Criterion savage rewards still suck

[ShadowNyx3]

Having cleared both current savages, they've both been more memorable as a tank to me than any ultimate ever has been (except maybe UCOB Add phase way back in 2017 when it was first released), since the 'all in one go' combined with trash packs hitting like insane freight trains requiring high mitigation utilization, actually challenging tanks on moving adds & positioning them around (Both sets of Rokkon adds, managing and carefully pulling adds in 2nd Sil'dih pack) means you're actually challenged as a tank and not as a blue dps. My healer also says the healing has also been more involved and memorable in them than any ultimate ever has challenged him due to how spiky, frequent and in some cases, pseudo-random it can be based on kill times of each pack/boss. They may be 1:1 mechanic copies of each other, but doing the savages is an actual intense, fun experience, even funner than the normal Criterion.

My heart was beating faster during the last 30% ish of the 3rd boss of Rokkon savage than it ever did during DSR P7 or TOP P6.

But that's just my own opinion.

Glamour is indeed the true endgame of FF14 - and if the glamour rewards are good enough, people will go through anything to get it, no matter how much they may suffer or how bad they perceive it to be. *Cough* Pretty much every grindy as ever living heck relic step this game has ever seen *cough*. There's technically even content that's far more inaccessible than Savages are and has even less rewards on a theoretical level (DRS, effectively only the Cerberus as the main "reward" point that is one and done) that still sees plenty of active play. Like I said, only time will tell - and I think the vanity rewards for Savage will give it a nice boost in participation.

My larger criticisms of the content itself would be better served in a thread of their own.

Staying on topic for this thread with the rewards, I think that adding many vanity options does have the positive effect of offering people who would otherwise complete the content once for a title a reason to do it again and provide a slightly larger pool of players seeking to do the content.

I do not think that this content is more accessible than DRS however, as the nature of that content is built for a smaller group of experienced players to help shepherd others through. Savage criterion in its current form is the complete opposite of that, and is built for very few people who can actually complete it. Even if these new items entice some of those people to do it now, the amount of people who can actually do it is not going to be that much more than those who did it already, they are just going to maybe do it more than once now but most likely with the same group of people they do it with the first time.

[AurisNix]

Idk why I had a hard copium on them finally dropping tome gear on criterion cuz tome gear still a pain in the ass to get, but ofc they refused, why on earth they are so reluctant on changing the tome gear acquisition, they made some good changes on savage rewards why tome gear cant get something similar, a tome weapon upgrade are you serious?, Not only that but they put a BLU mage weapon there too can I even do this stuff with my BLU?

[Atelier-Bagur]

I wish they made obtainable gear sets in these dungeons. Like you can get certain pieces from specific paths and at the end you get a token to farm and buy the gear you want.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I will say though, at least they made SOMETHING thats worth to be grindable since some of the glow tome weapons do look really good.

[Tlachtga]

i feel like it would've went down better if they outright said it was gonna be a glamour reward back when they said they were gonna experiment with rewards. ppl expected alternative ilvl increases. or at least twines/coats/dips

regular criterion needs something more imo. the main attraction, the mount, is buyable on mb. i wouldn't say no to armour/accessory/weapon upgrades here. slap a weekly limit on it if need be

[Frost1800]

I think the point is not ilvl, but glamour. Similar to ultimates, people do the criterion savage with BIS, and the reward weapon is a glowing weapon. Much like people don’t really do ultimates for 1 more materia slot, the reward here is also mainly for the glamour I think.

[Raim]

Wish they would add a roulette for variant dungeons now that we have three.

[TomsYoungerBro]

I think the point is not ilvl, but glamour. Similar to ultimates, people do the criterion savage with BIS, and the reward weapon is a glowing weapon. Much like people don’t really do ultimates for 1 more materia slot, the reward here is also mainly for the glamour I think.

Criterion =/= Ultimate

[Amh_Wilzuun]

I think y’all are being to harsh. It’s still not ideal (I think these should be for normal mode and just give the weapon outright) but it’s definitely a step in the right direction for sure.

Unique glam is above what I was expecting. Flashy Glam is always going to be the best kind of reward, so I think it’s weird that people are downplaying that aspect. You really just care about ilvl for this?

Keep sounding off that you’d want this reward for normal version

[yoshinoharu]

I completely agree that the rewards suck. I mean let's break it down:

If the weapons have different stat spreads, then I see the point as you now may have horizontal progression in terms of the stat spread (e.g. one weapon has crit/dh, the other has crit/det) or might have to get the criterion weapon in order to get a true bis (e.g. savage weapon has dh/crit while criterion has crit/det)

HOWEVER. If they just have the same stat spread you can only really identify a few people that this might be for.

PF Players with Bad RNG
This is probably the only type of player this might be good for. Since loot is individualized in Criterion Savage, if they don't already have their weapon by the time Criterion Savage comes out but is good enough to clear the tier, it's a good idea to just try to plow through Criterion Savage.

That being said, if they are good enough to clear the tier, it is highly likely that this type of player will have already cleared 8 times and just bought a weapon with books by the time Criterion Savage comes out.

Players that are not able to clear Savage
Criterion Savage demands that you do mechanics correctly for 20 minute straight as you do not have any type of res. A lot of players in this racket have trouble staying concentrated and consistent for 8 minutes, much less 20.

I mean no offense to these players, as everyone, no matter how skilled, has likely been here, but it just isn't likely that someone that cannot clear the current tier will be able to clear Criterion Savage.

Players Trying to Gear Multiple Jobs
This is actually the category that I myself fall under.

There are 7 different gear sets and 5 jewelry sets in the game. Taking an average of every job needing a chest/leg piece, 2 other leftside pieces, and being generous and saying that each job requires 2 jewelry pieces on right side, that's still 38 weeks of tomes.

Tome weapons are 500 a piece, so it's stupid to think that players like me might actually utilize this.


Who does that leave?

Honestly, the only type of player that leaves is someone who is:

• Strong enough to clear the tier
• Is not in a static
• Has suffered terrible RNG in PF
• Only plays one or two roles, granting them the tome economy to actually buy the weapons.
• Possibly already bought the augmented tome weapon due to previously mentioned RNG

Which is an INCREDIBLY narrow list of players. All in all, I think this decision was EXTREMELY short-sighted of SE. Which I'm afraid has been a common trend in their design when it comes to this game as of the past year.