Request : In Stormblood, allow us to gear without tomestones

[Morzy]

To be honest, 3.2 changed a lot when they finally made crafting gear more on par with the current raid. We've gotten new tiers of crafting gear in 3.2 and 3.4 and it seems to be a very good system and it's great for the economy. You could literally get crafting gear and just forget tome gear.

Granted the crafting gear cost a lot but this is where your FreeCompany will come into play.

[Phireblast]

So you're saying we should keep content drab and uninteresting then? Never do anything new, just put in slightly altered versions of what we already have?

Good shout. :P At least FATEs are nothing more than a way to obtain experience.

You're telling me about drab and uninterest and yet you want the fate system to remain the same? Actually, don't bother replying. This will just end up in an argument in which either side will refuse to admit whether they're wrong or right.

[TarynH]

Here's my thing. I like the tome system in general. It ensures that the player at least gets something out of doing content. One of the most frustrating things in a game is constantly throwing yourself into content, and coming out with no reward at all. On the other hand, if there isn't enough incentive to do the content in the first place, then you run the risk of it becoming dead content.

The tome system allows reward for doing content, and something to work for, making sure you continue to do the content.

The problem I have with it, however, isn't so much the gathering of tomes, but rather having to replace the base gear constantly, and having maybe one upgrade to it. Instead, I would like to see some form of base gear added, for each job (AF4?), that could be continually upgraded. Where the investment for the initial gear is somewhat lighter, but the investment with upgrading it takes some time. Kind of like the relic weapons, but not that much of a time sink. Maybe one upgrade could require tomes, but then the next upgrade might need something from a dungeon (like a cloth/leather obtained from clearing it).

I would just like to see something other than the current cycle of obtaining a piece, upgrading it once, then tossing it when the next piece rolls around. And I'd also like to see gear upgrading less reliant on luck, or randomness.

[Reynhart]

You already can. It's called raiding, and to an extent, crafting. I think you forgot about crafted gear in your OP, because even half a set of crafted gear would set you way above the requirement for midas.

No, I didn't forget about them. When 3.0 launched, you had no crafted gear that could grant access to Gordias. And since dungeon drops were i160, you couldn't even enter Gordias to raid. What should be is that dungeons gear grant access to normal raid, normal raid grant access to 24-man raid, savage raid and odd patch dungeons, odd patch dungeons drops gear to grant access to even patch dungeons, etc...If you want to avoid tomestones, it mean you only access 3-months old content. Besides, crafting gear can be really expensive, especially if you only want normal raiding, and doesn't change the fact that dungeons gear is basically useless.

Won't happen. This would let people gear up too quickly and so for every patch cycle people would "take a break" a lot sooner.

No, this wouldn't. You can already farm uncapped tomestones as fast as you want, and it grant any access you need apart from Savage. The only difference would be that dungeon faming is RNG based, while tome farming is time based.

Here's my thing. I like the tome system in general. It ensures that the player at least gets something out of doing content. One of the most frustrating things in a game is constantly throwing yourself into content, and coming out with no reward at all. On the other hand, if there isn't enough incentive to do the content in the first place, then you run the risk of it becoming dead content.

For me, I'd increase the tomes rewards on roulettes, and reduce them from dungeons themselves to compensate for better drops, to separate more the two ways of earning gear.

[worldofneil]

You can already farm uncapped tomestones as fast as you want, and it grant any access you need apart from Savage. The only difference would be that dungeon faming is RNG based, while tome farming is time based.

But then someone could still farm their gear from dungeons in the first week and be done with it. It also puts more pressures on other players to "catch up".

Also more complaints of "I have max gear give me something to do!" and those people unsubscribe until next patch. SE won't want that.

I like it is right now, we gear up continually over time. What's the rush?

[Ashelia_Ferron]

No, this wouldn't. You can already farm uncapped tomestones as fast as you want, and it grant any access you need apart from Savage. The only difference would be that dungeon faming is RNG based, while tome farming is time based.

