If you run Syrcus Tower in Final Fantasy XIV, a lot of the mechanics no longer matter. The first boss, Scylla, literally will not get to the point where you need to have three platforms charged to avoid her wiping the group. She will die long before that happens. If you get a tethered lightning ball, there’s no reason to run it over and get rid of it, the small damage that it hits the party for when ignored can easily be healed through.
I still always drag it always to the correct location out of habit.
Older content is always going to feature some mechanics that wind up getting softened by the march of player power and rebalances until it no longer works quite right, and while it’d be nice if developers took the time to go in and adjust those old elements to be interesting sometimes it’s just too much work to do. So how fastidious are you when following MMO mechanics that no longer matter? Do you do the right thing to deal with the mechanics even when you could just charge through it? Or are you not great about following mechanics that actually do still matter, much less ones you can ignore?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
