Alliance Raid Now iLvl Locked, Why??

[DaichiSilurus]

Show me in the patch notes where it said you need to be level 90 to do the Alliance roulette at all. That's not what it said.

Square Enix did not make it so you NEED to be level 90 to do the Alliance Roulette at all. That would be asinine.

Literally nobody is saying that's how it works. Where the hell are you getting that from? Show me in the post you were replying to, show me anywhere in the thread where someone has claimed that they need to be level 90 or they can't do the roulette. Everyone is talking about the gear requirement because it's the only thing in the game that expects you to gear for your level instead of your story progress, the only thing that requires gear of a pointlessly higher ilvl than your highest unlocked duty.

Who said you need to go buy level 90 gear? It's based on the bare minimum you need to do raids at level 90, which you pretty much have by the end of Endwalker just from playing the MSQ.

If you aren't level 90, you'll just get the alliance raids that are at your current level or lower. It's not a big deal.

Maybe I can clarify. If ALL your jobs are level 90, then you will need the minimum ilvl required to do level 90 for the Aglaia raid.

And again, it's based on the *bare minimum* ilvl required to do the first alliance raid at whatever level your job currently is. Which, if you are doing the MSQ, you are at when you finish the MSQ for that expansion. So no, you don't have to buy gear. No one is going to be level 90 with only level 60 gear and their level 60 gear is their best gear.

Except this is the exact situation that several people in this thread have talked about being in, they have maxed (or simply higher level) jobs compared to their story progress and therefore cannot do the roulette unless they buy gear. It might be 60/90, it might be 80/90, it might be 57/80, it might be 50/70. But it's happening, and it's stopping them from queueing.

"Just do the MSQ" is not helpful advice. Not everyone wants to rush through the MSQ just because they arbitrarily lost access to a roulette. Not everyone wants to level a new job.

[Sani2341]

So what exactly do people that are way overleveled gain from running Alliance Roulette over manually queing for their 5 favs of the Alliance raids?

They obviously don't need the exp. After all they clearly want to take their time with the MSQ, which means any and all end level content is far out of reach due to being locked behind said MSQ.
And they can still do any of the other roulettes if their need for poetics is that great.(which I seriously doubt with how few Times I can remember not being at cap for those).

[MsMisato]

After reading this thread I can at least understand why the changes were made. However, I as someone who has just finished Stormblood would simply like another easy option to help level my higher classes for the next expansions, and get tome stones to get the newest gear. But my level 80 class is supposed to be geared for content I don't have access to yet, and my 70+ class needs more gear from tome stones that are now harder to get because of these changes.

These inconveniences may be minor, but they still affect players who don't have access to all the content these changes are targeted at. If it could maybe check story progress as well as level that would be appreciated.

your level 70 AF gear will allow entry. People tend to forget that. as for level 80. you get a free set once you complete the role quests since there isn't a job quest that rewards you.

[TheDustyOne]

A possible way to fix this might be for the game to do 2 checks instead of 1 when setting the ilvl restriction. At the moment, only your current job matters, instead we could have the game check what your current MSQ level is, as well as your current job. Whichever of the 2 is lower is what counts for setting the ilvl restriction.

Example; player is level 64, but their current MSQ is only level 58, therefore the ilvl restriction would be set to the 70 instead of 175. This would allow players to do MSQ at their own pace, and still let them do the roulette.

That said, if you're already overleveled for MSQ, you probably don't need the EXP. So if you were desperate to run the roulette, I'd suggest running with another job you want to try out.

[kaynide]

On the one hand, the excess xp is a problem, but on the other, if you are grossly over leveled, there is no reason to be doing daily roulettes. Rather, I would argue doing the MSQ from level 60ish content on a 90 character is a huge huge waste of xp gain. I mean, you do you, but until you actually hit endgame the special non poetics tomestones are useless to you.

Aka, just stop doing the roulette and focus on MSQ.

There is nothing stopping you from manually doing specific raids if you want to for progression.

Again, you do what you want- no one should be telling you that your fun is wrong…but ilvl cheese is a thing people have complained about, and this is the solution we got, better or worse.

This is an unfortunate consequence of giving people what they want.

[fulminating]

if you are grossly over leveled, there is no reason to be doing daily roulettes. .

