When everything is out of date

[LongsunZhao]

Well if this is the case, It has an hardcore mode and a casual mode.

And I'm a casual gamer. I can't get the so called Hardcore Armor.

But I'm charged exactly the same as every single one of you, yet I'm not entitled to nothing because I'm a casual gamer. I play this game and I work as hard at is as anyone else. Why am I being peanalized for it?

[PROBOUND]

I play this game and I work as hard at is as anyone else. Why am I being peanalized for it?

Do you have all crafting classes at 60?
Do you have a Miner or BTN or Fisher at 60?
Do you own a set of HQ i150 Crafted Gear?
Do you own a set of HQ i150 Gathering Gear?
Did you invest millions of gil worth of materia to Pentamelded this gear to 2star requirements?
Do you cap Red Gathering Scrips every week with your BTN or Miner or FSH?
Have you been sacrificing these scrips every week at the expense of your gatherers gear progression to purchase crafing materials?
Have you been gathering favor matts at an avg of 3-5 hours per week since the launch of the patch?
Do you have a reliable 1star and 2star crafting rotation?
Do you have experience crafting 2star base materials?
Have you succesfully crafted any 2star item (NQ or HQ)?

If you answered NO to any of these questions then NO, you dont work as hard at is as anyone else because thats whats required of anyone thats even thinking of gearing their crafts with the advanced route.

You are not being penalized at all. You have a choice to pick either route depending on what suits you best. There are very minor differences stat wise between the 2 sets of gear (i170 vs. i180) however they both have COMPLETELY different time/gil investments. If you have Time/Gil and have answered Yes to all of the questions above, then whats stoping you from getting the gear that you want? The answer is nothing!

Sounds like your just upset that you cant have the Best gear because its too hard? You think your entitled to the Best gear cuz you pay the same amount of money per month as everyone else? Did i get that right?

[MN_14]

Well if this is the case, It has an hardcore mode and a casual mode.

And I'm a casual gamer. I can't get the so called Hardcore Armor.

But I'm charged exactly the same as every single one of you, yet I'm not entitled to nothing because I'm a casual gamer. I play this game and I work as hard at is as anyone else. Why am I being peanalized for it?

Like all MMOs, there's quite a bit of grind involved. I don't think anyone truly likes the grind, but you do have to put in the proper amount of effort if you want to progress. You can simply do just a small amount of the grind each day and progress over a longer term. For example, it took me around 3 months to get all of my DoH classes to 50 by casually submitting a combination of NQ and HQ leves.

As for the i170 DoH gear, that takes a lot of effort to get. Once you have all of your classes ready (months of work), it'll take around 1.5-2 hours of grinding just for a mainhand tool. If you don't have the time or are not willing to put in that kind of effort, the developers have included the i180 tools, which serve the same purpose but take longer to get. As of now, there are no 2* recipes for culinarian, so that i180 tool should be top of the line for a good while yet.

I pay the same monthly sub as everyone else, but my battle gear (crafted) isn't even good enough for me to enter Alex normal. It's something that I've accepted since I haven't put in the effort for proper battle gear progression, not the fault of the developers or anyone else.

[Sollux]

Well if this is the case, It has an hardcore mode and a casual mode.

And I'm a casual gamer. I can't get the so called Hardcore Armor.

But I'm charged exactly the same as every single one of you, yet I'm not entitled to nothing because I'm a casual gamer. I play this game and I work as hard at is as anyone else. Why am I being peanalized for it?

You aren't being penalized. There is absolutely nothing keeping you from "Hardcore Armor" other than the time YOU are willing to commit. The content is there, you just don't have the drive to do what needs to be done to reach it. Unlike Combat Endgame, Crafting Endgame can be reached entirely on your own, without the need for assistance from any other players. I have never, not ONCE, had an Endgame Raid weapon when it was still relevant to the content. This isn't because I didn't have the ability to, or the time to commit to it, or the resources to afford food and pots, but because I've never had the drive to find a static or put in the work necessary to keep that static together and consistent. I’m a Casual when it comes to Combat, and I have no problem waiting for new gear or Relic weapon before I seriously try Alexander Savage.

To put it bluntly, how badly do you want it? Regardless of whether it feels like a chore, or takes a while, or you don't have any Gatherers leveled, you HAVE the ability to craft any 2-Star item you want for a fraction of the market cost, even if you only farm the Favor mats. Yes, this requires leveling Gathering which I can understand if you abhor it (I know I do), but this leads to the second question:

Are you willing to put in the work it takes to Craft it? It feels like a massive undertaking, but a single 2-Star item can be completed surprisingly quickly. Assuming you can Gather both MIN and BTN Favor items, a 2-Star MH requires 4 2-Star mats, which need 40 BTN and 40 MIN Favor items total. Assuming an average of 4 items per Favor, you can gather all 80 Favor items in about 2 hours. In 2 hours you can cover 90% of the cost to Craft the MH, the second best upgrade possible for your Crafting class.

Why is waiting a bad thing? As PROBOUND stated there is already an alternative available in the i180 Red Scrip turn-in MH that can be obtained with very little effort and time (If we only consider the time spent capping Red Scrips). Believe me when I say if you want to Craft 1-Star food (Or even 2-Stars) having an i170 MH is FAR from necessary. If you absolutely must have the i170 MH then 3.1 is coming out with a away to obtain Red Scrip materials through Combat rather than Gathering.

Tl;dr, There’s nothing wrong with waiting for it to get easier. If you want the best of the best ASAP you're going to have to put in the work. If you don't want to, that means YOU are the primary reason you can't reach Endgame.