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

[VeliusVire]

And how eager are you for this to become the norm for all future content ?

Whether or not it becomes the norm isn't the problem, it's whether or not you /NEED/ the weapon for content, which you don't. That's why these weapons shouldn't be taken seriously, they're not required, it's more of just a 'Test your luck'. That and, the weapon already has a stigma, it doesn't carry prestige like a Raiding Weapon, or the effort of a Relic Weapon.

[thegreatonemal]

TFW the head behind the entire game is totally clueless about how stats work.

he just understands how balance works. whats stronger a weapon that you are guaranteed to get by doing a quest line or a weapon that you have a very small chance of getting from a practical standpoint. its not just about the numbers its about being able to practically obtain it.

[Xerek]

Like I said before, I would have been fine with Triad/Kinna/Shire weapons. The only reason I made an anima was so I could have a BiS weapon from completion until the expansion (like the relic until HW). Regarless of rarity on the i280s, the fact is, the anima was BiS a whole nine days. My anima is now just a very good weapon. Same as the Zurvan EX. Same as the Shire weapon. Except my anima wasted so much of my time grinding.

[Sicno]

@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.

Yeah, I was really vested into this game, put a lot of time and effort into playing it, always tried to get people to play it or to get back to it, always supporting fellow players in whatever activities they were into. I started playing a year after launch, so for a long time I was behind and there was so much I wanted to do in the game, now that I finally managed to catch up and get to the top I get slapped so hard and feel so betrayed. I was waiting for today's panel to see if maybe they were aware that this whole diadem mess may have been a mistake, and maybe they had an announcement of some adjustments or something else coming soon (like an option to upgrade raid gear/weapons), but nothing, the lottery excuse Yoshi gave is insulting. As much as I love the game as a whole I don't want to support them anymore because of this and other terrible decisions they've made lately. It's painful for me, I'm still not sure what I want to do, but I think at the very least I need a break from the game.

[Alistaire]

Also I imagine it's really hard to consider coming back "after seeing what stormblood has to offer"...when this was advertised as a taste of what stormblood has to offer.

[Tsunenori]

And how eager are you for this to become the norm for all future content ?

Slippery slope argument always has been and will continue to be dubious at best. You're becoming upset at something that has not happened because of something you see as tangentially related. Let's try to keep the focus on what's actually on trial here instead of being outraged at something that hasn't actually happened.

While we're at it, let's also not kid ourselves about what MMORPG design actually encapsulates: time sinks, grinds, randomness, and other stalling methods used to keep players around for long periods of time. If there's a thing to be upset about here imo it's that the i280 aetherial weapon is a pretty blatant appeal to that kind of design and a lazy motivator to get people engaged with new content. That's a problem that permeates a number of areas in FFXIV and could be improved upon.

As far as the weapon itself, I touched on this a bit in one of the other threads, but this is a randomized weapon that has appeared at the tail end of the expansion when all relevant content has been cleared for months. The only use that a minimal amount of players get out of it is a fun stick to beat stuff with for a couple months before literally all of this gear becomes invalidated 5 levels into the next expansion's leveling path. You can argue philosophies and design semantics all you want, but that's the reality of the situation. Unpopular opinion warning, but I think anyone arguing that it's a "slap in the face" and unsubscribing because of the weapon itself is a little too invested and probably needs the break anyway.

[St0rmchild]

Whether or not it becomes the norm isn't the problem, it's whether or not you /NEED/ the weapon for content, which you don't. That's why these weapons shouldn't be taken seriously, they're not required, it's more of just a 'Test your luck'. That and, the weapon already has a stigma, it doesn't carry prestige like a Raiding Weapon, or the effort of a Relic Weapon.

You still don't understand -- you didn't need this item this time.

The dangerous precedent this sets is that it may be decided that this is a great model to apply to ALL content - dungeons, raids, etc. - and not just end of patch/content, but everything - and that includes upcoming leveling/progression content.

Maybe I should put it like this:
Do you want to buy gear items with tomestones, or are you comfortable with spending tomestones to buy a chance for gear -- that may or may not be what you wanted, and failing that chance be a limit on what you can do or play ?

Because I am emphatically not comfortable with that.
One of FFXIV's awesome features is how small the gap is between the social and hardcore players, and how the game (pretty successfully so far) has integrated both groups in the same content.
One reason for that is the gearing system, which linearly rewards efforts with results.
This kind of RNG does not do any of that.

And that is why this has me extremely concerned.

[Neophyte]

Following same reasoning of the topic, I need to lose any interest in the Gold Saucer because some people won the weekly Cacpot.

You can get everything MGP related without doing cackpot at all, but you can't get a 280 weapon without doing lame diadem.
I'd actually claim that most Fenrir owners didn't win the big jackpot.

Also people are mostly concerned about the time it was released. Yes, gear is outdated at some point.
But usually not that fast. E.g. expected in 3.6 (what will be 3.56 in this case). The impact on the speedrun scene for example was already expected with echo soon. But not now.
And if I'm right nobody asked for even faster gear replacement opportunities, if so please quote.


Totally unnecessary...
Diadem with a harder Proto Ultima as an encounter, triggerable if you form an alliance with 2 other groups which drops 270 proto ultima gear (2 drops per group, left/right side gear+token, normal weekly lockout as long as the other contents have that, too).

Bamm, guaranteed same success as the 24-man raids at least and no complaining crowd.

[Nerisu]

You can get everything MGP related without doing cackpot at all, but you can't get a 280 weapon without doing lame diadem.

Exactly this. It would have been nicer if they added the Diadem as another option to get i275 weapons that may or may not be BiS. They could have added unique models or glowy effects on it for glamour too for those who already have i275 weapons.

[JunseiKei]

And how eager are you for this to become the norm for all future content ?

It won't. This isn't '90s era MMOs where that was a norm.

You still don't understand -- you didn't need this item this time.

The dangerous precedent this sets is that it may be decided that this is a great model to apply to ALL content - dungeons, raids, etc. - and not just end of patch/content, but everything - and that includes upcoming leveling/progression content.

Maybe I should put it like this:
Do you want to buy gear items with tomestones, or are you comfortable with spending tomestones to buy a chance for gear -- that may or may not be what you wanted, and failing that chance be a limit on what you can do or play ?

And that is why this has me extremely concerned.

Again, this isn't '90s MMOs. FFXIV is catered to casual and fair weather players. Putting in things like the chances for gear that actually matter takes away from that and will ultimately only sustain those that could sink the long hours to actually achieve it just to do minimal tasks. While your concerns are certainly something to keep in mind, which considering the type of game Yoshida has built thus far, he keeps in mind even now.

Hence this enticing, RNG gated object that people continuously are willing to suspend logic upon.

Concerns can also be blown out of proportion, which is what is happening here- you immediately went for the worst case scenario.