Seriously, VW loot system..come on.

[Sargent]

The separation of exploiting weakness and loot

A specific adjustment we have planned is to set blue and red alignment at their maximum values at the beginning of the battle.
※It would be possible to raise these values even more through ascent items.
As a result, players will not have to worry about exploiting weakness in order to obtain better loot. Our aim is for players to only have to consider exploiting weakness as part of their battle strategy. Also, this adjustment will address the difficulty of smaller parties obtaining loot.

Exploiting weakness was never an issue, the drop rates are still godawful when you cap lights. I've mentioned it before, but give us either the random distribution system (i.e. Voidwatch), or the low drop rates, not both.

[Raksha]

Thank you Camate for providing that translation.

If I understand correctly the discussion of drop rates and loot systems will come later. Please stress to the dev team that this is the most important issue that we care about.

[Quetzacoatl]

What about the BIGGEST issue that everyone has and that is the PURE RANDOMNESS of the drop of the ra/ex item? None of these really address that issue.

In fact the issues that you're addressing are for the most part, non-issues. Other than a few NMs in the latest chapter, most NMs are pretty easy to deal with. Proc'ing to cap Red (and Blue - ppl can agrue as to the real value for capping blue is just more logs/ore but that's also not as big as the main issue) isn't hard at all even for PUG. But the insanity of ppl at several hundred runs for the same NMs and not ever seeing the top tier ra/ex while seeing many new comers getting it on their 1st or 2nd or 3rd tries just completely takes any fun and joy in doing VW at all.

Please please please please please for the sanity of us, please make sure that the DEV team understands this pure random drop of these ra/ex item IS the biggest issue and is the most important issue that needs to be addressed. Not the ability to cap lights or clearing the fight or difficulting in clearing fight, etc.

Quoted for truth. All those updates to VW are all fine and dandy, but the big issue still remains at large.

One of our guys just came back to the game recently, and on the third Kaggen we did last night, he was able to get a Mekira Meikogai. I'm not complaining that he got it, by all means he is lucky to even have one as it will benefit his WAR and SAM. But this was his THIRD Kaggen run, comparing to every PLD or WAR in our shell who has went 0/60+, objectively speaking. That is BEYOND all random, out-of-this-world Odds.

There has got to be a point where something has to give for all those who have went beyond 100 tries doing any high-tier Voidwatch NM, not to see a single high-end piece of gear drop. At this point, a lotting system at least gave us hope of ever, ever, ever seeing a drop (Except Shinryu concerning Twilight Helm/Cloak/Mail, but that's an entirely different issue, the droprates on those should get a raise by now).

[Brolic]

Quoted for truth. All those updates to VW are all fine and dandy, but the big issue still remains at large.

One of our guys just came back to the game recently, and on the third Kaggen we did last night, he was able to get a Mekira Meikogai. I'm not complaining that he got it, by all means he is lucky to even have one as it will benefit his WAR and SAM. But this was his THIRD Kaggen run, comparing to every PLD or WAR in our shell who has went 0/60+, objectively speaking. That is BEYOND all random, out-of-this-world Odds.

There has got to be a point where something has to give for all those who have went beyond 100 tries doing any high-tier Voidwatch NM, not to see a single high-end piece of gear drop. At this point, a lotting system at least gave us hope of ever, ever, ever seeing a drop (Except Shinryu concerning Twilight Helm/Cloak/Mail, but that's an entirely different issue, the droprates on those should get a raise by now).

im fine with dumb luck, what i'm not fine with is our main whm having to take or a destroy a tocci's harness because she cant elect to give it to the alliance. Highly prized piece of gear that she will never equip\be able to equip.

[Dreamin]

There has got to be a point where something has to give for all those who have went beyond 100 tries doing any high-tier Voidwatch NM, not to see a single high-end piece of gear drop. At this point, a lotting system at least gave us hope of ever, ever, ever seeing a drop (Except Shinryu concerning Twilight Helm/Cloak/Mail, but that's an entirely different issue, the droprates on those should get a raise by now).