Is fun not a good enough reason? Progressing through the story at your own rate or with your friends but still wanting to enjoy the game shouldn't be punished

[Nicola_Kunu]

I think it would be better if it was tied to MSQ progression. I don't think the Venn diagram of CT iLevel cheesers and people who don't progress the MSQ overlaps.

I think I had 3 jobs I rotated through as I progressed through the MSQ because of the large amount of XP you get thrown your way, and because I took my time with the story. I don't know how much easier it must be to overlevel with Road to 80, but given that players seem to be hitting level cap whilst still in Heavensward/Stormblood, it must be significant. This is a story-driven game and players takes hundreds of hours to progress. I personally was always a story expansion behind the current expansion because I didn't want to rush anything, and didn't reach end-game content until the end of Shadowbringers, despite starting in Heavensward. There were days when I wouldn't progress the story because I was doing side content or my favoured roulettes (Raids + Trials).

I can imagine [expensive] lv60/70/80/90 gear not only unnecessarily taxes lower level players, but also robs them of the opportunity to work their own way to similar iLevel gear. I enjoy getting raid gear for my classes through trials, raiding, or crafting it myself. I don't enjoy purchasing gear on the marketboard. A player has less or no reason to seek out new gear on their journey upwards if they've bought lv80 gear and running lv68 content.

I think the culling of CT iLevel cheesing is good, but I think the enforcement should happen once a player has reached the MSQ point when the Alliance Raid(s) for that expansion is available.

[Reinha]

A possible way to fix this might be for the game to do 2 checks instead of 1 when setting the ilvl restriction. At the moment, only your current job matters, instead we could have the game check what your current MSQ level is, as well as your current job. Whichever of the 2 is lower is what counts for setting the ilvl restriction.

As you said it wouldn't be a complicated thing to fix. The question is, do the devs think it worth fixing? There's a lot jank in this game that they haven't touched because they either think it doesn't affect many people or the inconvenience it causes isn't big enough.

[PyurBlue]

The problem is people cheese the roulette to make sure they only get CT, which is not fair to the people who don't want to do CT all the time. So you have to make it ilvl and not something else. Yes, if someone only ever has CT unlocked, even at level 90, then it's gonna be CT. But the point is that people can't cheese it anymore, or forget to change their gear and make everyone else suffer because of it.

And the problem with that is that SE choose the worst possible "fix". This is why people are upset. This ilvl thing was in no way required to solve the CT issue.

No one is going to be level 90 with only level 60 gear and their level 60 gear is their best gear.

As it turns out, I ran into someone in nearly this situation the other day. It's actually very common.

So what exactly do people that are way overleveled gain from running Alliance Roulette over manually queing for their 5 favs of the Alliance raids?

They obviously don't need the exp. After all they clearly want to take their time with the MSQ, which means any and all end level content is far out of reach due to being locked behind said MSQ.
And they can still do any of the other roulettes if their need for poetics is that great.(which I seriously doubt with how few Times I can remember not being at cap for those).

My philosophy on games is that they should be built around fun first and foremost. If a player enjoys queuing for alliance but they can't because of a very badly implemented entry requirement, there is a major problem.

Now if you want to focus on practical benefits, I disagree with your position on XP. Some people like to level as fast as possible for a variety of reasons, perhaps they are leveling an alt. Roulettes are a great source of XP per playtime, so adding a needless barrier to the roulette slows those players down, especially if they can't afford to devote unlimited time to the game. I have a few alts and I try to take advantage of Road to X when I level them, which means I have a limited amount of time to benefit from increased XP per time. In such a case it would benefit me to have access to Alliance roulette (although in practice I've avoided that roulette since CT became mandatory). In addition to XP, the same goes for tomes, and perhaps miscellaneous things likes challenge log, events, titles, etc that may depend on access to a specific roulette.

I'm not bothered by buying gear off the market board, I usually do this for alts, but I don't spend a lot on them and while my gear. I can safely exceed the ilvl of the current MSQ, but not necessary reach an ilvl an expansion or two ahead of me, nor should I have to.

The bottom line is, there are much better ways to fix the original problem, and this is why the thread exists.

[Saraide]

Is fun not a good enough reason?

This is legit an incomprehensible concept for MMO fans.