Hunts and Frontlines: Thoughts?

It's that time again for the gathering of more opinions! Note that not all opinions will be used for the next Gamer Escape article for Eorzea's Voice (unless there are so few responses, but will be asking on servers/on Lodestone).

It's been about a month now since the release of patch 2.3. After the chaos has settled, what are your thoughts on frontlines and hunts?

Several questions to consider (Don't need to respond to all):

How into hunts and frontlines are you?

Are hunts beneficial to all?

What have you bought with your seals thus far?

If there was one way to improve hunts or frontlines, what would you do?

What is your favorite mob out of the hunts?

What do you think about no morale in frontlines?

What team are you on in frontlines?

What rewards would you like to see in frontlines and/or hunts?

How do you hunt? Solo? With a group? Lie in wait, or run the moment you see someone call for the mob?

I thank you all for your lovely responses!

Gonna bump it once, managed to get some opinions on the blogs and from server. So giving everyone a final chance here before I finish writing the article :)

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Originally Posted by Leira_Raine

Questions!

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1. I enjoy Frontlines! It's fun PVP content that, while I don't always win, I still get something for the trouble regardless, which to me is pretty great! Hunts, on the other hand, are kinda not-good. It's the "Black Friday" of FFXIV content. It's Odin/Behemoth on crack. Odin/Behemoth content really doesn't need to be on crack.


2. I can definitely see hunts being beneficial to the people who want to grind out content quickly. The way they're structured isn't very good, but the rewards, for those who manage to endure, are great.

3. I have earned zero allied seals thus far, so nothing.

4. I have one big opinion on how both Frontlines and Hunts could be improved. Give Frontlines some Allied Seal drops, and remove all Allied Seal drops from hunts. Keep the allied seal rewards from the daily / weekly marks, of course, but don't allow every mark to drop seals all the time. With this in mind, hunts will be a lot less swamped while everyone will get allied seal drops from and populate Frontlines.

5. I don't have a favorite mob out of the hunts at the moment.

6. I think it makes PVP gear even more worthless than it already was, but it does give PVP rookies a fighting chance.

7. Immortal Flames! For Coin and Country, Always and Forever!

8. In Frontlines, considering the whole issue with Cartaneau Flats is all about asserting claim to Allagan ruins, how about some rare mat drops that can be used to craft certain kinds of Allagan furniture? For hunts, how about "Trophy" mat drops from S-Ranks to make furniture based on those hunts?

9. I don't hunt.

I think it is ridiculous that they introduce a PvP element like Frontlines that appeals to a lot of people, but it scraps morale making PvP gear worthless for PvP. Right now the only use I see for Frontlines is leveling up desynthesis. Hunts could have been amazing, but I think they implemented it wrong. They tossed it out there without much thought and it gave way to massive ToS violating, brought out the absolute worst in the community, and the no cap rewards pretty much made the other big part of the patch, Syrcus Tower, worthless. As for a favorite mob in hunts, there is only one mob, the sheep mob that mindlessly goes around destroying marks as soon as they spawn, poorly implemented content made bad players shine.

One way to improve hunts, have daily/weekly give currency accepted by the hunter scholars, make the hunter scholars give you a trap, B A or S depending on how much you pay, you get a location, you go set your trap and it spawns the mark, and it is locked to your group like treasure maps are. This would get people to do daily weekly hunts so they can do the marks, so they can get the allied seal rewards, and this would have a built in cap.

To improve frontlines, either put morale back in or don't diminish defense and magic defense, morale was made to replace it, so it makes no sense to leave it out if they leave out morale as well, this only created an imbalance between archetypes where healers can damage almost as well as a dps and heal, and tanks are as squishy as everyone else, but don't have quite as much damage.

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Originally Posted by Leira_Raine

Frontlines

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I can only comment on Frontlines, as that's what my "end-game" consists mainly of since hitting level 50 last week.


First off, despite Twin Adder's abysmal lack of coordination here on the Jenova server, I still very much enjoy Frontlines. I feel the rewards are adequate for the most part, however I believe that the amount of Mythology and Soldiery should be reduced depending on what place you're in. For instance, 1st gets the normal 50 Myth and 25 Soldiery, 2nd gets 40 and 20, while 3rd receives 30 and 15. Something like that. Here on Jenova, we have several players who queue for FL, and then "AFK" in a fashion. They'll move within the two minute window, preventing them from getting kicked out. Some, even boldly throw insults at the teams actively engaged, while still standing in the same place they spawn; again, to prevent being auto-kicked. I believe this will deter those that are there for the free Myth/Soldiery, and opt to either actively compete, or do something else.

