FFXIV: The State Of Raiding

[SpookyGhost]

Gotta get that raid gear to use it on... the next raid to get the next raid gear to use it on... the next raid to get the next raid gear... etc

There's not enough battle content in general at end game. Dungeons are fun the first time, then they're just The Thing You Have To Do every other time. Diadem had potential to at least fill some kind of spot in end game but then turned out to negate the point of the current raid and be completely mind-numbing. EX Primals are good, as far as mindcore content goes they excel really well, but the problem is that they last all of a week (at most). NM raiding, similar to dungeons, is fun the first time and then it's The Thing You Have To Do. Savage is better this tier than the previous one in terms of progressive difficulty relative to other content, but the problem is... it's basically the only unique thing to do at end game and is restricted to a lockout. On top of that, as I was pointing out in the first sentence, the gear is literally just used for the next raid as raid gear will vastly overgear you for the next EX primal in the odd number patch and there's nothing else to do besides that until the next raid.

So the problem is that everything either quickly becomes useless or quickly becomes the same thing that you need to do every day/week. Savage isn't entirely exempt from this, once you've beaten it it does become the same as all the other content, but due to the difficulty and the lockout restrictions it's lengthened to at least last quite awhile. But that's it, that's all you've got, and once you've completed it there's nothing to do with your rewards except wait for the next raid.

I agree with OP that more mid-core content needs to exist, and I think that everyone I've seen post here and elsewhere agrees with that. A mid-tier version of the current raid could be cool if handled correctly (ie not requiring those wanting to tackle Savage to run through it a billion times), though I do think using those resources for something a bit different would be better - maybe 8 man versions of the last 24m raid with saved progression points and EX Primal difficulty bosses. But I think we also need more Savage-tier stuff, so that you can branch out from Savage and use your new gear on other stuff. I feel like end game is just... completely lacking in well rounded battle content, the progression works but it's literally dungeons -> NM raid -> EX primal -> Savage. That is genuinely all there is, EX Primal is done in a week, dungeons and NM raid are just Repeat This Forever, and Savage is... well, it's Savage.

You'd think they'd be trying to expand on this but I'm legit not seeing it. Diadem, okay, at least they were trying, but are we even getting Diadem fixed or updated this patch? Palace of the Dead is cool but it's not 60 content and any gear you've gotten from the current raid is irrelevant there because you're scaled back to lvl 1. Sure, it's A Thing To Do but you could also just turn off XIV and play a different game. I dunno, could be completely wrong, people could be loving the hamster wheel of end game content, I'm just personally not a fan atm especially after it being a complete repeat of 2.0.