Zodiac / Atma new content. Like or Dislike?

I dislike the new content added for the Zodiac weapon and consisting of the Atma fates and Book trails.

Since patch, I have been running the new content for the Zodica weapon and I am very disappointed with it. I do not like having to complete hundreds, if not thousands of FATES, 50 to 80 levels lower than my relic weapon holding classes. So far I have run hundreds of these mindlessly boring FATES, and I have only obtained one Atma.

This content is disrespectful to a sub paying customer and only worthy of the typical grindy and mindless content you get offered by Free to Play developers.

The Book trails look like a continuation of similar vast amounts of low level "Free to Play" quality level content.

By requiring me to have a relic zethith weapon equipped, rather than just in my armoury, while completing such large amounts of low level content I am not even able to undertake any meaningful progression play such as getting my level16 pugilist to level 50 monk. Gameplay that would at least allow for meaningful progression by playing through appropriately Levelled content.

I am not alone in my dislike of the new Zodiac content. I have already lost several friends who have recently left the game due to the Free to Play like nature of the new zodiac content. Mmorpg journalist have also started to allude to the poor quality of this content in sites like massively etc.

I like and hate parts here and there. Though it ain't enough for to judge it too harshly. It can be done and it is time consuming but that is all.

Dont do it then.

The Zodiac weapons open 2 paths to upgrade your gear.

One is Bahamut coil wich requires skill and, once you are skilled enough to do it you can get your weapon much faster.
The other is the zodiac qeapon wich requires no skill at all but in exchange is a random grind aimed at people who cant do or (like me) are not interested in hardcore endgame runs.

I dislike kill 100 mob with my pld :(

Should be adapted to your job.

I'm not a dps :(

I dislike it because of FATEs and RNG dependent progress.

I like the book part alot though. Farming for progress is totally my cup of tea and I would love to see more of it in the future.

The Atma grind sucked, but the book grind is actually rather fun, only somewhat annoying part is farming up the myth for each book, but even that's really not that bad in comparison to the Atma grind.

Relic weapon upgrade, Good idea for content.
Execution, ROFLOL....

It is a good idea, but bad way of going about it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harmonium

I dislike kill 100 mob with my pld :(

Should be adapted to your job.

I'm not a dps :(

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Waaaa. Did my first book of 100 on WHM with zero issues. Least you don't have to worry about dieing to much or links.

In reply to Ashgarth,

The relic / zenith /zodiac quest is too iconic and central to my and many other's Ff14 journey to simply say drop it, don't do it.

Had the developers wisely chosen to add another blue item level 95 weapon to be obtained by completing thousands of FATES 50 to 80 levels lower than your class for those people who do not want to run coil turn 5, while introducing better content to upgrade your zenith to zodiac, then I would agree with you.

Kill it, kill it with fire!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by necrosis

Waaaa. Did my first book of 100 on WHM with zero issues.

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Aero OP.
Holy OP.
Come at me, mobs!

I feel bad for PLDs :(

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Originally Posted by LordEnglish

things

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The atma grind does suck, yes, but they are headed in the right direction, with content that's supposed to last a while (not counting those lucky people who got all 12 in a few days or less -.-). They just did it the wrong way. Been at it since day 1, only 6/12, been stuck in the same zone now for over a week.

Imo, they should add more timesinks, just not heavily reliant on RNG, especially for something thats supposed to be "the best weapon". Give us hard fights or something. I mean hard, something that will actually feel like an achievement. Sure, someone will complain saying timesinks are horrible, but let's be honest, they're needed in a subscription based mmo. They need something to keep people paying. Spending a while on getting gear (not this crappy fate grinding, I mean real challenges) is much better than being handed said gear.

Semi-related, since I mentioned timesinks to keep people playing. Since they removed the myth cap / Coil lockout, I've actually been playing a lot more than I had before 2.2, there's actually things to do now all week, instead of 1-2 days then nothing.

