Should Alexander hard drop highest item level gear?

[Esper]

I think OP might wanna go back and visit WoW and be reminded of the 40 ilvl differences between ALL 4 gear sets atm. While being reminded this isn't a game to separate our communities from each other, but rather embrace it. If we start getting this bad and make it so X group of players can't get Y group of players ilvl then we face a bigger problem down the road when X group is stuck at shit still by the end of expansion and Y has dwindled to a much smaller player base due to the rate of content, lack of players getting Into new content, statics falling apart, etc. Right now Everyone can get Similarly close to each other in gear level, this allows everyone to have a chance at the raid content. Now this also has the effect of putting our player base together, even if it's through duty finder. In the end you can argue their is no unique player content that no one else can get their hands on, but that is actually the point. It's a game for all not a small and dwindling % of players.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Why have "more stats" when instead better loot can have more effects on it?

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...230435/?page=1

[Laesha]

Absolutely disagree. The way it is now is excellent. Especially in this last patch cycle, i feel as though the devs did absolutely everything they reasonably could to incentivize players to explore FcoB.

As raiders we get plenty of extra/better rewards for raiding. Exclusivity to higher ilv just isn't one of them, and in my opinion it shouldn't be. Personally i think raiders who ignore the myriad of other rewards we get just for being raiders and QQ about wanting higher gear levels are ridiculous. We get the glamour. We get to experience the fights in their truest forms. We get the satisfaction of beating them! We get to learn and sharpen our skills with our friends/statics. We get the titles. For those who want, they get to afk in player hubs and lord their new gear over all the "casuals" (extremely distasteful in my opinion, but, w/e). We get all this, and in my opinion taking away what we have would lead to a lot more harms than losing any of these rewards. The short-sightedness just staggers me.

In my experience, locking those ilv's behind harder content will not give people more incentive to raid, it will push them away from raids. Higher ilv (for whatever it's worth) is a great way to boost player confidence and get them to attempt things they otherwise would not. Obviously skill and group cohesion are the biggest factors, but ilv is definitely more than a placebo. Allowing people to reach the top ilv over time also incentivizes more attempts after what could potentially be a string of tough losses. We need more players enjoying raid content, not less, and i suspect that ilv padding goes a long way toward that. This would also create a lot more work for statics looking for replacements/subs who dont' raid regularly (especially if Alexander HM has a lock similar to the weekly lock out on coil. We know NM will be like CT, but we still don't know how HM will be). Having an ilv 128 poe tank with only a casual interest in FCoB on standby for when 1 of our tanks couldn't make it was very very nice. We were able to teach him the fights, get our weekly clears, and enjoy it without having to worry about a arbitrary rift in ilv.

This would also be unfortunate for theorycrafters and itemization. The fewer gear options per level there are, the less gear optimization is possible. This isn't to say there wouldn't be competitive pieces, but an additional gulf in ilv would trivialize the competition all the more. Higher ilv raid gear would have to be optimized for things like accuracy so people aren't stuck with sub optimal vitality for HP checks (depending on how tightly the HP checks are tuned).

And the biggest one, for me anyway. I want people who don't care to play their jobs optimally (for whatever reason. their game) to overgear all other content by a nice, large margin. I want my dungeons to be that much faster/smoother (even if the difference is minimal). I want the dps in my 24 man raids to have enough gear without raiding that the good dps dont' have to break their wrists trying to make up for players who aren't interested in raiding to be stuck w/ ilv 20 levels lower. The player who want to get better, will get better. They'll find ways to improve themselves. They'll be curious. But you can't make someone care by imposing an arbitrary gear ceiling. Because of that fact, i'd much rather have top gear levels accessible to everyone to help make up for apathy/distractions/whathaveyou. Locking the highest ilv gear behind the hardest content would be bad for the masses, and create more stress in the community. And for what?

[Nominous]

Locking the highest ilv gear behind the hardest content would be bad for the masses, and create more stress in the community. And for what?

Again, to give greater satisfaction and motivation to clear the hardest content in the game. Let me try to frame this in a way that's easily understood.

