SE enough of the treadmill, please make the game more interesting!

[Ultimatecalibur]

Bring back unique stat choices, bring back relevant crafted gear that allows us to truly customize it with Materia and don't make it slightly better than the gear from the previous patch, bring back content like Skirmish, or something crafters / gatherers can get involved in like Hamlet, even chocobo caravans are MIA, just don't feed us the same thing every other patch and call it new.

Problem is many things people are asking for are general ideas and stuff, but do not get the implications and realities of those additions. Unique stats can cause balance problems, relevant customizable left-side* crafted gear risks making dungeon rewards non-relevant, Skirmish is just another type of dungeon/trail, 2.35 introduced the Ixali Beast Tribe Quests for Crafters and Gatherers, Chocobo Caravans are pretty much escort Fates, and both The Hunt and Frontlines were added in 2.3.

*Pentamelded i90 accessories are considered superior to tomestone/coil accessories by many hardcore players.

[Prototype909]

Problem is many things people are asking for are general ideas and stuff, but do not get the implications and realities of those additions. Unique stats can cause balance problems, relevant customizable left-side* crafted gear risks making dungeon rewards non-relevant, Skirmish is just another type of dungeon/trail, 2.35 introduced the Ixali Beast Tribe Quests for Crafters and Gatherers, Chocobo Caravans are pretty much escort Fates, and both The Hunt and Frontlines were added in 2.3.

*Pentamelded i09 accessories are considered superior to tomestone/coil accessories by many hardcore players.

Dungeon rewards are already non-relevant for everyone except those who have just recently started playing the game.

[Viridiana]

Problem is many things people are asking for are general ideas and stuff, but do not get the implications and realities of those additions. Unique stats can cause balance problems, relevant customizable left-side* crafted gear risks making dungeon rewards non-relevant, Skirmish is just another type of dungeon/trail, 2.35 introduced the Ixali Beast Tribe Quests for Crafters and Gatherers, Chocobo Caravans are pretty much escort Fates, and both The Hunt and Frontlines were added in 2.3.

A select few pieces of left side are already considered BiS by some, nevermind the right side stuff. And dungeon gear is already irrelevant. The highest thing dropped in a dungeon is i90 gear that's nearly a year and a half old at this point. Now, dungeons also give tomes, which lead to i120/130 gear, but that's not really dungeon gear. Then you have ST gear, which is at this point only really worth it for alts. Dungeon gear is only really relevant for, like, third or fourth classes. And they keep adding in new gear that's 40 ilvl below the current max, which may as well be irrelevant gear.

[Ryel]

Problem is many things people are asking for are general ideas and stuff, but do not get the implications and realities of those additions. Unique stats can cause balance problems, relevant customizable left-side* crafted gear risks making dungeon rewards non-relevant, Skirmish is just another type of dungeon/trail, 2.35 introduced the Ixali Beast Tribe Quests for Crafters and Gatherers, Chocobo Caravans are pretty much escort Fates, and both The Hunt and Frontlines were added in 2.3.

*Pentamelded i09 accessories are considered superior to tomestone/coil accessories by many hardcore players.

Dungeon gear is obsolete for most players the second it's released, due to often being 20-30 ilvls under current tomestone / ST gear, however they very well could keep it relevant by allowing it to be converted into Materia, i mean they could even take it a step further and make dungeon drops convert into unique Materia with stats that crafted gear doesn't convert into which would make it more desirable to collect.

This wouldn't screw over dungeons OR crafted gear and would allow for a better balance of both.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Snip

Snip

Snip

By dungeon gear I was referring to the fixed stat gear acquired from dungeons, raids, and purchased with currency such at Tomestones/Wolfmarks.

Consider the stats of a HQ pentamelded i110 crafted piece now compare it to the stats of the 3 other i110 pieces available for that slot. The HQ pentamelded crafted piece is obviously superior considering it has 2 capped Secondaries and a third at 2/3 cap. If i130 crafted gear had been introduced in 2.4 there would be very little mechanical reason to go after the Augmented Ironworks or Dreadwyrm gear.

[whoopeeragon]

Consider the stats of a HQ pentamelded i110 crafted piece now compare it to the stats of the 3 other i110 pieces available for that slot. The HQ pentamelded crafted piece is obviously superior considering it has 2 capped Secondaries and a third at 2/3 cap. If i130 crafted gear had been introduced in 2.4 there would be very little mechanical reason to go after the Augmented Ironworks or Dreadwyrm gear.

