Castrum Fluminis and item level

[HyoMinPark]

Sure, there have been steady increases and “catchups” and time to gear up between story chapters for people who’ve been at Lv70 for a while already. But for someone who just got through Stormblood this week? You’re level 70, and so is every single quest from 4.1 to 4.3. There’s nothing to stop people from doing all that MSQ at a run, and nothing to encourage you to update your ilevel from Skalla until you hit Castrum. The dungeons are optional, and the MSQ isn’t giving you gear upgrades. It’s easy for a new player to be caught out.

In future when they can just buy their i400 (or whatever) gear with poetics the instant they hit Lv70, it won’t be a problem any more. But for now, it is.

It really isn't a problem, though. This game throws tomestones at you. Even with Mendacity being capped, there is still Creation and Rabanastre Coins to give you instant i340 for very little effort. Heck, you can get a few pieces to up your item level to i325, and then hop into Swallow's Compass for i345 gear - the most non-demanding dungeon this game has probably ever seen.


I started this game back at the tail end of 3.0, beginning of 3.1. By the time I made it to endgame (within 1 month of starting), it only took me a couple days to grind out enough old Law tomestones to up my item level enough to progress with the 60 content, and, by then, I'd capped for the first time on Esoterics, and bought an i200 piece with it. I had not been keeping up with roulettes, only doing MSQ up to this point. I was not "months" away from the casual endgame.

It's only a problem for people who don't put in the effort to do it. This game doesn't ask much of its playerbase; item level requirements for story or "casual" level-capped content more than 30 ilvls below the current cap is really not that high of a demand.

[MistakeNot]

It's only a problem for people who don't put in the effort to do it. This game doesn't ask much of its playerbase; item level requirements for story or "casual" level-capped content more than 30 ilvls below the current cap is really not that high of a demand.

It is completely irrelevant what the current ilvl cap is. It could be 340 or 12000 - it doesn't matter.
The point is the sudden big jump in ilvl requirement in the MSQ. Not the first time that has happened, but that does not make it any better.

It is not a big problem for those who are doing content as it is released. It will not be a problem when the next expansion comes out and current gear becomes much easier to get.
It is a problem for those who are just now reaching level 70 and who have yet to do any of the optional level 70 dungeons.

[HyoMinPark]

It is completely irrelevant what the current ilvl cap is. It could be 340 or 12000 - it doesn't matter.
The point is the sudden big jump in ilvl requirement in the MSQ. Not the first time that has happened, but that does not make it any better.

It is not a big problem for those who are doing content as it is released. It will not be a problem when the next expansion comes out and current gear becomes much easier to get.
It is a problem for those who are just now reaching level 70 and who have yet to do any of the optional level 70 dungeons.

This could be easily rectified if they stopped removing at least 1 dungeon from the post-main expansion MSQ. Meeting item level requirements for level 60 post-Heavensward content was never an issue for me when I first started playing, and I did only the MSQ from the day I started to the day I hit level 60—because the dungeons during at least gave me pieces to bump up my item level enough to progress. That, and Law Tomestones were ridiculously easy to come by... much like Creation Tomestones are now.

Like someone has mentioned before, this will stop being an issue in 5.0 when they start handing you gear for level-70 post-Stormblood MSQ. But even still, gear and tomestones are so easy to come across in this game even for newer players, I don’t really find “this big jump in item level” to be that big of a deal unless, again, you’re someone who only does MSQ and nothing else.

Considering that people in i340+ can barely put enough of their skills together to clear Castrum Fluminis NM cleanly since Day 1, I appreciate the item level requirement, and I wouldn’t really call it irrelevant. My talk of the item level cap is to show that this isn’t something new; this was a thing as much in ARR and HW as it is in SB now (Chrysalis, Final Steps—both major MSQ trials, both had item levels ~35 item levels below current cap). At least it can provide an HP cushion; I’d rather not see someone at i307 in there, since the content is the sole piece of challenging MSQ content in Stormblood, save for Royal Menagerie. Again, this game barely asks anything of its playerbase; an i335 item level requirement for a relatively challenging story trial is reasonable enough.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

It is a problem for those who are just now reaching level 70 and who have yet to do any of the optional level 70 dungeons.

There's a simple solution to this problem. Stop blitzing through the MSQ and take a deter to unlock those dungeons so you can obtain Creation or do the 24 man raids. It takes less than a day to have everything unlocked; perhaps a few more if you're only playing a handful of hours a day/week. If that is too much, well, sorry the game doesn't provide even more hand outs than it already does. Come 4.4, should we just start gifting people i380 gear upon release? God forbid you have to do side story content.

[MistakeNot]

There's a simple solution to this problem. Stop blitzing through the MSQ and take a deter to unlock those dungeons so you can obtain Creation or do the 24 man raids. It takes less than a day to have everything unlocked; perhaps a few more if you're only playing a handful of hours a day/week. If that is too much, well, sorry the game doesn't provide even more hand outs than it already does. Come 4.4, should we just start gifting people i380 gear upon release? God forbid you have to do side story content.

The problem is not the ilvl requirement, nor the need to do side content. The problem is the big jump in ilvl requirement which necessitates breaking off the MSQ and doing a lot of side content in a big chunk.

There should have been 2-3 more mandatory dungeons and/or trials between Drowned City of Skalla and Castrum Fluminis, each with a smaller increase of ilvl requirement. Then the progression would feel far more natural, and the grinding more spread out.

[HyoMinPark]

The problem is not the ilvl requirement, nor the need to do side content. The problem is the big jump in ilvl requirement which necessitates breaking off the MSQ and doing a lot of side content in a big chunk.

There should have been 2-3 more mandatory dungeons and/or trials between Drowned City of Skalla and Castrum Fluminis, each with a smaller increase of ilvl requirement. Then the progression would feel far more natural, and the grinding more spread out.

I’m guessing the answer to the removal of this was a combination of both trimming the MSQ, and Eureka. Anemos gives you upgraded Antiquated gear to fill in the gaps that dungeons normally would. However, as has been proven, it’s even more of a grind than doing the sidequest content—most of the quests for unlocking the sidequests dungeons are laughable short, though. So they don’t take that long to unlock. At most, you travel once or twice to talk to two different NPCs.

My original advice to the OP still stands—do daily roulettes for Creation (most give 100; 50/60 gives 120, and Expert gives 60, on top of whatever you would get from the dungeon; there are also bonus Creation tomes for first times, which the OP would receive if he hasn’t done them yet), do a few Rabanastre (for coins and more Creation), and get the i340 gear. He can also try going through Delta and Sigmascape NM for each i350 gear (Sigmascape). It would take him less than a week to get i335 if he just kept up with roulettes; it definitely would not take “weeks” as previously claimed.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

The problem is not the ilvl requirement, nor the need to do side content. The problem is the big jump in ilvl requirement which necessitates breaking off the MSQ and doing a lot of side content in a big chunk.

There should have been 2-3 more mandatory dungeons and/or trials between Drowned City of Skalla and Castrum Fluminis, each with a smaller increase of ilvl requirement. Then the progression would feel far more natural, and the grinding more spread out.

I suspect they stopped mandatory dungeons because not only does it limit the scope of storytelling by forcing them to weave a dungeon into every patch series, many people didn't like the interruption of a dungeon while doing the MSQ. As for natural progression, it's hardly different than any usual JRPG. I recall getting to Seymour Flux in FFX and being woefully outmatched simply because he's far harder than the mobs you fight up until that point. The solution? Figure out a cheese strat or grind until my Sphere level was enough to overcome it.