I hope we never see a system of essences or lost abilities again

[Mikey_R]

The fact the Lost Actions themselves are consumable is the biggest issue I have. I currrently have Lost Incense as an active action, just because I took the role of a tank in a DR run that had no tank, however, I do not have a spare one, so I am hesitant to replace it just incase I need it again. I have plenty of essenses to use, but the main thing needed to tank when you are not a tank is limited. I have also never seen it drop from CLL and I have done enough runs that I only have 5 more relics worth of runs to do. If however, I wouldn't lose it when it gets replaced, I would be more willing to change it out.

However, i do not agree with the notion that it has to be a one and done, you learn it you get it permanently. That just makes any future drops of that action redundant and while you could trade them in loot box style, you know you will just be inundated with more fireworks.

An alternative would be the ability to 'master' them. This could be a system where, if you put essenses into this action, you gain X amount of uses, the more you use it, the more you level it where, at max level, you have infinite uses. This would encourage poeple to use and try out different actions as there is no loss, just the usage of your essenses (which shoudln't be able to be sold). I almost want to propose having an essense 'tank' where you store essense gained by doing various things. From there, you use X amount of essense to charge actions. This way, you don't clog up your inventory, there is no reason not to use it as it cannot be sold and since there is only 1 type, you don't need to worry about different essence types and where to find them (though you could probably split it into, say, 5 different types, one for each main stat, then, you can vary what each action needs to charge it).

With a system like this, they should not give you access to every action straight away, give you a suite of basic actions that are still important, so that they don't become obsolete as you unlock more and you aren't tempted to save your essenses for that one action later which will be better. The whole idea behind the system is to experiment, so you need to encourage it.

This could also be expanded to the potions. I still don't want to make them consumable, however, they still need a way to master them. Lore wise, you can say the holder is slowly drawing in aether to reform the potions, this gives them a cooldown. You can thn say mastering the potions can reduce that cooldown.

Then, one last thing that could be done, adding extra stats. i imagine this in one of 2 ways, either being able to max them all, or having a system where you can only slot a few stats. Either way, this could be anything from, increasing Crit rate, Increasing Crit Damage, Direct Hit rate etc. I would avoid giving main stats/general damage increases and leave that for the potions. This is more of a way to experiment by comping actions and stats. High crit build? High speed build? Go nuts.

At some point, will you max everything and have no use for the essence? Yes, but who cares. You cap the tank and then... it doesn't matter. I do believe a system like this would help people break away from the mindset of, I don't want to use it, just incase, to well, I have it, I can't use it anywhere else, might as well stick it somewhere it will actually be useful.

[SleepyNeko]

Simply put: when I go into DR, I am prepared. I have a deep essence of the skirmisher ready; I always have my lost offensive abilities so I can drop the occasional 100k+ swing on the boss. I had a really hard time learning the instance the first 2-3 goes, but I always had my kit squared away.

I don't blame people for dying during DR - it's a very, very unforgiving raid when it comes to mistakes, and not recognizing patterns. But I am so, SO tired of seeing 75 or 80 or even 90-minute clears of the place because three quarters of the raid couldn't be chuffed to either farm essences, or spend a few hundred thousand gil on the market board to buy them.

And, honestly, seeing as the situation is not improving, and understanding that human nature (either a combination of inexperience or laziness) is not going to change, I'd like SE to never burden us with the 'borrowed power' of essences again. Don't balance PUGed content around relying on people to be responsible - don't do it. It's one thing to ask a coordinated group of folks in a FC-run dungeon to be accountable - if they aren't, the people in charge will sort things out to their liking. But to create a raid where you're asking a bunch of strangers to be answerable to others? Well, it doesn't work. And, in my experience - barring the occasional (glorious) 30-minute clear of DR - it doesn't work most of the time.

I'm not chain-running DR anymore; I have my first weapon, and I'm just doing a clear a day for emotions and artifacts. But my GOD is it a chore. And it shouldn't be, because when everything is working right, that place is damned fun.

At least you are using Skirmisher, but for DR ideally you should be using a pure essence which is cheaper and stronger.

[technole]

They'll be back. I wasn't a fan of Eureka Logos system and how that worked. Bozja Essences are way better, more diverse, and all around more fun to use.

