Current State of End-Game Contents - A Blog Post from A Japanese Player

[MageBlack]

I think the biggest part of the "problem" is going to be solved with 3.0 in the way they are doing Alexander with 2 modes. One mode is a normal mode for those wanting to just experience the story content then there will be a hard mode for the hardcore endgamers looking for BiS gear and a greater challenge. The reason there are so many "bad's" in coil is there are people just wanting to experience the story part of it but cant. I am one of them. I cant get a full premade static party to run this but I can do it bit by bit on my own, except players have no patience.

I do agree that for hard mode there should be fewer instakill mechanics, I wasnt on that side of the fence before but after doing the majority of the game now, I see why this is a kind of cop-out. They arent a terrible tactic but it shouldnt be the only thing in the bag of tricks. But they are growing the game and therefore I'm sure they will grow the bag of tricks.

EDIT:
Also, why necro this? Maybe I'll necro one of my complaint threads that is still vaguely valid.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

I hope they add some contested dungeons in the game with roaming mobs, bosses, and other interesting mechanics so people have to deal with other players and be social again. Having to take risks and not wait/sit back in little instances again would be refreshing, fighting for content has always been one of my favorite activities, but every game seems to have removed that.

[Rumpelstiltzkin]

It won't be added. Yoshi likes zerg fests content.

[AreeyaJaidee]

One personal issue I have is this:

Me and my wife have both played ffxiv for a long time and we're good at situational awareness as well as utilizing our jobs correctly. I've cleared up to t7 and shes cleared t9.

I had to leave the game due to RL issues and lost my spot in a good coil static and now after returning can't get a competent group to clear anything t5 or higher.

Is this fair? Neither me nor my wife are bad players but it seems like the content is out of our reach because we're just too late to the party. Most people I've talked to about this just give me the attitude of "tough luck, not my problem". <--- which is what eventually forced me to leave the legacy server I started on years ago and move to a different data center. Its like no one cares. Its a pretty bad feeling to be left behind.

Sometimes it seems to me that the top content isn't just for " the best players". I've seen another side, the side that says its exclusive to players who have the right connections. What about the good players who had unlucky circumstances or are just breaking into the end game scene or just aren't as socially adept as some others but still try and play very well?

There's no single case scenario which justifies end game in ffxiv being exclusive as it is now.

[RiceisNice]

It means the base fights have gotten easier, would you say gotten easier is the right direction?

The worst raiding tier was dragon soul in WOW and the main reason was because it was the easiest tier pretty much blizzard ever made and people just did not have fun very much.

End of the tier and expansion signalled the worst subscriber loss in its history.

It depends on your context of "easier". It's definitely not as focus oriented on mechanics that will one shot you for tripping.

The amount of times my group wiped in T13 because "they weren't topped off" is much more numerous than dying because "they moved during blighted".

In the end, I've never really revisisted the SCoB fights even before hte nerf because they just weren't fun for me. There was no sense of urgency in doing my role when it came to dps checks, just watching for some marker to appear over my head.

[siverstorm]

There's this thing that's kinda universal, doesn't really apply solely to XIV, where people will say "I can do X and I will explain to you why it's too easy/too hard/too whatever... but I haven't actually done it". While this game really is easy enough where there's a very low barrier of entry for even the hardest of content (FCoB/Savage), you still have to actually do it for your thoughts on it to hold any weight. You can have an opinion, sure, but people aren't really going to take you seriously if you go "T13 is really easy" and haven't cleared it. --snip

This trend literally exists in every thread related to this topic. And it's bordering on hilarity at this point. Half of the time I feel that the sole purpose of those comments are to provoke arguments to devolve the thread further into some "toxic elitists vs casual scrubs" rage fest to just butt heads for hours.

[Ibi]

I think the biggest part of the "problem" is going to be solved with 3.0 in the way they are doing Alexander with 2 modes. One mode is a normal mode for those wanting to just experience the story content then there will be a hard mode for the hardcore endgamers looking for BiS gear and a greater challenge. The reason there are so many "bad's" in coil is there are people just wanting to experience the story part of it but cant. I am one of them. I cant get a full premade static party to run this but I can do it bit by bit on my own, except players have no patience.

Yoshi-P has said that the story version will be equivalent difficulty to Coil with echo.

There are huge swathes of the player base who still can't clear T5 or T9, even with 20% echo and gear 20-40 item levels above what was intended, so unless they also make some fundamental changes to their encounter design strategies, the volume of complaints may not decrease that much.

[kirk]

Yoshi-P has said that the story version will be equivalent difficulty to Coil with echo.

There are huge swathes of the player base who still can't clear T5 or T9, even with 20% echo and gear 20-40 item levels above what was intended, so unless they also make some fundamental changes to their encounter design strategies, the volume of complaints may not decrease that much.

Pretty much this even with Echo/ 3.0 Alexander nm people will stay say "it's to hard" please nerf it so maybe add in a I win button

[Sapphic]

The second point I think you've missed is that you're assuming people don't do Coil because they do not want to. There are a lot of people that want to do it, but they don't know enough people, they aren't in the "IT" crowd or they can't find enough people that're good at memorizing AND competent with their job.

I knew no-one when I started FFXIV 2.0 back in beta, and after launch I made an effort to reach out and find an FC. about 6 months and 3 FCs later I found one that I made the effort to help people out, showed I was a competent player and got invited to join a static that I'm still in to this day.

There are plenty of players in the situation that you bring up, but it's only themselves stopping from reaching out and activally finding other like minded players to start to form a team to run with. To be honest many don't want to make any type of effort to obtain their goals (aka the shinies) they just want them handed to them with the least amount of "effort". Don't bring up "Real life responsibilities" many Raid statics are able to organise around them on a week to week basis. As we do with members with families, full time employement, 2 are even full time teachers. We change the weekly schedule to fit members RL schedules. We aren't the only one that does that. Most of those with members in the same situation do also. So if we can do it, there is nothing stopping anyone else doing it, except themselves and there misconcieved notion that you can only raid succesfully if you are unemployed or a student.

Also you do realise SE has listened and is putting 2 versions of 8 person raid content in game going forwards? But you will still have some thinking they should be able to obtain the savage mode Alex gear without having to put in any effort to socialize or learn the fights.

[Darra]

Also you do realise SE has listened and is putting 2 versions of 8 person raid content in game going forwards? But you will still have some thinking they should be able to obtain the savage mode Alex gear without having to put in any effort to socialize or learn the fights.

Ah, thank you for informing me of my thinking, even though it's not what you're telling me it is. Just because you're successful with being sociable, doesn't mean everyone is. Just because you've got the confidence to make and lead a raid group when you can't find an existing one with a spot for you, doesn't mean everyone is. Your entire argument is that the game design is "fine because I can do it" and that "if players can't it's their own fault". My argument is that the game lacks options, it's repeating the same old crap and it wouldn't hurt to cater to more players and give players a little of something else other than a memory game. I'm also glad that there's going to be 2 modes of Alexander, and that we can challenge content with fewer than the recommended number or players, but it still doesn't encourage people to "socialize" in groups bigger than 8. 8 is a pretty small number for an MMO wouldn't you agree?