Chaotic is a masterpiece of content but points out other issues with the game.

[Xerosleep]

Lets be real Chaotic was advertised as Extreme/Savage mode 24 man content which they've tested with DRS before, so seriously stop moaning about it been too hard. However, this finally integrates it into the main raid tier rather than as part of Eureka/Bozja. So I see this as part of the Savage Raid cycle.
Now the issues it points out is:
Firstly how weird the gearing is in this game, this gives BIS ilvl gear without a now pointless weekly lock and weird tome cap, which are still in place! In fact why do we usually only ever have 2 sources for bis gearing so i welcome this but yes it shows that the Raid tier is locked for way too long and the tome cap of 450 is only ever lifted in X.55 is just crazy, especially when an Ultimate is out.
Plus, now this is here they should add Criterion in as well and give that the matching accessories. So that's from a high end hardcore point of view.
Secondly for the causal and general content point of view, we can see the lack of content in X.0, X.1 raid cycle, i'm fairly sure this the first time since HW they've add new stuff this early in an expansion as usually its really boring in this part of the expansion, Midcore or Exploration Zones are never added until X.25 now and same with the relic.
Which further why do they not start adding the relic in X.08, or X.01 to give casuals more to do and also for more weapon gearing. Also with timescales Chaotic should have been added at 7.1 at the latest.
Basic point Chaotic in itself is perfect, it was exactly what they said on the tin, it's what the game needed. It's just the game has other issues in terms of content especially at the start of an expansion.

[Clockworks]

Lets be real Chaotic was advertised as Extreme/Savage mode 24 man content which they've tested with DRS before, so seriously stop moaning about it been too hard. However, this finally integrates it into the main raid tier rather than as part of Eureka/Bozja. So I see this as part of the Savage Raid cycle.
Now the issues it points out is:
Firstly how weird the gearing is in this game, this gives BIS ilvl gear without a now pointless weekly lock and weird tome cap, which are still in place! In fact why do we usually only ever have 2 sources for bis gearing so i welcome this but yes it shows that the Raid tier is locked for way too long and the tome cap of 450 is only ever lifted in X.55 is just crazy, especially when an Ultimate is out.
Plus, now this is here they should add Criterion in as well and give that the matching accessories. So that's from a high end hardcore point of view.
Secondly for the causal and general content point of view, we can see the lack of content in X.0, X.1 raid cycle, i'm fairly sure this the first time since HW they've add new stuff this early in an expansion as usually its really boring in this part of the expansion, Midcore or Exploration Zones are never added until X.25 now and same with the relic.
Which further why do they not start adding the relic in X.08, or X.01 to give casuals more to do and also for more weapon gearing. Also with timescales Chaotic should have been added at 7.1 at the latest.
Basic point Chaotic in itself is perfect, it was exactly what they said on the tin, it's what the game needed. It's just the game has other issues in terms of content especially at the start of an expansion.

Remove the hairstyle and it's fine.

[Xerosleep]

Wait is that where the hate is coming from? Fine swap it for the Joke Weapons in treasure maps and make those weapons BIS like their Criterion Savage counterpart ones. Like I don't care about hairstyles too much as my manbun is already in the game, as a bearded gentlemen i do want beards though.

[Post]

I appreciate that the Chaotic Raid is fun to do and repeatable for the purposes of gear and loot over the week, especially as it's not offering higher item level gear (though some pieces are technically better than savage/tome gear due to itemization). It offers 'catch up' rewards, and incentivizes players who might otherwise not be playing during an odd numbered patch to join PF.

I seriously found the Arcadion Savage fights to be downgrades from their normal versions in terms of how fun they were to do, and it's tedious to have another weekly thing on the list for months and months if you're just interested in gear.

It might be frustrating for players unaccustomed to their mistakes affecting the whole group (normal and alliance raids basically stopped being designed this way after Heavensward, shifting focus to "if YOU don't dodge, YOU die" from Stormblood onwards), but my experience has been that it's pretty easy for even fresh, completely unfamiliar with the fight players to form a group for Chaotic and jump in, and that there's plenty of communication within the party once it begins. So, it's easy to enter and discuss issues. It's on players from that point if they want to try and overcome their personal challenges.

It may not remain this way and might join the ranks of BA and DR(S), requiring significant organization to run at all after its release patch, but the fact that there's no special unlocking requirements for it and the fact that you can do it down at 12 players might mean it's easier to return to in the future. I think it rewarding relevant gear rather than purely weaker gear helps this a lot, and I think it's a good idea for FFXIV to do this because lord almighty the savage fights are not nearly interesting enough to grind for 12+ weeks trying to get gear for every job if that's your thing. Usually you get one or two fun floors while the rest are a light party/pairs/clock spot repeat endeavor for 8+ minutes with maybe 1 pain point, so infrequent that players are totally inept at offering advice and helping each other and much quicker to just jump ship given how convenient PF, macros and raid plans are.

Objectively, their reward structure for a patch's max ilvl gear was developed in patch 2.2, back when their release schedule was 3 months, and their "midcore" extreme fights back then were harder and offered additional items beyond just a catch up weapon. Gear checks existed as mitigation was more limited and you could not craft more-than-sufficient gear to clear a raid tier from the moment the patch dropped. The release schedule is now 4.5 months +/- the time they readjusted to get back onto a summer release because of Covid delays, they're making time-consuming content like relics less involved and staggering their release. There is less to do. The content they put out must survive longer. I believe one way to achieve that may be better for more fights to be designed to take a little longer to clear. As Chaotic offers max ilvl gear for the patch, it also offers ways to enable players to try different jobs in the same fight, and by having an even more giant arena than some in EW, it manages to make even EW/DT 2min jobs feel a little more different to play when considering when and where one aught to buff their Alliance or debuff the boss.

I'd say Chaotic sticks out far worse to players because its design is challenging the culture of a lot of the streamlined elements of especially the easier to middling difficulty encounters. If the designers don't relent too much and stay mostly on their course, I'm confident most players interested in more challenging and varying content design will appreciate it, our culture will adapt and it won't be that bad in hindsight.

[Reimmi]

Remove the hairstyle and it's fine.

You can get the hairstyle with gil

[Clockworks]

You can get the hairstyle with gil

It having a pricetag of 50m to 100m+ does not make that affordable for casual players.

[ReynTime]

It having a pricetag of 50m to 100m+ does not make that affordable for casual players.

People always say Gil is useless. Well, time to put that Gil to use.

[Clockworks]

People always say Gil is useless. Well, time to put that Gil to use.

Moot argument when the only ways to make gil in this game are absolutely miserable, but good attempt.

[BigCheez]

It having a pricetag of 50m to 100m+ does not make that affordable for casual players.

Why does it need to be affordable for casual players?

[Clockworks]

Why does it need to be affordable for casual players?

It's an hairstyle in a game that is already extremely limited customization wise lmao.

Are we going to gatekeep hairstyles too now as the new thing ?

What's next ? Savage only eyes skin ? Savage only skin colors ? Why not savage only lips while we're at it ?