Are you happy with the current raiding structure in this game?

[Edenholt]

I'm content. Just wish we had more raid material. Not the lolRaid CT and ST, I mean the real deal likie Coil.

[skaterger]

In general, yes. But they need more content. 8 bosses every year just does not cut it. Also make the fights less scripted so that all it takes to win is not just to memorize a pattern. I also would like to see larger raids (coil difficulty) in future, 16-24 man so that fcs and alliances can play together. If this is not possible due to manpower/finance issues, then I hope to see them tune the same encounter in coil for 24 players, something like 10/25 raiding in wotlk.

Other minor details:
1) Remove the barriers after every turn so that coil is 1 long continuous journey from one boss to another. This would greatly increase the immersion.
2) Sprinkle more lore throughout the raid (i.e. give it more backstory like Tam-Tara). At the moment it just feels like we get the whole chunk of the lore at the end of the raid.
3) Spread the loot out more evenly or reduce the size of the loot table so that it's harder for people to get screwed by rng.

[erish]

For me at least 8 man content feels like just some dungeon, i honestly feel like there is no point in going to do it. When the game launched i was under the assumption that large scale raids would be the main stay of this games raiding content. As it stands at the moment i dont see it changing to be that way just the same pattern of 3 dungeons and 1 primal every few months.

With regards to the lockouts that simply so people dont consume the content to quickly im sure people arent argueing about this, for me at least its common sence. I think that the developers expected more people to complete turn 5 with echo but mechanics of the fight and the unstable nature of duty finder and then ontop of this the rewards from hunts have meant that people simply dont feel the need to do the 8 man content. If that wasnt enough the new coil is gated behind having a turn 5 win which most players dont have. While i dont think simply removeing the t5 block would solve the problem it would go along way into getting people into the new coil if thats through party finder or fc groups.

If the raiding structure doesnt change ill probably move on, i got this game for the fact it was at least in my mind a final fantasy style game with large raiding system so far it has yet to deliver this for me.

[rwyan]

I don't consider myself a raider. Have yet to experience any of the coils. However, from a casual player's stand point, I appreciate the accessibility of the duty finder. It makes it easy to get dungeons run, especially for storyline purposes. This is a farcry from 1.0 where once you were behind, you could get really far behind due to having a hard time finding people to help me complete things for AF armor or Grand Company scenarios.

However, that accessibility has a negative edge. While players are typically friendly, there is a distinct different mentality amongst players than if you took the time to build your own party. Because players are randomly grouped, across a data center, there tends to be less compassion/loyalty extended to party members.

Now, what would get me excited about raiding in general are some dangerous open-world zones. Maybe keep boss fights themselves instanced... but large, dangerous areas that need the cooperation of a 4-man or 8-man teams would be great. Maybe some quests on the outskirts for the solo player or parties waiting to fill up? That would be awesome. Maybe even toss in some leve-quest style challenges so that groups are "directed" through the dungeon.

The next step would be a darkness falls style dungeon. An open world dungeon but with the added challenge of pvp. Maybe this could be the next step in Frontlines?

[Tadacho]

Why can't they just make it like daily roulette rewards, except weekly? That is, only your FIRST WIN OF THE WEEK grants you the bonus rewards (the loot). After that you are free to carry on playing but, for the rest of the week, you don't get that weekly first time reward (the loot). So you're only getting a chance at loot on your first clear, but you're allowed to continue to enter to help out your friends and linkshell and free company etc.

[ruskie]

Why can't they just make it like daily roulette rewards, except weekly? That is, only your FIRST WIN OF THE WEEK grants you the bonus rewards (the loot). After that you are free to carry on playing but, for the rest of the week, you don't get that weekly first time reward (the loot). So you're only getting a chance at loot on your first clear, but you're allowed to continue to enter to help out your friends and linkshell and free company etc.

Suggested something like this myself. First clear of the week gives you the loot. Everything after no.

[rwyan]

In regards to lockouts... I understand why they are used... but they're just awful in general. That and timers - nothing more immersion breaking than having an entire GUI menu devoted to all the timers and lockouts we're currently subjected to. I think in general, it would be better to wrap all content that needs a lockout behind a resource like our Levequest allowances or Anima from 1.0.

In 1.0, teleporting cost Anima which regenerated over time similarly to Levequest allowances. This still allowed players to mobilize quickly and there were features like one player being able to teleport an entire group on his Anima's dime. However, you still had to be conservative with your teleporting because it could run out quickly. Now that teleporting costs gil and it being fairly plentiful, there really is no incentive not to teleport.

Maybe, rather than using a "timer" to control progression, maybe tie everything into a resource like Anima. The first time you successfully engage some locked-out/timed content for the week, it's free. Any successive engagement of said content costs "Anima" or maybe even "Levequest" allowances or something. Anything that is subjected to a timer or a lockout could be tied back to this system.

Want to get an extra map allowance? Buy it with anima. Want reset your weekly elite? Buy it with anima. Want to run coil again with some friends? Buy it with anima.

The one thing that does bother me about the game, is that there is a variety of activities. However, almost everything is gated by timers/lockouts/etc... It would be nice to lift those so that I can put more time into things that I care about most.

Granted, it would be preferable if lockouts and timers weren't even necessary.

[Souljacker]

I don't think that anyone is suggesting that they make coil a free for all, but there's no reason to keep a lockout on it. Lockout the loot - not the instance. I don't understand this idea that players should only get to practice something once a week. Why do you feel this way? If someone wants to go a few more tries on a boss, what's the harm? They just get better at the game. So one or two hard core guilds will grind until everyone gets their one piece per week. So freaking what?

Also, yes people will be carried. THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT THAT ANYWAY!

Friends will carry their one buddy who has a terrible internet connection. My bf is such a person. His internet is a joke because he lives in the sticks and the ISP doesn't even think he deserves to have internet. That's not going to stop us from taking him through content, though, because he is our friend. I have my own opinions about individuals who buy runs but I've long felt that merc'ing is an SE issue that they need to address in the form of better design of encounters. The current structure of "just throw a bunch of ground poo at them until someone hits a lag spike and wipes the raid so it takes them longer to finish" is terrible design and entirely SE's fault. That enterprising players have built an entire business model on SE's lack of mmo experience (and while I loved XI, it did NOT prepare them for the modern expectations of raiding in an mmo) is no surprise. So I say, more power to them. I won't be throwing money at them, but they exist for a reason in this game and despite WoW's exponentially larger playerbase, I never saw the kind of mercing there that I see every single day here.

I would also support rwyan's suggestion of bringing Anima back and having a system like that or even what they used in Abyssea for some content. Then people can actually play the things that they want to regularly.

[Shneibel]

Method 1: Complete a turn in coil will 100% give green coil gear loot while the blue one will have like 1% drop chance (like back in 1.0 or maybe the % was lower) and remove the lock out. And after new coil come out the green item will be remove and the blue will be 100% drop rate

Method 2: the way it is now

With the 2 method I mention above, I would take the method 1, no lock out and just spam the run

[GalkaBikini]

If you're going to play MMOs, you're going to have to get used to lockouts. The average player probably won't comprehend it but it makes a lot of sense from a development standpoint. MMOs have had lockouts since MMOs began. It seems they've worked ever since, what's the problem now?