Only 2/5 Endgame content currently viable, why?

[neizero]

It's only natural that as new stuff gets released, old stuff becomes obsolete, HOWEVER I think the OP makes a valid point: there simply isn't enough new stuff to keep you busy until the next new stuff, so revitalising the Darkhold/NM drops could be a "cheap" way to give players more stuff to do while they work on the new dungeons..

[Orophin]

Kind of wish they'd adopt FFXI's progression system where gear lasted more than a few months. There were at least a couple pieces of gear that lasted throughout the game that you got from sky even when you were doing Dynamis and Limbus and stuff. They focused more on sidegrades than totally ditching your gear every time a new dungeon was put in. When level caps are raised is when gear should get drastically better.

[Teuciont]

I realize what western MMO's do. They have loads of content lying around that's outdated. Call me "barbaric" and "outdated," but XI (was) a great example of adding content, but keeping the old content relevant and reliable for the most part.

And even if you don't want to go that route, until at least 2.0 I think SE needs to make as much endgame viable as it can, so people can have something to do. If they're going with western style, then they need some sort of progression. As it is, they're phasing out old endgame without providing a new style with progression, something to look forward to other than just beating ifrit. Or just beating Moogle. If they're not going to go with progression style, and rather just straight up bosses style, then they need to have other content to compliment. They HAVE the content in the game, they just need to tweak it and make it viable to do again. I realize that some of you have already done all the old endgame when it was relevant, but some of us would like to experience it. Think about it like this:

Ifrit on Tuesday, Darkhold on Saturday
HNM#1(I forget their names) on Tuesday, Faction NM#1 on Saturday
Stronghold#1 on Tuesday, HNM#2 on Saturday

instead of

Ifrit on Tuesday, Stronghold#1 on Saturday
Ifrit on Tuesday, Stronghold#2 on Saturday
Ifrit on Tuesday, Stronghold#3 on Saturday

I'm just asking for variety in endgame, and it's incredibly frustrating to know it's already IN the game, it's just being phased out with content that doesn't provide enough variety to justify it.

2.0, go ahead and go western style, I'm sure they'll have the content and resources ready to do it.
For now? Please, just use XI style, so people have things to do.

[Xatsh]

They need to just scrap the western style progression and go with XI long term model.

Replacing some gear and weapons with each update of new content, but keeping alot of the old stuff from the previous areas still relevant. Sorta like how 8yrs after sky's release in XI byakko haidate, crimson cuirass, and for archer kirin's osode where still the best in slot for alot of things, but the other stuff was outdone with new content. Keeps the event relevant.

Progressionary gear like most (ALL NEW MMOS) just makes the game lack content. Not even WoW with 1billion a year in profits can make content fast enough with this method... I have no idea why everyone uses it.

I do not want to have to do the same content more then 2 days a week and I want to be able to schedule 7 days of 4 1/2 hrs each of events every week. And my members do not want to work at getting something, to know in 2 weeks it is irrelevant... I have people refusing to attend ifrit because most likely Moogle weapons will be the new best thing and they are coming in like 2weeks. There is no feeling of accomplishment, no feeling of reward. With this content system there never will be.

[Griss]

What are you guys jibbering on about?

Xi was more then happy to invalidate gear and content, They just did it backwards. Ie before it even hit the live servers.

[MeowyWowie]

At the moment, there's 5(from what I can see) high level activities in game. Only 2 of these 5 are actually worth doing. Why?

HNMs
Faction NMs
Darkhold
Ifrit
Strongholds

5 endgame venues possible, but only 2 are viable? Gear from HNM/Faction NMs and Darkhold for the most part is completely trash compared to Ifrit weapons, Strongholds and crafted gear. Is it really that hard to change the stats on gear from the other 3? This would give much more to do for those who have hit the level cap, especially those, like myself, who have just recently hit 50.

