Upcoming 7.4 Criterion feedback

As someone who absolutely loves the Criterion dungeons & their Savage variants, I was ecstatic to finally hear about us getting a new one in .4, even if it is many months away. I am however worried about the timing of it, specifically in relation to obtaining gear.
Going off of the previous Criterions:

7.4 Criterion - Will require 770 ilvl, with a 795 ilvl sync
7.4 Criterion (Savage) - 795 ilvl sync, designed to be cleared with 790 gear minimum

The 7.4 Savage Raids will likely be releasing 7-8 weeks before the Criterion, and due to the cap on acquiring Tomes & Savage gear, to have enough gear to play the 7.45 Criterion (Savage) you MUST have cleared at least M9-12S Week 1. Without this you will not have enough gear to clear the Criterion (Savage). This severely limits those who can access it.

This happens in multiple ways. While I agree hard content should have limitations, being locked out by a lack of loot, which could happen from bad luck on rolls, means even skilled players could be locked out of clearing it.

The other way this excludes people is by limiting job choices. With only 7-8 weeks, you are only going to have 1 job fully geared, with a 2nd partially started. Because Criterion (Savage) requires a Standard Light Party comp & a high level of gear, players can't change jobs to fill in where needed. This drastically reduces the possible parties that can form to actually enter the content.

Luckily there are many ways to resolve this. The most player beneficial ones would be opening up gearing paths earlier. For example, giving Criterion a path for 690 ilvl gear, either through new gear sets, or the augmenting items for tome gear. However, I understand that this may break CBU3's intent for a slower gearing system even if I personally disagree with how slow it is in a game where playing multiple classes is encouraged and advertised. It does however provide a solution to the reward problem that I know many believe plagued the previous Criterions.

An alternative route could also be to not design it for the newly introduced Item level cap, and instead limit it to the current cap of 765. This would make the current tier's gear valuable outside of itself, and encourage raiders to re-enter it. If this were to happen though, I would highly recommend advertising this long before the Criterion is implemented, likely in the 7.4 Letter from the Producer Live Part 1. That way players are aware early and can actually prepare for any job they would like in time, especially as the limitations on weekly loot will still be in place.

I really hope whatever happens, that as many people can enjoy the upcoming Criterion as possible, and that this feedback helps them do so. And to those that have not tried Criterions & their Savage counterparts yet, I highly recommend giving them a go as in my opinion they are some of the best content Endwalker introduced.

you dont need BiS to clear it

No one said BiS. No one would be guaranteed BiS in one week even if doing M9-12S week one. The problem is the player decay after Week 1 and the loss of freedom in job selection since it's designed around having at least half Savage raid gear.

Personally, I'd just like to see each be released with an ilvl sync down to the previous tier's max ilvl or that of the new normal raid / crafted gear. I don't see why 4-man difficult content should have to be a continuation only of 8-man difficulty content. (If anything, we'd normally expect the opposite, if they had to be interlinked).

It's probably fine. you'll have half of 7.4, and all of 7.5 to clear it, just because you don't get it to minute 1 is good. Anyone wanting to "race" criterion will be wk1 clearing savage with splits. and wk 1 criterion savage doesnt matter for anyone else.

Unfortunately, since the 6.4 criterion has the same ilvl sync as the 6.5 criterion, you are probably correct. I'm sure internally SE's best testers have cleared everything on min ivl etc etc. But for PF and lesser players it's going to be rough not having 790 gear.

HOWEVER - the 6.4 Criterion also didn't appear until 6.45. Because raiding took the focus of 6.40, of course. So even if you don't raid then you have plenty of time to get lots of capped tomestone 780 pieces for one single role. Maybe even all nine pieces and 780 normal raid weapon? It's something.

We know literally nothing about this content besides the fact that it will happen. How are we leaving feedback? You can suggest things, but you can't leave feedback for something that doesn't exist.

Might be a good idea to have some catch up gear in normal Criterion like Chaotic. But I have this crazy idea the next Variant/Criterion will be a part of Occult Crescent, basically the path from South Horn to North Horn. If it is they might apply the 700 ilevel synch to it

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Altina_Orion

We know literally nothing about this content besides the fact that it will happen. How are we leaving feedback? You can suggest things, but you can't leave feedback for something that doesn't exist.

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It's feedback on a trend which, unless suddenly broken, would give a outcome in 7.4 the OP sees as problematic.

There is enough evidence available to give comment on based on how it has affected what we've already played -- i.e., feedback.

Maybe it should be called "feedback on criterion ilvl tuning and caps pertinent to the 7.4 criterion addition" to be perfectly technical, but "feedback related to the upcoming 7.4 Criterion" / "Upcoming 7.4 Criterion feedback" seems plenty understandable without any non-paradoxical ambiguity likely.

What do Duty Roulettes, PVP, Ultimate Raids and V&C dungeons have in common?
"(excluding limited jobs)"

Please allow limited jobs in V&C please please please please
I'm not asking you to suddenly increase the level cap of BLU to 100. I'm asking you to remove the arbitrary restriction in the dungeon finder that will continue to prevent BLU from doing V&C dungeons even after the level cap increases to 90.
When the Blue Mage expansion does happen Sil'dihn Subterrane will likely be over 3 years old. But we might still be unable to do even Variant dungeons unless a change is made before then
Please don't arbitrarily exclude limited jobs from the new V&C dungeon. But if you really, really have to, please don't also have it award Blue Mage specific glam. That was a really weird choice. (DoM glam is fine)