FFXIV: Endgame as it is now and what it once was, how do you feel?
So not to start out by spouting pointless generalities, please make note this is solely based on my opinions and my experiences. This has only affected me and my friends as far as my specific points I'll bring up. But please speak about your experiences and how they may relate or differ to what has happened with me in the past few years. TLDR down below.
Back in 2.0 when raiding in this game was new. Most people were still trying to get their toes wet on what it was all about. Most people were gated behind the primal HM fights for most of their early careers. And to those who could easily triumph over them moved on to the next level of difficulty, Binding Coils of Bahamut.
Farming up Titan weapons, tomes, etc. to prepare myself to tackle on Coils. Finding PuGs was rather easy in a sense back then. So many people were so willing to try and fail over and over seemingly to just get inside the final tier of content. I actually got my first T1 Coils clear with a PuG on SCH (my 2ndary job at the time) and we went in blind and cleared it relatively easy.
I eventually made my way into T2 and found it a different kind of beast. But still fun and interesting I didn't clear it till I found my new FC and with that a static!
Having the privilege to have a static was amazing at the time! You always had set to semi- set times which were always nice. You always had fun and a sense of accomplishment when clearing things together as a group. You never felt held back or weighed down because it was just playing the game with your friends. Even PuGs back then felt a very similar feeling though, people were just so easily ready to keep trying to push through to the next piece of content.
I never got to clear Final Coils with my static as my entire FC/Static left XIV right after we beat T11. So T12 and T13 remained undefeated for me until 3.0.
Heavensward shows up and boy oh boy... did raiding and endgame change drastically! Sure we still kept our Ex primals... but now we had "story" normal endgame raid and savage endgame raid, the great Alexander.
This tier of raids saw many statics and groups simply fall a part. Be it hardcore or midcores (in skill, not times being able to play) and casuals barely even attempted or could get through this set of raids.
Many people seemed to have clamored for this change to happen though. As the story of Binding Coils of Bahamut was locked behind the 1 tier of raids back in 2.XX. So with the story completed gutted out of the now "Savage" raid, most people didn't feel the need to even attempt it anymore if story was their aim.
At the start of 3.0 I was still "hopeful" that my FC would return... and by the time I got the expansion finished and made it to Bismarck/Ravana Ex, I knew it was time to find a new FC and hopefully a static!
Case in point I find my new home (my current FC to this day) and the prospect of a new static as well! Seeing as Alexander was a different beast from Coils period... we unfortunately never made it far into Gordias. Seeing only consistent clears and the final tier of mobs in A2S was as far as we got. Granted we were not a full static and had to PuG 1 tank, and 2 DPS often. Ex Primals were hit or miss, but we eventually triumphed over most. Took a lot longer to fully farm some like Nidhogg. But we eventually came through.
I'm sure you're thinking (why the blog post?) I probably got a bit heavy winded but my point is coming up now. So after going through all of this, still attempting Alexander as it came out and not really finding a nice spot until Creator, I started to notice a certain thing pop up when I would go with my static or even PuGs to Primals or Savage. And no it wasn't parsers, my old static in 2.XX used those back in the day. No... it was FFLogs. A website dedicated to keeping up with said parses in a database and able to compare others parses around the world.
It started out rather heavy handed as the DPS checks and crazed mechanics in Alexander were very high and stressful for anyone not attempting world first races or even in the higher percentile of hardcore players. But as Creator came, it wasn't nearly as heavy handed with constantly checking others on this website.
4.0 finally makes its way into existence and we get the Omega raids. With everything we had seen with Alexander though, people were not going to take many chances. Keeping my static for the most part through at least Deltascape and clearing all the way through O3S. It was rather rough, not so much the fights, they seemed decently tuned. But finding others with our willing mindsets and play-styles seemed almost impossible. So many people then and now were extremely obsessed with their FFLogs scores. The journey and the fights along the way didn't mean much anymore. It was all about coming on top of PvE content in a race against your "opponent". No... not the raid bosses, but other people's parses. Endgame had shifted drastically in the years from 3.XX-4.0 and remained as such in the oncoming content of 4.XX.
Primals weren't as heavily affected by this, but it can still be seen from time to time.
I have never had a personal problem with parsing or parsers period. I find them helpful tools that can help pinpoint your mistakes and work on them when you're in a very healthy and friendly raid group environment.
I feel like the problem, again for me personally, is now FFLogs as a whole. People are trying to make PvE content into a competition. Instead of simply trying PvP where the whole premise is to compete against each other, the players have taken it into their own hands to do that with an outside source using said means.
And there are those that will harass you for simply not playing to "their" standards or the "new" standards that were put into place during the awkward struggles of Alexander Savage. Now I'm sure this just seems like a bad player spouting on about how bad he is and wishes he could continue to just play in the "old days". Who knows maybe this is and maybe I am bad. I don't have many uploads on said site for people to check out, I play on PS4 and am at the mercy of others for that. But I'm sure there are those who will do their "research" just to sniff me out.
I have never claimed in this post nor will I ever claim to be the "best". I only try to be my best when I'm in a fun and friendly environment. I feel many PuGs I deal with now days... are no such place. Even finding a static or trying to start your own is just as much of a challenge if not worse. People have bookmarked expectations of you and if you don't fit into that one size fits some mold, you aren't worth their time.
Now don't think either I advocate sloppy or bad play. You shouldn't have to deal with others who refuse to improve or hold your group back from progressing through the content.
I suppose my point being, is from 2.XX and onward endgame has drastically changed, and I definitely feel it's been for the worst. People try to put into stock what the rest of the world is doing rather then trying to focus on their progress and their team mates. I still personally think it was a mistake splitting our one 8man raid into two tiers. I always felt and still feel that Coils as a whole was the perfect raid tier and setting. Yes, even if it makes me sound elitist, I feel story mode should have never happened in 8man raiding. I feel it took out the want for most people to try and progress not only for gear, but for story as well.
Now days people only progress through the hardest 8man raids (even Ultimates) simply to have the highest scores. As many go on here and other places, you don't need the top tier raiding gear if you aren't raiding in those raids yourself. So they don't seem to be doing it for the gear since a lot of higher hardcore players can and will clear with crafted stuff and appropriate melds. So it seems that people try to go forth and simply beat the next groups "score".
Alexander has and will always remain to me personally as a fail. I felt Omega might have had some redeeming qualities, but because of my own personal experiences with this expansions raid tier, it fell flat for me and hard.
Again I really don't claim to be some expert on this sort of stuff. I just feel that the direction the game has went in since 3.XX has failed to meet some of my own personal expectations and continues to do so while allowing certain things to go unnoticed by the devs and maybe even Yoshi himself. I personally hope the status quo eventually gets shaken up so much by 5.0 that we finally see a hard reset as the raiding continues on in this game. I personally miss the much more story driven as well as outlook of the earlier days of raiding. I know some of it was based on everything still being new and I know that part can and will NEVER be recaptured and I don't expect it too.
Anyway if you stuck with me through all of this LONG read, what are your thoughts? Think I'm some bumbling fool who has NO idea what he's talking about? (I honestly just might be lol) or have you had similar or the same type of experiences?
TL : DR - Endgame has changed drastically from 2.XX all the way to 4.4. I personally think it's the use of FFLogs and peoples desire to compete with each other in PvE content rather then PvP content. Do you agree? Disagree?