FATES need a nerf

[dspguy]

I have a few issues with fates:

1) Zero skill.
2) The mechanic used to calculate your contribution seems out of whack. Take Coeurlclaw King. You can hit him once and get max exp. Many fates are like this.
3) Fates only really work in some zones since "everyone is doing it." I duo'd a fate the other day for 11 minutes and got 10k exp. That same exact fate when taken down with 20+ people in 45 seconds... still nets 10k exp.
4) The "tag the mob and you get experience" mechanic doesn't belong in fates. I understand why it is like that for regular mobs. But in fates? There should be no exp reward for killing the enemy. Just the aggregate reward at the end.
5) I wouldn't mind actually doing a dungeon for some exp (it seems to be pretty good). But, there is a serious lack of tanks. Maybe they are all off leveling on fates? :P

[Sepiriz]

Besides being the best leveling option at the moment (esp. for second/third/... classes) FATEs are also the most inclusive content the game has to offer.

FATE groups can be pretty much build however you want, there is no need for dedicated tanks/healers. I've had groups with 4 healers and 4 DPS, 3 Tanks/3Healers/2DPS, and every possible composition you can think of. The levelranges are quite forgiving, more often then not you will see almost ~10 levels difference between the lowest and highest member of a group. They offer an option to do it as long as you want. You have half an hour? No problem, say "bye" once you have to go, no one is going to be mad and the spot will be filled up in no time. And even if no replacement is found directly you can go on with fewer people without a problem.

These things and the fact, that you are not able to influence the speed at which you can progress (no "go go go" shouting to tell the tank to pull more and faster), and that there is no clear goal (no "ololol gimme them lootz from da bozz speedrunning") make FATE farming in groups one of the friendliest, socially inclusive and overall nicest experiences i have found in the game. The "forced" breaks while waiting for new FATES to spawn is often a good time to actually chat with the people you are with, and make friends outside your already established FC circle.

so for all the bad things FATEs have, they at least can offer some positives besides being the "pure grindfests" a lot of people make them out to be.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

I normally just join fate events as I go along, and I enjoy the copious amounts of experience I get from them. Despite the fact that most players who are grinding Fates to level are either really high up or working on their other classes, people seem to hate them for the exact fact that they help make the leveling process easier on subsequent classes. Fates are fun, intuitive and a good way to break from your soloing shell so that you can actually converse with others instead of doing Leves/dungeons all day. Your contribution is also calculated and weighed along with your level, so if you level sync, then you're almost guaranteed a gold medal since the most menial of contributions are weighed much heavier than someone who is genuinely trying, but is 4 levels below the fate level (not to mention they would naturally be doing more damage due to higher stats/gear).

[Wulfyn]

The problem with FATEs is all the people mobbing them, some players are unable to gold medal some FATEs because they don't last that long. Stuff dies way too fast with all the people killing. It actually makes it frustrating and annoying. Kinda ruins them.

[Virin]

I just don't get it. Every game, every forum there are 100 posts that boil down to "nerf this because its not how I like to play". In what way does person A running fates affect you person B? So they got to level 50 again how does it affect you? When they hit 50 did you suddenly gain 10 levels and miss out on content? Oh you didn't ok. If person A wants to be fast and use nothing but fates and doesn't care about the "journey" so what? If you want to level slower and enjoy the content and explore, sweet have fun. Why does person A having fun different from person B matter AT ALL?

I just don't understand the need lately to tell people what to do and how to enjoy a game. We should all be thrilled we aren't sitting in a corner grinding kills. You won't see me posting how everyone should do quests and if a fate pops stop all while waiting in DF for a dungeon and doing a leve every 10 mins like I basically do.

Tl,dr
You play you, I will play me, they will play them.

[HFX7686]

You know, you don't actually have to participate in FATEs if you don't want to.

[Tolmos]

I just don't get it. Every game, every forum there are 100 posts that boil down to "nerf this because its not how I like to play".

And yet, all those people who are level 50 and saying that, you never really saw them saying that BEFORE 50, huh? But the second they don't need FATEs anymore... Funny how that works.

