Variance in player skill is hurting FFXIV's itemization design.

[RobbieH]

I didn't say "no effort", that was your assumption. In my reply to Seraphix a few comments up I remarked that the relic grind to me is a suitable amount of effort for things (albeit boring as hell).

That aside, this thread is supposed to be more about how we can brainstorm ways to make gear more rewarding without playing into the devs' fears that it would alienate portions of the playerbase, no? Or am I misunderstanding something here?

You said without grind, grind requires effort, of course that was my assumption.

About the ways to make gear more rewarding i already talked about it here, not gonna write the same again sorry.

Diadem was fine, but the crybabies of casuals came to the internet complain about it because it would require effort to get decent gear, it was a grind fest, yes, but the only real grind there was, good job casuals, keep killing content, at this rate in one year there will be 10% of hardcores and raiders than there is now.

[Ibi]

Diadem was fine, but the crybabies of casuals came to the internet complain about it because it would require effort to get decent gear, it was a grind fest, yes, but the only real grind there was, good job casuals, keep killing content, at this rate in one year there will be 10% of hardcores and raiders than there is now.

Are there really people that honestly enjoy content with minimal engagement, requiring zero skill and near-zero effort with extremely low reward rates?

I found diadem mind-numbingly boring, personally. The only good thing about it was that spending more than fifteen minutes in there actually made me eager to get back into A3S/A4S.

[Vivi_Bushido]

Are there really people that honestly enjoy content with minimal engagement, requiring zero skill and near-zero effort with extremely low reward rates?

I found diadem mind-numbingly boring, personally. The only good thing about it was that spending more than fifteen minutes in there actually made me eager to get back into A3S/A4S.

Some people do actually. I did. But not because I enjoyed the physical content like Diadem. I enjoyed getting the gear and how quickly I was able to progress simply by sacrificing and hour or two at a time to gear up. It wasn't the content that was fun. It was the thrill of the rewards that made it fun.

[Ibi]

Some people do actually. I did. But not because I enjoyed the physical content like Diadem. I enjoyed getting the gear and how quickly I was able to progress simply by sacrificing and hour or two at a time to gear up. It wasn't the content that was fun. It was the thrill of the rewards that made it fun.

I can see how that could change your perspective.

I was already in mostly i210 gear when Diadem hit. Our FC did a Diadem night for the first three weeks it was out, and I think in those three sessions I got a total of two offspec upgrades, so the reward factor was rather absent for me.

Regardless, you said yourself that it's not the content that you enjoyed, it was the rewards. Those could just as easily have been added to a system that was intrinsically interesting, rather than where they were the only motivation.

[Nalien]

Diadem was fine

As someone who desires grind heavy content, no it wasn't... Diadem was and is fairly terrible, it's a shortsighted and lazy mess... Sadly they also seem to be taking the Frontlines approach to Exploration Missions, and we'll be getting something new (and hopefully better), rather than seeing them adjust Diadem at all... A shame, it had a lot of potential as an event... SE just doesn't seem to have much interest in putting effort into events, instead we just get instanced Hunts with gathering tacked on for some reason... It's still certainly doable content if you've got a FC Airship handy, but Diadem makes Dynamis look like a masterclass in games design... At its core it just didn't have any effort put into it from the developers...