Why is there a staggered release only for the first tier of Savage and the Ultimates?

Why not for the second and third tiers of Savage as well?

So people have time to experience the MSQ at their own pace without feeling rushed to get to the end. It also gives people time to gear. The second and third tier come out so late, you have plenty of time to get gear from the previous tier as well as finish MSQ.

The devs want people to be able to take their time getting through the main story at launch, rather than feeling like they have to rush it to get straight to the endgame. This isn't considered as much of an issue in later patches, since people have had months to catch up.

People would guaranteed skip all cutscenes and level up to max as fast as possible for that world's first clear otherwise.

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Originally Posted by Billythepancake

So people have time to experience the MSQ at their own pace without feeling rushed to get to the end. It also gives people time to gear. The second and third tier come out so late, you have plenty of time to get gear from the previous tier as well as finish MSQ.

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Originally Posted by TheMightyMollusk

The devs want people to be able to take their time getting through the main story at launch, rather than feeling like they have to rush it to get straight to the endgame. This isn't considered as much of an issue in later patches, since people have had months to catch up.

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Then why are the Ultimates released at a later date? You can't say 5.2 is when they decide everyone has had enough time to catch up because the 5.3 Ultimate will be released a few weeks later.

Aside from giving raiders time to gear up? I assume part of it is making sure that roles are relatively playable after an expansion, which means waiting a patch or two to see what needs to be adjusted. Also because the devs are giving priority to getting the entire expansion running (the part every player will see) and don't have the time to work on an Ultimate (which only high-end raiders will see) until that's settled.

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Originally Posted by Vnolan

Then why are the Ultimates released at a later date? You can't say 5.2 is when they decide everyone has had enough time to catch up because the 5.3 Ultimate will be released a few weeks later.

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The 'main' Patches are somewhat prone to have some slight problems on launch day. I think that Ultimate being as hyped as it is, they want to reduce the risk to halt progress with an emergency maintenance.

Potentially to give any possible class changes a chance to be parsed out in a few weeks of Savage content instead of dumping them directly into an Ultimate release and messing it up? That's the best I could come up with.

because there's so many content released at the expansion day, msq, sidequest, fates, new jobs, old job reworks, etc
dev probably want to make sure the player have already adjusted to the new rotation of their job (and maybe get the data needed to adjust some skill potencies/effect), and for the player to get the minimum gear ilv needed before they release the savage mode to ensure it is still clearable, or so...

we dont even have information about the later savages tho... but I assume because the job changes usually doesn't too radical as the first release of expansion, and we have more than enough time to get the min ilv gear needed.

The Savage tiers are staggered because there was a time when they weren't. It was a race to skip as many cutscenes, race around doing quests, as fast as possible. The dev's put so much time into content and it was a waste for both them and raiders. We wanted to do content first, relax with story later.

Ultimate is later in the tier to stagger content so raiders race to finish then have nothing left they're interested in until next raid patch.

Yoshi said Savage is no longer for the hardcore players. So we farm our sets and wait for Ultimate. Otherwise, whats the point.

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Originally Posted by Vnolan

Then why are the Ultimates released at a later date? You can't say 5.2 is when they decide everyone has had enough time to catch up because the 5.3 Ultimate will be released a few weeks later.

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Ultimates are released later because you need to clear the Savage-Tier first just to be able to enter it - and you need also to gear up with BiS for it, which means you need not only clear it, but also get all your equipment which can take a while.

I don't know what you are talking about 5.2 or 5.3 though. There is no so called "5.3 Ultimate" planned at the moment. We don't know how many Ultimate-Content we will get this expension and even if there will be more we don't know when. Maybe the one now will be the only one we get.

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Originally Posted by Pepsi_Plunge

Ultimates are released later because you need to clear the Savage-Tier first just to be able to enter it - and you need also to gear up with BiS for it, which means you need not only clear it, but also get all your equipment which can take a while.

