Should Alexander hard drop highest item level gear?

[Esper]

I think OP might wanna go back and visit WoW and be reminded of the 40 ilvl differences between ALL 4 gear sets atm. While being reminded this isn't a game to separate our communities from each other, but rather embrace it. If we start getting this bad and make it so X group of players can't get Y group of players ilvl then we face a bigger problem down the road when X group is stuck at shit still by the end of expansion and Y has dwindled to a much smaller player base due to the rate of content, lack of players getting Into new content, statics falling apart, etc. Right now Everyone can get Similarly close to each other in gear level, this allows everyone to have a chance at the raid content. Now this also has the effect of putting our player base together, even if it's through duty finder. In the end you can argue their is no unique player content that no one else can get their hands on, but that is actually the point. It's a game for all not a small and dwindling % of players.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Why have "more stats" when instead better loot can have more effects on it?

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...230435/?page=1

[Laesha]

Absolutely disagree. The way it is now is excellent. Especially in this last patch cycle, i feel as though the devs did absolutely everything they reasonably could to incentivize players to explore FcoB.

As raiders we get plenty of extra/better rewards for raiding. Exclusivity to higher ilv just isn't one of them, and in my opinion it shouldn't be. Personally i think raiders who ignore the myriad of other rewards we get just for being raiders and QQ about wanting higher gear levels are ridiculous. We get the glamour. We get to experience the fights in their truest forms. We get the satisfaction of beating them! We get to learn and sharpen our skills with our friends/statics. We get the titles. For those who want, they get to afk in player hubs and lord their new gear over all the "casuals" (extremely distasteful in my opinion, but, w/e). We get all this, and in my opinion taking away what we have would lead to a lot more harms than losing any of these rewards. The short-sightedness just staggers me.

In my experience, locking those ilv's behind harder content will not give people more incentive to raid, it will push them away from raids. Higher ilv (for whatever it's worth) is a great way to boost player confidence and get them to attempt things they otherwise would not. Obviously skill and group cohesion are the biggest factors, but ilv is definitely more than a placebo. Allowing people to reach the top ilv over time also incentivizes more attempts after what could potentially be a string of tough losses. We need more players enjoying raid content, not less, and i suspect that ilv padding goes a long way toward that. This would also create a lot more work for statics looking for replacements/subs who dont' raid regularly (especially if Alexander HM has a lock similar to the weekly lock out on coil. We know NM will be like CT, but we still don't know how HM will be). Having an ilv 128 poe tank with only a casual interest in FCoB on standby for when 1 of our tanks couldn't make it was very very nice. We were able to teach him the fights, get our weekly clears, and enjoy it without having to worry about a arbitrary rift in ilv.

This would also be unfortunate for theorycrafters and itemization. The fewer gear options per level there are, the less gear optimization is possible. This isn't to say there wouldn't be competitive pieces, but an additional gulf in ilv would trivialize the competition all the more. Higher ilv raid gear would have to be optimized for things like accuracy so people aren't stuck with sub optimal vitality for HP checks (depending on how tightly the HP checks are tuned).

And the biggest one, for me anyway. I want people who don't care to play their jobs optimally (for whatever reason. their game) to overgear all other content by a nice, large margin. I want my dungeons to be that much faster/smoother (even if the difference is minimal). I want the dps in my 24 man raids to have enough gear without raiding that the good dps dont' have to break their wrists trying to make up for players who aren't interested in raiding to be stuck w/ ilv 20 levels lower. The player who want to get better, will get better. They'll find ways to improve themselves. They'll be curious. But you can't make someone care by imposing an arbitrary gear ceiling. Because of that fact, i'd much rather have top gear levels accessible to everyone to help make up for apathy/distractions/whathaveyou. Locking the highest ilv gear behind the hardest content would be bad for the masses, and create more stress in the community. And for what?

[Shougun]

+1'd the opposition, not because I don't understand the OP's sentiment (more work more reward) but because I don't think it benefits the greater enjoyment and social environment of the game and community - and importantly I don't believe the sentiment is including the greater vision. That I think OP skipped the part where the casual audience still has less opportunity (assuming casual wouldn't do coil, which isn't always true), as the elite can have access to tomes AND coil gear and the 'casual' would only have access to tomes. Elite gear up faster better, therefore imo reward enough for their hard work (also different stat and visual option). You automatically get access to one avenue of gearing, then you work harder and you get a second access.

