Best Gear in Coil needs to end

[Huntington]

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I have time right now and I don't think I fare much better in the way of progressing with things. For those that are playing on the side of College or a serious Job that isn't part-time, your time is going to be especially limited. When someone wants to progress through something, you're going to be doing the graveyard shift or something. You kind of can progress some things without being part of a group, but it's safer to just have one so you can avoid the headaches of randoms and hoping they all know what to do. No one minds explaining something if it makes the run go smoother, but doing it over and over and thinking "well I'm glad I helped those other ten people, but when am I gonna get some **** done" isn't the most fun.

It's probably only going to continue on like this over time as well unless the progression starts becoming more horizontal.

[RumiP]

I already made a thread in the Shiva section about looking for allies to help with Titan

Titan is kind of small game now when it comes to patch progression. That's something you would have to find folks in game to do I think.

FC's, I'm already in one and not planning to leave, so it would be hard to convince someone I'm available to play all the time if I don't join their FC

The FC/static thing sounds like a choice you've made then. Not all statics are FC based though, many are based only on an LS, so everyone can keep their individual FCs.

I could start doing Second Coil of Bahamut, but still need to do T5, which requires a communicative group with some time.

"communicative group" What is this? Start a group in PF saying its a T5 learning party and learn. Practice. It sounds like you just don't want to, in which case, why do you need i110 gear?

[Bigpurpleharness]

For those that are playing on the side of College or a serious Job that isn't part-time, your time is going to be especially limited. When someone wants to progress through something, you're going to be doing the graveyard shift or something.

Well honestly, it just hinges on your schedule being static. My wife for instance works 6am to 3pm every day but Tues/Weds, she has found multiple groups that work with her. I however have a 24/48 which means every week, my days on change. Pair that with pre-med, and there's no god damn way I'm finding a static. If someone finds a static that coincides with that (And not "Oh they go whenever people are on/need it/another bs 'schedule'." I'll give them a million gil.

[DosonTheGreat]

Sorry to burst your bubble but, If you want the best you have to have:
a) A solid FC/group of friends
b) Plenty of time to raid

That's really about it. Unfortunately a lot of people think that doing coil makes them special.

LOL Yeah coil is no harder than the other content. Let's make a better list shall we?

If you want the best you have to have:
a) People who know how to play their class optimally
b) Time to raid. You can still have a life and be the best. We're poof of that.
c) People who can deal with mechanics and come up with strats
It's not like anybody can just make a group or get in a good group. It's extremely difficult for us to find new members when we lose someone for whatever reason. There's definitely plenty of players who think they're good trying to get into static groups and it's been funny to see the other groups fall apart when they get to the harder content.
Unfortunately a lot of ignorant people think doing coil isn't special and they only fail cuz they "have a life". Maybe people like that should find a new hobby if they're not really dedicated enough to learn how to play the game properly. It gets really old hearing people say "well you just don't have a life" and "that's nothing special" when we all put so much effort into downing the content. Is that really an attitude to have? You do that when you play other games? Someone get's a hole-in-one do you say "well that doesn't really matter in real life"? How sickening.

[Bigpurpleharness]

If you want the best you have to have:
a) People who know how to play their class optimally
b) Time to raid. You can still have a life and be the best. We're poof of that.
c) People who can deal with mechanics and come up with strats

Eh, whatever. I downed Titan EX on my second attempt (First time was a PUG, 2 people left when someone ate literally the first landslide, and I left after) simply because I had a friend's FC willing to take me, wasn't hit by anything. I agree you can have a life and raid too. I've seen it done, but seriously, as someone who used to raid hardcore who now doesn't, pretty much every MMO I've played the hardest part about clearing content was finding a capable group, not the mechanics, they aren't some huge skill check. You DO need a static schedule to do this though. You're not finding a group that runs Sun/Weds/Sat Week 1, Tues/Fri Week 2, Mon/Thurs Week 3 though. I guarantee it.

[blowfin]

There needs to be more "well for Weathered you can also go this route for this other gear, it won't be as easy to get, but it's different gear and it's still available to you outside of Soldiery" or something else that gives us more choices. Like for the Aetherial gear, best stuff you can find before 50 will be Aetherial. But once you hit 50 it gets completely phased out, could there be a chance to get level 70 Aetherial gear that's superior to Darklight but rarer? Very possible.