I don't know what you are talking about 5.2 or 5.3 though. There is no so called "5.3 Ultimate" planned at the moment. We don't know how many Ultimate-Content we will get this expension and even if there will be more we don't know when. Maybe the one now will be the only one we get.

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Two confirmed, possibly 3. 5.3 is a safe bet for the next Ultimate as Weapon's Refrain came out in 4.3, and SE is delightfully consistent with content patterns.

I was able to predict Alex Ultimate because of that. Earned a couple mil in bets lol

Besides that, absolutely. Ultimate needs BiS (well, i470 is the recommended minimum at least) to tackle, and if it was released simultaneously with Savage it would be a bit of a spit show considering even world firsters can't hit i470 week 1.

Problems on launch day and job balance are also good reasons for a staggered release, but then why doesn't it apply to the second and third tiers of Savage?

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Originally Posted by Rockette

The Savage tiers are staggered because there was a time when they weren't.

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Only the first tier is. If they follow the previous pattern, 5.2 and 5.4 will launch with both versions at the same time as the Main Scenario quests and other content.

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Originally Posted by Rockette

Ultimate is later in the tier to stagger content so raiders race to finish then have nothing left they're interested in until next raid patch.

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Originally Posted by Pepsi_Plunge

Ultimates are released later because you need to clear the Savage-Tier first just to be able to enter it - and you need also to gear up with BiS for it, which means you need not only clear it, but also get all your equipment which can take a while.

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Originally Posted by SaberMaxwell

Ultimate needs BiS (well, i470 is the recommended minimum at least) to tackle, and if it was released simultaneously with Savage it would be a bit of a spit show considering even world firsters can't hit i470 week 1.

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I mean relative to the odd-numbered main patch it releases in, not the previous even. Ultimates release two weeks after the odd patch.

Ah. Well as an Ulti raider I'm personally glad for the two week grace period; I get time to enjoy the Nier raid, the patch story, and crafting before my group begins it's 17h/week prog, during which my downtime will decidedly be anything but XIV.

Double post cuz phone:

To be honest I'm not sure why subsequent tiers don't get the two week grace period. I'd like it as it gives time to look at NM's mechanics and make predictions for what Savage's mechanics will be.

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Originally Posted by SaberMaxwell

Double post cuz phone:

To be honest I'm not sure why subsequent tiers don't get the two week grace period. I'd like it as it gives time to look at NM's mechanics and make predictions for what Savage's mechanics will be.

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The only reason i can come up with is that our gear is significantly better enough to handle later tiers than expansion launches and judging by the jump in stats from ilv440 gear to ilv450 gear i can see why they may think like that.

eh ... have you consider the reason is as simple as "Ultimate only comes out because it's only done now" ? Seem most of the responses so far implies the dev already have all the contents finalized and made ready to go, but gating them for one reason or another.

I mean, as recent as the last live letter they said they're still in the process of tuning the fight. Ultimate is supposed to be tuned to within razor thin of the current gear set's ceiling, and not even the dev would have a proper clue where that ceiling in at the beginning. So not only they need to give people time to gear up (even for statics that clear week 1, under extreme bad luck it can still take a full 8 weeks to bis out the whole team), they also need to give these players the time to optimze. It's not just about giving the players time to prepare, it's also about collecting the data from the top players so it can be used to tune Ultimate, because like I said, making an assumption of what the players can do is a fool errand even for the developers.

I bet the data from the top speed skills are an important and mandatory data needed to create Ultimate, so if there is a reason why it only come out now that would be one of the main reason, if not "the" reason.

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Originally Posted by SaberMaxwell

Double post cuz phone:

To be honest I'm not sure why subsequent tiers don't get the two week grace period. I'd like it as it gives time to look at NM's mechanics and make predictions for what Savage's mechanics will be.

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Funny enough, Layla Bell actually asked about this for Stormblood. If I recall, Yoshida said he never thought raiders would want subsequent tiers to be delayed like they did for Deltascape. Supposedly they were going to look into it but evidently nothing has come of it since.