I thought the Deep Dungeon would be something new, but this is just Palace again...

[Valence]

"require clearing deep dungeon" and "have nothing to do with deep dungeon" are mutually exclusive.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

I'm not going crazy, am I?

When the new deep dungeon was first announced the slide said "New plans for Deep Dungeon", and it seemed like it would be something different to the usual DD format.

This sentiment was repeated in the previous live letter. After how Eureka Orthos went it seemed like CBU3 was acknowledging the format had become stale and that another copy-paste of Palace of the Dead wasn't going to work.

I was under the impression that maybe the devs were finally thinking outside the box and breaking the formula for once, and that the deep dungeon could actually be something different and interesting.
...

Fast forward to the live letter today, and they're saying it's different - but then they go on to show what appears to be yet another reskin of Palace/Heaven on High.

There are a couple of QoL changes like extra checkpoints and matched parties being allowed above floor 30, and a separate savage/ultimate trial which looks cool - but the deep dungeon itself is the same as always.

- Same 100 floors with a boss every 10 floors
- Same pomanders
- Same floor effects but repackaged as an optional interactable
- Same aetherpool progression (your actual gear from savage is useless again)
- Same chests, same potsherds luminous oil, and weapons you can get outside the dungeon

When I pointed this out, people told me it's completely different because it's "horizontal".

But in the stream there was no horizontal movement, just teleporting to the next instanced floor via the cairn of passage like every other DD. Maybe it's "canonically" horizontal? But that's just a buzzword that doesn't affect the actual gameplay, it's functionally the same as being "vertical". Literally nothing was changed in this regard.

Am I missing something here?

It will be good for 4 weeks

[TaleraRistain]

Why would they make Savage gear matter in this anyway? The whole idea of aetherpool in a Deep Dungeon is putting everyone on the same level and capability of doing it. We all have to work on leveling up our aetherpool by doing the content. Savage gear matters where Savage gear needs to matter and doesn't give players a freebie in other content unlike where some MMOs let the gear gap get out of control.

[Vanfrano]

Creatively Bankrupt Unit 3. Not that it is a new thing.

[Atma]

Why would they make Savage gear matter in this anyway? The whole idea of aetherpool in a Deep Dungeon is putting everyone on the same level and capability of doing it. We all have to work on leveling up our aetherpool by doing the content. Savage gear matters where Savage gear needs to matter and doesn't give players a freebie in other content unlike where some MMOs let the gear gap get out of control.

Amen.
To.
This.

[Stormfur]

Deep Dungeon is one of my favorite things in FFXIV. I love just steadily working toward things and having progress to show for it. I've done them all to the point of having the mounts you get when you clear it four times. This one looks promising too. I hope it doesn't fizzle out after a few weeks, but who am I kidding?