In reply to Obysuca,

I agree with you. I am reticent to drop my zenith in favour of a coil turn 5 or Levi weapon as I have an emotional bond with my relic. This bond was formed during the two months and hundreds of attempts it took me to beat the original Titan HM. That epic fight was great fun. I enjoyed every wipe and beating Titan was a real achievement for me and the others in the winning team. Every one was cheering and whooping for joy before we all ran out to plus one it.

Now I have i90 tank, healer and dps, getting additional Titan HM wins is easy, but, not as easy as fates 50 to 80 item levels lower.

I am also enjoying farming turns 1 to 4 while working on turn 5 and Titan Extreem. However; I have noticed a drop in numbers of people joining party finder for it and sever friends of mine have left my server over the Atma content so I am finding myself mindlessly running the F2P Atma grind while waiting longer and longer to get coil groups.

On maintaining a time sink a simple change of allowing Atma to be obtainable while your zenith is in your armoury rather than equipped as a main arm would allow players to use the grind time sink to level an new class/job and thus see some real time progression.

Atma grind is the wrong direction, imo. People wanted overworld content... group based content. FATES are zergfests.

I wouldn't have minded if there was some kind of grind where you need to group up and sit and grind in one place and socialize with others on your server. spamming FATES is not meaningful overworld content, imo.

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Originally Posted by necrosis

Waaaa. Did my first book of 100 on WHM with zero issues. Least you don't have to worry about dieing to much or links.

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Well wasn't hard, but like i said, this is only long.

Btw i was happy francis help me (my chocobo :D )

https://i.imgflip.com/8az7h.jpg

I loved the entire thing!
Farming fates with groups was fun, I laughed so much and met soo many new people from my server
And the books are fun too. I can afford a new book every 3-4 days so I don't rush the books when I get them.

the only thing I dislike is the waiting for the right fate to spawn, that's rather silly having to camp a spot for hours (I waited 2 hours for one fate) to progress though.
Right now I only have the fate parts left on my 4th book and well, I'd rather do something else but I really want to finish it. So except that part I loved it

I'm about to finish 8th book and this is my opinion.

Most disliked: Very low atma drop rate.

Cons:
- Fates. Having to do recycled content that you have already done endlessly while leveling.
- Too much time spent grinding if you want your animus weapon in a month or less.
- Books requiring to do 3 more fates each.

Pros:
- Books. I like random targeted objectives through dungeons and leves.

Suggested improvements:
- Remove atma drops all together or give alternative way to get atmas though other means that isn't so mundane.
- Reduce cost of a book to about 200 myth.
- Reduce amount of enemies to kill per book to a random number between 1 and 5, instead of a fixed 10.

I rate this content 2 out of 10. Basically don't do it unless you have a lot of time to play and can put up with grinding.

The design of Atma and Animus really come off as low development cost filler content. I'm hoping extensions to the quest line show some actual investment by the development team into making it actually engaging content rather than an uninspired slog. Just because something is 'casual' or 'alternative' character progression content doesn't mean it has to be badly designed.

For the stats, I find out that time and effort doing the animus is a waste for some Jobs. I finished my Artemis Bow Animus ten days ago and I only use it to glamour my Tidal Wave Bow, because the stats are really bad, compared to that other bow.

I got Tidal Wave Bow, before I started the Animus, and was very disapointed when tried the weapon.

http://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...acter/1089962/

Something that requires so much efford, should be better, easy content as leviathan extreme should not have a reward that is better than a Animus. (Don't know what extreme is this by the way, easiest extreme ever)

I feel that if you get mirror is only luck, some players got it easy, compared to the work one does to get a Animus. Our party farmed like 5 mirrors, and killed many, but random drop is still that.

http://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...nt/detail/925/

The main issue I have with this "content" is the reliance on FATE.

The entire fate system reeks of cheap and shoddy content. I'm sure on paper the devs thought they stumbled on the holy grail of MMO content but they failed to realize that when you make half assed repetitive content the players are entirely aware of how little effort has been put into it. And to then try and make further content reliant on such a cheap system makes that content feel cheap as well.

If they want to rely so heavily on fates they need to do some serious overhauls to the system as a whole or else their entire game will just feel insulting to their playerbase.