Why did they need to be phased out? Phil and myth?

[Tiggy]

Most of the items are moved to other content. The only real sob story here was darklight gear availability. All the crafting items were moved to other systems and they benefited greatly from it. Since Hunts can already get you Myth gear I don't see the darklight problem reoccurring. Instead I expect those items to move to other systems helping the overall game feel more robust.

[Lemuria]

All the crafting items were moved to other systems and they benefited greatly from it.

Eh...? Are you playing the same game as the rest of us? At what point are random drops and massive GC expenditures considered a benefit? Philosophy tomes were a lot easier to farm up than the extortionate asking price of the new GC seals option, and the random drops now replace actual armor in these dungeons.

Now, not only is Darklight a toss up between getting Potash or a body piece, but you never know which item you're going to end up with. Ten bucks says it's for Culinarian though...

[Felis]

All the crafting items were moved to other systems and they benefited greatly from it.

Eh...? Are you playing the same game as the rest of us? At what point are random drops and massive GC expenditures considered a benefit? Philosophy tomes were a lot easier to farm up than the extortionate asking price of the new GC seals option, and the random drops now replace actual armor in these dungeons.

You should do the Ixal daily quests

All crafting mats you bought with philo and buy with myth are in the Ixal shop.

Examples:
Potash: 1 Ixali Oaknot
Cashmere Fleece: 7 Ixali Oaknot

[Tiggy]

Eh...? Are you playing the same game as the rest of us? At what point are random drops and massive GC expenditures considered a benefit? Philosophy tomes were a lot easier to farm up than the extortionate asking price of the new GC seals option, and the random drops now replace actual armor in these dungeons.

Now, not only is Darklight a toss up between getting Potash or a body piece, but you never know which item you're going to end up with. Ten bucks says it's for Culinarian though...

It's not about comparing one method or the other. It has nothing to do with the fact philo was easier to farm than GC. That misses the point entirely. Before adding all those items there was very little reason to spend GC points. With the move of those items to GC points suddenly GC was way more viable thus enhancing that system and it did benefit greatly from it. Ease of obtainment has nothing to do with what I was talking about.

Also if you paid attention you would notice darklight drops in the older dungeons. The older dungeons have a much much higher gear drop rate than the current "Expert" dungeons which frequently drop crafting ingredients. So you asked me if I even play the game, but I turn that quesiton right back at you. Those dungeons drop tons of gear. There are just several different sets so the dungeons are somewhat saturated.

and the random drops now replace actual armor in these dungeons.

Honestly this is a different issue entirely. One they've already acknowledged to us that they are looking at remedying.

Yo should do the Ixal daily quests

Also this. Variety is the spice of life.

[Lemuria]

Before adding all those items there was very little reason to spend GC points. With the move of those items to GC points suddenly GC was way more viable thus enhancing that system and it did benefit greatly from it.

Great, so take MUCH NEEDED ITEMS and make them harder to obtain by relying on a currency no one cared about. Great idea SE. If they wanted seals to be relevant they could start by adding GC gear that people would actually WANT to buy.

Also if you paid attention you would notice darklight drops in the older dungeons. The older dungeons have a much much higher gear drop rate than the current "Expert" dungeons which frequently drop crafting ingredients.

Sure it does... in the 'hard' dungeons. It's also about as hard as finding a flea who can play the trombone. With the drops watered down so badly with crafting items (though never the ones you need) and the other low level gear which ALSO drops in the same dungeons you're better off ignoring Darklight gear entirely.

Honestly this is a different issue entirely. One they've already acknowledged to us that they are looking at remedying.

Acknowledging it doesn't make it better. And here they are repeating the same stupid mistake by phasing out Mythology. It's like they had a 'bring your kid to work' day and let them make all the executive decisions...

[Tiggy]

snip

As I told you them being harder to get had nothing to do with what I meant when I said it enriched other systems, but keep acting like it did.

So much hurt over something that really doesn't matter at all and won't make a lick of difference in a month. There are more pros to this system than the cons for this system on the game balance, but your main gripe seems to be ease of access to items. Needs more deal with it.

[Renik]

making a token system the main source of gear is not a great idea, for me they could just delete all the tomes or turn them into a secondary source of gear.

While horizontal gear progression has cons which goes against economical benefits, vertical progression has cons which goes against player enjoyment.

there are only 2 reasons to base a MMO on vertical progression, keeping the subs active by forcing the players to repeat the same boring content over and over so they aren't left behind, and the easy and fast development it takes.

It goes against the players, i'm not saying that an horizontal progression system would be perfect, only that the actual vertical system is wrong and is by far the worse system an MMO can have, and if the system is economically effective is because it promotes addictivity.

I know this is not the thread, but if you ask me the perfect systems would be a mix, new tier of upgradeable gear (with different stats and traits) with every expansion, and new upgrade level with every update.

This way we could avoid this horrible “token/meaningless grind” sytem.

[Lemuria]

As I told you them being harder to get had nothing to do with what I meant when I said it enriched other systems, but keep acting like it did.

