Venting about "A new path of resistance", fix this step

This post is more of me venting my frustration with this part of the relic, "A New path of resistance", this part is single-handedly making me annoyed and bored with the game to a point of me considering dropping making more relics, doing 15 DR with random is literally rolling dice to see if you will get at least a couple of players with essences or players that aren't afk at all, which is normally never the case, making something that could very well take 20 minutes to finish, take well over 45+ minutes, had a run that took almost a full hour.
Palace of the Dead isn't much better either, I tried a couple of run in there, 51-190 and 51-100, after around 6 hours or so, only got 4 artifacts after all of that, I normally enjoy running PotD but knowing that I will have to WASTE my time with a RNG drop until I got to 150 just sours the whole experience and makes me want to not do that kind of content.
Either NERF the amount needed to progress to like 5 or 10 or increase the amount you get from a single DR run from 1 to 3 and in PotD make the drop-rate from floors 51-100 be 50% and 101-200 be 100%, that's how I would fix it.
This isn't a Free-to-Play game, this is the first time since I started playing this game that I felt that my time as a player was not respected, I have faith that SE will fix this soon. Thank you.

In case you have forgotten, let me remind you that you're playing a MMORPG, and the Grinding Game is the main aspect of one, so better get used to this. Also, FFXIV's grinding is pretty tame compared to other MMOs out there.

I was planning on getting more than one relic completed, until I reached this step. After doing this I decided to not do another relic.

Doing fates I'm ok with. Doing bozja I'm OK with and actually like. Doing the same raid 15 times I am not OK with.

It is designed to suck on purpose to make you want to even do DR and also keep the relics kind of rare.

I tried 5 POTD runs and only got 1, so I gave up and just farmed DR one morning. It wasn't so bad. By the end of the morning I had done most of them.

I suggest getting Lost Bravery and applying it to as many people as you can before each pull. The more people you can put it on, the faster it will feel like the boss goes down. Altogether it makes up for at least a few missed essences.

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Originally Posted by Anhra

Also, FFXIV's grinding is pretty tame compared to other MMOs out there.

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Just because other games may have it worse doesn't mean we can't ask for improvements here.

I agree it's annoying, but... It's a guaranteed drop. Just do one a day and you'll get done fairly quickly.

Much better than some of the older relics.

I don't enjoy the thought of having to do it 14 more times for my PLD relic, but I'll get around to it. I do, however, need to relevel my gear in POTD so maybe I'll get a few that way first. Did 1-10 a couple hours ago and managed to snag 1. That's already 1 less DR I have to do! Either way, it's a tedious step. I can't deny that. However, that is honestly the worst part of the relic grind in my opinion, and even that is tame by most standards. Do it, or don't. It's really that simple. If you can stand DR, run POTD and pray for drops. It might end up being slightly more time consuming, however.

Relics have always been a way to fund other content. It's more of a player problem though, an actual good DR run can be 20 minutes with essence use and decent rotations.

You can always make a PF for it. A friend and I have been running that way(I'm just running to help with it since I've finished that step), and the parties of 24 fill rapidly, 90% of the time we get runs that finish in 20 minutes. Our longest one, where 3 people didn't use an essence and there were a bunch of stupid deaths, took 25 min. Quickest was just shy of 19.

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Originally Posted by Thorime

This post is more of me venting my frustration with this part of the relic, "A New path of resistance", this part is single-handedly making me annoyed and bored with the game to a point of me considering dropping making more relics, doing 15 DR with random is literally rolling dice to see if you will get at least a couple of players with essences or players that aren't afk at all, which is normally never the case, making something that could very well take 20 minutes to finish, take well over 45+ minutes, had a run that took almost a full hour.
Palace of the Dead isn't much better either, I tried a couple of run in there, 51-190 and 51-100, after around 6 hours or so, only got 4 artifacts after all of that, I normally enjoy running PotD but knowing that I will have to WASTE my time with a RNG drop until I got to 150 just sours the whole experience and makes me want to not do that kind of content.
Either NERF the amount needed to progress to like 5 or 10 or increase the amount you get from a single DR run from 1 to 3 and in PotD make the drop-rate from floors 51-100 be 50% and 101-200 be 100%, that's how I would fix it.
This isn't a Free-to-Play game, this is the first time since I started playing this game that I felt that my time as a player was not respected, I have faith that SE will fix this soon. Thank you.

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Your mistake is doing it with randoms, join a PF group. If you are good people will end up friending you in game or via discord and they will ask you to join their groups in the future.

It's probably my least favorite step.
Mainly since there's no variety.

At least with the Hell's Lid spam for the last step I have fun because I usually pick people up along the way and create premades and I've made friends that way.
It's a lot harder to do with this step tho I find.

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Originally Posted by Kolsykol

It's probably my least favorite step.
Mainly since there's no variety.

At least with the Hell's Lid spam for the last step I have fun because I usually pick people up along the way and create premades and I've made friends that way.
It's a lot harder to do with this step tho I find.