I think the system is working well now and if there are changes I wouldn't want to see any that remove the 'casual' method (even though its really a tool for both audiences, as both can and will use it - calling it the casual method is a bad term).

tl;dr: You're already getting rewarded for doing higher difficulty content, no need to punish those who aren't.

[Anneliese]

I've always believed in the idea of having better rewards for doing tougher tasks.

[Deviant1]

Despite the egos i am about to bruise, raiders are not special. Most who label themselves as raiders are some of the most toxic players i have ever seen. All the 'one shot kill only', '1 strike = kick', and the misguided notion that they deserve better then everyone else crapitude... And then when you get in a pt with them, raid or dungeon, they still suck!!!

I kind of wish that they would make a BiS set in a solo dungeon type format. This way if i clear and have the best gear it is because of my skills and my skills alone. No carries, win sells or any of the drama.

I hate the way there are almost never any learning pts up, and then after you learn the fight you go into a farm group with some liar/s... then the rage quits begin and in the end you still spent a day trying to farm some gear with nothing to show for it... The current raid system is just horrible.

Hopefully with a token system, and perhaps more raids/end game activities would make things better.

So no Alexander shouldn't have exclusive ilvl gear, the children, liars and buyers don't deserve it.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Horizontal Progression instead of Vertical >_<

[Gunspec]

Wow has been sticking to "hardest raid has best gear" because all they add anymore are raids. No dungeons after expansion launches, only a few scraps of "content" such as f2p game mechanics and now adding level sync'd old dungeons (with 8 year old mechanics). Occasionally they add some content with catch-up gear, but those are often slow, late, or poorly thought out. Now they just seem to add "baby mode" raid as a catch-up mechanic, which unlike Crystal Tower, is just the SAME raid that everyone does with incredibly weak bosses.

FFXIV has been adding plenty of non-raid content, and they want that content to be rewarding to ALL players. So, we have weekly tomes to buy gear, and combining that gear with reagents from hunts and crystal tower results in gear EQUAL in ilevel to Raid gear. They aren't simply handing you tons of raid gear, you have to slowly work for it. But it DOES incentivize everyone into trying out the new content, and that content keeps flowing.

[Karen_Cerfrumos]

I find it absolutely fascinating how one unconfirmed interview from some Japanese guy's lodestone was enough for the entire community to start calling Alexander normal "baby mode" or "CT tier" and devise long-lasting implications out of that even though it directly contradicts previous interviews published by other sources.

But anyway, the hardest content should absolutely drop the best rewards. The problem though is that currently FCOB doesn't always have the best rewards because itemization is so god-awful, so you can end up with a T13 drop that has outrageous amounts of accuracy or skillspeed that don't do anything for you anymore. If this problem is done with in the expansion, then yes, go ahead and make Alexander savage gear exclusive top ilvl.

[FoxyAreku]

Understand that Coil may have the 'best' drops (best being subjective, there's some Dreadwyrm pieces that are only good for iL) but they were released months ago. In a game where gearing is the goal you can't leave people to get left behind. Especially with Heavensward just around the corner. As such, Square gave everyone the option of an alternate means of gearing in the form of tome and crafted gear (some of the iL 110 crafted gear is by and far better than Dreadwyrm, and that's before materia). This sentiment that Coil equivalent gear should only be obtainable by those who can complete Coil is entirely selfish and shouldn't be promoted to any degree. "You aren't the only hero."

That's a really bad mentality to have in an MMO, this game's method of letting people gear without even setting foot in a raid is a complete first for the genre. No other MMO lets you do that that I have heard of, you actually have to work for your gear and if you can't beat the bosses? Well, tough luck! Also consider that the story only goes up to an i90 requirement, so if you aren't raiding, you also don't NEED that gear.

People who work the hardest should get the most rewards, it's not selfish, it's only fair. And they do since people who don't do coil will never be best in slot (full poetics scholars make me shudder....).

I honestly must say I hate it when games cater to the lazy, like putting carbontwines and coats on hunts and the weekly, but that's how MMOs stay in business these days....