FFXIV has an endgame problem and it needs to be changed

[SonKevin]

What would be helpful is if they added special effects to gear. You know, something that will make it more than just stats.

[Miitan]

There's nothing to even work towards in current endgame i.e. Alex Savage.

At least Coil also had an awesome story to go with the usual humdrum gear collection, Alex gives you the story on a silver platter in the form of Normal mode (although the Alex story reads like a bad fanfic) and there's no need to get the gear because it'll be outdated soon enough anyway.

At this point, it's quite clear that what is understood as "Endgame" content is not important to SE and they're much more interested in creating quirky content like Lords of Verminion that will be popular for a month or so before dying the same death that PVP did.

[Nalien]

before dying the same death that PVP did.

What death is that? I usually manage to get in within ten minutes, and based off attempting the Roulette with friends, there are usually at least two queues going at any given time... PvP is very much alive, when Wolves' Den finally gets proper rankings/a tournament I can see it being some of the more popular content in the game... At least in the sense that nobody in PvP seems to complain about repeating the same thing ad nauseum, like the PvE crowd does with Neverreap...

Perhaps the main reason I have high hopes for Diadem, and am partially already disappointed, is the RNG nature of it... I don't expect the content to be particularly challenging itself, but the good i210 drops are something you have to put effort in obtaining, they wont be handed to players like i200. That's something I've wanted in this game for a long time, just a shame the drops themselves are Aetherial gear... Running through Dynamis and finally getting your Duelist's Chapeau was great, Diadem seems to have a similar sort of feel to it, but rather than being rewarded with something iconic like the Chapeau, you're getting some random Aetherial gear... The event seems right, but the rewards seem to have missed the mark IMO.

It really all just comes back to gear... Gear in this game sucks, it's so boring... Visually it might have value, but the stats stopped having appeal for me a long time ago... I'll boost my item level to be better equipped for new content, but that's about it... I know i180 has me set for most of the existing content. I know when new content comes out i200 will be enough and Esoterics will have replaced Law... Unless raid gear looks good, I really don't care all that much, and even if I did it's not like it's particularly hard to obtain... Diadems Aetherial stuff might be, but it doesn't even have the benefit of being visually appealing, because it's Aetherial...

I think I'd actually quite like it if they reversed tomestones and Diadem... Have tomestones give you random Aetherial gear... Remove the caps completely, let people farm Esoterics constantly in the hope of getting some nice Aetherial gear from Rowena. Then slap something like AF2 in the Diadem for people to work towards...

[Iromi]

Yup, I agree OP. However these days we only seem to get community responses to fluff content, glamour and so forth.

They need to start by adding back the stats we had in 1.x, thought they were going to do that. :/

(sorry in advance for my bad english...)

many people gonna flame me ! But, if i recall properly in FF11 (oh no, not ff11 not again ...), there was the "dynamis", "sea", "sky" stuff,, that kinda forced people to play together in an organized way,
and when you got the chance to have something it was amazing !! (ex shadow ring http://ffxiclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Shadow_Ring )
but that stuff was HOLY GOD DAMN HARD to get !!
and when you had those you felt really proud !

in my opinion that is what is missing in FF14, "unique" item, with real instance (im sorry but you cant even compare a "dynamis" with our actual 24 raid stuff)

yea, in FFXI we never had this problem. I don't understand...they seem to happily take things from other games, WoW, GW2, Rift, etc but not from their own successful game? By no means should they take the bad stuff (And XI had its fair share of stuff for real) but XI had a lot of good stuff they should look at and consider using.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

I would actually do raids if the reward for doing them was cool. I also hate running raids for "Tokens", its pretty much a slap in the face.

[Reaperking386]

1. Alex gear from savage and normal are different. Alex armor is dye-able and comes with unique weapons and accessories that players from normal Alex cannot receive. You will know what a raider is compared to a casual player who does not raid just by looking at them.

2. The formula is the most profitable and favorable among developers and players. Take a game like World of Warcraft who have had the same formula for 7 years (BC - Present) who still have millions of subscribers. End game dungeons are another topic. They are not boring when you first go in them, they are frikin fun! They get boring because you did the same dungeons and raid bosses for 3 months straight without any rest or exploration of other content as you wait for the next patch. This the same with all games. They eventually get boring when it becomes a routine and that is why we get patches.

3. FF11...Sigh... is the most unbalanced game with the most ridiculous end game requirements that I have ever played. The Exp attributes were a terrible idea. They punished new players and casual players in end game content for lack of time invested in farming exp for the merits to be able to get into raids. They will always be picked over by a guy who has merits compared to someone who does not.

[Xatsh]

3. FF11...Sigh... is the most unbalanced game with the most ridiculous end game requirements that I have ever played. The Exp attributes were a terrible idea. They punished new players and casual players in end game content for lack of time invested in farming exp for the merits to be able to get into raids. They will always be picked over by a guy who has merits compared to someone who does not.

I ran the top endgame guild on a server for years in XI downing everything except AV pre-abysea.

I asked for people to have a few merit abilities/spells. As for the other 95% of merits I couldn't care less because it didn't matter. All content except 2 fights could be cleared in entree endgame level crafted gear.

The statement that people were picked over due to merits is complete BS. The game did not work like that at all. No one was left out in XI, the whole guild at once was included in almost all the content.

The main thing an endgame guild wanted in order of importance:

1) Playtime
2) Job diversity
3) Access to all content
4) Gear for the job. The higher level the guild the higher the requirement

People can hate all they want, but XI had one of the best designed endgames in the market even until this day.

BIS gear came from hnms, 6 man content, Quest, Dungeons, Instanced Boss fights, 3-4 man content, 24 man content, 64 man content, stuff that took 3hrs, stuff that took 15mins, Crafting, Main Story. And the content was relevant for 4+ yrs in most cases.

And not counting NM camping at all you had over 60 different endgame things you could do that Dropped relevant stuff to the progression of your character after a few expansions.

Were jobs unbalanced, yea. But people are not asking for jobs they want the content elements.

[Allegrian]

I think the main problem is having only 4 bosses. In WoW, at least until MoP, you had between 6 and 12 bosses per patch.

[Craiger]

The root of the problem is the development staff being too small...

Yoshi-P even said in the latest interview, that he would like to have 3 different difficulties on the raids, but they can't because of having too little staff... so now we're probably gonna go back to the old difficulty, and all hardcore raiders will be pissed and quit the game.

We shouldn't even have a Normal version of the raids though, it ruins things for the players that actually like raiding... Then have some other easier raid with different story for them. Or even better, have the same raid "area", but different bosses etc, so you get additional story from the Savage version. Then the other players will have to do the savage raids when they get easier if they must experience all story. It could parallel story lines every progression patch.


Whatever route they take with 3.2+, at least one demographic in the game will be pissed. Hardcore players might be the minority, but we need them to keep a healthy community.

[SchalaZeal]

it took many hours, and each time i did it with them, it was enjoyable !!!
i remember spending soooo nice time with my friend !!

Scheduling 6 hours straight on multiple evenings a week on hypothetical fights you might not even get to see (because someone else claims it) is not my idea of fun. If everyone can claim it (and not lock it out of the hands of others) like the exploratory, sure, but then not 6 hours straight, either. I'm the only person in the FC who even could be there 6 hours straight in any regularity (others might some days, not others, no scheduling).