But like all the old DR threads, you already know a good % of people in this game can't do respectable DPS at end-game, now add that with no essence use and questionable rotations and now they are doing below i430 sync damage vs i500+ in DR and Bozja areas. That's the real deal.

[Deceptus]

Making them CONSUMABLE rather than UNLOCKABLE was what completely ruined the system for me.

Customizable actions traits? YES PLEASE.

Paper Mario Sticker Star tier garbage? Ew no thanks for ruining it.

Yep this is my take on it.

Classic RPG Trope. Have stat boosting stuff and potions. Never use them because you're saving them for when you "Really Need Them".

Then you never use them.

[TeraRamis]

They never should have been tradable. The moment you assign value to a thing, it goes from a convenience to a commodity.

[Genz]

The problem isn't they're consumable, they drop very easily. The problem is they're a toy in a toy area. FFXIV shines in making everything irrelevant. Why bother?
FFXIV is a very easy game, just grindy (it masquerades difficulty with big explosion and one-shots) Lost abilities aren't required to win, it just makes the run faster.

(also, if they weren't consumable, the more powerful would be very grindy to get and we'll get the same topic "I'm tired of 90 mins runs because ppl queue before grinding the highest lost abilities")

[Alexandre_Noireau]

I hope they add all those as regular duty and gameplay features.

I love the flexibility and customization that they give to classes, they are just amazing. Easily one of the better aditions to gameplay in Shadowbringers.

[Goji1639]

Agreed, the system is horrible. Consumable + RNG + Only usable in one instanced area = Complete waste of time/gil to get them.

They're such a significant portion of your damage to, it's like if your armor was destroyed after every Expert Roulette, forcing you to buy/make new sets. OF COURSE people are eventually going to just queue with the absolute cheapest, crappiest gear the queue will allow and Expert dungeons will start taking 3 times as long as they should. Bozja was a very lazy attempt to prolong content specifically by wasting our time, and it was made all the more disappointing by the fact that this game is usually above that kind of crap.

[Rinhi]

I do like lost actions, but I also think that once you unlocked one, you wouldn't need to unlock it again, just assign a cost of 5-10 memories of X to a certain lost action to get it or something

[Banim]

The system is fine although not without flaws, it would've been better if essences/actions were infinite and not consumables, more people would use them and not have a "I need to save 99 Megalixirs for the final boss but I'll never use any" moment. The playerbase make it worse because a huge chunk of people don't understand it (which is also a flaw of the system, players aren't the only ones to blame), or in some cases they do understand but refuse to use it anyway, therefore becoming deadweight willingly. Not using damage boosting essences is the equivalent (or worse) of going into content with no job stone. This is no exaggeration, the impact on performance is enormous.

As with most content, it's not very hard, it is designed so the few can carry the rest, and so I did. I always brought essences and actions so I could fill any role at any time. I've tanked CLL as a WHM with Templar and Lost Incense when all tanks went top and bottom was left tankless, I've ripped aggro doing damage as WHM because their damage essences and actions like Lost Seraph Strike are ridiculous, I've healed my party and raised near-wipes as WAR because I always have Lost Cure IV and Arise with me. And it was fun, I enjoy being powerful and useful, the MvP. Some people don't particularly care to try that hard, and that's ok with me as long as they do try. But some don't, and even when I had fun it is still irritating whenever people refused to even pop an essence even when knowing about them.

When I farmed DR I did so with scheduled speedrun premades. Lots more fun when absolutely everyone contributes, 12-16 minute Delubrums beat sitting on a regular run for potentially 45+ minutes any day. And I don't have to deal with Save the Queen anymore at any rate, except if I want to farm some fragments for gil. All 17 relics completed, 100% Field Operations achievements completed. You could say I've been there, done that, bought the T-Shirt and have an opinion.

I do hope next time there's a Field Operations content it's made keeping in mind that a lot of people just don't want to deal with consumables, period. Farming the stuff isn't particularly hard but it doesn't change the fact some people don't wanna deal with it. Don't make it consumable based, make it more accessible, easier to understand and more streamlined so as to not overwhelm people with too many options, there's a bit too much stuff in the way of essences/actions and not all of it is necessary or all that useful. It becomes an issue when some people want to use the stuff but then not know what to do or bring something that doesn't really help or feel good.

And here is where we reach another issue, the trend where everything starts becoming simpler over time (like job design in ShB, most notably healers) and that's another whole different topic.