I think in comparison it's more the fact it was actually more of a unique quest, rather than forking over seals that you stockpiled.
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The NM's do spawn fast, but that's not the time sink part. They are very easy to kill... its the whole walking everywhere, while avoiding getting aggro and linking tree's that is lame.
We could really use that update to the link system where mobs only call the same type.
I think part of the problem is we're getting things piecemeal, so by the time these promotions came around it is simply a matter of talking to the NPC a few times in a row and speeding through the promotions. Likewise, if more promotions come in the next patch — around 2 months away — many of us will have built up another healthy collection of seals, doing nothing more than sitting in our overly large pockets. And we might be able to breeze through those promotions, yet again.
But newer players won't have that luxury.
It's something they'll have to actively work toward, scrapping together every seal they can, completing any GC quests they can find, participating in plenty of missions or by simply forgoing a few pieces of armor, weapons or manuals until they've built up enough seals to earn their promotion. From that perspective, I think they'll achieve some sense of accomplishment for each rank. More than the people who had thousands of seals collecting dust, not doing a thing with them.
That's not to say a quest per rank would have gone amiss...
^That's exactly what people are forgetting. The only reason it takes two seconds for us to get it is because most of us have hit 50 and completed every GC quest available before the new ranks came out. For a new player there would be progression and they would have to do the quests to afford the promotions. GC leves are a painfully slow way of getting seals so the quests are pretty much required.
The problem is: how many new players had come in FFXIV in the last 3 months? huh?!?! hmmmm...
95% of every server reached rank (ooops level) 50 before patch 1.18, and except for "animation lock", there's never been endgame content. Seriously: this game is so empty and we're gonna pay for it! I'll pay because 2.0 seems gorgeous, but what are we gonna do in the meantime? Nothing challenging! And the fact that the so called "endgame" can be done with Christmas outfit or NAKED, it's ridicolous talking about everything in this game (equip, stats, tactics, contents...).
I think it was a good thing for the first time... now I really don't want to keep doing it.