Yeah, my biggest gripe with 2.2 is that two separate gear streams are locked behind coil2. Granted this is probably a symptom of CT being late to release, but basically coil raiders in this patch have been given a great big cake, eaten it, and have then been given another great big cake. Enjoy getting fat I guess? I think this will change in 2.3 but it doesn't fix the fact that it's pretty awful design right at the moment.

About the pink gear, that's a very good point, for example why don't we have another couple of tiers of Treasure chests? Let's say they're set as one and 2 star gathering items, and provide a decent challenge to lvl 50 groups (i.e. much harder than current chests). Realistically they'd need to drop i80+ for anyone to care about them, but it would:
- Provide open world, sociable content
- Provide an alternative to Solidery grind

Several tiers of gear could be in the drop tables, and for each tier they'd be progressively rarer.

[Huntington]

FFXI Relics were also amazing for the most part (Not touching Claustrum), and you could farm NMs, low man dynamis (I had a group of 6 that full cleared Dyna Sandy for cash weekly at 75), or PUG dynamis. It was a lengthy path, it was a grind, and it was worth it. An Animus though? Hell, their relic path in general is always outclassed by a raid weapon. 1,500 myth x9 after 9 atma farming for a weapon that's terrible compared to the raid drop? Eh, I'll pass. Weapon DMG is kind of important in this game.

I miss FFXI's lateral end game system though. And the fact you could do a million and one things solo for real progression. Fun fact: My only truly amazing XI linkshell came about because I would farm gil then merc drops, the merc shell was truly impressed with me and offered me a pearl after a few runs. It made me a ton of gil since we sold anything we didn't need.

To be honest I was very casual with XI, only played for about 5 months altogether. I had my fill of Promathia and Abyssea and the past area, which I hated extremely. Dabbled with some of the Trials of the Magians, but ehh not for me. I've decided I'll get my Animus for DRG over WAR or SMN or BRD since the Gae Bolg is probably the best well-rounded with what stats it has at 90 Zenith, everything else I'll replace with other weapons and Soldiery stuff.

That's pretty true yeah, it took awhile to get around and do things which gave an artificial feeling of prolonged play, but there were enough areas to check out or things to do by this point.

[DosonTheGreat]

Eh, whatever. I downed Titan EX on my second attempt (First time was a PUG, 2 people left when someone ate literally the first landslide, and I left after) simply because I had a friend's FC willing to take me, wasn't hit by anything. I agree you can have a life and raid too. I've seen it done, but seriously, as someone who used to raid hardcore who now doesn't, pretty much every MMO I've played the hardest part about clearing content was finding a capable group, not the mechanics, they aren't some huge skill check. You DO need a static schedule to do this though. You're not finding a group that runs Sun/Weds/Sat Week 1, Tues/Fri Week 2, Mon/Thurs Week 3 though. I guarantee it.

Hardest part for you but most people aren't very competent. What's easy for you and me is super challenging for most other people. They are a huge skill checks but most hardcore raiders can meet them easily once they learn how the mechanics work, cuz once you've done one hard fight you've done them all pretty much.

[Alistaire]

I'm not gonna read 21 pages to check, has anyone just replied "No it doesn't, and no it shouldn't"? That's all that needs to be said.

[Huntington]

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Party Finder more it is...
If I could get another linkshell that would be nice, could filter the chat out when I don't want to read other things while working with them for example.
Trust me, I've worked for a lot today. There was a point a week or so back where I was doing T5 practice very often, put Titan aside for the moment and tried that. Spent several hours with it over several different days, I learned about Conflags and Neural Links(I don't remember how it spells them) and made it some distance but ultimately not very far. Practice is well and good if it's with one group and the knowledge you gain is conglomerated with one set of people. That way everyone is ready and has that information retained when you try it again. But I was mainly doing Duty Finder since being in America on an EU server creates time zone issues. Thus, if I learned it, I'd get set back to zero if someone else was doing it for the first person, so I end up helping others, someone says they have to get off after ten minutes or a wipe or two, then it ends.

Practice just gets tiring when your progression gets reset each time you try again and you have nothing tangible to show for it.