Problems with the strength of gear coming from easy mode Alexander

[Ultimatecalibur]

Are you guys all ready to throw away all the gear you fought for and melded? I sure am not! Oh well, gotta do it anyway. Even weapons.

Replacing gear happens - I get that. I like it. Replacing it ALL on a SINGLE DAY without setting foot into a raid is what I don't like.






I really hope this doesn't continue in 4.0.

There has been a few changes and you may not have heard about them.

A9S through A11S are supposedly tuned such that a party in i240 BiS gear can clear them.

If you have a Static good enough you will not be forced to get i250 crafted gear or a Sophia weapon. All you will be require to do is clear A9 through A12 normal.

[Brannigan]

@Brannigan

If you wanna go back to 2.0 format fine then all you get for doing savage is a title. As for craft weapons not everyone is going to be getting them as the price will be sky high and thats before adding the cost on for materia.

You seem to be confusing 2.0 savage with 3.0 savage.

2.0 savage is clearly side content not intended for progression. 3.0 savage is main content and is only called savage because they didn't want to make people feel inferior for doing Alexander "easy" mode.

Here is the problem people seem to not understand: With how 3.0 progression has worked, there is NO REASON to farm out gear from savage after you have cleared the final boss. You will replace all of that gear within a few hours of the server coming up on the next raid patch.

This is not how things worked in 2.x - you expected to use your First Coil gear in Second Coil, and Second Coil gear in Final Coil. There were some pieces you'd replace with crafted, yes, but crafted wasn't so much better like it is now. If you don't take advantage of higher ilvl crafted gear you're just making things harder for yourself. The crafted, if it's like it was in 3.2, will be so cheap and easy to get that you'd be a fool not to get it. This doesn't apply to people going for a kill within a few hours of the server coming up, but to the average raider.

[Brannigan]

What OP is suggesting is to just make weekly tome gear worthless to Raiders and make the Savage gear the only viable gear because it's the highest IL.

Also I know I'm double posting here but you do not know how to read. In the 2.0 model, tomestone gear and raid gear were equally valuable to raiders because they were the same item level(once upgraded), just like now. The important difference is that the crafted gear released on raid patches in 2.x was

-not higher ilvl than the previous tier
-much harder to make compared to now
-did not include accessories until the 24 man patch

Additionally, the Leviathan weapons were only -equal- to Allagan weapons (though 5 higher with a super rare upgrade item) and the Shiva weapons were only equal to High Allagan weapons once upgraded. Now, I don't get to use my stupid Midan goddamn Sword on anything but Brute Justice (which is where it came from) and maybe Sophia because I'll be replacing it ASAP.

[Starkbeaumont]

I would take a similar approach like Tint. Though with a few changes:

as example:

craftet gear is 220
alex normal is 220 and kinda farmable (one drop per day)
tome gear is 230
upgraded tome gear 240 (make upgrades not available until odd numbered patches and not through savage)
alex savage gear is 255
24-people raid gear is 230 but farmable from the beginning

next patch

craftet gear is 250
alex normal gear is 250 and kinda farmable (one drop per day)
tome gear is 260
upgraded tome gear is 270 (make upgrades not available until odd numbered patches and not through savage)
alex savage gear is 285
24-people raid gear is 260 but farmable from the beginning

[Aquaslash]

if they want people doing story mode they need to stick it in trial roulette

Yeah sure, if you want a Castrum Meridiandum situation again.

God, I'm STILL mad I didn't know to form a party on my first run of that. Who thought that was a good idea?

EDIT: I think what needs to be done is that there should be some kind of different reward from raiding instead of just high level gear. I actually like the system of upgraded tome gear being equal to raid gear simply because I like there being multiple paths to the goal of max level gear. This probably wouldn't be as desirable if Alexander wasn't such a god awful raid in general, but that's another topic.

For now, I'm liking the idea someone had earlier of material drops that give you special stat boosts and what not. Or perhaps some kind of permanent glowing effect, or maybe really powerful consumables that boost you far beyond the current available potions and foods. Mounts and minions are a step in the right direction at least.

I dunno, I just really dislike Alexander and its gear and really wish I didn't have to do it in order to be The Very Best Like No One Ever WasTM

The moral of the story is
MAKE BETTER RAIDS SE
and fix the relic system while you're at it

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I would take a similar approach like Tint. Though with a few changes:

I could actually get behind Tint's idea, but your amendments wouldn't work. If I can farm Alexander gear daily, why would I bother with crafted gear? I need a total of twelve pieces. So... two weeks of Alex or pay steep crafter prices? Pretty easy decision. A similar problem arises with 24-man raids being farmable from the get go. If they are, people will spam them for a couple weeks, get everything they want, then never touch them again. You need to essentially force people to continuously run content, lest it gather dust. What I would consider though is making tomestone gear a lower ilvl than crafted gear, but have some mats only obtainable from dungeons/trials/etc. It keeps people running content, but makes the more difficult approach (crafting RNG) better.

[Starkbeaumont]

good arguments

cause crafting would still mean better gear for all slots day 1 compared to having to go more often and having to compete with others. you would still have different kind of ppl that can't go every day, or ppl that can't stand to run 24-man raid multiple times a day. after all normal alex is still active in odd numbered patches even though drops have no lockout. but those that wish to farm all day could actually do it.
the reason behind this idea is to also give ppl more opportunities to switch jobs and be able to fill different spots making statics more accessible. atm your only choice would be to spend money on crafted gear.

[Brannigan]

Yeah sure, if you want a Castrum Meridiandum situation again.

Nothing in normal Alexander is any harder than half of trial roulette. Pretty much everything exept Garuda and Ifrit are on par or harder.

Anyway, I've given up hope of raids having any real rewards - I just want to actually use my raid drops while progressing through the next raid tier. Crafted being so easy and so good makes this a stupid option right now, which means that raiding after you've killed the final boss once is stupid.

[Belhi]

Its an interesting balance. Part of the issue in this whole situation is that making one source of gear more rewarding will effectively lessen how rewarding the alternative sources are. Buffing crafted gear has diminished the value of previous teir gearsets. However by making previous teir gear superior to the next teir crafted gear you create a situation where the crafted gear is substantially devalued as those most hungry for that gear no longer have an interest in it. Infact most people will be better off attempting previous teir raids, or even paying for runs, than purchasing the crafted gear.

Combined with other sources of reward erosion, such as the moving of Materia Melding to NPCs, and your seeing a diminished return on rewards for those who do crafting and gathering. Considering the serious time investment this content involves that is as much an issue as poor raid rewards. My personal experience is levelling and gearing my crafting and Gathering jobs consumed vastly more time than raiding. Now you can argue that crafters and gatherers do the content because they enjoy it which is true but the same argument can be made about raiding. In truth both content sources have to be rewarding for the time and effort invested in them.

I suspect this balance is part of the issue the Devs have. Half the reason they buffed crafted gear was because they took the material system and made it more available to everyone.

[Alahra]

I do think the 10 item level jump at the beginning of each new raid tier is problematic.

According to comments from Yoshi, that gear won't be necessary to clear the first floor or two of Alexander (The Creator), but there's no real reason not to get the i250 gear, since it'll provide a significant boost to early progression.

They will hopefully get rid of the needless jump for the raid tiers in 4.x.