So what's the verdict on the Diadem?

[SleepyBee]

So far, as far as pugging goes, it's a total flop. I had a mostly quiet group, half of which wanted to gather. Barely killed anything, only got 1 piece of loot. Definitely didn't see any special mobs either. Complete bore.

I'm seriously hoping it will be more fun with my fc, because if they dont' want to do it often or at all, it's gonna be a damn long and lonely road to getting that pegasus mount.

[AskaRay]

You can always make a PF, stating "battling only".

[Azper]

I think there are some kinks to work out, especially on the random DF end of things. Myself and a friend went in on easy difficulty to test it out and were placed in a party with 6 others. Some observations:

1) Being stuck on the starting island until you find the aether currents seemed silly and unnecessarily limiting.

2) The mobs have WAY too much HP and everything felt like it took forever to kill, even the lowest ranked stuff for the objectives.

3) There's almost no stealth ability, so if something spots you (and it will), you're forced to fight it as the monsters do not leash as far as I could tell. If your party isn't around for whatever reason, you may as well just die and return.

My biggest pet peeve? Combining DoL with DoW/DoM classes. They run off to gather, but still get to roll on the drops the rest of the party had to fight for without their help. There needs to be some kind of battle contribution requirement in order to roll.

Spent about 45 minutes in there and got 3 drops out of 30 chests. Yuck. No thanks. Maybe I had a bad run, but I think it definitely needs some fine tuning.

[UBERHAXED]

I think there are some kinks to work out, especially on the random DF end of things. Myself and a friend went in on easy difficulty to test it out and were placed in a party with 6 others. Some observations:

1) Being stuck on the starting island until you find the aether currents seemed silly and unnecessarily limiting.

2) The mobs have WAY too much HP and everything felt like it took forever to kill, even the lowest ranked stuff for the objectives.

3) There's almost no stealth ability, so if something spots you (and it will), you're forced to fight it as the monsters do not leash as far

My biggest pet peeve? Combining DoL with DoW/DoM classes. They run off to gather, but still get to roll on the drops the rest of the party had to fight for without their help. There needs to be some kind of battle contribution requirement in order to roll.

Spent about 45 minutes in there and got 3 drops out of 30 chests. Yuck. No thanks. Maybe I had a bad run, but I think it definitely needs some fine tuning.

Isn't that average??? 8 people in a party so expected number of drops is 30/8 = 3.75.

[Awful]

Had an absolute BLAST we found 3 S ranks (or stars in this case) and we battled a giant bull thing that hysteria'd everyone off a cliff into a pack of dinosaurs.

10/10 Jurassic Park simulator. Also my friend got an amazing 210 hat for summoner/blm had hit, det, crit, spell speed.

[Azper]

Isn't that average??? 8 people in a party so expected number of drops is 30/8 = 3.75.

I guess my final reaction was more in relation to time spent versus rewards. It did not feel worth it to me.

[lunar_seraphim]

This is probably one of the best nights I've had in the game. I am a part of a small FC, with members who have either very obscure or limited gameplay time. We only have one group who progresses competitively into "end-game" content and otherwise, the remaining members either PUG or do not participate unless we need replacements.

However, tonight, a mix of both camps got together and headed for the skies! Boy, did we have a blast!

We could only muster 7/8 members for the voyage, but soon the Duty Finder found us an eighth. Unfortunately, after a few careless pulls, it appeared we were not up to their standard and they withdrew (the content not even being out 24 hours, who knew pros existed already ). Though admittedly, we were being silly. However, we got our act together, unlocked the ability for flight and took off.

We ventured into a cave and unknowingly took the attention of several monsters. We, a party of seven, fought them all, and being victorious noticed tracks suddenly appearing. We witnessed other groups shouting out this occurrence and did the same. However, in our naivety we summoned a starred monster, a giant purple worm that engulfed the cave. After several minutes, aid did not come and the worm barely scathed. Our mistake was naming it a Rank 5, when it was in fact a Starred monster. We quickly apologized and soon the calvary arrived. Another group descended and we swiftly conquered the Notorious Monster. There was an immense feeling of accomplishment that our group had one, spawned but second, endured the encounter until help arrived.

Over the remaining course of our time in the instance, our group cooperated with others and we found ourselves encountering monsters we had never witnessed before. We were all on voice chat exclaiming our excitement and wonder.

This is exactly the kind of content this game and frankly, our group needed. We have been together since the early years of Final Fantasy XI, and I know many of our core and founding members have felt displaced due to the way end game is structured in this game. This hour and a half adventure left every single one of us feeling, "This is one of the best nights ever!"

I am thoroughly looking forward to the many voyages to come where even more of our group can participate.

[hagare]

it is good but might/will get boring for some people.

[FaizeD]

It sucks. It's basically hunts in a new zone. But with gathering, woop-dee-doo. I thought it would be a bit like Dynamis, but after you complete the objectives, you just fly around looking for marks like you would S/A rank hunts, and then everyone burns them down.

[Whiteroom]

It was alright. From the Ishgard normal one I picked up a 210 Maiming belt, with only acc as a secondary stat. And probably around 20 brass from trade ins. It seems the gear loom is fully random, even having void ark glamours.

But with the design I think it will get tiresome quick. As others have said, its just hunt zerging. Was hoping for a little more.