Chapters 1-5 for 109 upgrades need more/updated methods of acquisition. If possible.

[Mookies75]

*Updated with suggestion and a more concise complaint.

Please allow us to buy the page 1-5 orbs with merits, or give us a blanket key item obtainable via merits that we can also use to do the fights.

There is a huge time/cost disparity between obtaining pages 1-5 and 6-10. You clearly place pages 6-10 on a considerably higher tier, it is evident from the cost disparity of the pages via login points, sparks, and the difficulty of the fights, yet they are so much easier to get. I can farm 45 merits in about 20 minutes, and complete an upgrade piece + extras within the 8 runs it requires. Usually totaling less than 2 hours. On the other hand, it takes me about 200 farmed merits to aquire enough seals to do a 1-5 BCNM. Sparks farming is also extremely time consuming, assuming gain xp limited is not up, it can take upwards of 5-8 hours to complete one item.

I also dislike that I am basically forced to use/convert all of my seals for these page 1-5 fights instead of doing other content with them.

[Enochroot]

SE will say: you can do lots of things to earn sparks and you can use sparks to buy chapters.

[detlef]

It's more like how can you not have enough seals at this point in the game when SE expects you to be grinding for XP, CP, Silt, Accolades, and Sparks?

[Olor]

It's more like how can you not have enough seals at this point in the game when SE expects you to be grinding for XP, CP, Silt, Accolades, and Sparks?

I don't know, I don't have very many seals and I often grab them from login campaigns when they are available... this char is from 2011... can't imagine how new chars deal with it. They should at least always allow 2 for 1 trades vs 3 to 1.

With seal drop rates locked to time played, it puts casual players at a real disadvantage.

[detlef]

Well, you can get 450 KS from a single login month, which translates to either 150 or 225 SKC depending on whether the BC campaign is going. Isn't that a lot? Even after spending the bulk of your login points on things like Shanks or Skirmish stones, you can still accumulate a fair amount of seals with the remainders.

Also, when you team up with other players, you get Rem's just for participating. It's a really player-friendly system.

Finally, as I mentioned, seals are a byproduct of almost every XP grinding activity in the game. You're never getting just seals, you're also getting other things that can be converted into gil, used for character progression, or used to purchase NM triggers. I don't think it's as significant a roadblock as you make it sound.

[Olor]

I personally still have a bunch of chapters hanging around because I did a lot of runs when it was popular but these days getting a group for these fights is probably sort of difficult since a lot of people are capped on what they need. I don't think either allowing 2 for 1 stone trades or offering some merit fights that also drop earlier chapters is an outrageous request as seal drop rates are slooooooow and you get crap chapters on low difficulty settings. Not all of us like mindlessly grinding when we log in....

Myself, I've currently just stopped logging in since my fave job was nerfed and am only going to keep up my sub to get this month's trusts and get some trusts I missed earlier. Currently the only activity that SE is offering players like me (99, not very many job points, lower tier 119 gear only) is solo grinding JP and frankly that's really boring.

It's pretty clear the devs are trying to kill the game entirely but that's life. Gotta let go at some point I guess.

And players arguing against making it easier for folks on a lower gear tier to be able to catch up is just going to hasten the end of the game. What does it matter to you if some poor guy that missed the 3 week window where people were actually doing these fights can get a break so he can 108 his gear? I don't really understand the mindset of people that argue against helping folks further behind them so that maybe they could play with other people.

I am going off tangent here, but if you want this game to last a bit longer it would really help if there were better ways for players to catch up so they could play with other people - cause solo grinding is not something people need to pay a sub to do. They can open up any JRPG from the 90s and do it for free.... Or play pokemon... or anything.

I apologize if you're the kind of guy that invites people with really sub optimal gear to do current content in a group setting - but from where I stand it's the worst it's been for gear elitism since pre-Abyssea, and it's killing the game.

I had the most fun during voidwatch era. At least then there were shouts for more than PLD WHM or GEO and a mid-geared person could come on a job they enjoyed and get a shot at neat gear.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

They should at least always allow 2 for 1 trades vs 3 to 1.

This. No matter how many seals you get, at an exchange rate of 3 to 1 they go QUICK.

[detlef]

Well you kinda just went on your soapbox there. Look, could you just keep your BST nerf thing in one or two threads?

I just really don't think this is an issue. 2:1 trade being permanent, fine. Why not? Fair enough. I take advantage of this trade-in whenever the campaign is running.

But farming seals is not hard. If the only thing you got out of seal farming was seals, then yes it would be asinine. But seals drop from almost everything in the game. Abyssea, Incursion, Meebles, Skirmish, and just regular old XP/CP/Silt farming. You have to do a lot of these things already, since they are:

A) Endgame events
B) Farming currency to spend on endgame events
C) Direct character improvements

If you're level 99 and playing the game, there is a very good chance that you are doing these activities already. The game lets you farm XP, CP, Accolades, Sparks, Seals, and even Silt all at the same time if you want. And let's not forget, as you mentioned already you can get 150-225 SKC every month for logging in. Yes, that means you might miss out on a trust or money item but they are available if you want it, essentially for free.

[Mookies75]

I'm seriously confused by the amount of salty/hateful/toxic responses.

Plain and simple: SE clearly values pages 6-10 higher than 1-5. It's harder to get pages 1-5 than 6-10. I can farm 45 merits in 20 minutes, get a full set of pages 6-10 (One piece, 8 pages+extras) in under a hour on some fights, 2 hours on others. Pages 1-5 from scratch will take at least 4 hours without assistance from luckily being on during "Gain xp" limited time event or having a previous stockpile of seals.

I am currently farming Tenzen VE for the bow. I am frequently aoe burning for merits. It takes around 20 tenzen runs to get 1 orb worth of seals.

Farming sparks is like telling someone to level to 99 by only killing easy prey mobs. Yeah you can do it, but it's not efficient by any means, and it takes forever.

If you are saying that it's easier to get pages 1-5, or less time consuming, I'm sorry but you flat out do not know what you're talking about and should maybe pass on talking about things you don't understand.

I've updated the main post to more clearly indicate what I was suggesting. I'm not asking for new fights. I'm asking for new merit KI for the same 1-5 fights, or a way to purchase that specific orb via merits.

[detlef]

Good explanation. I see your point.