There's all kinds of different players in the game. There's casual players, middle-tier players, and hardcore. There's RP players, people who only want to collect minions and mounts, and people who like to play only for story. Nobody can deny we have a robust, unique community with varying levels of skill, and differing interests. That is to say, we all know what content we're interested in, what motivates us, and what skill level we're comfortable with playing at. It's not bad at all, this exists in any large-scale community.

By this logic, and a pinch of yours, casual players (who don't care, or don't find motivation to have the best gear) don't need the best equipment offered in the game. However, they still have something to aspire towards if they choose to get interested. They have tome gear, and normal Alexander gear, as well as the 24-man set. They will have content that ranges from faceroll (Primal) to mildly thought provoking (Alexander), and even some content in-between (dungeons/24-man). Low to middle-range content is NOT, and will not be sparse in 3.0. They aren't going to be ignored, and if anything, the majority of content is catering to them in the first place. But the minority of the community shouldn't be ignored either. They deserve something to call their own, just as much as the other communities in the game.

[SDaemon]

snip

Players farming/downing FCoB already show off the fact that they have with their Dreadwyrm gear and weapons. That is what they call their own. If they want more prestige let them run Savage SCoB for their titles and greater epeen.

[Nominous]

Players farming/downing FCoB already show off the fact that they have with their Dreadwyrm gear and weapons. That is what they call their own. If they want more prestige let them run Savage SCoB for their titles and greater epeen.

I disagree with your sentiment that those things can be considered, "Their own" when I see a good portion of the community with said things. But I'll move on.

The idea I was trying to convey, was that there's quite enough content that caters to the general populous. It's available to everyone, gives rewards to everyone, and is completed by anyone with a moderate amount of free time. Again, everyone deserves content that is enjoyable to them, so there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But when you consider the fact that there are some people who are more skilled, and do want a greater challenge, they have every right to want greater incentive for performing on greater levels. And why withhold those 'Greater' rewards from them? Savage will be available to every player. Anyone who wants it can rise to the challenge, if they want it so bad.

This is honestly such basic video game design, I can't understand people being so upset with it. You want the best ending to a game? Sometimes you have to go through a ton of hoops to get there. You want the coolest costumes? You might have to fight a secret boss that requires a ton of work to unlock. You want the best skills, you might have to go through Sphere 211 to find the skill manuals. The same applies here. If you want the best gear in the game, you fight the most challenging content in the game.

A question to throw out: If you can faceroll everything in the gear from story mode and tomes outside of savage, and have no interest in doing savage, why do you need gear the same as savage if you can already face roll everything you are interested in anyways?

And this is what I've been saying the whole time. 100% agree with this statement. If you aren't interested in Savage, the normal mode's gear will be serviceable in every other area of the game.

[SDaemon]

snip

And yet the Dreadwyrm gear and weapons are exclusive to FCoB so it is their own. Seeing a good portion of the community with said things (Dreadwyrm gear) is so far from the truth its funny. What would you consider a good portion? When only a small fraction of the XIV community has touched FCoB.

[Ultimatecalibur]

By this logic, and a pinch of yours, casual players (who don't care, or don't find motivation to have the best gear) don't need the best equipment offered in the game. However, they still have something to aspire towards if they choose to get interested. They have tome gear, and normal Alexander gear, as well as the 24-man set. They will have content that ranges from faceroll (Primal) to mildly thought provoking (Alexander), and even some content in-between (dungeons/24-man). Low to middle-range content is NOT, and will not be sparse in 3.0. They aren't going to be ignored, and if anything, the majority of content is catering to them in the first place. But the minority of the community shouldn't be ignored either. They deserve something to call their own, just as much as the other communities in the game.

And they will likely get it in the form of whatever exclusive gear models, titles, minions and mounts Alexander HM gives them.

[Teuciont]

And they will likely get it in the form of whatever exclusive gear models, titles, minions and mounts Alexander HM gives them.

Alexander HM doesn't give exclusive gear models. They've explicitly stated this.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Alexander HM doesn't give exclusive gear models. They've explicitly stated this.

Nowhere I have seen any SE rep say this. In the worst case scenario, the Alexander HM gear will be dyeable versions of the NM gear which would still be an exclusive model gained by completing Alexander HM.