Why vertical progression is poorly implemented

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

On another note, literally every single one of those stats except subtle blow,CHR, and Evasion are aalready baked into our gear, simplified as Accuracy, Determination, and Parry. Triple attack is I'm the game in the form of a cool down, and physical damage taken down is literally just Parry (guess how many actually want that). Subtle Blow also wouldn't work due to how enemy skills work in this game. What are you asking for exactly?

[Kore_Hyperion]

I stopped raiding because there's no point to it when I can get the same ilvl gear without having to do it.

Although I must admit, I am enjoying the feeling of not having to be online at specific days and times in order to run with a raid static.

[Purrfectstorm]

If something is that overpowered that it can last for years then what is the point in developing new gear at all?

You either make later gear irrelevant , or make current gear irrelevant.

If something increased Cure by 10% or increased Halone enmity by some extent. But it wasn't as good as Mind or Strength do you think anyone would use it? If something increased the damage of a skill vastly over the value of a main stat like Strength , then what would be the point in Strength?

FFXIV isn't designed for what you guys are suggesting.

I'll agree that the way progression currently works isn't the best. But neither is horizontal progression. Nothing is perfect and exchanging one way for the other wouldn't solve anything.

I have an idea that might work.

We have 12-13 gear slots:
- weapon
- head
- body
- hands
- waist
- legs
- feet
- neck
- ear
- wrist
- ring
- ring
- shield

You could have each raid buff only 4 of the slots instead of all 12 or 13. Each turn could buff a piece (Turn 1: head, Turn 2: hands, etc.) Or you could get multiple upgrades for a single turn (Turn 1: head, hands, wrist, ring, etc.) In the latter case, the later turns would offer additional upgrades. So you could buff hands 4x, head 4x, etc. This would preserve the extreme vertical progression for the people who are really into that but still allow people to keep their BiS pieces for longer. Every raid would offer gear improvements but each BiS piece would be good for roughly 6 patches (about a year and a half).

My solution is very basic and really not that imaginative. I'm sure game developers could come up with something even better. Regardless, I think they should do something different. Gear becomes obsolete too fast. Raiders don't get to enjoy having the best gear long enough to make raiding very motivating. I don't raid much now but I know I would raid more if the next cycle of tome gear wasn't going to be better than raid gear.

Edit: I just had another idea. You could also have gear that gave buffs to non-battle content (or could be traded in or used to augment other gear with non-combat buffs). Some examples: +MGP earned, increased Triple Triad drop rate, +Wolf Marks, Move - Find Item, increased movement speed (outside of combat), +crafting/gathering stats, +choco exp earned (regular or racing), and so on.

There's no limit to the amount of options that would be a lot more interesting than what we have. I like the idea of old gear being consumed to augment new gear with cool perks. It would also keep a steady supply of people doing older content (to add perks to their new gear)

[Ibi]

physical damage taken down is literally just Parry (guess how many actually want that)

Just to nitpick, parry and PDT, though similar in that they both reduce the overall damage you take, are extremely different things.

The main issue with parry is that you cannot predict when you will or will not parry, so a proactive healer must assume that their tank will not parry a given attack, and heal them accordingly. When a parry does occur, it simply generates overheal.

PDT, on the other hand, is active for every single hit, so the damage will always be reduced accordingly, and healers are able to account for it. PDT would probably be the most desirable stat in XIV if it existed.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Tanks already eschew any and all forms of unnecessary mitigation in favor of hitting harder. Unless it could be demonstrably better in shortening the length of a given fight, most tanks would still avoid it like the plague. Tanks have more than enough mitigation already built onto their kits(with the exception of DRK) that any stats like this would be considered more a hindrance than a help.

[PFM]

Vertical progression not the problem. Lack of content actual issue. You shouldn't just be getting a weapon from Thordan, you should be getting an entire gear set from a mid-level raid with Thordan as the capstone. You should be demanding more than two dungeons and four bosses for your 15x12 dollars per year. There should be raid only drops that crafters can utilize to circulate worthwhile gear into the economy. There should be savage dungeons where the bosses drop constituent parts to spawn a boss in a zone or raid which turns potential raiders into commodities by not only having something raid teams and companies want (more loot) but also marking them as capable of downing non-trivial content. Arbitrary snowflake stats don't mean anything, they're pointless.

The only ones that would matter would add actual buttons to your job or enable you to stack enough of a stat so that new rotational opportunities can be achieved. The great myth of horizontal progression is that anything can work and everyone is free, when in reality there's a metagame. It's enforced. If you're not meta, you're wrong, and if you're doing things not meta, you're probably with a group of your snowflake friends, which in that case you didn't care about the long view of the game at all and just wanted catering to.

[Ossom]

The problem is that this game needs to cater to two communities, those that want butt sliders and flying adamantoise mounts every patch. And those that want the progression to be altered, unfortunately for some people (and fortunately for others), there are more people in the former category than the later. So most of the dev work is going into the cosmetic and casual side of the game, this includes :

• Lv60 Dungeons for Tomes
• Glamour Pieces, including newer craftable ones (ex. Apparently new High Allagan Dyeable gear that is crafted)
• New Mounts (Flying Adamantoise comes to mind)
• New Minigame type stuff (Lord of Verminion, all of Golden Saucer, TT, the Minigame in the Inn, comedic side quests)
• And some more stuff I definitely forgot about

Arguably 3.2/3.3 might be the most hardcore oriented patch to date. Since it includes an overhaul of how important crafting is to the raid scene. Brings an importance to doing good in PvP. Alters Diadem to be another area to gear up in end game gear. Includes a new storyline of Primals.

[Dzian]

I suspect the biggest cause of your confusion is that SE is gearing up 3 distinct player groups using mostly the same content but consume that content at differing rates. They were planning for casual players to be at around i180 at the start of 3.1 and end up around i200 to i210 before 3.2. Midcore players were around i200 when 3.1 started and are intended to hit i210 by the end of the patch. Hardcore players were expected to hit i205 before 3.1 landed and then gain those last 5 ilevels during 3.1.

Am I reading that right? You're basically saying everyone is meant to be at the exact same place at the end of 3.1.
casuals were planned to be 200-210 before 3.2
midcore expected to hit 210 before the end of the patch (3.1)
and hardcore expected to hit 205 before 3.1 and 210 during 3.1.
Which to me means that they planned for everyone to be at 210 before 3.2. that can't be right,

[Hix]

Which to me means that they planned for everyone to be at 210 before 3.2. that can't be right,

It's the same exact cycle they've been using since Coil and CT. 24 man raids have always been casual centric raids that allowed midcores to increase their gear level to help them clear Coil/Alex Savage, while also allowing Casuals to reach the current raid tier level just as it was about to become the prior raid tier level. That way when the new raid tier level comes out, a casual who wants to become hard/midcore can easily transition and avoid the Can't Catch Up problem. In fact this is the same cycle that's been in WoW since Wrath of the Lich King, and was designed specifically to avoid the Can't Catch Up problem that existed in Burning Crusade.

[Dzian]

It's the same exact cycle they've been using since Coil and CT. 24 man raids have always been casual centric raids that allowed midcores to increase their gear level to help them clear Coil/Alex Savage, while also allowing Casuals to reach the current raid tier level just as it was about to become the prior raid tier level. That way when the new raid tier level comes out, a casual who wants to become hard/midcore can easily transition and avoid the Can't Catch Up problem. In fact this is the same cycle that's been in WoW since Wrath of the Lich King, and was designed specifically to avoid the Can't Catch Up problem that existed in Burning Crusade.

that only highlights why players aren't motivated to do more challenging content I think.