It's there. Most sane people has basically given up hope. And as the number of competent players decreased in doing these, it cascaded down with the other competent players. So basically less and less successful VW runs happened. I've went from doing several runs (4x per runs) per day (I've burned off all my CP and AN and 1/3 of all my Cruors for voiddusts and cells) to maybe 1 to 2 runs per week now. And as I get more and more Logs and Ores (and other crap), the less and less likely I'll be keep doing this. It's sad because most of the top tier NM fights can be fun. Just not fun and becomes just WORK and Boring work at that after your 200+ for fighting the same NM. It makes the game into work and I only do work if I get PAID in money.

[saevel]

Pil lol...? Seriously? Cor is your friend, or anything with requiescat. And you most definitely do not need temp items to survive against him.

Botulus Rex is the NM where you need fairly consistent procs to survive against him. Setting red and blue to cap is a cool idea for some of the lower tiers, but it doesn't really do anything for the higher tiers, where your lights will be capped anyway, just out of necessity. If anything, the constant hate reset/hate decay is the most annoying. I'm not sure why AoE spells are an issue...? (In response to Camate's post).

Again BULLSH!T.

Pil is easy if he's proced, once he's walking around he'll spam flank opening for 1~2K+ damage. Its guaranteed to one shot pretty much anyone near it. If your lucky you'll survive with a few hundred HP, but then he just use's it again or a -ja spell and your hosed. WHM's can't heal fast enough to sustain your HP, you will die, its only a matter of time.

And we had two CORs, both ended up double weakened halfway through the fight, QD become useless and that is when things started going south fast. Akvan has deathga, or just a cheap single target death, used to have Lv5 petrify but that's no longer an issue. Kaggan has a whole hoard of aoe moves, amnesia effect just to screw with your procing and his frontal slash attack that will hit anyone in front for 2K+. Later in the fight he can spam Death Prophet, which is one of the cheapest moves known. Trying to fight Kaggan without fanatics up for more then 10~15s will start to drain your WHM's MP pool, having 5~6 DD's doing this will deplete it rather quickly.

And those are just the lol Jeuno T3 VWNMs. Again easy to do if you keep them proced and / or keep fanatics up, absolute nightmares if you get screwed on procs.

And as Camate just said, it shouldn't require an Aegis / O.Chain PLD to tank them. It shouldn't require a bunch of Relic / Emp DD's in blinged out gear setups to kill the harder ones.

If you really want a lesson in humility, then go do the Bastok T4 Harpy without temps or procs, just to see how "easy" they are. She'll rip your face off with all her damn aoe high damage moves and status effects. At 95 we tried a PD zerg on her just for sh!ts, and were surprised at how damaging she could be. We got the win without any temps / procs but with over half the alliance dead. The windy T4 is similar, doing him without procs / fanatics is just asking for some pain. Arm Cannon will one shot a BLM and anyone standing nearby, he'll it'll one shot a COR or RNG too. Erradicator and it's weakness effects will make your super blinged out tanks nearly useless, and any DD nearby. Yet again if your procing him and spamming Fanatics then he's a joke, if you don't then he'll rip your face off.

[Glamdring]

there's a very simple solution to all these issues, but I think it's avoided to preserve the time-sinks. Make the system turn out 1 reward, period. Some type of currency or token or trophy that you then trade in to a specific NPC vendor to obtain the item you are actually after rather than the random R/EX piece that you'll just toss for inventory space reasons. If you want to really be merciful you can even make it a KI, like Dominion points or something; please make it "contribution-based", because people who continually AFK/leech SHOULD be penalized for being useless.

