Crystal Tower has to go

[Ishe-P]

I'll tell you why I don't like it.

#1. I've run this thing well over 100 times, easily. Without tracking or quantifying it at all, I know that ~100 human hours of my time has been spent in this shitty ass raid. I am sick of it and want off the ride.
#2. I get synced to level 50 every time I do it. It's so goddamn awful to play level 50 at this point. It doesn't matter the class or the job, all the cool stuff is gutted, all the muscle memory that has been built for the later stuff is rendered completely unnecessary. I tend to raid as Ninja; it plays so bad at 50, I know other classes do as well.
#3. If I wanted to run it by name, I would. And I would tolerate it if I didn't run it during the roulettes 6 out of 7 times per week. Have you queued in before, to see some dickhead change their HP from like 2000 to 10000 because they queued with a low item level? Yeah, that's why the roulettes are jacked. I do get that a larger portion of the playerbase cannot run 60+ alliance raids because of circumstance, but it is painful to be constantly dragged down to that level, day after day. It sucks, it is bad, and anyone who purposely messes with system to enforce level 50 raids is a giant douche that should be banned.
#4. I think it's crazy that people think Ivalice and HW raids are harder. Do you know why they're harder? It's because people aren't running them as much as running stupid Crystal Tower.
#5. It is disingenuous to suggest that anyone should run CT at minimum ilevel to get the full effect of the raid. That's crazy talk. Only lunatics would run it minimum ilevel on a regular basis, and that does not solve alliance roulette being corrupted by people who can only do or only want to do crystal tower and will find a way to drag randos into doing it.
#6. Yeah, maybe the gameplay is compelling at minimum ilevel, but it isn't anymore. I would never expect anyone but the sproutiest sprout to come in at minimum ilevel, and even they will probably have some level of augmented sprout gear.
#7. Of all the controversial opinions, this could be the worst one: It's not the playerbase's fault at all. SE is so proud of the CT raid that each expansion requires running a CT raid, either optionally, or as a requirement to complete some task: relics in particular, and famously ShB making it an MSQ requirement. [edited for length] After all wasn't Amon such a good character?

At this point CT is beneath my contempt. I've put a ton of time into it and have tolerated it for so long that I finally had to say something. It sucks and is bad; I have to keep doing it, and it sucks, and every time I go through it, it is bad. I hope this is to your satisfaction.

[Jeeqbit]

#5. It is disingenuous to suggest that anyone should run CT at minimum ilevel to get the full effect of the raid. That's crazy talk. Only lunatics would run it minimum ilevel on a regular basis, and that does not solve alliance roulette being corrupted by people who can only do or only want to do crystal tower and will find a way to drag randos into doing it.

It doesn't solve people removing their gear to get into Crystal Tower and maybe if people do that you will see Crystal Tower a little more, but I think we would see it a lot no matter what because it's the first alliance raid, it's required for the MSQ and the lower level you get, the more people haven't quit the game due to MSQ bloat and every one of those new players had about 20 alt jobs to level and their first alliance raids they would qualify for on each of those jobs is Crystal Tower. The roulette matches you with people who queue directly for the content in most cases and where nobody is new or queues directly for it, again the chance that 1 out of 24 people are genuinely leveling a job that is below 60 is high.

Syncing to minimum would solve it for the people who claim the mechanics are boring and don't exist. Is it fun to do mechanics always? Not always, but if people are coming into this thread and saying not doing mechanics is boring then that's the logical solution, not getting rid the raid.

SE is so proud of the CT raid that each expansion requires running a CT raid, either optionally, or as a requirement to complete some task: relics in particular

CT is not required to complete the relics because you've always been able to farm Critical Engagements in Bozja.

[Xerkrosis]

I've stopped doing alliance roulette because of CT. Great part, because it's a stupidly boring content, which is no fun at all because you're downsynced to lvl 50. But what makes it annoying the most are the ilvl-cheaters, who dress down to lowest ilvl they can get to force CT.
There needs to be a scalable minimum ilvl, like each time you hit an expansion's max-lvl, the minimum ilvl increases.