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I liked the last step because I could switch between a couple dungeons and still get pretty fast queues. I wanted the caster set from Swallow's Compass and was able to get all the pieces of that on my way to 15. :p

I finished one and have 15 for another but I won't turn them in unless they reduce how many are needed, I can't take another run there. Someone suggested that rather than 6 bosses, you fight only 4 with the first 3 being random and the last always been the Queen so you're not stuck on 6 straight mindless fights.

This step and the 15 Crystal Tower runs I'll say are the two worst of the bunch.... would have preferred they made Shadows of Mhach or Ivalice the required step instead of Crystal Tower. Hopefully the buff the drop rates, though, since you can get two raw emotions from DR but only one timeworn artifact.

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Originally Posted by wereotter

This step and the 15 Crystal Tower runs I'll say are the two worst of the bunch.... would have preferred they made Shadows of Mhach or Ivalice the required step instead of Crystal Tower. Hopefully the buff the drop rates, though, since you can get two raw emotions from DR but only one timeworn artifact.

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The CT part? That's easy. Avoid it entirely and hit up Castrum Lacus Litore 3 times. Or form a party of BLUs and massacre your way through ST. Or...just spam ST. Or all of the above. All of these are fast. I'm not saying that spamming ST is fun, but it's quick and mindless. I fail to see the problem with this step.

I dislike this step as much as I dislike the first "grind" step.
I simply hate FATEs, it's not good content, and I have no reason to go back to the southern front anymore.

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

The CT part? That's easy. Avoid it entirely and hit up Castrum Lacus Litore 3 times. Or form a party of BLUs and massacre your way through ST. Or...just spam ST. Or all of the above. All of these are fast. I'm not saying that spamming ST is fun, but it's quick and mindless. I fail to see the problem with this step.

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Bad experiences lately going into there... raids of almost entirely new people where we wipe multiple times before reaching the end. CT raids aren't the easy face roll one would think. I do like going into Lacus Litore, but hate having to hop instances or wait around until it's available. This is why I'm including that as one of the two worst steps of the process.

Besides, any step is easier if your argument is "just bring all blue mages in a preformed party"

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Originally Posted by Adeacia

I was planning on getting more than one relic completed, until I reached this step. After doing this I decided to not do another relic.

Doing fates I'm ok with. Doing bozja I'm OK with and actually like. Doing the same raid 15 times I am not OK with.

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Doing ANYTHING 10-20 times is a no go for me so ive havent even reached that stage, we got so much content, but no... do X 15x... *sight*

Well one day ill have enough rouletts putting me there to continue... until then its the first relic ive never finished.

I haven't finish the DR stage but I'll agree it's the most annoying stage of them all that I've completed.

Stage 1 : There's enough ways to get 1k poetics that no way to really get bored/burnt on it.
Stage 2 : This one can be a bit 'tedious' since the Bozjan Front way is a bit RNG ish or just blazing the HeavensWard FATEs (especially as BLU). Since I was using Southern Front to levelling up my 71+'s I got plenty of these tokens.
Stage 3 : Pick a level 60 dungeon, do it 6 times. Hell, if you got 'em levelled up can do Squadron runs of Fractal.
Stage 4 : The most options driven. CT Raids (guaranteed), Critical Engagements (RNG'ish, but still), or Castrum LL (3 and done)
Extra Stage : This one's good too. Run the Mhach or Ivalice raids over and over (guaranteed) and/or hit the Stormblood FATEs (and can BLU these now too)
Now Stage 5 : DR runs (which are hit and miss unless you join a discord) or pray to the RNG gods on PotD.

Side note (unrelated) : Currently only high 20's in my PotD aetherpools and I'll be damned if I can get the blue chests to upgrade 'em so when I feel like eyepoking, just floors 1-30 on PotD here.

Now if Stage 5 would've used even just Mhach and Ivalice as an alternative instead of PotD, that'd be great. Hell, once the Fan Festival Mooglestone event is over, Alliance Roulette is gonna turn back into 95% CT, 4.9999% Nier, and 0.0001% of the others. Would have been nice to keep Mhach and Ivalice there for that too.

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Originally Posted by Anhra

In case you have forgotten, let me remind you that you're playing a MMORPG, and the Grinding Game is the main aspect of one, so better get used to this. Also, FFXIV's grinding is pretty tame compared to other MMOs out there.

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This is a poor excuse.

I play WoW as well and i haven't had to do anything resembling grinding in that game in years.
Of course, this depends on your definition of grinding, but there is strictly nothing there so egregious as 'run this one instance 15 times'. That's just poor design.

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Originally Posted by FoxyAreku

This is a poor excuse.I play WoW as well and i haven't had to do anything resembling grinding in that game in years.

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You must not have played much of Shadowlands then. Or at least 2-3 expansions before that. Grinding conduits, for example, requires running certain instances a LOT, and that is for the small chance of getting what you want. That is just one example among many that players have to grind for things and have had to all along.