So please SE, though it might be too late for 1.20, can you make it happen for 1.21? Until 2.0, you need as much content as you can, phasing content out when there's not enough to phase it out with isn't going to keep people entertained. I've never gotten to fight HNMs or Faction NMs due to the fact that it's a waste of effort. And DD isn't worth the effort and the difficulty a new LS would face.

Sadly, this seems to be the overall direction of the game. Expect to drop all of your Ifrit weapons and replace them with Moogle weapons, then same thing with whatever other primals we get in the future. I never understood why some people favor this system more than XI's? Maybe it's because it's all they're used to? I don't know.

Fast forward 5 years into the future, the game will appear to be full of content. But it's really just an illusion, as only 5-10% will be worth doing. For new players, there's really no point in doing old content except for the achievements, not to mention it'll likely be extremely difficult to find groups to do it with. The same goes for low level content, which can be out-leveled in only a few short hours.

Personally I'd take XI's system over this crap any day. New gear that's only situationally better than what came before it. New players, when first starting, are overwhelmed by the amount of real content available to them. Look at Sky from FFXI, people were still doing this 5 years after its release. And no, I don't mean veteran players. I mean players that just recently got their first 75 and just got into endgame. Even though the content itself was old, it was still new to these players and it was well worth doing. Just because someone joins a game late, doesn't mean that they should miss out on 90% of what the game has to offer.

And yes, I'm well aware that the reason all of this content was still worth doing for so long was because the level cap stayed at 75 forever. However, look at FFXIV now. All of the "endgame" content we've gotten so far was made for lv45+. The cap is still lv50. But, as the OP outlined above, only part of it is worth doing.

/shrug

[odintius]

I think this is were crafter classes can come into play even if old gear content is outdated have were the gear can be used in a recipe to upgrade and also improve the newer gear. Though also have the option if you like the old version looks better to you have a recipe that takes the new ugly looking gear and be able to upgrade the old good looking one. Only real thing I can see that can keep even old content from being outdated use the crafter's I say but give them options on there recipes to.

[Jennestia]

ITT: OP thinks gear is the only reason to do content.

Yeah, I kind of miss MMOs with content that you do because they're fun and not because of what shiny loot you'll get from it.

Like how events used to be about the game/season specific event and holiday themed enemies, nowadays it's about slaughtering some boss where only 10/xxxx population will get a good reward.

[Ronik]

welcome to MMOs

take certain other ones with 20+ endgame dungeons

and still only 1 is viable for the best gear at any given time really...because thats just how it is

they will always release something with better gear making old gear obsolete just to entice people to want to do the new content that much more

There are a lot of flaws with the logic here.

There is literally no reason for the strongholds and darkhold to be awarding such terrible loot at the moment. Ifrit/stronghold/darkhold are all more or less equivalent in difficulty, and given that Ifrit drops only weapons, stronghold/darkhold seems obviously intended to fill out the rest of our gear slots. Endgame content should not be obsolete the moment it's produced (stronghold) and it definitely should not be an utter waste of time (darkhold).

In other mmo's, there is incentive to get the "dated" or "obsolete" old gear from old dungeons because it is required/extremely helpful to gear up in order to improve your performance in the harder content (which, in turn, improves your chances of success). This is called linear gear progression, and it's good because it gives players goals to aim for and keeps content relevant for much longer. Imagine if darkhold/stronghold gear were significantly better and ifrit were a more difficult gear check - the end result would be that new players would hit 50, craft a set of entry-level gear to do darkhold/stronghold until they upgraded to rarer dropped equipment, and then after being battle-testing in raids, could take on Ifrit and earn their BiS weapons.

Would this kind of progression not be better for the game as a whole?

[Lucifer]

People here honestly think XI was an "eastern style mmo"?

You should all stop posting garbage and do some research. The only eastern aspect of FFXI was its aesthetics and unique battle system.

Ultima, Asherons Call, Everquest, Tibia, DAoC. This is what FFXI was based on. Go ask Tanaka what MMORPGS he used to play.

The few eastern MMO's were all Korean. Grinding was all you ever did (Lineage anyone?).