Diadem and Savage - I can't deal with it anymore

[Aldora]

These are all valid points when it comes to content, raiding, gear, etc.

But, i do have to say that i’m looking at things quite differently then most people on the forums and reddit. The thing is, i tend look at the more positive things and see what can be done to improve on what has been released so far.

More like: “I see what you trying to accomplish with X, but as it is right now it’s not really working the way you thought it would. So, what will you do to improve on that? And what else are you guys planning to introduce?”, rather then “X made all other content obsolete” or “X has ruined the game”.

The way i see it is that:

This is the first part of the Alexander story, which forms as an introduction for the other 2 raid sections to come. The story so far seems to be a lot more lighthearted than Coil or the Void Ark. That in itself doesn’t have to be a bad thing, since we’re dealing with Gobbies who reside within the Primal Alexander. But… What are the Illuminati planning? And there seems to be more to the story of the Au Ra than she’s letting up.

In the 2.x series, we had 2 ways of getting End-game gear. With Tomes, which can be upgraded with Items that initially drop inside the Raid, as well the Gear that drops in the raid itself. Then, the next patch will give people more means to get the Upgrade Items. With Alexander and the Diadem, we have not 2 but 3 ways to get 210 gear, namely with the Eso Tomes, the Savage drops and the Diadem drops with randomized stats.

We basically “need” gear from all 3 in order to mix and match gear to get the BiS set we want. I see that as a good thing.

You are correct that introducing new content with better gear, will make the current (gear obtained through content from the previous patches) obsolete/outdated. But, only for classes which you have geared up to that extent. I mean, even though you can get iLvl190 gear from Alex Normal, iLvl200 Gear from Eso’s and Void Ark and iLvl210 through Savage, the weekly Void Ark drop as well as in Diadem, you can still gear up other classes with the iLvl185 gear until you get the item you want for it from Alex Normal / Void Ark / Alex Savage / Diadem.

In the end, you can still get only 450 Eso tomes per week, while every left side item cost 495 or more. You can only get 1 iLvl 200 drop from the Void Ark, you can only get 1 drop per floor in Savage and the stats on the gear in the Diadem is still random.

Rather than saying that the Diadem makes all other gear “Obsolete”, i’d like to see it as yet another way to gear up all of your classes.

But, there are a few things (from my point of view) that could use some improvement:

I’ve grown as a player by running Coil with my friends. It taught me a great deal about tanking and getting used to difficult end-game content. But, when i look at the difficulty of Alexander; Alexander Normal is too easy to actually get a sense of challenge when fighting bosses. However, on the other side, i believe that Alexander Savage will be too much of a wall for me to crawl over.

I’m really missing a middle ground here that feels more like the difficulty of Coil. Something like a “Hard Mode” for Alexander.

To me, A Realm Reborn (2.x) was always about setting a foundation for the game from which they would build upon. Heavensward would be the first expansion to work with that foundation, so i’m not surprised that we see a lot of things that were based on the things they learned from 2.x.

I see a lot of people say that most of the Heavensward content is simply a rehash from 2.0. I don’t quite see it like that. Yes, we do see a lot of things “reintroduced” from 2.x, but if i look closely at it, it’s not exactly the same thing. They added a twist to everything they add in a patch. Like a certain “Theme” they introduce in each patch, which will be used in future content in different kinds of variations.

For instance, one thing that stood out for me in this patch was that in both the Saint Mocianne’s Arborerum as well as in Pharos Sirius Hard Mode, they introduced little adds in the boss arena that are not targetable, but part of the mechanic they were trying to achieve. Like the little Morbol Seedlings at the Morbol battle as well as the Treant Seedlings at the last boss, or the Spiders and Vultures during the Corruption boss in Pharos.

But, on the other side, by using familiar mechanics, people would remember those mechanics and know how to handle them (even instinctively or unconsciously through muscle memory).

Personally, i look forward to every patch they release. Even if it’s for a new Relic tier, new dungeons, new raids (8 or 24 man), a continuation of the story, a new area in the Diadem, etc.

What i am surprised about, is the fact that they said that 3.15 would also contain story quests, next to the new Anima Relic’s.

Source: Famitsu Interview with Yoshida - Translated on Bluegartr Forums

Yoshida: Since patch 3.15 is a minor update to add the Anima weapons and St. Endalim Scholasticate story, we have no plans for a live letter before the patch. We have a few plans for the next letter after the patch 3.15 release, so hang on a bit until the official announcement.

3.15 was basically supposed to be a small patch for the Anima Relics and bugfixes/tweaks.

[KuraiKiserogeru]

I started getting depressed about the gearing system sometime in 2.x? This game goes along the same path every patch / gear update and I personally think its stupid.

Grind Soldiery for i100 > get X to make i110
Grind Poetics for i120 > get X to make i130
Grind Esoterics for i200 > get X to make i210
Grind *unknown* for i220 > get X to make i230

This recycled system is what’s putting me off playing the game. Why? All I was seeing this as > ffxiv.ariyala create BiS > cap *currency* pick weekly gear. Raid unlocks attempt a weekly drop. Get more gear from weekly *currency* > repeat for 2-4 months oh look Hunts have come out. Get a LS. Kill Mobs Get max ilvl in 3 days. Return to raid.

