Gear Progression Continues to Make Little Sense

[Kogasan]

They do, it's called Alex Normal. I mean really, try to complete A1 or A4 with a group of nothing but casuals and yourself sometime... it's not going to work out well, even after you explain it.

Alex normal I feel is stupid easy. I feel Alex normal should be called Alex for dummies or for that matter Alex for beginners. It poses no challenge to me. So imo no they don't have a raid for intermediates. They only have Alex for beginners aka Alex normal and Alex for statics and HC aka Alex savage. I think they really need a raid that is in between the two.

[Kallera]

Alex normal I feel is stupid easy. I feel Alex normal should be called Alex for dummies or for that matter Alex for beginners. It poses no challenge to me. So imo no they don't have a raid for intermediates. They only have Alex for beginners aka Alex normal and Alex for statics and HC aka Alex savage. I think they really need a raid that is in between the two.

Twelve forfend, its the missing link argument, applied to raid content again.

It is named what it is, there's no need to try and mock players with it.

[GrizzlyTank]

Standard MMO gearing have never made sense.

[Fendred]

Alexander normal gear helps gearing alts, and acts as filler gear, or an alternative in general depending on your stat priority, to the esoteric gear.

You can get more alex normal gear than you can get Esoteric gear within a week. It's not meant to be equal.

That may be how some people choose to distribute the equipment, but there is nothing indicating such behavior is an intended consequence of the content design. Alex gear can be acquired slightly faster, to a point. The main body from Alexander takes a month to save up for, which is more than even the esoteric weapon. The end game isn't made with the multiple job system in mind. If anything, it resembles the gearing systems of games that have only a single job per character.

[Reaperking386]

Why? This is the dumbest thing ever. Why are specific gearsets being created purely for secondary jobs? Again I question the logic in this as it makes no sense.



Absolutely. This is another glaring issue. Locking class specific gear behind higher requirements and weekly caps again makes no sense especially with three new jobs added.

Originally story mode (Alexander Hard mode) was set without gear, but good guy yoshi and his band of marry men added gear as a bonus for more people to run Alexander to allow players to still progress through the raid without waiting too long.

[AsteriaStarfall]

Why? This is the dumbest thing ever. Why are specific gearsets being created purely for secondary jobs? Again I question the logic in this as it makes no sense.

Because people cry and complain that "oh no, i play every class in the game, and you mean to tell me i have to wait to get esoterics for all of them????"

No, this adds a way for you to gear them, and then run them through some stuff to get better gear.

You are NOT AT ALL meant to get the best gear for each class at the same time, NEVER should this be possible. It would be a horrible game design and would cause even more players to just run some stuff for a couple weeks then drop sub. The gear grind, is what keeps the majority of players PLAYING between content patches. Once you understand this, you will understand the answer to your original question.

[Ultimatecalibur]

That may be how some people choose to distribute the equipment, but there is nothing indicating such behavior is an intended consequence of the content design. Alex gear can be acquired slightly faster, to a point. The main body from Alexander takes a month to save up for, which is more than even the esoteric weapon. The end game isn't made with the multiple job system in mind. If anything, it resembles the gearing systems of games that have only a single job per character.

It take 5 weeks to fully gear a role (Tank, Healer, Caster, Ranged, Dragoon, Monk, Nin) in i190 using the optimal collection pattern. It take 13.3 weeks to fully gear 1 class in i200.

You can gear up 8 classes to i190 through Alex NM in roughly the time it takes to gear one class to i200 with Esoterics.

We also do not know what ilevel the 3.1 24 man will give. It could be i190 or i200.

[Fendred]

It take 5 weeks to fully gear a role (Tank, Healer, Caster, Ranged, Dragoon, Monk, Nin) in i190 using the optimal collection pattern. It take 13.3 weeks to fully gear 1 class in i200.

You can gear up 8 classes to i190 through Alex NM in roughly the time it takes to gear one class to i200 with Esoterics.

We also do not know what ilevel the 3.1 24 man will give. It could be i190 or i200.

It shares the same general methodology for gearing up as any other Themepark MMORPG, and those don't have the option to raise multiple jobs on the same character. If they were going to release so many dungeons that you could equally gear up multiple jobs despite lockouts, they would just remove lockouts.

[Ultimatecalibur]

It shares the same general methodology for gearing up as any other Themepark MMORPG, and those don't have the option to raise multiple jobs on the same character. If they were going to release so many dungeons that you could equally gear up multiple jobs despite lockouts, they would just remove lockouts.

No, they are doing things this way to extend subscriptions and the amount of weekly play. Currently the best gear for both your Main class and your Alts is behind a weekly lock.

It currently takes just over a month to gear an Alt role to near max when previously you could have geared every class to near max in a couple weeks with uncapped tomes. This will extend play/subscription time during each 2 patch cycle.

[Kaedan]

Alex normal I feel is stupid easy. I feel Alex normal should be called Alex for dummies or for that matter Alex for beginners. It poses no challenge to me. So imo no they don't have a raid for intermediates. They only have Alex for beginners aka Alex normal and Alex for statics and HC aka Alex savage. I think they really need a raid that is in between the two.

Do you even bother to read?

As I said, take 7 other casuals with you and go do A1 and A4. I actually agree with you that Alex.N is easy, but it's only easy if you know the mechanics. Very casual players are usually not going to know them. That's why it's intermediate content... it takes some practice and knowledge, unlike Dungeons.