Merits: Accuracy

[Lonnan]

I agree that endgame accuracy is just stupid right now, and it has created a huge gap that mediocre-119 geared players can't bridge. I mean, if the idea is to make sure 3/4 of your playerbase can never participate in endgame it's well designed. Otherwise it's just awful.

I have full 119 gear on a couple jobs but it does me no good because folks all are doing the latest content which I can't even touch (literally)... and my old go-to buff job, Bard, is not really desireable anymore. Basically I feel like if I don't level and gear GEO I am never going to be able to play relevant content again...

I really wish there was some middle ground content that folks could do solo to get them to the point where they are welcome in parties but it doesn't seem to exist.

Part of the issue is what Kensagaku stated, you have to play the tier game in order to access better equipment to be able to do better content. The other part of the issue is that the ilvl system is incredibly deceptive. HINT all ilvl equipment is not created equal. Since SE decided to cap levels at 99 and handle additional levels through gear and job points, the ilvl system should have increased as gear stats increased in relation to new content. For whatever reason SE kept the ilvl cap at 119. That doesn't mean that JSE reforged gear is equal to delve/skirmish gear is equal to Escha gear. In reality, Escha gear probably should have an ilvl gradient between 122 and 129 but it doesn't. Moral of the story, ilvl is a made up classification and it's gets more and more irrelevant the more content they make.

[Olor]

Part of the issue is what Kensagaku stated, you have to play the tier game in order to access better equipment to be able to do better content. The other part of the issue is that the ilvl system is incredibly deceptive. HINT all ilvl equipment is not created equal. Since SE decided to cap levels at 99 and handle additional levels through gear and job points, the ilvl system should have increased as gear stats increased in relation to new content. For whatever reason SE kept the ilvl cap at 119. That doesn't mean that JSE reforged gear is equal to delve/skirmish gear is equal to Escha gear. In reality, Escha gear probably should have an ilvl gradient between 122 and 129 but it doesn't. Moral of the story, ilvl is a made up classification and it's gets more and more irrelevant the more content they make.

I know, but the tier game is mostly closed off, there are no shouts, the few time I've tried shouting for unity NMs I can actually hit once in awhile, no one is interested and I don't feel confident in building a party for NMs that I don't know the strategy for. It's a vicious circle, can't get gear to get the gear. I have most of the Taeon set and some bits and bobs (and I totally know not all 119 is alike but I've done my best to get what I can).

The issue is the hardcore players are done with middle tier content so it's just scrubs staring at the vast middle tier with no way and no guidance to climb it. A lot of my issue is that I don't want to lead parties if I haven't already beat the content at least once. I know it's holding me back but I don't want to make people mad if we can't beat it...

The INSANE need for accuracy and the sidelining of all buff jobs that are not GEO has only made it worse. I can't even get in a party to get job points... how am I supposed to progress? I used to be able to bard for stuff since the gear requirement (outside of instruments) was lower - mostly it is JSE and most of that can be upgraded to a certain extent solo. Hell before BRD AF3 was upgraded I was still rocking it and doing fine besides taking too much damage if hit while singing... as were most bards because there wasn't actually anything much better for us for a lot of macros.

I am not asking for gear to be handed to me (that's boring) but it would be nice if there was an actual reasonable solo path for folks to slowly climb to higher gear and towards endgame. Right now the only gear "progress" available seems to be spending more and more gil on the augment lottery and that has limited returns. Or straight up buying drops. Or hoping someone pities you and lets you leech content. None of that is particularly fun.

It would also be helpful if ilevel was actually reflective of gear power. I am finding it hard to even compare a lot of the stuff released these days. Ilevel has issues but at least for awhile there it was helpful for judging gear somewhat. Now it's like "which dog's breakfast is better?" and it's hard to say. Not to mention a lot of it is sidegrades and macro peices that make a big difference but take a lot of work to actually get good use out of. It wasn't so bad back in the day since the differences between a well geared 75 player and a mediocre 75 player existed but it wasn't such a chasm... and less on the gear made it easier to judge what was worth getting.

Anyway, I just am finding the game a bit discouraging at the moment and I don't have a lot of urge to play. I keep resubbing because nostalgia but then I get back and I am like "oh yeah, the only thing I can really do is solo outdated content... I can't make meaningful progress on this character... this is boring."

I miss abyssea/voidwatch era. Back then it was easy for folks to get caught up enough to participate and there were lots of slots for different things. Like, even though my BLU was not geared well enough to be a damage dealer, I could still proc like a boss in voidwatch. It meant I could participate in group activities with a chance to improve my gear.

Since ilevel era I've always felt like I am too far behind to participate much. Bard helped me a bit, but never enough to catch me up (partially because I am a sporadic player) but at least I could get into parties for stuff. Anyway, sorry if I sound whiny I just feel like the devs have done an awful job of bringing in a balanced and level endgame. I miss the days where endgame was flat with a lot of different activities that most people could participate in.

[Kensagaku]

Gonna address a few points in order:

1) You're not confident building a party for an NM you don't know the strategy for? Do some research in BG's threads, they have whole sections on all three Escha areas within the first pages. Or even better, do what those forerunners did and throw yourself at it to see what happens. At worst, you're out some accolades or some fish mithkabobs, both of which are very easy to get. The "high-tier players" didn't just magically know how to fight these mobs. There were plenty of wipes in early experiences. If people get angry and quit after one or two losses, then they don't have the patience to progress in this game anyway. We build and learn from losses.

2) The "insane" Accuracy needed is in most cases not that insane until you jump to the higher-tier fights. Middle-tier stuff, I can hit accurately on my un-Gifted RUN at about 1050ish accuracy, and Sushi makes it trivial. Most of what you're going to need is going to be in the form of accessories; Ej Necklace off of the AH is +15, Steelflash/Bladeborn Earrings or Dudgeon/Heartseeker Earrings are +8 Acc/Atk and a bonus, easily soloed by doing individual NMs as opposed to Delve. Anguinus Belt from Abyssea era is easy, that's another +15, and then you can do a number of capes, like Kayapa for +10, or many of the job-specific ones. Using BST, for example, turn accolades into Refractives and work on getting an Acc+ augment to pair with the +10 already on it. Visible slots are generally going to be Taeon at first, but it's still something you can target simply by using Snowslit stones. If you need gil, farm Alexandrite (5~6k each on Valefor) or Dynamis, and build sparks to convert to gil. Etc etc. It's all tiers, like stated.

3) Back in the day, that difference between a mediocre and a well-geared 75 was just as bad as it is now. I remember comparing my BLU to others, doing a SATA Cannonball and falling several hundred points short (which back then was a lot!), comparing gearsets and seeing that I'm missing HQ gear or other similar. Where my DRG was there to maybe hit things but if you weren't a SAM and couldn't deal the damage that they got with their SA WS then you were mostly just fodder. The difference is about the same, it's just more pronounced now, imo.