I very much enjoy the ivalice and nier-raids, but there's not much motivation to do them without a reward.

[Renalt]

I'll tell you why I don't like it.

#1. I've run this thing well over 100 times, easily. Without tracking or quantifying it at all, I know that ~100 human hours of my time has been spent in this shitty ass raid. I am sick of it and want off the ride.
#2. I get synced to level 50 every time I do it. It's so goddamn awful to play level 50 at this point. It doesn't matter the class or the job, all the cool stuff is gutted, all the muscle memory that has been built for the later stuff is rendered completely unnecessary. I tend to raid as Ninja; it plays so bad at 50, I know other classes do as well.
#3. If I wanted to run it by name, I would. And I would tolerate it if I didn't run it during the roulettes 6 out of 7 times per week. Have you queued in before, to see some dickhead change their HP from like 2000 to 10000 because they queued with a low item level? Yeah, that's why the roulettes are jacked. I do get that a larger portion of the playerbase cannot run 60+ alliance raids because of circumstance, but it is painful to be constantly dragged down to that level, day after day. It sucks, it is bad, and anyone who purposely messes with system to enforce level 50 raids is a giant douche that should be banned.
#4. I think it's crazy that people think Ivalice and HW raids are harder. Do you know why they're harder? It's because people aren't running them as much as running stupid Crystal Tower.
#5. It is disingenuous to suggest that anyone should run CT at minimum ilevel to get the full effect of the raid. That's crazy talk. Only lunatics would run it minimum ilevel on a regular basis, and that does not solve alliance roulette being corrupted by people who can only do or only want to do crystal tower and will find a way to drag randos into doing it.
#6. Yeah, maybe the gameplay is compelling at minimum ilevel, but it isn't anymore. I would never expect anyone but the sproutiest sprout to come in at minimum ilevel, and even they will probably have some level of augmented sprout gear.
#7. Of all the controversial opinions, this could be the worst one: It's not the playerbase's fault at all. SE is so proud of the CT raid that each expansion requires running a CT raid, either optionally, or as a requirement to complete some task: relics in particular, and famously ShB making it an MSQ requirement. [edited for length] After all wasn't Amon such a good character?

At this point CT is beneath my contempt. I've put a ton of time into it and have tolerated it for so long that I finally had to say something. It sucks and is bad; I have to keep doing it, and it sucks, and every time I go through it, it is bad. I hope this is to your satisfaction.

I want to hug you so bad right now. All very well said.

[Iscah]

Probably the same reason as those who do not like it as well. With the exception of World of Darkness (though that does fall flat on its face with the final boss. Did you know she has snake adds?)

I ran it with a minimum ilevel group one time and still didn't see any snake adds. And you can even still defeat Glasya at minimum ilevel before he gets to doing the platforms.

It really needs some extra HP on the bosses, and probably tweaking the order/timing of their attacks so we actually get to see them do interesting things before the fight is over.

(That goes for some later raids too. Knave of Hearts does not need two slow-cast spells to set up its clones every time.)

SE is so proud of the CT raid that each expansion requires running a CT raid, either optionally, or as a requirement to complete some task: relics in particular, and famously ShB making it an MSQ requirement.

I don't think they're "proud" of it; they just need people to run old content, so they incentivise/force people to do various bits. The longer it has been around, the more times they go back to it.

Adding it to MSQ isn't just to arbitrarily show it off; those events needed to happen so they could be built upon. So despite your blunt assertion that it "has to go", actually at this point it has to stay.

[ASkellington]

I don't think they're "proud" of it; they just need people to run old content, so they incentivise/force people to do various bits. The longer it has been around, the more times they go back to it.

Adding it to MSQ isn't just to arbitrarily show it off; those events needed to happen so they could be built upon. So despite your blunt assertion that it "has to go", actually at this point it has to stay.

The point of that take, and I agree with it, is that CT should not be apart of ANYTHING now that it is straight up required to progress through MSQ.