[ThaiChi]

There's a pretty big disparity in the drop rate of loot. While for some people it seems like the drop rates for things they want are similar to salvage drops circa 2007, others it seems like it's like dynamis circa 2012. It's completely inexplicable. I get that they don't want us to completely burn through the content like Abyssea, but oftentimes its infuriating not being able to get reward for participating in voidwatch from day one. But let's face it, FFXI in 2012 provides a whole lot of content, new and old. There's Neo-Dynamis that has put everyone on a relic craze, Sky being relevant again because of Synergy Augments, killable Absolute Virtue -- making Sea still viable to do. Hell I have to do campaign just to be able to keep a stock of voiddust. And while many have dismissed most ToAU content, the higher levels has given me and a small group of friends the drive to do Einherjar, and collect Alexandrite from Salvage in anticipation for Nyzul Isle Uncharted and eventually attempting to complete a Mythic Weapon. Point being: if the drop rates were raised to a reasonable rate, there's still a lot of things to do.

Over the past month I've joined in on several Voidwrought shouts and I still have nothing to show from partaking, and my Linkshell does it fairly regularly. Oftentimes a lot of my Linkshell mates are dismayed at how frequently we see a full pink DNC with a coruscanti or a notorious jerk on our server win out due to complete and utter luck. Yes, I am a little bit bitter, but at the same time I've witnessed the person hosting the pickup Voidwroughts go 1/395 on his Fazheluo Radiant mail. That's .25% -- a quarter of a whole percent, not to mention the 1185 Rubicund Cells, and 395 Voidstones/dusts that go into a that many fights. If it hasn't already been said.... The drop rates here are horrid. Destroy the item if we already have it? Sure, that's exactly what everyone here on the forum wants.... Makes you wonder why so many people are complaining.... /sarcasm

[Krashport]

There's a pretty big disparity in the drop rate of loot. While for some people it seems like the drop rates for things they want are similar to salvage drops circa 2007, others it seems like it's like dynamis circa 2012. It's completely inexplicable. I get that they don't want us to completely burn through the content like Abyssea, but oftentimes its infuriating not being able to get reward for participating in voidwatch from day one. But let's face it, FFXI in 2012 provides a whole lot of content, new and old. There's Neo-Dynamis that has put everyone on a relic craze, Sky being relevant again because of Synergy Augments, killable Absolute Virtue -- making Sea still viable to do. Hell I have to do campaign just to be able to keep a stock of voiddust. And while many have dismissed most ToAU content, the higher levels has given me and a small group of friends the drive to do Einherjar, and collect Alexandrite from Salvage in anticipation for Nyzul Isle Uncharted and eventually attempting to complete a Mythic Weapon. Point being: if the drop rates were raised to a reasonable rate, there's still a lot of things to do.

Over the past month I've joined in on several Voidwrought shouts and I still have nothing to show from partaking, and my Linkshell does it fairly regularly. Oftentimes a lot of my Linkshell mates are dismayed at how frequently we see a full pink DNC with a coruscanti or a notorious jerk on our server win out due to complete and utter luck. Yes, I am a little bit bitter, but at the same time I've witnessed the person hosting the pickup Voidwroughts go 1/395 on his Fazheluo Radiant mail. That's .25% -- a quarter of a whole percent, not to mention the 1185 Rubicund Cells, and 395 Voidstones/dusts that go into a that many fights. If it hasn't already been said.... The drop rates here are horrid. Destroy the item if we already have it? Sure, that's exactly what everyone here on the forum wants.... Makes you wonder why so many people are complaining.... /sarcasm

I always wondered, If FFXI never had a way to /check other members, Would people still cry and worry about what other people have and how lucky they are....

[Tsukino_Kaji]

※With regard to battle balance, I would like to note that we do not assume that every player has the best armor, such as Aegis and Ochain, or Relic/Mythic/Empyrean Weapons. It is definitely advantageous to have the best gear, but we are making adjustments so that even players without the best gear are able to creatively finish all content.

This is the logic you need to aply to more content. More and more I'm seing new players who are litteraly kicked out of alliances before things are about to start because of simple things like, for example, a sam that doesn't have masamune.(This actualy has happened serval times.)