Rank Removed, PvP is Less Interesting Now

[Spawnie]

perhaps they want people to start as close as possible gear wise atleast for beginning of the feast.. how about instead of being all doom n gloom actually wait to see whats released/planned for the future b4 complaining perhaps??

[Februs]

perhaps they want people to start as close as possible gear wise atleast for beginning of the feast.. how about instead of being all doom n gloom actually wait to see whats released/planned for the future b4 complaining perhaps??

We already do know where SE is going with this. They have openly told us what they are doing, in detail.

Feast is going to be implemented in 2 weeks. Ranked and un-ranked modes were announced. Pre-season and season start and finish dates have been announced. Hot fixes are to follow the pre-season. When the actual season starts, league rankings will be implemented. Rankings reset every official season. SE's announced that their stretch goal is to implement a "spectator mode" with the intention of preparing for official tournaments (assuming the community shows an adequate interest). This is all very E-Sports, and the competition is being geared up to be very strong, especially because the Diamond league gives out top player rewards (including gear that will be unavailable to lower ranked players). These are all things that SE has publicly announced in various live streams, live letters, and interviews (some of them straight from Yoshi-P's mouth).

The fact that we know all this means that not all of this is "doom and gloom." Diamond ranked exclusive gear is definitely a plus, and official tournaments would be HUGE. They've also said they're looking into a dueling system, which we've been asking for, for a very long time now. All in all, the future of PvP in FFXIV is actually looking pretty bright for a change (it only took us two years of complaining to get some positive results). However, that doesn't mean that rank removal for gear, the continued disregard for Morale, or the giant kick in the nuts they just gave to the dedicated PvP'ers who actually grinded for those ranks, are not bad things. By and large, they are.

Given that they have been pushing for a more competitive PvP environment with the implementation of Feast, it is kind of weird that they took the ranks out. It makes sense to provide at least some unraked gear to entice the casual players into the mode, but to completely remove rank restrictions entirely is asinine. It just gives players less reason to actually rank up, which makes them less competitive from a technical (Ap points) and practical standpoint. It doesn't seem very compatible with their announced agenda. Fortunately, the Diamond rank gear should make up for this and give seasoned PvP'ers something to actively strive for.