I always thought they could just implement crafted gear 10 ilvls lower than the max (i.e. a crafted set at ilvl 120 for 2.4) that only has the main stats and VIT (and acc for healers) on it with no secondary stats. Instead let the secondaries be melded on, kinda like how Novus works. That way, the Tomestone gear will still eclipse the crafted gear when it is made, but the crafted gear has the potential to rival ilvl130 gear depending on what materia is melded on given player opinion.

[Viridiana]

By dungeon gear I was referring to the fixed stat gear acquired from dungeons, raids, and purchased with currency such at Tomestones/Wolfmarks.

Consider the stats of a HQ pentamelded i110 crafted piece now compare it to the stats of the 3 other i110 pieces available for that slot. The HQ pentamelded crafted piece is obviously superior considering it has 2 capped Secondaries and a third at 2/3 cap. If i130 crafted gear had been introduced in 2.4 there would be very little mechanical reason to go after the Augmented Ironworks or Dreadwyrm gear.

The problem that this game has had for a long, long time is that Yoshi likes to introduce new level 50 gear drops that are weaker than what's already in the game, which leaves players who've been even remotely keeping up with no real reason to do the content that drops the new stuff. HQ crafted gear has always been something of a subversion with him, where melded gear is frequently more powerful than end-game dungeon/trial/raid gear for certain classes. The only reason you don't see more people using crafted gear at endgame is because it's expensive as all hell. Well, that, and it's a bit counter intuitive that it should be stronger.

[Ryel]

By dungeon gear I was referring to the fixed stat gear acquired from dungeons, raids, and purchased with currency such at Tomestones/Wolfmarks.

Consider the stats of a HQ pentamelded i110 crafted piece now compare it to the stats of the 3 other i110 pieces available for that slot. The HQ pentamelded crafted piece is obviously superior considering it has 2 capped Secondaries and a third at 2/3 cap. If i130 crafted gear had been introduced in 2.4 there would be very little mechanical reason to go after the Augmented Ironworks or Dreadwyrm gear.

And this is an issue in itself, It shouldn't be the case that the gear with the highest stats / ilvl in the game comes from quite literally ONE location each patch cycle. I have already said earlier in this thread that we need a variety of content to offer up that sort of gear, not just one type of content at a time, whether it be multiple types of raids or even a raid that works in tandem with crafting, a system like this one would work quite well.

This isn't a solution that needs to be one or the other, there are tons of ways to make various methods of high level gear acquisition desirable without sticking the best of the bunch in one raid for 6 months and calling it at that.

[Delily]

And this is an issue in itself, It shouldn't be the case that the gear with the highest stats / ilvl in the game comes from quite literally ONE location each patch cycle. I have already said earlier in this thread that we need a variety of content to offer up that sort of gear, not just one type of content at a time, whether it be multiple types of raids or even a raid that works in tandem with crafting, a system like this one would work quite well.

This isn't a solution that needs to be one or the other, there are tons of ways to make various methods of high level gear acquisition desirable without sticking the best of the bunch in one raid for 6 months and calling it at that.

First, I think several design decisions were made to get the game out the door as cheaply as possible. Implement simpler systems that are known to work, laying a stable foundation for adding complexity later on.

I tend to think using gear as an end is a crutch, so I love the idea of multiple sources of gear. Imagine a system where players can craft gear, farm it from dungeons, or gain it from treasure maps. I also love the idea of interesting customizations, like set bonuses, body armor providing primary stats and accessories providing secondary. It all sounds great!

Until you do it.

First, as has been mentioned, changing itemization is hard. +Crit and +Haste on rings is a good example. You someone have to normalize it so that a player with +10 Crit and a player with +10 haste can do roughly the same damage in a given period of time, the caveat being the +crit player does bigger hits, whereas the +haste player will do more hits. Why?

Because FFXIV is not a game, it's a graphical spreadsheet. The vast majority of players, from hardcore to casual, are achievers. There's a reason WoW got rid of the skill point system and simplified itemization. It's easier to balance, but the truth is the vast majority of players will simply wait until the numbers are run, the optimal setup is determined, and then just use that. WoW, being the 800 lb elephant, has a enchantments and gems, right? But look at J Random Warlock. He's probably destruction and gemmed/enchanted for haste. That's until he gets the gear for the haste breakpoint and then switches over to crit. It's not just the raiders, though, it's everyone. Spell crafting in DAoC was the ultimate form of "build your own gear" and yet, everyone just had the same setup. Even now, people are running a few templates.

Multiple sources of gear are great, but people are lazy and will just go for the easiest path to the highest ilvl. Why farm a random dungeon repeatedly if you can just buy the gear? Wasted content.

While FFXIV is probably the best story driven MMO currently, the focus is on achievers, because that's where you get the most subscriptions from.