No, it does not need to be apart of any relic.

No it does not need to be apart of moogle tomes.

Why? Again, it is REQUIRED for MSQ. People who are on the free part of FFXIV can only get up to lv60 raids. It is already weighted in CT's favor. It does not need these things and SHOULD NOT GET THEM. Other raids should be apart of these things, because I find it ridiculous that I have had to sit in a 1hr queue for the Void Ark raids as a healer on PRIME TIME.

[Midareyukki]

I hope this is to your satisfaction.

YES QUEEN.

It IS annoying to have to run CT over and over and over. And sure, we might not have many options. Take Expert Roulette, it's literally just 2 dungeons anyway. But you know what makes it fun and different? The fact that your kit isn't so limited. The fact that mechanics aren't so braindead easy that you fall asleep at the wheel only to wake up and realize that not only is it not over, you're basically not even needed there. And the fact that people very shamelessly rig the system to land on those raids.

I'd argue that the Ivalice and Mhach raids aren't hard at all, people are just far too used to the game holding their hands over every piece of content. And then when something demands them to pay a little attention, they wet their pants. Many times I see people new to the instances call Deathgaze Hollow, Diabolos, Hashmal, Mustadio and such "unfair". No, they're not "unfair", they're just not disrespecting you and believe you can clear them with the experience you've gotten thus far. And if you can't, it's a wake up call that maybe you should get goodish? Because the rest of the game will recycle mechanics from these raids, might as well learn them now. Yes: GET GOOD. Refusal to get good is literally bringing people's enjoyment of the game down.

And I used to have an FC member who said "Yeah well not everyone wants to log onto the game and deal with something convoluted after a day of work, people just want to chill". To which I said: then why the hell are you playing? No, really, if you share this mindset, why is it that you play a game that clearly has mechanics and moments for you to pay attention? Moments where you need to stop mindlessly pressing 1 on your keyboard and actually heal? No one's asking you to do Savage content after work, you do it because you want to. But mechanics in this game aren't meant to be an absolute chore every time in casual content, they're just stuff to do on the spot. If the day was so bad that you'd rather not deal with the way the game's designed, don't play it that day. You're not forced to. There are other games out there that would likely frustrate you less, just as much as there are other games out there that'd frustrate you far more. Casual content doesn't need to be any more straightforward and boring for the sake of this argument. If we keep this up, then we'll end up with mobs that die the moment we Gpose them.

"Well not everyone wants to deal with stress", yes well not everyone wants to fall asleep either. And sure, it's a roulette, but the CT raids are so poorly handled at the moment that they feel beyond tedious to experience at higher levels. Not just because everything is just a tank and spank with zero regard for mechanics that aren't instant death, but also because class design at lv 50 is so mangled. Maybe forcing people to run it synched is a bit extreme. But something needs to be done. Boost the numbers, reassess lv 50 skills, SOMETHING.

They redesigned the Castrum and Praetorium to fit the game and not be blatant zerg rushes like they used to be. With bosses with proper mechanics, even if they're simplistic as hell. They're there to teach sprouts about how the game will look like in the future. Why not do the same for CT? Because let me tell you Square, they feel no different than the final Lahabrea fight.

And if Hildibrand tells us to do Crystal Tower 15 times again, I won't even bother continuing his quests. Square can put mindless grinds into the game all it wants, if it turns out to be that tedious again, I'll refuse to touch it. Give me Bozja, give me poetics grind, I can handle that. But gratuitous grinds for the sake of making content look alive? To hell with that.

[Raoabolic]

snip

I-I hate to tell you this but Square died 19 years ago... I think it was a dance summit back in 2001 that went wrong. ;A;

[Midareyukki]

I-I hate to tell you this but Square died 19 years ago... I think it was a dance summit back in 2001 that went wrong. ;A;

That was Squaresoft, they're now Squarehard.

...wait.

CRAP IT'S RIGOR MORTIS ISN'T IT?