On the Morale issue, I believe Frontlines should be an area where Morale matters. I admit, there will be some gear discrepancy between those with, and without PvP gear, I look at the nature of Frontlines in general and find that the natural "zerg-y" nature of the game will help alleviate this issue should a coordinated team in PvP gear decide to camp an Outpost. For instance, should an opposing team in PvP gear take Manors, team C and part of team B could opt to zerg them, or run splits to other outpost that are defended by players in some, or no PvP gear. And if they do choose to tackle them head-on, I think this would promote a little more thinking regarding priority targets, and more intelligent use of their skills. The excuse of not having PvP gear seems to be a non-issue in my opinion. If I'm not mistaken, there's a set you can buy rather cheaply off the Market Place. Or better yet ( assuming it's not already done and I've missed it ), the developers could supply everyone ( through a quest no less ) with a basic set so that they're not completely helpless if they're brand new players. The amount of Wolf Marks one earns is enough to get your ilvl70 set rather quickly whether you place first, second, or third.

Rewards: I think the actual rewards of Frontlines are alright, but would like to see them adjusted. I don't however, think that about Wolf Marks. If PvP is to last in this game, and keep players interested in it, they need to add more things to purchase with Wolf Marks. Gear and Materia aside, it's pretty pointless. That's not good at all. Not for those that are dedicated to PvP, or those that are thinking about giving it a shot. Yes, there are those that PvP because it's PvP, but those people are far, far less than those that need something shiny to go after. I'm a mix between those two extremes, and as I do love to PvP, I'd like to be able to say I got this, or that thing from my efforts. With that said, I think there should be mini's, mounts, a few more titles, armors/glamours etc. things like that. This is doubly so in Wolve's Den. I think the rewards there need to outweigh those that may or may not get implemented in Frontlines as WD from what I've seen thus far, and from the general consensus here, and in-game, is dead. That's an issue that's not relevant, but should still be stated.

Just my two cents.

How into hunts and frontlines are you?
I've done more hunts than Frontlines, but that was mostly due to rewards and being nervous about doing PvP as I don't typically like that sort of thing. Having actually tried both now, I much prefer Frontlines. It's a fun, pretty casual, diverse experience with reasonable rewards. Hunts are a hectic, annoying, zerg-fest with fantastic rewards if you don't mind the tedium, drama, and mad dashes toward new found marks. I feel like some restrictions might be in order if not an overhaul.

Are hunts beneficial to all?
To all? No. By design they cater to a small crowd (compared to the number of people logged in at a time). There's never enough of this content to satiate everyone wanting to participate which leads to a frantic and unpleasant experience for most people playing, even if they are getting credit frequently. Moreover, it strictly caters to the dedicated groups. Happening upon a mark while solo generally just means that you can get minimum credit on it.

What have you bought with your seals thus far?
Nothing. I have about 430 from a combination of 2 hunt parties (about 2 hours each) and whatever I found/ solo'd while doing other things. It's very lackluster content if your aim is to have fun.

If there was one way to improve hunts or frontlines, what would you do?
Personally I would restore morale to PvP gear for Frontlines. It seems senseless to me that PvP gear's best use is desynthesis. This would likely mean that I'd get slaughtered more often, but I feel like if PvP gear exists it should have some use and it should even out between GCs and over time anyway.
I feel like hunts should be redesigned to be individualized. Change the weekly mark to an S rank that can be spawned on demand (like a treasure map). Change daily marks to a single rank A that can be spawned like a treasure map. Change rank B to be spawned like a treasure map, but make those mark bills purchasable with tomes (whichever) and/or GC seals. Lower the rewards on S and A (in AS/ tomes) and balance S around 8 people, A around 4, and B around 1-2.

What do you think about no morale in frontlines?
As stated above, I don't think it's good design to make PvP gear with a specific PvP stat that is negated in the most popular PvP venue. It might be unbalanced for the individual (with no PvP gear) but on the whole it should be balanced between teams. It would also give peole something to buy with wolf marks besides desynthesis fodder.

What team are you on in frontlines?
Immortal Flames!

How do you hunt? Solo? With a group? Lie in wait, or run the moment you see someone call for the mob?
I'm most often solo when I see a mark, though the only way to successfully hunt is in a group dedicated to that end.

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Are hunts beneficial to all?

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Yes. They promote server interaction and open world content. The game finally no longer feels like a giant lobby for yet another instanced content and the zone are again full of life. I made friends and joined LS since Hunts started.

People worry about gears, but ultimately it won't matter as 2.4 will reset everything from zero.

Ultimately, they are the only true-mmorpg content this game has, and that's why the average wow player, who thinks the genre is more close to a single player game featuring co-op doesn't understand them.

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What have you bought with your seals thus far?

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Minions, Strike Dummy for my FC, Ultima Miniature for me and my fc and some Sand and Oils. I'm mostly content with what I got, I like hunting so I didn't rush to get the Sands, since new gears will come in 2.4 anyway.

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If there was one way to improve hunts or frontlines, what would you do?

