Most people just run a couple of hunt trains for enough tomes for a full set of gear + clusters for the materia to meld it. Pretending that we're doing anything other than a very short mindless zerg for that gear is a little disingenuous.
Get rid of the overmeld slots or make crafted gear a few ilvl lower than previous BiS then. This feels like a very easily solved problem.
I completely agree that improving at a game is one of the most fulfilling parts of playing them but equipping a new stat stick doesn't really factor in to that. Optimising strats and ability usages are the interesting parts of an MMO. Gear should be a means to an end but FFXIV has no end.
The fact that you consider running savage without savage gear to be griefing demonstrates the problem with gearing in FFXIV better than anything that I could say. In the nicest possible way, I think you've been playing FFXIV exclusively for too long, have become XIVbrained and can't see past the status quo. I'd recommend trying another MMO, like XI or WoW, if only for a short time to remind yourself what meaningful player power progression in an MMO actually looks like. Getting new gear is infinitely more rewarding when it will allow you to do something that you weren't able to do before. Getting new gear to make the content that you're already able to do easier, and then throwing it in the trash and replacing it with a new freebie for the next piece of content, is just pointless busywork.
Working your way through ambu to omen to dyna and beyond in FFXI is fun. Pushing through heroic/mythic or pushing M+ keys in WoW is fun. Doing savage to get savage gear so the same boss you were already able to kill dies 6 minutes into the 10 minute fight is not particularly interesting or fun. The fulfilling part is supposed to be the progression that comes as a result of that upgrade but it's absent in FFXIV.



Reply With Quote


