Sorry Yoshi, but if you award the best weapon in the game by winning the lottery...

[Vaer]

This whole 280 thing has me wondering if people have played other MMOs before. This sort of thing has been common for years now.

We're in that time during the end of an expansion where loot starts getting easier and easier to get as it will soon hold little value. As an example, at the end of Warlords of Draenor there were demon invasions leading into the new expansion that were incredibly easy that could drop loot of the same item level as the last raid's hardest difficulty.

We're basically in the off-season, so I wouldn't worry too much about item power. I'd focus instead on getting glamour, making gil, leveling jobs, completing tasks or even taking a break.

I think that's the main reason people are upset though. It's not the same item level. There would probably be less outrage if the weapon was 275 even if it could roll good secondaries.

People don't seem to mind about the proto-ultima 270 accessories even though it's same as raid ilvl/cap ilvl and really easy to get.

[Rubiss]

What a ridiculous reason to quit FFXIV.
Since getting the weapon is like playing the lottery, the chances of getting that weapon is slim to none. Why stress over it where you can just get your Anima or other weapon that is close to that ilvl; it may be just a few points off so what? You used that weapon to clear end game content before the 'new' Diadem ever came.

Was the exact reason I quit Dungeon Fighter Online. Epic gear. Best in the game. But requires a lot of grinding and luck to obtain. They are vastly ahead of any other gear in the game and they are obtained in a similar manner. When a novice who does not necessarily knows how to play their class has the same chance as someone who has spent many hours learning their class to get the very best piece of gear in the game, something is incredibly wrong.

[Sicno]

Snip

This pretty much nails it.

Let me tell you guys a fun story.

So with my static we cleared A12S right before the new year. After that we kept clearing it every week and my weapon never dropped. Valentine's felll on what would have been our 8th week so some people were out traveling, being with their lovey doveys, etc. so we waited until monday next week so we could be all together. During that weekend the fanfest happens, a new anima quest is announced. We get our 8th clear and page, still no weapon but everybody in my static insists that I should wait until next week and the new anima step and that it would be stupid for me to buy the weapon for my main job now, and to save it for another job. But the main thing I play in the game is WAR and I don't play any other job nearly as seriously. So I was already mad because right when I'm able to get my raid weapon an anima step that makes it better gets slapped in my face invalidating all the work I put into raiding. While I'm making my mind about getting it for DRG or BRD I do other stuff in the meantime and BOOM, 9 days later YET ANOTHER weapon gets slapped in my face that renders the raid weapons even more obsolete and now I'm like "why should I even bother with buying one anymore?"

And to add more insult to injury there's the method of acquisition. It doesn't have anything to do with skill or time invested. It's ABSOLUTE LUCK. It's winning the lottery. HOW DOES SUCH A METHOD MAKE SENSE? And the only "effort" it takes is how long are you willing to afk inside the diadem. I'm gonna quote Xeno on this (watch at the timestamp) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/127571027?t=39m34s

And when I look back and see other bad decisions by the dev team like completely removing chat from a pvp mode that requires team coordination then I can see how things are going downhill, dumbing everything down and adding painful grinds / many layers of RNG to make it justifiable.

Sorry, but that's not the game I want to play anymore.

[Ceasaria]

Sorry Yoshi, but if you award the best weapon in the game by winning the lottery......Then I have absolutely no interest in playing your game. Was a fun trip, but I think all good things come to an end.

What the point of the lottery if you can't have a rarely and wonderful price ?

[Sicno]

What the point of the lottery if you can't have a rarely and wonderful price ?

Ask yourself why do you need a lottery in the first place.

[Alerion]

I think that's the main reason people are upset though. It's not the same item level. There would probably be less outrage if the weapon was 275 even if it could roll good secondaries.

People don't seem to mind about the proto-ultima 270 accessories even though it's same as raid ilvl/cap ilvl and really easy to get.

I understand what you're getting at but I think the principle of what I'm trying to say stands.

