Former WoW player: Suggested changes to FFXIV Raiding end-game

[Alxyzntlct]

IF they EVER EVER listen to you on point number 4 I promise you that is the day I quit FF14 for good. You quit WoW in Cata but some of us kept playing passed that and watched Blizzard listen to guys like you who wanted to spice up gear because they get bored and want to make the end game a living hell for the other 99% of the playerbase who does not raid log.

Yoshi P said multiple time in the last few months we are not going to see hard 4 man content because put simply people are bad and it puts too much responsibility on healers to carry the groups and then reinforces the need for META comps with DPS builds.

I strongly suggest you go check out WoW and see how your suggestions have all but destroyed that MMO. Also most of coils was basically a hallway with some trash and then a boss. That sounds like pure nostalgia talking there.

They have tried to give us stuff like that recently with the bigger 24 man raids but I doubt it is going to happen on the 8 man raid size.

I agree with Puremallace here on Point #4, big time. The endgame raiding scene ruined WoW for me and led to the singularly most toxic online experiences I've ever seen, and any steps in that direction will result in me dropping this game in a heartbeat. I'm absolutely loving it right now because of INCLUSIVENESS, while Point #4, and for that matter, Point #3, both will 100% lead to what's been happening in WoW for the last several years which is all about EXCLUSIVENESS:
- More challenge levels means more gearing-up options
- Gearing-up allows the most hardcore tryhard crowd to gear up the fastest
- Said crowd then begins gating access to endgame content in order to ensure their playtimes are not impacted (gotta keep that dopamine going hard n' fast)
- And eventually only a small portion of the playerbase will actually partake in and enjoy the majority of those additional challenge levels

I came to this game because I liked the sound of how accessible everything is. Once I'm done taking my time and enjoying all of the prior-content the game has to offer, I'm looking forward to delving into the harder endgame content because it doesn't sound like it requires treating it like a 2nd job (despite how some folks in these forums seem to want to make it into). I strongly feel that any efforts to really expand upon it further will create the same toxic atmosphere that exists in WoW now and result in fewer people even wanting to partake in the harder content, not inspire more people to want to try it out.

[Cebo]

- More challenge levels means more gearing-up options
- Gearing-up allows the most hardcore tryhard crowd to gear up the fastest

I specifically mentioned that challenges should solely be for cosmetics and prestige items -- things like titles, minions, and mounts. Not for gear progression. I'm not espousing increasing grinds for end-game content, I'm asking for more challenges. As is, when you reach end-game, it just boils down to a braindead easy 4-man dungeon roulette for tomestones, weekly 24-man that is none too challenging, and then a much steeper increase in difficulty with 8-man Savage/Extremes. I actually really enjoy the difficulty of savages/extremes, but they come few and far between. Having prestige items and challenges associated with a scaling 4-man dungeon or 8-man raid allows the end-game to have more breadth. Similar to how Palace of the Dead scales. And people still try to challenge PotD to Floor 200 solely for the Necromancer title.

As for my 4th point, I figured this'd be the most controversial. I can't attest to what happened with WoW post Cata, except from what I read. And it sounds like a nightmare of complicated systems on top of systems and borrowed power. But that doesn't mean SE should play it super safe and not introduce more gear customization options. For the past 6 years, we've had the same raid gear + tomestone gear, and while they introduced new sub-stats like Tenacity and Direct Hit, the meta still ends up prioritizing Crit above all else. There used to be a time BLM's had an option to go a Spellspeed spec vs Crit spec, and that simple diversity was a lot more interesting than what we've had. Hell, in ARR, we didn't even have materia slots on dungeon gear, so it's not like the SE devs are against small incremental changes.

I think introducing more interesting materia (or at least increasing the viability of Skill/Spellspeed, Determination, and to a lesser extent Direct Hit) is not going to turn this into a hardcore WoW mindset like you guys are proclaiming. Set bonuses or a trinket slot that gives us a new Duty Action like in Bozja would be awesome and fun additions to the game imo. Yes, all this would mean it would be harder to balance jobs, but I actually trust the SE team is capable of doing so.

[VelKallor]

And eventually only a small portion of the playerbase will actually partake in and enjoy the majority of those additional challenge levels

This is why they created LFR. I was there that day, the kicking and screaming from the elite raiders would have deafened an A380 at full thrust. How DARE people get to see content that was THEIRS alone, "only the worthy" was allowed to see it.

One of the reasons I left WOW, that attitude was sickening.

Ever hear of WOW's "hard parking'? That was the 'elite raiders" hanging around the cities so the "unwashed" could ooh and ahh at their elite gear.