Imo is my least favorite step due to how much stuff you spend in DR in terms of fragments. If i want other good Lost Actions like Damage Banners\Chainspells etc i won't get them in DR, either at Market Board or Southern Front\Zadnor which means i have to spend additional time to prepare for a single piece of relic in DR.

And worst part is you are not guaranteed to get the stuff you want from the fragments, not even from DR. I want the good pure tank essece? Nope, here's 6 Lost Aethershield in a row, go back grinding clusters.
Want Chainspell? Nah, enjoy some Lost Assassinate, totally worth for DR.

I may loathe Eureka's logos but being able to combine and get the thing you want certainly made the thing more enjoyable.

Other than that, i try run DR daily or 3 times a week just to not feel sick lol, I get more joy nuking the mini bosses rather than the bosses themselfes

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Originally Posted by ItMe

Just because other games may have it worse doesn't mean we can't ask for improvements here.

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You're spoiled.

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Originally Posted by Jettinson

Imo is my least favorite step due to how much stuff you spend in DR in terms of fragments. If i want other good Lost Actions like Damage Banners\Chainspells etc i won't get them in DR, either at Market Board or Southern Front\Zadnor which means i have to spend additional time to prepare for a single piece of relic in DR.

And worst part is you are not guaranteed to get the stuff you want from the fragments, not even from DR. I want the good pure tank essece? Nope, here's 6 Lost Aethershield in a row, go back grinding clusters.
Want Chainspell? Nah, enjoy some Lost Assassinate, totally worth for DR.

I may loathe Eureka's logos but being able to combine and get the thing you want certainly made the thing more enjoyable.

Other than that, i try run DR daily or 3 times a week just to not feel sick lol, I get more joy nuking the mini bosses rather than the bosses themselfes

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That's another big issue with these essences.
Let's say spend 10k or even more gil on buying essences because you don't want to be deadweight in DR or the new place, or spend a large chunk of time farming them even the plants in front of the Bozja Southern Front first camp.
Hurray, you just got a half dozen or more 'useless' essences because RNG went against you and the token kept going into the wrong role (aka getting lots of healer/tank essences when you're DPS).
I know there's already a lot of different tokens already, but having some tokens have 8 potential turnouts.. well.. really sucks.

Yes, please nerf this step. 15 DR clears PER WEAPON (And the low drop rate in PotD) is completely idiotic. At least with earlier relics with big long steps like this you had more variety in what activities to do.

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Originally Posted by Feronar

Yes, please nerf this step. 15 DR clears PER WEAPON (And the low drop rate in PotD) is completely idiotic. At least with earlier relics with big long steps like this you had more variety in what activities to do.

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A big help would be to add a guaranteed drop at floor 50 and/or 100 of POTD, that way players are rewarded for similar time investments. The average DR run in my experience is usually around 45 minutes or so, sometimes more or less.

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Originally Posted by Anhra

In case you have forgotten, let me remind you that you're playing a MMORPG, and the Grinding Game is the main aspect of one, so better get used to this. Also, FFXIV's grinding is pretty tame compared to other MMOs out there.

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Sounds a lot like the old "In case you have forgotten, games aren't supposed to be primarily intrinsically fun. They're a business, and their construction is therefore necessarily about minimizing the otherwise intensive time necessary to make things which would be intrinsically enjoyable by gating them behind minimally time-intensive means of stretching their play-time."

Consider, why was this the first step at which the OP "felt like [her] time as a player was not respected"? There's obviously some difference between this grind and those previous, some critical threshold along the curve of "grindiness" that makes it incongruous or particularly unsatisfying. Calling that out isn't asking for the whole genre to suddenly be upturned. It's asking that the content match or improve from what standards have already been set in this game.

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

You must not have played much of Shadowlands then. Or at least 2-3 expansions before that. Grinding conduits, for example, requires running certain instances a LOT, and that is for the small chance of getting what you want. That is just one example among many that players have to grind for things and have had to all along.

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They're guaranteed drops, mate, unless you complete the source content at the absolute minimum (e.g., leveling) difficulty. A better example would be legendaries, but those are still a 20%+ chance from dungeons and are guaranteed from other sources, rather than requiring some 15+ completions. The only grind people are at all encouraged to go through is BiS gear from +15 Mythic runs, and that's devalued by the weekly chest rewards they compete with (and which out-ilvl the unlimited drops) such that they're rarely grinded for unless they'd be useful transiently as well (e.g., when the trinket is already plenty valueable at a lower ilvl or you need a weapon upgrade regardless).

I'm dragging my feet on starting the step because I do think they will nerf it come 5.57 or 5.58. It really could use a fix.

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Originally Posted by Anhra

In case you have forgotten, let me remind you that you're playing a MMORPG, and the Grinding Game is the main aspect of one, so better get used to this. Also, FFXIV's grinding is pretty tame compared to other MMOs out there.

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If it weren't for my experiences with XI, Destiny, and Fallout 76 I'd probably disagree. Not only are those games super grindy, the rely on layers upon layers of RNG and heavy weekly lockouts. Doing Reginae 15 times is a bit much, but as long as people bring essences the raid can be done much faster.