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More maps, more modes, more random stuff like traps and mobs roaming the land.

For hunts? Hard to say. They are definitely flawed, I won't deny it, but flaws come from Yoshi coping a FFXI feature without understanding it. The game world is too small and the instant teleport are the main "problems" with hunts, but it's hard to fix these without a major overhaul.

I guess an improvement over daily marks is a must.

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What is your favorite mob out of the hunts?

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I really like Mindflayer.

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What do you think about no morale in frontlines?

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Don't care.

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What team are you on in frontlines?

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Immortal FailFlames.

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What rewards would you like to see in frontlines and/or hunts?

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More mounts and minions.

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How do you hunt? Solo? With a group? Lie in wait, or run the moment you see someone call for the mob?

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Pretty much always in group, sometimes alone when I'm waiting to do something else or about to log-out. Always scout the zone.

How into hunts and frontlines are you?
I did enough hunt to earn about a total of 8K seals. I also went from rank 18 to 39 in a course of a month. (260 solo queues)

Are hunts beneficial to all?
To a certain extent, yes. Now that some of the people in my static got a few sand of time, T8 became a faceroll. But that's about all it does for us so far.

What have you bought with your seals thus far?
8 Sands of time, 3 Oils of time, 1 Succubus minion.

If there was one way to improve hunts or frontlines, what would you do?
I wish hunt was more of a challenge. I mean sure they didn't intend this many people would just zerg it, but I expect much higher difficulty due to it's reward.
Frontline in the other hand, I wish I was able to queue with my friend from another GC. I certain don't want my friend and I sacrifice one of our PVP ranks to play with each other. That's a little too much with the time it takes to get there.

What is your favorite mob out of the hunts?
Hellsclaw, because people always get one shot'd by counter maneuver

What do you think about no morale in frontlines?
It certainly made frontline more of a fair game, but it also means PVP gear are useless.

What team are you on in frontlines?
Immortal Flames.

What rewards would you like to see in frontlines and/or hunts?
More vanity wouldn't hurt.

How do you hunt? Solo? With a group? Lie in wait, or run the moment you see someone call for the mob?
I used to join party finders, but now I just duo with a friend since we can get full credit. I only do full party for S-Rank.
I generally try to spawn the S-Ranks if they're within window.

How into hunts and frontlines are you?

Hunts are killing the game for me, its an stressfull and hatefull activity and sadly the only hope for standart players to get an item like Sand of Time / loved frontlines as a Huge BG

Are hunts beneficial to all?

No, are making more dificult for players who dont like to zrg 6-10 hours by day, to do actually fun stuff in-game (DF and PF are dead)

What have you bought with your seals thus far?

Nothing

If there was one way to improve hunts or frontlines, what would you do?

Hunts: Do it as LevelQuest But with the need of a ligth/full party (ligth = B-A /// Full = S) Also includes a cap of (250-300 seals by week)

Frontlines: no changes

What is your favorite mob out of the hunts?

The one i find with my FCand kill it without the zerg

How do you hunt? Solo? With a group? Lie in wait, or run the moment you see someone call for the mob?

Alone or with my FC when the zerg let us something

How into hunts and frontlines are you?
At first, I hunted. But now I stay away from that mess. I enjoy frontlines a lot. But I really hate going into a 48vs48 game. It's so terrible.

Are hunts beneficial to all?
I guess.

What have you bought with your seals thus far?
Sands of Time. That's all

If there was one way to improve hunts or frontlines, what would you do?
If I wanted to improve hunts. I would make it where you don't need to join a party to earn full credit. It's so ridiculous right now. It becomes very stressful for me trying to find a party at the last minute. I'm sure EVERYONE cannot ALWAYS be in a party ALL THE TIME!

What is your favorite mob out of the hunts?
The Scholar Tonberry.

What do you think about no morale in frontlines?
It doesn't really affect me. But they could include a version of Frontlines that uses morale.

What team are you on in frontlines?
Maelstrom

What rewards would you like to see in frontlines and/or hunts?
The rewards are fine right now.

How do you hunt? Solo? With a group? Lie in wait, or run the moment you see someone call for the mob?
Hunts are stressful for me, so I don't even bother with them anymore.

How into hunts and frontlines are you?
Hunt is a total mess, unless you go do it during off peak hours which is a blast. Otherwise it's extremely toxic, a big waste of time and badly implemented. Frontlines is fun, could use more tweaks but a blast.

Are hunts beneficial to all?
Right now it is being spammed by the whole server because it requires zero thinking, just find mob, zerg, forget about everyone else. Really bad content design.

What have you bought with your seals thus far?
The quickest way to gear fast for lvl 90 sets and lvl 110.

