A massively.com write up on why hunts are ruining this game

[Felessan]

The "ruining" is more or less my own words. Not the words of the author.

Casuals don't care. Most of hardcore either don't really care or participate in hunts on hardcore basis. There are really only a small crowd (but its vocal, yes) that are affected by this.

Getting 5 sands of time in one week. I say its pretty broken and ruins the game. People are already rocking full Elite GC set.

And what? People already rocking in full HA sets with ilvl 115 weapons. It's a little to late to segregate crowd and limit access to equipment to slow down progression.
A lot, and it's really a lot of people currently on T9/past T9, and there are really no point now to limit others in progression. Quite contrary, now is the time when people progression should be boosted or we will have sudden jump from being "hardcore only" content to "every casual can go, echo included" without intermediate stage.

If you "normally" can't get the best gear then you don't deserve it.

The amount of what requires to "deserve" lowers with time. You can now get ilvl90 weapons in mere hours, back in 2.0 it required 3 weeks of mytho cap and passing through Titan Hard that was not such a joke it is now.

And this was implicitly admitted as a design flaw seeing as Soldiery is 100 and H.Allagan is 110. And before, the only way to get i110 Soldiery was Coil

They change the curve, it doesn't mean that the high point (i.e. where everybody should be at 2.4) will be lower/significantly lower as before.
2.0-2.1 was a design flaw because you got your full ilvl90 at the end of 2.0 and then you just slack the whole 2.1 doing nothing and dying from boredom. Now you effectively have 10 ilvl for each patch for wide crowd, 2.2 was 100, 2.3 is 110.

The accelerated pacing of obtaining rewards from hunts far outweighs other content. I know I'll be right, because SE will more than likely make changes to the systems rate of reward.
also Myth still had a hard cap in 2.1

We still have soldiery hard cap (and I can't even afford a full set for one class because of it as I got 2 soldiery weapons, one through t7/t8 back in 2.2 and one in 2.3)
SE did nothing to this date *but* made hunting for seals easier in organized fashion. As adjusting HP made it possible to grind even more successful even in prime times. I doubt that they do not understand what they are doing.

[Lemuria]

Wow... it's like none of the defenders actually bothered to read. I guess that would require too much effort on their part.

The fact is that you have one type of content where you can obtain literally EVERYTHING. Tomes, check. Gear, check. Raid items, check. And this content is being monopolized by a select few. It's not even remotely fair to the majority of those playing the game, and unless you're one of the lucky few, which I'd argue most of the defenders are, you're screwed.

Good luck trying to get in a single blow when there's 100 other people doing exactly the same. Good luck trying to work on your allied seals when the daily marks are so utterly worthless you'd be better off spamming dungeons and buying the gear the old fashioned way.

Open your eyes. It's a broken system which needs some serious attention. When you can do this ONE thing to the exclusion of all else and get everything you'd ever need, there's a big problem. Doubly so when it can be done in such a short time frame that all other content becomes meaningless to attempt.

I doubt that they do not understand what they are doing.

Assuming they did know what they were doing, it just proves that SE has no clear direction for the future of the game.

[Kajukai]

There will be some changes about hunting, that people may like, but who knows, everyone is crying anyways. That's part of every MMO. SE wants the people to be i110 before 2.4. So What's the problem? The ones who cleared Coil are i110 already - No problem imo. I think the people who cry, are mostly to lazy to farm. But daily bills will be increased & the amount of seals you get from the elite marks.

[HeroSamson]

I actually don't take joystiq seriously never have never will.

[Lemuria]

I think the people who cry, are mostly to lazy to farm.

Only an idiot would assume this. The reality is that only a handful actually get any credit for these kills. Unless you're at the fight within 30 seconds, you're out. Good luck even trying to get a hit in. The mob, even with their supposedly 'boosted' HP, will die within moments of being spawned. Even if you happen to be in a team which finds the mob first, the individuals need to gather to fight it, since if you're not present when it dies you still don't get credit regardless of what your team did.

Good luck pulling that off when there are countless other teams all vying for the same mob.

[Shyluv]

I really don't see how it's ruining the rest of the content. My queue times haven't changed at all. Even the party finder is normal. At most, I've seen no more than 4 different hunt parties up simultaneously. With the rest being Levi EX, Moogle EX, SBCOB turns, AV or DD first room clears to level 50, Syrcus tower, and even still Garuda EX, Titan EX and Ifrit EX. Oh, and also treasure hunts.

Even if they hadn't added hunts, the only reason people would be doing Ramuh EX is for something new to do. You could still get the item to upgrade the accessory in Syrcus tower, still leaving Ramuh's items useless or a side grade.

[Krr]

For the dozenth time, the problem for me isn't that hunts are giving "handouts". It's that hunts have obsoleted other content to the point where even finding a group for it has become more cumbersome than it really should be. The only people doing Ramuh are folks who want clears and a vast minority after ponies and weapon skins; the only people doing listings for SCOB or T5 groups are rare progress statics who need gaps filled on an exceptionally bad attendance day. I'm pretty sure I've even seen my queue times for leveling roulettes go up the roof. And I'm lucky enough to be on a server that has that!

Hell, we're lucky that Syrcus Tower isn't a graveyard yet.

I don't care if you have i115 weapons coming out of your armpits. I just want to play parts of the damn game that aren't the mindless spreadsheet zerg train.

[Etupa]

Quite the same (really worst) has happened to PvP player's with level sync... Every body found it fair and awesome.

[BunnyChain]

Increase the rewards from daily bills. Alternatives are always good.

Limit kills to once per week. So more people could actually get something.

Make the marks more like treasure hunts. Having a set time window to spawn is pretty silly, whoever killed them last will be able to do it again more easily.

Put a weekly Allied Seal cap in place. Isn't this already planned?

Limit certain rewards and adjust prices. Some of those prices are indeed ridiculous.

All of these would improve the hunts.

[Shyluv]

Only an idiot would assume this. The reality is that only a handful actually get any credit for these kills. Unless you're at the fight within 30 seconds, you're out. Good luck even trying to get a hit in. The mob, even with their supposedly 'boosted' HP, will die within moments of being spawned. Even if you happen to be in a team which finds the mob first, the individuals need to gather to fight it, since if you're not present when it dies you still don't get credit regardless of what your team did.

Good luck pulling that off when there are countless other teams all vying for the same mob.

For that you either need to accept that you win some, you lose some. Or you need to join better, more organized groups. As a WHM it's incredibly easy to get full credit as long as at least half of your group is there. Do a SC medica 2, stone 2, then benediction whoever the target is targeting.