Current State of FFXIV

[Double]

On the topic of FATEs. They are kinda a catch 22 now. If people stopped doing FATEs in large amounts SE would see they have a problem with them, but now, they tied Atma weapons directly to them so people are "forced" to do FATEs. Now we have a false inflation on the number of FATEs being done.

So even when someone complains that FATEs suck, SE will fall back on the data they have and see that people are using FATEs.

SE will see that people are doing FATEs because there's a reason to..

[Prototype909]

SE will see that people are doing FATEs because there's a reason to..

There's a reason to because they forcefully created one even though people objected to it, not because people want to do it.

[Enepttastic]

There's a reason to because they forcefully created one even though people objected to it, not because people want to do it.

Doesn't change the fact in the slightest that people are doing em because they want the reward. Not that I believe in the slightest that the Atma/Animus "quests" are anything but lazy and insulting design. MMOs are time-sinks by nature, if the best idea anyone on your design team has for content that's supposed to be a straight-up time-sink is to make it absolutely tedious, they need to lose decision-making privileges for a bit. Honestly, the only reason I finished the Atma grind was by the time I realized it, combined with the Animus upgrades, were as bad as they were, I'd managed to get eight of em and didn't want them taking up space on my retainers.

On to other points:

Class system:
I disagree with you here. I think the last thing the game really needs, despite the fact that they're coming, are new classes/jobs. I'd much rather the classes be reworked than anything. There's too many skills that are absurdly situational and/or useless and that's before getting into some of the absurd decisions made with the cross-class options. Traits should be reworked as well, every class has three of em that exist as nothing more than filler anyways(Enchance <Attribute> line).

Also disagree with the idea of having a DPS removed for a dedicated support position. DPS queues are bad enough as-is, if the standard 8-man party removed one for a support job, they'd be even worse.


Crafting: To me, crafting is weird. The mechanics of actually crafting something is probably one of the better, if not best, systems I've seen in a game. It has a good mix of participation with a reduction in tedium. Decisions made in regards to recipes however, I often feel are completely insane. CUL seems to exist almost completely to give BOT items to gather, not to mention that I seldom see people using food, even in Ex fights they haven't beaten yet.

I don't even want to get started on the shard/crystal/cluster situation either.

As for gear being top-notch. I'm fine with crafted not being the best. Now, if one could craft untradable gear that's near top-quality but requires effort(not tedium) to obtain mats for and produce, I wouldn't complain about that.

Gathering: A complete 180 from crafting. It's tedious, and tedious, and tedious. The only good thing I have to say on it is how refreshing it is to NOT have to fight others for nodes.

Leves: Like the concept, and despite profiting from it(exp-wise), it's horribly flawed. To be honest, tradecraft leves have no business rewarding exp with absolutely no crafting required. In regards to fieldcraft(BOT and MIN, hadn't done FSH ones) and hunting leves, I feel that the difficulty bonuses are rather lackluster as well.

FATEs: Open-world events are nothing new nowadays and I honestly think the Atma grinding hurts their intended purpose more than anything. If you're trying to level using FATEs one becomes more concerned with tagging mobs over killing them before the Atma train rolfstomps their way through it.

Primals/Coils: With one exception, most of the problems I have with these is really on the community and not the devs. That exception is the several "save or die" mechanics that float around the fights. Between latency(and I honestly don't believe for a moment that it's 100% on the player's side) and the fact that I'm about 100% positive some of the tells aren't 100% accurate in depicting the safe-zones(Landslide and Self-Destruct, I'm looking at you), I don't believe they should exist at the moment. Also, before the responses happen: I don't get hit by landslides or SDs once I learned that the markers are incorrect. Unlike how some people assume, I call out bad designs even if I can get around em.

Now, probably forgot something here or there I originally meant to mention but getting tired of posting on the forums at the moment.

[Cessna]

I seldom see people using food, even in Ex fights they haven't beaten yet.

Food is primary seen in coil as of 2.3 turn 6-9. Alot of raid leaders are really demanding that you buy food and use it to help out the raid.

Ex primals have low ilvl requirements on the other hand so food is not mandatory and honestly ex primals even titan ex are puggable. So its not strange you haven't seen much food use.