If there was one way to improve hunts or frontlines, what would you do?
It's beyond easy fix. Add one minute invincible status, add 3 minutes big damage reduction to the monster. Make it so each B kill takes 3 minutes, A kill takes 5 minutes and S rank takes 8 minutes to kill. Problems solved, more people can participate and get credits.

What is your favorite mob out of the hunts?
Any mobs that decimate a big groups is most welcome. AOE petrify, instant death moves, as long as they obliterate the group quickly, the better it is. It will force some strategy. Too bad none live long enough to do barely anything. Most of them die in 15 seconds. It is that bad...

What do you think about no morale in frontlines?
Morale is good, anything that level the playing field is good. No need of "my peen is bigger than yours".

What team are you on in frontlines?
Maelstrom

What rewards would you like to see in frontlines and/or hunts?
Rewards are excellent for Hunts, too good to be true, takes so little time and so much much much much rewards. No need to fix the rewards, fix the mob HP and behavior so it's a 3-8 minutes event minimum and not mere seconds.

How do you hunt? Solo? With a group? Lie in wait, or run the moment you see someone call for the mob?
Gotta group or you get crap rewards. Hunt is great idea that is badly implemented. It's great that it forces everyone to work together. We kinda need more server side contents that force people in the same server to team up and work together. And heavily punish people who try to do everything solo for this particular content. This way you have your solo content and your grouping content.

Well, I don't really PvP at all so I can't comment on frontlines, but hunts have been a mixed bag and I'm curious to see what Square Enix's development team is going to do next to improve the system. Right now, Hunts are beneficial mostly due to the fact they represent a better upgrade path than animus/novus, which is just so grindy that no sane person would fathom doing them unless they were incredibly bored or just couldn't find a better game to play at the time.

Right now, I'm hoping they will make S ranks appear regularly and have abilities that make zerging them a bad idea as right now most farm groups just ignore the S rank windows to focus on A and B rank enemies. They also should probably have iLvL 110 or 100 gear available from hunts instead of just giving sands and oils, as the hunts are at least somewhat less repetitive than repeatedly running through coil or other end game raids.

How into hunts and frontlines are you?
I'm not particularly crazy about either

Are hunts beneficial to all?
Somewhat provided you actually get there before it dies

What have you bought with your seals thus far?
A pepper to reset my 'bo

If there was one way to improve hunts or frontlines, what would you do?
More HP for the lower ranked hunts they just seem to die too quickly

What do you think about no morale in frontlines?
Indifferent really although it is nice to ease people that have not done PVP before in it.

What team are you on in frontlines?
Immortal Flames

How do you hunt? Solo? With a group? Lie in wait, or run the moment you see someone call for the mob?
Badly! I am not part of a hunt LS so the only time i tend to notice them is when half of a server appears and starts shouting for invites haha

I've barely touched The Hunt content, it's the worst thing I've experienced in FFXIV. I don't do PVP, so I have no opinion on Frontlines. -Q.

How into hunts and frontlines are you?
Not really into hunts, frontlines is fun.

Are hunts beneficial to all?
Everyone that participates gets something I guess.

What have you bought with your seals thus far?
A Hero's Ring of Fending and a Reagan Pepper for my chocobo companion.

If there was one way to improve hunts or frontlines, what would you do?
Hunts...I can't think of a way to improve the hunts without scrapping the whole system. Frontlines I find no fault with.

What is your favorite mob out of the hunts?
Skogs Fru and Dark Helmet.

What do you think about no morale in frontlines?
Not sure...It's fine with me.

Frontlines Team?
Twin Adders.

What rewards would you like to see in frontlines and/or hunts?
Frontlines are fine. Regarding the Hunts...I'm not sure if the rewards are too easy to obtain or the Hunt is just too rewarding.

How do you hunt?
I don't hunt voluntarily, only once; however, occasionally I will come across a B mark and duo it with my choco buddy.

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Originally Posted by Leira_Raine

If there was one way to improve hunts or frontlines, what would you do?

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Remove the Grand Company Specific Elite Gear from the rewards with Allied Seals and move them to the Frontlines' list of rewards.

You don't fight as part of your Grand Company during hunts. You fight specifically for your Grand Company when you fight in Frontlines. Why is the Elite gear passed out to those in the hunts?

One change improves both.

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Originally Posted by Rhomagus

Remove the Grand Company Specific Elite Gear from the rewards with Allied Seals and move them to the Frontlines' list of rewards.

You don't fight as part of your Grand Company during hunts. You fight specifically for your Grand Company when you fight in Frontlines. Why is the Elite gear passed out to those in the hunts?

One change improves both.

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If you notice each hunt mark has been issued as a threat by the GC leaders, so you really are killing them in the name of your GC.

Finally up for those that are curious: http://gamerescape.com/2014/08/26/eo...you-hunted-me/

That being said, hope you enjoy and I hope I'll see some more opinion for the next article (will be quite the fun topic, I assure you all).