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

[Shurrikhan]

Having said that, I do miss the feeling of just overpowering content at the end of an expansion because you've evolved into such a terrifying beast.

The problem there is the backlash with each new expansion. It takes only some 3 levels to lose any carried-over advantage and your secondary stat effects to plummet.

If there was some way to tangibly experience power beyond just Crit rates (less impactful now that no procs depend on them) and Attack Speed, it'd be more manageable, but it kinda sucks to get an extra 3% Attack Speed trait, for instance, to nonetheless have some 9% longer of a GCD, just due to how much your Skill Speed has devalued. Therein, the higher the peaks (or lower the comparative floor), the further the fall.

2) Over time people have forgotten the actual reason for the elevation change to Twintania's arena. It wasn't that elevation changes allowed for, "Divebomb Cheese." It was that the slope leading into the arena had a staggeringly strange affect on enmity and line of sight.

The enmity seemed fine, as did LoS. The main issue was flame (patch) cheese. The flame patches, despite the animation, were only at the elevation of their centers, thus allowing people to avoid the initial damage and stand seemingly in the fire without suffering periodic damage, so long as there was enough elevation change between their feet and the flame patches' center. I and my group's other Bard would regularly take no damage from it.

4) My only beef with Direct Hit is that it's basically Crit Junior. It's basically what the Crit stat was originally in this game back in 2.0 before HW added the stacking crit damage.

Same... Even Accuracy was more interesting, though more annoying. That said, they probably do need to rescale or rework Crit, regardless, since it quadratically scales and its value rises with party crit buffs, which then makes it rather compositionally-dependent even if it were somehow perfectly balanced.

[VelKallor]

leaving very little to do for months on end

Um....What?

FF 14 isnt raid or die and there is PLENTY to do outside raiding. I literally dont see HOW you came to that conclusion. im at endgame, I have all at 80, done all msq and I have plenty to do each and every day. There are also seasonal events, make it Rain, crossover events coming as well.....

We lack that carrot on a stick to keep playing end-game.

OP...just to let you know, the crafters in endgame built an entire city..so again, I dont see this "we have nothing to do". I also have a sneaking suspicion that we will be doing another Restoration down the line. The area is still open, the Kupo of Fortune is still there so..yeah...little to do?

Um...no.

[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.

[Garnix]

yes let's make this game that isn't WoW into WoW and then everything will be solved! smh

Not what I am saying/implying.
IMO, with the player base increasing so much (and assuming people actual stay in the long term), I am hoping/expecting that the budget of the game will increase, and that they might eventually create more challenging content if there is an increasing demand for it.

[Shurrikhan]

Not what I am saying/implying.
IMO, with the player base increasing so much (and assuming people actual stay in the long term), I am hoping/expecting that the budget of the game will increase, and that they might eventually create more challenging content if there is an increasing demand for it.

But surely WoW must have exclusive hold on further difficulty levels, challenging small-group content, remotely impactful gear progression, less regularly shaped boss arenas, or dungeons not being face-roll...

[Izar_Chillen]

Whilst I dont personally raid end game , as boss platforms dont appeal to me at all , I totally understand why many love it . Its quick to get to the meat of the action , there is no fluff and the boss attack patterns /mechs are crazy chaotic especially when you're unfamiliar with the encounter.

I am personally fine as a dungeon crawler , and alliance " raider" as I love the grandiose scaling . I really wish they could dedicate more SE staff to both new alliance raids and their accompanying story, as well as more boss platforms for those players.

One thing that woudl probably get me into the end game stuff is if the platforms allowed for me movement ( as in larger ) I get far too bamboozled by the chaos that is boss platforms , but thats just me and my clumsy brain so I would never petition/demand for changes to boss platform/trail style raiding just to cater to me . Im not that selfish.

Im glad both raid styles exists within ff14 , I just wish there were more development staff to make more of them.

[Genbe197]

1. Plenty of monsters take priority in dungeons, many require interrupts and dodging, are you asking for more 1 hit KO skills? Just because a pull is wall to wall doesn't mean me as the tank is not focusing and stunning/silencing stuff. Also Branching dungeons have never really been a thing? Even Haukke manor they are just rooms on the main path.
2. God no plz, the trash and 10min run times between bosses is why I never raid in WoW\
3. No thank you, if you want extra challenging you can do at min ilvl and do Ultimate fights. This just seems pointless.
4. This is very WoW mentality and part of the reason its community is running away, simplistic gearing is nice, it lets them focus on encounters not worrying if BLM A has "BIS LEET GEARZOR" having gearing disparities breeds toxicity.

[Yagrush]

I think there's something about #4 that I feel many people miss the most important point about it. While I get the people that talk against it because of the issues that widely different and unique stats on gear and set bonuses can create, I think the essence of it is something useful that could be extracted.

Itemization that impacts gameplay meaningfully

I think XIV has always lacked a bit in this department. Yes, accuracy was a thing. Yes, skill speed is a thing. But I feel that the way skill speed impacted rotation is not the kind of impact that I would be looking for. It's far too small and not
obvious enough how much impact is doing.

I'm talking about stats that will actually impact gameplay. Change which buttons you click. Change your rotation. Etc.

I think a happy medium between keeping the simplicity of itemization right now and the spice of WoW itemization could be something like the Mastery stat. I feel it would be worth exploring. It's technically only 1 new stat to be added to gear across the board, but obviously the impact it would have on each job would be completely different and, ideally, interesting. It could be increasing how much their gauge is increased by weaponskills (I.E Gauge numbers increased by WSs, for jobs like Warrior, Dark Knight. A very simple example).

It's something I miss from XI too. Gear with stuff like <Job Ability> + 1 was so cool.

So yeah. A single stat that impacted job specific gameplay for a job would be awesome.

[Almagnus1]

I think XIV has always lacked a bit in this department. Yes, accuracy was a thing. Yes, skill speed is a thing. But I feel that the way skill speed impacted rotation is not the kind of impact that I would be looking for. It's far too small and not obvious enough how much impact is doing.

As one of the few WHMs that have a Sindri Lux with Direct Hit/Piety on it (because DH was once accuracy), I'd rather not have to return to stacking a skill that's not natively on my gear just so I can hit the broad side of a barn. The problem with set gear in FFXIV is that we're basically fighting against the armory chest, and too much class specific gear is not a good thing, the primary weapon chest shows that to be an issue.

[Kes13a]

I think the problem with #4 is that it starts promoting FOTM builds, and with the costs then imparted to pentamelding, it begins a very hard line between the "hardcore" min/max crowd and the rest of the players.

"oh, you have this slotted, well, only a loser does that, so you arent welcome in this group" or "oh, you only have two slots filled, well, you know, to be the best you need to pentameld"

So I guess at that point, what is considered a "meaningful" change? if its a change that can open the door to discrimination between play styles, I am firmly against it. as it stands now, for stats there is virtually zero difference between the top 1% of "hardcore raider types" and the rest of the population, and this is, despite what some may think, a good thing.

right now if anything, FFXIV caters to.. no one, and everyone. we all get parts of what we want/need but no one group gets a full desire list fulfilled, so no one is singled out as.. ."special". This is a good thing and keeps the game from being that other game. because that other game, is a job, it is not entertainment. FFXIV retains the fun.