Is FF14's tome system and endgame horribly flawed?

[Seryl199]

I think tomestones were damaging to 3.0 in particular. They were copied over right from the 2.X era, both in theory and execution, and offered rewards far greater than anything but the highest content, but were only released after many players maxed their characters and geared them to i160-170, grinding the very same dungeons we'd grind for Eso's, with some going farther still to i180.

With Alex NM released alongside Eso's, but offering rewards lower than Esoterics, NM gear was only valuable to certain players, those that wanted to exceed i180 immediately, and those who wanted to gear alts. Players knew from past experience with tomestones that, eventually, they could get superior rewards from Esoterics, Esoterics would become easier to get, and, ultimately, that Esoterics will uncap in a few months.

It lent an eerie feeling of disposability to any content that doesn't offer Esoterics (all level 50 content), and it made the gear itself feel disposable, because the only thing between you and a higher ilevel is time, not skill. Once you've invested the time to gear up, a new color tomestone is released, and the treadmill begins again. The gear treadmill isn't evil, it's a great hook for subscribers. The tomestone treadmill, though, is a bit tired. Rowena must be swimming in the damn things by now.