What does the community need?

[KaivaC]

The issue with FATEs as a whole is that they are thoroughly uninteresting. Coupled with how often they are thrown in people’s faces during various content (e.g., Relic steps, Events, Diadem, Eureka), people have gotten sick of them — personally speaking, I am burnt out on them after Anima Aspect Crystal step and the Yokai event, despite both being “optional”. I know of others that still get triggered thinking about Atma farming in 2.x. The Stormblood changes (EXP bonus FATEs) hasn’t seemed to have done much; at least, not on Cactuar. I don’t see a lot of individuals doing FATEs in any of the areas, Stormblood included, that often.

That’s what I think is wrong with FATEs, anyways. Unengaging content that is overly used, in some instances with different coats of paint. The difference between them and the other Discords that you have brought up (PvP, Min iLvl content, etc.) is that those types of content can at least be made engaging in some shape or form. For me, personally, I don’t think there’s any way to make FATEs engaging.

That still holds true on Cactuar - nobody at present is interested in doing them. I got lucky when I asked the NN for some help and plenty of folks came to help me - it was the Cancer FATE in Costa de Sol. But you have a point - most FATEs just aren't that interesting and a lot of folks were burnt out by Atma. I still don't know how HoH is, but I imagine that most with alts or desire to challenge the highest floors are busy doing that, if they aren't crafting, raiding, or just hanging around Limsa. I do wish I had some insight on JPN servers (and was capable of reading Japanese) so I could gather some ideas myself and try something, at least on Cactuar, if not through Aether.

FATEs just have no impact. IF we take GW2 which actually implemented them well, failing succeeding a dynamic event actually has an effect on the map/surrounding. Maybe a town will be taken over/liberated, maybe a path will be swarming with enemies instead of being guarded by allies. Hell a chain of those even affects the entrance to a dungeon! FATEs in this game have no consequence and give barely any reward of worthwhile importance, so why care?

Agreed for the most part. Most FATEs are uninteresting. I dunno if the devs would even consider spicing up the FATE system like that, because it runs the risk of boring players. If the level sync would go away, or be raised a little higher in ARR/HW areas to enable solo play, maybe...but we'd have to make a whole lot of noise, and while I may personally want this, I don't think there'd be enough support between here and reddit for it.