The new era of communication with the playerbase.

[Sparthos]

I can believe it, Before weakness staggers were figured out which once again, SE did nothing to tell players how they work, Drop rates for a lot of Abyssea gear is pretty god awful. My theory is they never expected people to figure out how the weakness staggering worked so quickly.

Atma of the apocalypse's infinite RR and 200k brews considering old habits, I can't defend.

Huh?

SE gave players asisstance on how the Abyssean lights worked in a community letter and by Scars of Abyssea the proc system had been thoroughly figured out with assistance from Japanese players.

If they wanted to make things "hard" for players they could have changed the dynamic with Heroes yet things only got easier from there culminating in the discernment abyssite/200k brews which was icing on the "we want this to be stress-free" cake.

I think it'd be shortsighted to think SE didn't anticipate players to figure out the proc system and exploit it in order to get good rates on drops. The minute you hit the trigger, the rates become extremely friendly and thanks to all the tools given to you, the process requires little to no thought.

[Neisan_Quetz]

I don't think they expected it to be figured out so quickly is what I mean. They probably expected us to take longer to figure it out than we did.

Giving decent clues is something new though.

[Sparthos]

I don't think they expected it to be figured out so quickly is what I mean. They probably expected us to take longer to figure it out than we did.

Giving decent clues is something new though.

I think by Scars and the decision to release Razed Ruins that SE had planned all along for Abyssea to be a casual detour from the disaster that the rest of the game had become.

Much of the initial outrage that stemmed from Visions penalty on entering Abyssea had started to collapse, Ephemerals made getting lights even easier with the hints provided by the community team and procs were figured out such to make the process of farming that much easier.

Though it may be just conjecture, I believe that everything unfolded as planned with regards to our progress as a community in Abyssea. We were blind during Vision, Scars made us adept with Abyssea and then Heroes slathered on the overkill such to make the whole package a comforting memory that would then be dashed to pieces with Voidwatch.

[Molech]

Funny that FFXIV's v1.19 patch just released and it looks to be the most positive change in the history of that game - I can't believe I'm saying it, but I might have to fire up XIV again if they keep up with this direction in XI (cue the FFXI intentionally killing XI to make XIV succeed conspiracy theorists). There definitely seems to be a strong link to these horrible decisions and the return to prominence of the exiled XIV producer. Tanaka-san = the ultimate HNM. Since AV is now a much more winnable fight, he can serve as the new "impossible" Notorious Monster.

I'm not a brand new player, I've been here since 2004. I love Abyssea and it revitalized the game for me, like it did for many others. I am not willing to go backwards and deal with the bad aspects of the old days of FFXI yet again. I'm very worried about the future given the post-Abyssea content we've seen:

* Voidwatch is a disaster thanks to the garbage drop rates and loot distribution system, for mostly sidegrade gear at that
* WOE isn't much better, and the new changes hurt it for solo coin farming and as a good alternative for a lower requirement (and weaker weapon) alternative to get Empy WS.
* The requirements for 95 Empyrean/WOE weapon trials - brutal
* The revamped land kings system
* Scroll drops exclusively from HKCNMs

I'm not very excited to hear that future content might include things like additional Wyrms - in fact I'm very much dreading the return of the awful HNM systems of the past.

Neo Dynamis is about the only thing I'm enjoying right now outside of Abyssea, but really, I can't see too much of a point. Makes relics more obtainable, but for what? As an alternative to insane 95Empy requirements, so I can have a weapon to kill VW content and not get desired drops a little bit faster? I can see myself finishing up AFv3+2 gear for my jobs and losing any motivation to continue with FFXI unless something unexpected happens soon.

The FFXI patch was so terrible that I find myself on FFXIV 98% of the time since 1.19.

[Juri_Licious]

I didn't even play endgame content back in the day and I find all these Voidwatch parties I keep getting into 100x more fun than Abyssea.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Not sure how you find standing around waiting for procs fun since that's all I've seen in PUG VW.

[Return1]

Perhaps your groups suck.

[Neisan_Quetz]

PUG always suck, I do them while bored. My current group is on hiatus due to our lead taking a break over how lackluster the update was in their mind and others going back to school etc.

[noodles355]

Good to see a group who can't function without their leader.

[Kimble]

The producer doesnt even really direct the game (that is what the director does after all) so perhaps the "blame" should be more to the director of the game?