 however many times and either hassling with RNG to get the gear you need, or (in the far more likely case) doing some OOC trading to get the gear you need. In a way, it's 'gradual', but the system's ability to provide a long-term growth for players is completely shot with the current economy and rate of EXP gain. Nowadays, you're more likely to have players lose due to meta than any real difference of power.

4. Nearly all AoEs are tremendously powerful in PvE, due to having equal or very slightly less power than their single-target counterparts, in combination with being able to hit everything and their mothers within range, all for the exact same damage. (No, this is not solely limited to mages, as Crystal Rose clearly shows)


I feel like we'd get PvE in a much better and more entertaining spot with the following goals:

1. Work towards making non-early game PvE more fit towards challenging mid-high level players.

2. Adjust/provide more content towards high-level parties. (For now, buffing Seto would be a clear start)

3. Provide an area dedicated to PvP, allowing players to test various builds without need for progression.

4. Adjust AoEs to not completely murder both their single-target peers and the PvE mobs in general. A good way to handle this would be adjusting each AoE's damage to function not unlike Lantern Bearer's AoEs (damage/effect modified by distance from epicenter), or in some cases, lower the damage dealt to all additional targets.

I'd also take a closer look at character progression, but that's for a different topic.