We're in the "end of expansion" phase where item power doesn't mean a whole lot. The final patch has dropped and FFXIV is following MMO tradition of letting players obtain powerful gear fairly easily for the few months left it will be useful.

I maintain that we should focus on our pre-expansion checklists or take a break instead of worrying over what amounts to nothing.

[Gemina]

Get what? quitting because you can't get a 280 weapon that's a random drop with random stats. In a sense which you can get right now the anima weapon is better because you know what the stats will be. Your choice I understand that and if that's what you want all the best to you.

That's not the reason the OP is quitting at all. Not even remotely close.

Everything with value is built upon principles. This includes a person's faith into the decisions that are made about the mmo they love to play. When the devs abandon their own principles, and try to validate it with RNG based acquisition because they can't figure out any other way to get players to run their content, it gives many players a very empty and defeated feeling. The OP has lost their faith that this dev team will make good decisions in the future, and that is why some players are not going to continue their subs.

Regardless of the true repercussions to the game itself, SE still green-lighted a decision that has needlessly stirred the community. Even the players shrugging their shoulders still know that despite the game itself not having a huge impact as a result of the new weapons, the devs still made a very poor decision with doing so in terms of the community.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

People like you still don't get it. It's not so much about the weapon's strength that bothers people, it's more about the principle that SE is going with. What's to stop them from doing something like this again in Stormblood, especially if people are so nonchalant about it or even agreeing with the path SE is taking?

FINALLY! Someone else says it too.

If you accept it now, you'll have to accept it next time it happens. You know, like Atma, that mess of a 210 step, Gordias-level raid balancing, and so on. I'm not going to unsub personally, but don't think for a moment I'm okay with this development. Diadem couldn't stand on its own, so they had to put a big carrot on a stick to get people to move toward it. . . But if you look past the carrot, and look past Diadem, that's a pretty dark road.

@Sicno: It's a shame to see you go. It seems like you were really vested in the game, and it sucks that timing really bit you in the ass (I happen to be the king of bad timing myself). If anything, take an extended break and perhaps see what Stormblood has to offer when the time comes. Don't expect a complete reinvention of the wheel there, but give it a chance. If you still see reason to move on after, you'll get no complain or sarcasm from me.

[Ceasaria]

Ask yourself why do you need a lottery in the first place.

Because it's another way (= rng) to give items along with relic (= time) and the raid (= effort).

[Hyrist]

Was the exact reason I quit Dungeon Fighter Online. Epic gear. Best in the game. But requires a lot of grinding and luck to obtain. They are vastly ahead of any other gear in the game and they are obtained in a similar manner. When a novice who does not necessarily knows how to play their class has the same chance as someone who has spent many hours learning their class to get the very best piece of gear in the game, something is incredibly wrong.

Why would it be wrong? The attitude you are exuding is self-entitlement. There's no other descriptor. You basically make an argument to deny other people from content purely because you don't like having bad luck. That's a horrible foundation upon which to stand when it comes to game philosophy. If your enjoyment is fixated upon having something someone else cannot because of some arbitrary standard, then what does that really speak about the behaviors we're encouraging in game design?

The problem of loot and value needs to be re-assessed on a foundation level.

I've been growing into the philosophy of late that MMOs lately have had it backwards - Gearstats should not be the reward, but rather the preparation for the challenge. After all, if the true definer of the reward is supposed to be skill and dedication, then providing additional stats to only the skilled presses a hand on the scale of opportunity.

Instead of being upset that your trophy no longer has top stats (that was always going to happen anyways). Instead perhaps delight in the fact that there's another trophy out there to obtain - it's still going to be hard. Yes, some people will get incredibly lucky and get it sooner. But that does not devalue Alexander Weapons - that devalues Coven weapons. Alexander Weapons are trophies for those who work hard in raiding. Diadem weapons are for those who endured and got lucky in Diadem. Anima weapons are for those who persisted and worked their way up the Anima chain.

Three different methods, three different trophies. That's it. Obsessing over stats that never remain relevant for long really does put to question the desires of the person attempting to obtain it.