FFXIV is in a Prime Position to Make Some Drastic Changes

[UBERHAXED]

It is..but it won't. Plenty of people quit and left for good when they saw how 3.0 was rehash of 2.0 with the tomes, and low and behold..we are getting tomes again in 3.2 lol. They don't really listen to the players...

The purpose of tomes was to supplement raid drops and nothing else. But I suppose they had fixed that problem by dropping pages. But sure, (I'm assuming you're suggesting) we can remove tomes and just have raid gear at max lvl.

[silentwindfr]

the trouble with the relic is tie to the raid, the trouble is to gate all the challenge behind raid, if they had added another type of endgame to 4-24 player it will be easier to ask people to do a endgame challenge for finish it.

me my main concern about ff14 is the fact that the game don't offer any option into endgame, it's raid or raid.

[Lorielle]

The fact that we can meld materia into Tomestone gear in 3.2 will be nice addition in terms of optional customization

This is NOT customization. Materia is NEVER about Customization(Not in ARR anyway). People will be melding their primary and secondaries if they can. DPS Crit and Det. BLM Spell Speed/Crit. SMN Det/Crit, etc. You stray from this, and you're doing your melding wrong. Sadly this extends into Crafting and Gathering too. You need to meld specific gears to reach minimum stats for Star Tier crafts until you can get the higher gear to alleviate some of the materia(which ultimately goes to waste anyway)

Edit: I just remembered. There IS some customization in materia in this game. Ironically, it's only in PVP with the Resist Materias.

[Kogasan]

This is exactly why I never will get another relic weapon cause to me they are totally pointless when by the time you get your hands on one they are more then likely gonna be obsolete. So really what's the point in investing alot of time and money on something that is go as be so obsolete. Anyway that's just my thoughts.

[SnugglesD]

I agree with you 100% OP. I just hope this gets the attention of the community team.

[Terribad]

I wish people would stop going to the extreme opposite end when someone mentions horizontal gear progression/different builds.

- I've played loads of mmos with horizontal gear, I never had to carry more than 5 sets or anything over 2. And the second set was used for 2-3 dungeons and pvp. There's always a happy medium.

- If someone doesn't want to play with you because you don't have a cookie cutter build, don't play with them. Once people with that mindset start limiting themselves and noticing it's taking longer and longer for their parties to fill, they'll come around.

This game needs variety, the gear here, which is usually the main reward with mmos, is horribly boring. Yes he said they'll add materia slots in tome gear, but 2 slots? No overmeld? Secondary stats only? Not good at all. With Aion for example, you can take your gear enchant it (Making it +1, +2 etc), add manastones (materia), combine the weapon with another, add a Godstone (bonus effects), add an Idian (more bonus stats) and condition it (activate bonus stats). Now we don't have to have all of that but 2 materia slots on end game gear with boring stats, that's not good enough.

Before someone starts screaming because I used Aion as an example. Just like the games mentioned in the OP, they didn't die from having horizontal gear and variety. And depending on how you look at success most of them did better than FFXIV. FFXIV doesn't have millions of active subscriptions, just accounts, which is saying something.

[Popotolord]

2. Player choice in both gear and progression is basically nonexistent.

Everything about this game is vertical, and streamlined -- It's a huge problem, that needs to be addressed.

I was completely shocked when i learned that the Armoury system, materia, and attributes barely make a difference in character customization. I heard ARR ripped off from WoW after the 1.0 disaster. But I was under the impression that WoW had character customization on the level of Diablo 2.

I loved the story, characters, and AMAZING amount of quests. But when i completed the MSQ i got completely bored knowing my character had no real aim or direction. I still have not gotten to Heavensward content yet. But It's hard to keep interest and I doubt I'll resub. Not until i hear substantial news about the Materia and Armoury Systems.

[UBERHAXED]

the trouble with the relic is tie to the raid, the trouble is to gate all the challenge behind raid, if they had added another type of endgame to 4-24 player it will be easier to ask people to do a endgame challenge for finish it.

me my main concern about ff14 is the fact that the game don't offer any option into endgame, it's raid or raid.

How can they make something challenging and not require a dedicated practice group to do it. I don't know what standards you have, but if something can be cleared in the first day it was released, then it's not challenging.

[NanaWiloh]

- If someone doesn't want to play with you because you don't have a cookie cutter build, don't play with them. Once people with that mindset start limiting themselves and noticing it's taking longer and longer for their parties to fill, they'll come around.

Cookie cutter builds really only matter when it comes to raiding and even more so with progression raiding. Serious progression raid groups don't take people who chose to run non cookie cutter builds. Yes they cut down the number of raiders they have to choose from, but choosing to run a non-cutter build means you see gate yourself off from content.

Its a yin/yang scenario in which you got too choose what you feel is the lesser of two evils.

[Terribad]

Snip

I've personally done serious raiding in several games, non cookie cutter builds, no one knew, no one cared and I wasn't the lowest DPS. Unless you guys actually play with these people, why does it matter? especially since A good majority of raiders in this particular game, already have their own pugs.