Why are elite hunts so valuable? What are the devs thoughts?

[SendohJin]

i100 items still take actual time to get. The weathered gear takes between 1 and 2 weeks worth of soldiery tomes, and ST only allows one piece of loot. If you get maybe 2-3 pieces of loot a week, it'll still take you months to get "maxed." And not everyone has that kind of patience. Especially those who play multiple jobs. The only thing making oils and sands easier to get does is alleviate the time commitment required.

so do "they want more people geared for when they introduce the next wave of content" or not? seems like now you're saying they don't.

[kyuven]

so do "they want more people geared for when they introduce the next wave of content" or not? seems like now you're saying they don't.

Yes, because the pace I mentioned is ONLY to get ilevel 100 gear. Allied Seals can be notably used to purchase i90 gear as well as sands/oil of time and alexandrite. It doesn't trivialize the acquisition of the i100 gear because that's still bottlenecked the exact same way it was before, but it DOES allow people to more easily upgrade that gear to the next stage in preparation for what they have planned coming down the pipes. It fills the gap between "fresh 50" and i90 gear, and the gap between i100 gear and i110, as well as a more convenient and less RNG dependent source of Alexandrite.