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

[Dashuto]

It really feels to me there is going to be a "stretching" effect. CT2 will come out and that will be fine, and then 3rd coil will arrive. By late into updates centric to the 3rd coil age, we'll realize that maybe 10% of the game is in 3rd coil, the majority are going to be in early 2nd coil and a shocking amount /STILL/ stuck at T5. From there the effect will get slowly worse each time. Mostly due to wipe/instant death mechanics.

[Kuwagami]

It really feels to me there is going to be a "stretching" effect. CT2 will come out and that will be fine, and then 3rd coil will arrive. By late into updates centric to the 3rd coil age, we'll realize that maybe 10% of the game is in 3rd coil, the majority are going to be in early 2nd coil and a shocking amount /STILL/ stuck at T5. From there the effect will get slowly worse each time. Mostly due to wipe/instant death mechanics.

You're overestimating the amount of people already in SCoB. More likely around 5-6%

[Dashuto]

You're overestimating the amount of people already in SCoB. More likely around 5-6%

So probably about that much in TCoB when its out. Right then.

[Kuwagami]

So probably about that much in TCoB when its out. Right then.

Now, you're overestimating the amount of people :

=> who will have cleared T5 before 2.4 (I estimate it around 10% if nothing is done in 2.3 onwards to ease it)

=> who will beat T9 after that (estimation : 30% of those who will have beaten T5 by then. Might go up to 70% in the following month depending on nerf/echo applied then)

Grand total of 3% on T10 when it's out

If things are eased in 2.3 and onwards though, it might go up by quite a bit. Especially with CT giving sands and oils

edit : those are estimations considering how T5's progression evolved in 9 month. I might be horribly wrong on T9's completion numbers. However, I think that T5's numbers should be quite good, and even a bit overestimated.

[Anyssa]

This was a great explanation of so much of what I've been feeling. It took me months to overcome Titan HM - even after I learned the fight, there were still people in the group who would mess up and it'd go all wrong. Currently, I'm stuck at Titan EX. Even after learning the fight and performing it flawlessly, there are still others who do not. Then there comes a point where I can no longer perform it perfectly because of fatigue, latency, or some other issue.

Beating these bosses doesn't feel like an accomplishment, it feels like winning the lottery - I lucked into the right combination of players on a given day.

So at the moment I have these options:

1. Continue to beat my head bloody on the wall that is Titan EX
2. Farm a gazillion Fates for this ridiculous quest line
3. Do dailies and log out

I've been doing #3 for a long time. This is the first time in 6 months of playing FFXIV that I've seriously considered just cancelling my sub.

This nonsense isn't fun anymore.

[Litre]

I've been doing #3 for a long time. This is the first time in 6 months of playing FFXIV that I've seriously considered just cancelling my sub.

This nonsense isn't fun anymore.

Exactly, can I ask what iLvl are you? This is the main issue, even if you worked your way up to iLvl 120, due to the heavy mechanics of Titan EX you'd never beat it. Not your fault, it just takes a couple people to mess up, if the devs want to fix the scaling issue here, they need more creative solutions to ease the fight rather than just a blanket 5-25% echo boost to stats.

Like the OP says, the game is mostly based on mechanics, fights are like on average 75% mechanics and 25% gear/stats. Some fights are skewed more towards mechanics or stats but regardless, it's overwhelmingly mechanics. So their solution to make the fights easier for lesser skilled players is to ease the stats dependency, which is the most insignificant determiner of the fight? Lazy balancing in my opinion, that will do a lot of harm to the game because we're losing players like you.

[Bizniztyme]

[B]mechanics[/B

LOL Fights are 100% mechanics in any game ever created. It's the kind of mechanics they use that are different. Gear and stats helps you overcome the games mechanics. If you're overwhelmed by the mechanics, get better gear or get better. That's what I do even though I know it'll take me forever because I know I suck.

[Teirshin]

This was a great explanation of so much of what I've been feeling. It took me months to overcome Titan HM - even after I learned the fight, there were still people in the group who would mess up and it'd go all wrong. Currently, I'm stuck at Titan EX. Even after learning the fight and performing it flawlessly, there are still others who do not. Then there comes a point where I can no longer perform it perfectly because of fatigue, latency, or some other issue.

Beating these bosses doesn't feel like an accomplishment, it feels like winning the lottery - I lucked into the right combination of players on a given day.

So at the moment I have these options:

1. Continue to beat my head bloody on the wall that is Titan EX
2. Farm a gazillion Fates for this ridiculous quest line
3. Do dailies and log out

I've been doing #3 for a long time. This is the first time in 6 months of playing FFXIV that I've seriously considered just cancelling my sub.

This nonsense isn't fun anymore.

I'm in the exact same boat, and doing #3 just like you most nights.

A lot of my friends feel the same and several have already moved on to WildStar so maybe that's where I'll peek next.

The whole thing is so depressing when you consider how much better it could be with just some minor changes.

[Bizniztyme]

I'm in the exact same boat, and doing #3 just like you most nights.

A lot of my friends feel the same and several have already moved on to WildStar so maybe that's where I'll peek next.

The whole thing is so depressing when you consider how much better it could be with just some minor changes.

You guys will get a wake up call because compare this game to Wildstar, ARR is a cakewalk.

[Teirshin]

You guys will get a wake up call because compare this game to Wildstar, ARR is a cakewalk.

I dont want a cakewalk, I'd like a game where its not... "Stand here, move there, stand here, wait 15 secs, run there..." over and over and over again without variation.

Base it more on gear and vary the GD actions. Rather have that then what it is now.

I've watched people playing WS and it looks like a lot of fun. Endgame may be a clustermoogle there too, but by the time I'd get there, at least I'd be enjoying the ride to 50 perhaps.