We Really Need To Talk About The State And Path Of FFXIV

[Edax]

You're wearing i350 Anemos gear. Craft yourself (or just buy from the MB) HQ i350 gear, gather up enough Creation tomes to buy the necessary amounts of Thavnairian Rain items, and upgrade them to instant i360. Already better than your Anemos gear. Run Ridorana weekly for a piece of i360 gear. Buy upgrade tokens for your i360 Mendacity gear with the tokens from Rabanastre and Ridorana. Do Heaven on High for a very easy to get i365 weapon if you don't want to invest as much time into Pagos for i370 (or save up 1,000 Mendacity for an i360 Mendacity weapon).

The options are all there for you to progress without ever touching a Savage raid or even an Ex trial. It's up to you to put in the effort for the gear. Otherwise, you don't have anyone to blame for your waiting game but yourself. No offense intended; just being truthful.

So much of my time is already spent crafting, gathering, gardening and sending retainers out. You are wrong though, the game did not need to force me to find alternate means of improving my armor. The crafting system could have been just as robust during this current patch to be a match to anything you just mentioned. Creation tomes are not tied to the crafting or market system, so I shouldn't have to go out of my way to get better armor during this patch cycle if the crafting system competed. This didn't have to be so. There's no reason that crafting, tomes and raiding couldn't be on equal terms. If people won't raid because equivalent gear could be crafted, then there's something wrong with the raiding system.

[HyoMinPark]

So much of my time is already spent crafting, gathering, gardening and sending retainers out. You are wrong though, the game did not need to force me to find alternate means of improving my armor. The crafting system could have been just as robust during this current patch to be a match to anything you just mentioned. Creation tomes are not tied to the crafting or market system, so I shouldn't have to go out of my way to get better armor during this patch cycle if the crafting system competed. This didn't have to be so. There's no reason that crafting, tomes and raiding couldn't be on equal terms. If people won't raid because equivalent gear could be crafted, then there's something wrong with the raiding system.

Read my edit. Expert Roulette takes an hour a day tops (DPS queue + dungeon duration); Ridorana about the same. The time investments to get tomestones are miniscule. I'm sorry, I don't see "having no time between crafting, etc." as a valid excuse not to progress.

Again, if you aren't putting the gear to use, you don't really need it.

And Dualgunner made a good point: raiders sitting at cap have stagnated as well. The only difference between you and them is that they put more into hitting the level cap at an earlier time. Before I even cleared God Kefka, I was at i369. Then I cleared, and now I'm actually at i368 because BRD has strange BiS. And I've been there for months.

EDIT because daily post limit:

You've missed my point entire. It's not an issue with time. The reason I'm busy with such things is because I'm enjoying such things. Fitting unenjoyable grinds into the schedule is not my main issue otherwise I'd might as well be raiding.

And you completely ignored both mine and Dualgunner's when we pointed out that even raiders have stagnanted in terms of item level.

Not to sound rude, but 3 out of 4 of your activities you listed could be done while waiting in a queue to get Tomestones to upgrade your gear: gathering, gardening, and sending out retainers. Even crafting if it's something that doesn't require food that you wouldn't want to waste can be done while waiting in a queue - I would know, I've done them all.

An hour a day to get Tomestones for i360 Augmented gear is hardly a grind equivalent to raiding. No offense, but you have no idea what you're talking about when you make a statement like that. And I'm sorry if it's not enjoyable, but if you want something you need to put in the time and effort for it. That's just how it is. And while I have no qualms with a system like Vaer suggested, it is not currently present in this game, so you need to make do with what you have available to you.

If you want better gear with a higher item level, put forth the effort like everyone else has to do. Otherwise, make do with what you have. If you aren't running content, what you have is plenty enough anyways.

[Edax]

Read my edit. Expert Roulette takes an hour a day tops (DPS queue + dungeon duration); Ridorana about the same. The time investments to get tomestones are miniscule. I'm sorry, I don't see "having no time between crafting, etc." as a valid excuse not to progress.

Again, if you aren't putting the gear to use, you don't really need it.

And Dualgunner made a good point: raiders sitting at cap have stagnated as well. The only difference between you and them is that they put more into hitting the level cap at an earlier time. Before I even cleared God Kefka, I was at i369. Then I cleared, and now I'm actually at i368 because BRD has strange BiS. And I've been there for months.

You've missed my point entirely. It's not an issue with time. The reason I'm busy with such things is because I'm enjoying such things. Fitting unenjoyable grinds into the schedule is not my main issue otherwise I'd might as well be raiding.