[Moontide]

General argument: "You don't actually have to participate in FATEs if you don't want to."
This is unfair towards those who enjoy other forms of leveling up. Since FATEs are the single most powerful and easy way to level up, efforts for other, more challenging and to some more fun ways to level up will not be rewarded enough in comparison.

General argument: "Then why not just buff everything else up?"
1) This would still keep large crowd FATEs Whack-a-Mole competitions with no proper class roles and no challenge beyond said competition for XP.
2) Nerfing one thing is easier than buffing five.
3) Turn-in FATEs would remain abused.
4) (Opinion/personal) Too fast level-up speed will drain the contents of the game dry too fast. Not good for long-term commitment and renewing subscriptions.

[pandabearcat]

Moontide, I don't think you understand that there are no other viable options for leveling up.

I don't mean to say you don't know what you're talking about, but you don't know what you're talking about. And that isn't me being rude, its me trying to get you to understand what its like post storyline.

When you run out of storyline, everything else is just completely cut off from you. It is like playing a whole new game, because suddenly after you already have gotten what you wanted out of that level (hunting log, maybe 1 or 2 leves, maybe a dungeon), you are still 50-80% of the way from leveling.

And then what do you do? What do you propose everyone do? Force them to run a dungeon that they don't want to? Make FATE grinding a complete chore (lets say 1/2 the xp), so that it takes twice as long...for no benefit?

Like other people said, I don't buy the argument it makes other forms unfair. If you do other forms for the point of gaining xp, -you- are the one making a conscious choice to give up xp, for more enjoyment and/or ease, or social aspect, or cutscenes, or what have you.

tl;dr: You can't have your cake and eat it too. You cannot just have whatever it is you want to do be the best xp, simply because you do not enjoy what is currently the most xp, as xp innately has no value other than...level, and if you consume other content then it is your choice to, and you shouldn't feel bad that you're gaining less xp.

Wow that was a long and terrible summary, but this is what I mean.

Please, I beg you to get a character to 50, then renew your crusade against FATEs. Until then, you have no idea what its like.

[ChickensEvil]

snip

I think what you are missing is that making something take longer doesn't actually INCREASE content... you are just dragging out the SAME content. How is killing a mob 1 time better/worse than killing a mob 10 times? Did the mob CHANGE between the first time I killed it and the 10th time? I would argue that it did change... for the worse, because it got easier and easier to kill to the point where it just got boring. I don't mind doing something multiple times, but this is why I also have issue with the darklight gearing system. To get a full set of darklight gear I have to complete AK at LEAST 65 times. How in the world does that sound "fun" to you?


Since your Conjurer is only 32, you still do not have a max level character and cannot speak at all toward FATE grinding being "too fast". Why? because you cannot FATE grind to 50 and then call it a day on your first character. YOU HAVE to at least do all the story quests (even if you skip all the side quests) which is going to take time, and force you to run around the world. While you are running to the various zones anyway, you might as well do the side quests since it is actually a faster way to level WHILE completing the story. Being 32, you haven't even hit the worst of it yet, since you will be going on tons and tons more go to this zone, then go to this zone, then backtrack here, backtrack there, backtrack, backtrack everywhere!

And you HAVE to clear through the story to even unlock the HM primals, which you have to do to unlock the raid. So everyone that is "quickly" pushing to the endgame and "clearing content too fast", did all the same story quests you are doing right now, all the mandatory dungeons (there at like 8 of the 11 or so that are mandatory), did the three normal primal fights, and then grinding AK 65 times to get into BCoB. So how are they already doing at this, because it is certainly not a "fast" process. They are playing hours and hours on end, for days and weeks on end.

Bottom line, those who are primarily FATE grinding are leveling their 2nd and 3rd job to max level. That has NO effect on game content, since you only NEED one job to do the content. So all your points about why it should be nerfed are moot, since it comes from the basis of slowing down the leveling process of your FIRST job. Now if you want that to be slower I think I would rather shoot myself in the head... the story quest itself already has you doing tons of pointless stuff just to drag it out as it is... to the point where they are making fun of themselves in the process (the part of the story out at wineport in the 30s comes to mind...)