You failed to actually 'enlighten' me on how it 'enriched' anything, yet I've pointed out several systems that it took away from. Did you actually want to make a point or just argue semantics?

There are more pros to this system than the cons for this system on the game balance, but your main gripe seems to be ease of access to items. Needs more deal with it.

There are relatively few pros and a ton of 'cons'. Game balance? What game balance? They're throwing out high level equipment like halloween candy! All the tiered gear has ever been is a mindless treadmill. Totally without innovation and every item just seems to be thrown in without consideration for existing content.

[Tiggy]

You failed to actually 'enlighten' me on how it 'enriched' anything, yet I've pointed out several systems that it took away from. Did you actually want to make a point or just argue semantics?

I did actually.

I With the move of those items to GC points suddenly GC was way more viable thus enhancing that system and it did benefit greatly from it.

I didn't write an essay about it because it should have been obvious. Suddenly people farmed for GC points to buy items for crafting from the GC vender. Lots of people did this. This and the addition of ventures made GC much more useful. So yes the removal of philo directly enhanced the GC store. Ignoring me a second time won't change that.

Also more reading comprehension please. I clearly pointed out that the gc was enhanced specifically and you ignored it and then called me out like I didn't give an example at all.

There are relatively few pros and a ton of 'cons'.

This tells me everything I need to know. You aren't concerned with all the aspects of the change. All your posts show that you're only interested in how hard things are to get compared to before.

Philosophy tomes were a lot easier to farm up than the extortionate asking price of the new GC seals option,

Great, so take MUCH NEEDED ITEMS and make them harder to obtain by relying on a currency no one cared about. Great idea SE. If they wanted seals to be relevant they could start by adding GC gear that people would actually WANT to buy.

The funny things is that last one there is exactly what I described. They took those philo items and added to GC shop and it suddenly DID make people want to use GC because there was a reason to use it. Which was my entire point to begin with. That system was indeed enriched. In addition to adding more crafting items to GC it added ventures. Which was a new item just like you suggested. What is important to remember is that Ventures were not the only reason people used GC. I personally knew many people who farmed GC to make crafted accessories from the crafting items because after all there were many items that could be crafted from those crafting items whereas ventures could only be used in one way. I also knew desynthers who used it to make items to level desynth on. GC had many uses after 2.2 and it was largely because of this change. In addition turning in gear dropped from high-level roulette is super fast for getting GC making even the complaint that it was easier to get philo thand GC pretty suspect.

While where at it lets examine some pro's and cons.

Pro of removing Philo items
GC is more Valuable.
Less currencies to display on character screen and less things to reward in content.
More loot in dungeons.
Simplifies end game systems. I mean FFXI has like what. 10 different currencies? It's ridiculous.

Cons of removing Philo items
GC is slower to gain than Philo for comparable goods. Although this was only true near the end after philo drop rates were increased.
Darklight drops were included in a drop pool that is rather saturated with other loot.

Seems like it's better for the game to get rid of them to me and this was just a quick list. I'm sure there are more game balance reasons that could be given.

An yet this does nothing to change the fact you're complaining about darklight which hasn't been relevant since the second month of the game. Who cares. It's glamor. It drops from non expert dungeons and therefore gear drops more commonly than crafting items. Unlike expert roulette which doesn't drop darklight to begin with and drops tons of crafting items. The only reason this gear is tough to get is because there is so much low level gear that can drop from those dungeons. Not because of crafting items. I mean seriously. Crafting gear is rather uncommon from those dungeons compared to actual gear. I get gear all the time from High-level roulette and rarely from expert roulette. There is a reason for that.

If your fear is the myth gear will have the same problem then to you I say NO WORRIES! The myth gear is already on hunt points at an even cheaper rate than myth could buy it so that won't have the same issues as philo gear did making you're arguement even more of a moot point and even more focused solely on darklight.

So in summary. Darklight is only for glamor and not a reason to keep an entire currency around, and GC points are more useful now largely because philo crafting items were moved to the GC store. The inclusion of Ixal dailies and the Ixal Oaknuts makes your complaint that they are tough to get even more pointless. It's outrageously easy to get them.

Game balance? What game balance? They're throwing out high level equipment like halloween candy! All the tiered gear has ever been is a mindless treadmill.

If you have a issue with treadmill games then stop playing. This game will never change that style. It's what WoW did and it's exactly what this is going to do too. This game used WoW as a template.
MMO's change. They adapt, and they move on.

[Gralna]

Before adding all those items there was very little reason to spend GC points.

My main expendature of GC seals has never been the crafting mats, what got me serious about farming them was venture tokens. And now with ixal oaknots giving you a mutch better return on those mats than GC seals, there is even less reason to keep said crafting mats in duties.

Not to mention that to get DL gear nowadays, not only do you have to hope crafting mats dont drop, but that one of the other entirely seperate gear sets dont drop either, and then that it's the piece of DL gear you actually wanted.