There was a huge drive behind Coils to continue raiding. Alex does nothing for me. The gear does nothing for me. Why? Maybe because SE put them in Normal mode and you reobtain them again in Savage with different stats and dyeable…. Okey…

I wish we had Coils 14 – 17 but there is no story behind it now as we killed Bahamut.
I liked the aetherochemical research facility and the fractal continuum because they were Allagan. I like anything Allagan in this game. The aesthetics are pleasing to me. Alex is unfortunately not.

Didem I cannot speak off as it’s the 3rd week of 3.1 and I still haven’t entered it and I refuse to enter it when people in the FC ask me to go. I thought the idea of Airships was great but something hit me on patch day after seeing hearsay in LS’s about the place just put me off. What do I personally do in game now? Fill in as a tank for A1 to A3s when people need help. The DR:EX, AFK or Log off.

[Melch]

Regarding Diadem, how hard is it to implement some random objectives, and focus the content on those objectives. Once you completed a set of objectives, new objectives could pop and the rewards would scale with completion. At the moment, all we do is mashing buttons for 80 minutes on the same 3 islands and get pissed because mobs are all very close to each other, they have the longest chase range ever, and their abilities are more annoying than dangerous. Also, for the Star NMs why don't they have different abilities based on their HP% or something else. It's always the same abilities, in the same order for all the fight.

[Melch]

Alexander normal and savage should really be two different contents. We don't want the same bosses in savage or the same gear design as normal mode. I see some issues with the story coming if SE does that, but well shouldn't raiders have something special for all the effort they put in the game?

[NRhodes]

My main thing is with this - Casual players honestly need to stop crying. They don't realize it, but they are ruining a huge aspect of what MMORPGs are made for.

Teamwork and Cooperation - which raiding is. And it has been trashed with 3.1.

In no way am I ok with giving early access to top-tier gear to people who have put no effort forth in obtaining it. Void Ark and i200 gear is fine. But this Diadem i210 better than raid gear BS is a joke.

There needs to be a clear separation between those who raid and those who don't, which we had back in BCoB for the longest time until actual "catch up patches" were properly allocated into the game.

Also, I have no problem with the casual aspect of the game, if that is your idea of fun, I, like many others of the hardcore player-base are ok with that. What I'm not ok with is a lot them seem to think they have a right to sit here and complain about how they aren't max geared while putting little to any effort forth.

If that is what you want, work for it, make it a goal and stop giving up when you hit a wall. Stop yelling for hand-outs. Rewarding mediocrity is breeding complete ignorance and ruining half of the game entirely.

[Fevelle]

There needs to be a clear separation between those who raid and those who don't

No there's not. This kind of mentality holds back horizontal progression from being implemented and cause the chaos we have now with 2 different difficulties of the same raid.

What we need is not a clear separation, we need REAL CHOICE OF GEARING. Make harder dungeons with relevant gear, 24-man raids also with relevant gear, keep Diadem, keep tomestones, make primals drop acessories with different effects. All with the same ilv, and keep BiS for Raid tier. This "clear separation" mentality don't belong in a FF.

[Nicobo]

I felt cheated. As you say, FFXIV is the first MMO where the best gear is not being obtained from the most hardcore content..

The fault was Alex Savage gives gears better than Alex.
Originally Savage was introuduced as an extra stage, a very difficult challange, possibly only a few groups in the world can clear it when it was new.
It didn't give gears, but a title. No one blame it was too hard bcoz it was expected to be extremely hard, hard means most ppl including YOU should not be able to clear it when it was new.

And this is a Level Up game, every player needs level up, iLv is the extension of your job Lv.
It is not true to say if you don't do AS you don't need 210.

IMO Diadem giving 210 is doing good, everyone should have same high level gears,
then we can see their different by their playing style or skill.
Now I am happy to see myself doing better than ppl have higher lv gear,
with that said, actually the more causal the more needs for 210, not the hardcore. ^^;

[Fevelle]

SE promoted "Git gud"

When? No, seriously, when did a Final Fantasy game had ANYTHING gated behind a difficult thing that not even overgearing could solve? FFXII Wyrmhero Blade? No, not even that.

[SonKevin]

I will probably get a lot of hate because OF is mainly read by social/casual players. I'm consider myself a semi-hardcore to hardcore player.

Stopped here.

[Aikaal]

IMO Diadem giving 210 is doing good, everyone should have same high level gears,
then we can see their different by their playing style or skill.
Now I am happy to see myself doing better than ppl have higher lv gear,
with that said, actually the more causal the more needs for 210, not the hardcore. ^^;

You can be full 210 outside of weapon now. You can hunts and do Void Ark to get Coats and Twines. In 3.15, you'll have Dips to have a 210 weapon. You already have the possibility to be equally geared like any raider. Having 210 that surpass raid gear in Diadem is unnecessary. You don't understand the point here. Diadem is insulting every raider in this game right now.

I still have an iLevel 200 weapon and I outdps BLMs with 205 and 210 weapons. Gear != skills. Gear is a reward for completing an objective that should be challenging. The best gear in the game is a brainless farm game. How convenient to make your players spend hours and hours to get that gear. This slows the feeling this game has no content right now.

3.1 game us 2 hours of story quests (if you watch cutscenes), Void Ark and Thordan EX. 2 new dungeons... that's hardly new content. Diadem exists keep people busy. Like I've mentioned, some hardcore casuals have been going crazy on relics. They've never raided in their life. People that can't raid still want the best gear around. That's why you can get twines and coats from Void Ark and hunts...