Because RNG is such a great system -_-

I prefer systems that reward effort, not luck.

If anything this game is moving AWAY from RNG. Savage and EX primals now have token systems. Primal birds even use those tokens after time. Even the recent Relic steps have been just time consuming, not luck based.

No one likes it when they run a dungeon 100+ times and still don't get their drop while someone else runs once and gets theirs. It was a bad system in Final Coil, it'd be a bad system for all gear

[Lewtskie]

I can only be happy that while I'm certain some of the Devs revel in our misery, they at the very least don't commit to half-baked ideas like this.

While I despise tomes, my hatred for RNG is even greater. Fuck RNG. That said, your idea also undermines the balance that the tomes maintain. Ultimately, everyone who at least maintains the weekly cap are guaranteed to all be at the same ilvl at the end unless they split their tomes among multiple classes. This is healthy for a community overall and, in the long run, the game. Basically, MMOs need to stretch content out to retain players in the long run and caps and lockouts also provide breathing room to the players with less time to feel they aren't dragging behind, yadda yadda yadda.

The issue with putting complete and competitive gear in dungeons is obvious, and you could use some weekly token or lockout bullshit but that also subverts the idea of tomes retaining players. In general, if they had thought it a good idea to do it they'd have done it by now, but they've seen that in the end it's healthier to just not add it in.

That said, I'm all for having more avenues of content with greater difficulty to provide gear for those of us who do want to go beyond, I'm totally down for that. It'd be boss to have primal accessories again along with our weapons, or if they introduced three tiers of Raids and that middle tier being that level of primal challenge, if not just a bit more if necessary.

The only thing that should ever circumvent the window of time and commitment that the game needs to instill is putting yourself in the fire and working for it. Even those should have their own lockouts of course, but the smart player will map out where to best put their efforts.

[Reynhart]

But then someone could still farm their gear from dungeons in the first week and be done with it.

Yes, like they can now. It wouldn't be faster or slower, just...different

It also puts more pressures on other players to "catch up".

Not, it does not. Again, the RNG method wouldn't be automatically faster or slower, and the tome system woud still be he same as it is now.

I like it is right now, we gear up continually over time. What's the rush?

What does "rush" have to do with it ? It's only a different method.

Because RNG is such a great system -_-
I prefer systems that reward effort, not luck.

Personally, I find the token system to be really boring after several years...but even without my opinion, why should we have only one system ? Dungeons already drop gear now. You just have to increase the item level (On par with uncapped tomestones) so that they'll grant access to the normal raid, and voilà !, problem solved.

While I despise tomes, my hatred for RNG is even greater. Fuck RNG. That said, your idea also undermines the balance that the tomes maintain.

No, it doesn't. You can gear any job you want as fast as you want with uncapped tomestones. Capped tomestone would still be higher, but you never need this to access a content. For example, right now, to enter Creator, you need i230. So, the only options you have is tome gear (Uncapped is enough) or crafted. Gubal and Xelphatol drops 225 gear...if they'd drop 230 gear, it would grant access to Creator...

[ADVSS]

No, I didn't forget about them. When 3.0 launched, you had no crafted gear that could grant access to Gordias. And since dungeon drops were i160, you couldn't even enter Gordias to raid. What should be is that dungeons gear grant access to normal raid, normal raid grant access to 24-man raid, savage raid and odd patch dungeons, odd patch dungeons drops gear to grant access to even patch dungeons, etc...If you want to avoid tomestones, it mean you only access 3-months old content.

.

So much this, had a friend restart a new chara and were having trouble getting him to even get close to current as all the gear to enter that stuff is locked behind hunts, and his ilevel i too low to start doing dungeons and hes new and basically cant afford crafting gear essentially, so like potd is about the only thing he can grind to get his ilevel up

[Yeol]

Because RNG is such a great system -_-

I prefer systems that reward effort, not luck.

Totally agree with this.