So anyone else tired of grinding tomes weekly for gear?

[Felis]

So here's my question.

Why should I put in the effort to grind for tomes and gears, when I could just wait, not play the game, and then be rewarded for that 3 months down the line when I can get everything I want for less effort?

Why waiting? You can get easy the 3rd best equip now already

[BHGlobbd]

Not counting 1.0, XIV is still in it's infancy. The XIV team is testing the waters with seemingly similar content, they're finding what has longevity, and what does not. With each expansion they introduce concepts that can potentially last multiple expacs. Will we see Diadem in 4.0 or 5.0? Possibly.

The Forbidden Land of Eureka is 4.0s lasting concept, one thing that interests me about Eureka is that it is an actual zone, unlike Diadem. This already has potential to be relevant in future expacs.

[NolLacnala]

Not counting 1.0, XIV is still in it's infancy.

We're going on four years. With longer running MMOs surviving a decade, we can probably consider Alexander and Diadem the "troubled teens" of this game's lifespan.

[stardrifter]

So much yes, I wish FFXIV was more like FFXI in regards to obtaining gear. I don't mind the time it took to get gear because it actually felt like something when it was obtained. Make it happen, please change this damn vertical treadmill.

While I will continue to sub and run dungeons to get tomes to get gear, it is fun, but we could be having much more fun with a different type of system. I hope to see some changes.

[Astral145]

The only content that is helping me get my weekly cap is POTD. Ive only ran the newest dungeons maybe 3 times when it was released and haven't bothered running them again. Not because the dungeons are terrible its quite the opposite but the gear that drops just isn't worth grinding for them unless its for glamour. If the dungeon gear was i250 to i255 then yea it would be worth running the dungeons. The queue times and solely grinding for tomes in dungeons just isn't worth the time.

If POTD wasn't in the game I probably wouldn't be subbed at the moment. If the current endgame treadmill is in Stormblood I probably will not buy it. The whole endgame trend needs to be revamped. I have all jobs at 60 and would like to farm current raid gear for at least 5 jobs without gates. I am not asking for it to be easy to get but I would still like to have the opportunity to get gear for other jobs to take into raids, primals..ect. POTD is awesome and there should be an option to get current gear as well that will allow to jump into endgame raids.

I am not asking for top end game raid gear from content like POTD but am asking to have gear that will allow me to enter raid content with enough stats to do my job well w/out crippling the team. Current Dungeon gear is not good for raiding. Sure you can do it but it may cause issues if a healer or tank.

[Iromi]

Not counting 1.0, XIV is still in it's infancy. The XIV team is testing the waters with seemingly similar content, they're finding what has longevity, and what does not. With each expansion they introduce concepts that can potentially last multiple expacs. Will we see Diadem in 4.0 or 5.0? Possibly.

The Forbidden Land of Eureka is 4.0s lasting concept, one thing that interests me about Eureka is that it is an actual zone, unlike Diadem. This already has potential to be relevant in future expacs.

Well I do hope they find stuff with longevity. This game needs it badly ; ; Diadem came out Nov 2015 and it still hasn't been updated...I know it is finally coming in a few weeks but jeez, they neglected it for a long long time D: Eureka looks promising, but with how HW went, I am not getting my hopes up until I see it, that way I can be pleasantly surprised instead of disappointed heh.

[Ayer2015]

The gear progression system in this game is abysmal. I sub for one month when each patch hits. I've come to realize there is no reason to play longer than that.
While I enjoy the game generally, the devs really need to address incentive to remain subbed via in-game progression targets.

[Kosmos992k]

Ive only ran the newest dungeons maybe 3 times when it was released and haven't bothered running them again. Not because the dungeons are terrible its quite the opposite but the gear that drops just isn't worth grinding for them unless its for glamour. If the dungeon gear was i250 to i255 then yea it would be worth running the dungeons.

If I may, I will use this quote from your post to make a general point, not specific to you Astral.

You say that you don't run the dungeons any more, you say they are not terrible, but the opposite - meaning they are quite good I guess. But the gear drops are not enough to make you run them any more.

This is the core issue I have with modern MMORPGs and especially their players. Any game can be reduced to it's bare essential mechanics, and to me the 'faming' mentality that has people capping tomes and only running content that can get them new shinies does exactly that. It cuts everything else to the bone, leaving only the absolute necessity for gearing, and even then only the most efficient way to do it.

But, by doing that, it excludes something like 98% of the game because "it just isn't worth" grinding because the gear is inferior. I honestly don't get that at all. I mean this is a video game, keyword being 'game'. Something to play, play being something you do for enjoyment. Yet I have lost count of the number of times players have complained about this. Complaining that the game lacks content, or does nothing to hold them.

Astral says that he wants gear from other content that bridges into raids; well that exists already in the game. The problem is that most established groups at end game are well beyond that bridge gear and assume everyone else has current end-game gear too (terrible assumption). Now, when they first encountered the end-game content those players were in bridge gear as well, but now they demand something better of anyone new. How are you to obtain that unless raid gear is handed out like candy? It's a catch 22, you want better gear but to run the content to get it you need groups to accept you in inferior gear, and they won't so you can't get the gear that you need to far more.

I don't know, that just doesn't sound like a fun game to me.

On the other hand the other 98% of the game requires only story and basic tome gear, if you don't grind/farm things, you don't run them so many times, and you have time to enjoy things, time to talk to others about 'stuff' and time to play with the various game systems and mini-games that comprise the side content in the game. I understand that for many players raiding and end-game is the draw, but in a vertical progression game that becomes a never ending escalator of gear progression, and if you stumble and fall the escalator, your group will leave you behind. I guess you either have to be satisfied with the vertical progression, or more prepared to accept a completely different style of play.

I think the vertical progression has been too fast encouraging an almost arms race like mentality of escalating the stakes and gear as quickly as possible because nothing else matters. Followed by that gear becoming obsolete very quickly and needing replacement again, perpetuating the cycle. And of course people complain about gear longevity as a result.

Perhaps the answer is to slow the vertical progression and broaden the horizontal progression? That would be a difficult transition because of the 3 years of training to vertical progression many players have experienced. Perhaps it's worth the risk?

[SeriousxSarcasm]

The problem is that most established groups at end game are well beyond that bridge gear and assume everyone else has current end-game gear too (terrible assumption). Now, when they first encountered the end-game content those players were in bridge gear as well, but now they demand something better of anyone new. How are you to obtain that unless raid gear is handed out like candy? It's a catch 22, you want better gear but to run the content to get it you need groups to accept you in inferior gear, and they won't so you can't get the gear that you need to far more.

I think you've hit the nail with this part. I was lucky with my old FC when we had a raid leader that walked newbies through the normal/savage raid modes and helped them to start getting past that "bridge gear" stage (unfortunately some FC drama caused him to quit before I got past the normal mode raids),but most people don't have that opportunity. Personally I sorta gave up on the progression part. I run content and gear up when I see the opportunity, but I find it more enjoyable to be social. Show my linkshell Sprouts the ropes in low lvl stuff, run raids/dungeons casually with friends, etc. :3

[bswpayton]

If I may, I will use this quote from your post to make a general point, not specific to you Astral.

Kosmos what an amazing post you speak the truth , think there should be two levels to stuff one for people with appropriate gear or level and then vet rewards for players that have all the highest gear in the game. Just something to make people care about that 98 percent of the game instead of the top two percent of it.