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

[skaterger]

Back when I raided in WoW we sometimes pulled people that were in other guilds we knew that didn't get to raid that week or had an alt they wanted to run a raid with. You had the "core group" for a 25-man and several people who sometimes made raids and sometimes could not, so spots tended to open up on raid nights for new people. Since this was done in-guild we took the time to explain mechanics and so on.

This is slightly off-topic. From one raider in wotlk to another, I have always felt slightly befuddled when players talk about statics in this game. I don't know about you, but I never heard of the term "static" in Wow before coming to ff14. The way our guild used to roll is that we never had a fixed raiding time, but we would have an "unofficial" raiding time such that if we had enough players online for that night, we would just run with what we had. If there weren't enough, no biggie, we would just call it for the night.

And even though we needed 25 players to form a raid back then, we would rarely run into problems of not having enough people. People were motivated back then and would show up and we had to sit and rotate out a few people quite often. The only people that were guaranteed a spot were the class leaders. Here it's only 8 players to form a team and people seem to have so much trouble with it. Even the static I am in run into motivation problems, people often don't show up or show up late, They get frustrated after 2 or 3 wipes etc etc. Wiping was a given for 4-5 days a week if you were hoping to clear content like sunwell or heroic ICC. Raiding was certainly much more fun for me back then. I think it just boils down to the mentality and vibe the game gives off. I have discussed it at length with 3 friends who came over from wow with me and they also have no idea why it is so different in both games.

[Amberion]

I don't know about you, but I never heard of the term "static" in Wow before coming to ff14.

This is the first game I have played where end-game and statics goes hand in hand. Previous to this, statics where for missions and/or quests since the players needed to be on the same part.

[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?

[loreleidiangelo]

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?

Do others have a weekly lockout? Not a facetious question; I'm honestly curious.

After talking to some in my raid group, they'd rather gear drops not be guaranteed than to have the lockout that essentially limits them to doing the one thing they REALLY like to do (Coil) just one night per week. Do others feel this way, or are we just a bunch of masochists who don't mind face smashing against difficult content a lot?

[rwyan]

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?

This is very misguided. First, timers and lockouts have been a more recent development. Lockouts and timers have their purpose, but there should be no reason for content to be designed around them. Resorting to these should be a last resort. In EQ and older MMOs, I could raid and run content as much as I wanted, and believe it or not, while gear was a motivation to run these, the true fun was in the socialization and camaraderie.

The game already has limiting mechanics (Allowances) in place and why they don't use one single mechanic as opposed to all sorts of timers and lockouts is beyond me. While I appreciate Yoshida and co's devotion and passion to the game, it is becoming bloated with these mechanics. We don't need any more currencies. We don't need any more lockout/timer mechanics.

[ispano]

Do others have a weekly lockout? Not a facetious question; I'm honestly curious.

Yes, they do. A few do not, but they are less common.

This is very misguided. First, timers and lockouts have been a more recent development. Lockouts and timers have their purpose, but there should be no reason for content to be designed around them. Resorting to these should be a last resort. In EQ and older MMOs, I could raid and run content as much as I wanted, and believe it or not, while gear was a motivation to run these, the true fun was in the socialization and camaraderie.

The game already has limiting mechanics (Allowances) in place and why they don't use one single mechanic as opposed to all sorts of timers and lockouts is beyond me.

Define Recent. EQ had lockouts on some types of content as well. Not to mention, no lockouts cannot work the same way and causes other problems. Problems that people here would whine about just as much.

[Tiraelina]

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?

How many of those let and encourage you to have everything consolidated to 1 character? Barely a handful maybe? Ignoring it isn't going to make it go away as much as SE seems like they want it to. I don't know why anyone is overly concerned someone might be able to gear more than 1 or 2 jobs before the next tier/nerfs.

They also didn't have lockouts before. It was largely respawn timers and/or rare drops.