Thread: The Current Status of FFXIV Patch 3.1 and How to Address it Moving Forward

Originally Posted by Unaki

I'm not sure where people are getting that Relic is always meant to be BiS. Gear is outdated with every new patch, relic or not. Relics are also not meant to be BiS either, they're designed as an alternative to the top endgame equipment.

Because once upon a time, that's what Yoshi-P said - that relics would always ultimately be the best. The fact that they're now a side-grade and raid weapons are top-tier is actually a deviation from the original model.

Relics once meant that you were experienced in all pre-raid content, and then became a requirement for raid entry. Now, new players who started with Heavensward got to 60, finished the MSQ, and jumped straight into Alexander because raid content was no longer gated with this kind of skill check. I watched several of them, new to endgame group content like this, really struggle.

Relics used to be something to be proud of, and not just for the time invested. I'm truly sad to see it becoming something second rate.

Originally Posted by niwaar

But this is not the only problem with Alexander Savage. Part of the drive to continue to work towards clearing all of the three Coil raids was that we wanted to see the story. By removing that driving factor by delivering the entire story in Normal mode and that story turning out to be completely uninteresting, AS failed. It became a boring brick wall that a great number of players gave up on.

I haven't set foot in Savage and have no desire to because I've already finished the story (and a completely unengaging one, at that). However, our FC spent months and months bloodying our hands in Coil to see a story that you had to put in real work to experience. We discovered the secrets of what happened to Bahamut and Louisioux after the Calamity, and that's something not everyone got to do. It truly felt like an accomplishment.

Alexander suffered from a problem that everyone had figured out in a very short amount of time - Normal would be too easy, and Savage would be too hard.

Originally Posted by Azurr

It is also a matter of playerbase being lead to believe one thing and then the delivery falling so flat that even the strongest of supporters are left wondering what happened. False promises are worse than no promises at all, and are a reason why players get discouraged.

I shall list some examples:

What was advertised: New ranged class, machinist to add spice and variety to ranged support dps, presumably mobile and able to shoot on the run.
What we got: Homogenization of bard and machinist, and turning them both into turrets, killing mobility.

And this is why my husband has all but quit the game. He has been a bard main since 2.0 release. In 3.0, bard was completely reworked into something he no longer enjoys. He was hopeful that machinist would be a suitable replacement, until he realized it was basically the same class as the bard rework with a gun. For months he stuck it out, even tried other jobs, but just didn't enjoy them. He likes playing physical ranged DPS, the way bard used to be. He logged on tonight for about five minutes and logged out in disgust.

My husband and I aren't just people who are casually enjoying the MMO of the week. We're legacy players who have been here since 1.0 beta. We attended the fan festival in Las Vegas. We love FFXIV, it's the game that finally feels like home. But we're watching our FC suffer right now because nobody's enjoying the game. One of our officers said it best, that the rushed version of the game (2.0) felt like level-capped content was more well thought out and executed than in Heavensward. He expected with 3.0 he would get more, but felt like he actually got less. In a way, I agree. Only two expert dungeons to run instead of three, two classes that are reskinned versions of each other (one that got an undesirable rework and has spawned thousands of posts full of negative feedback that has barely been addressed), an unengaging endgame raid story that's easy to beat, the same old relic grind for a weapon that now feels like a pale afterthought. Heavensward promised to be amazing - the new areas are beautiful and the main scenario quests were breathtaking. But I think that's truly where the majority of the development of 3.0 was concentrated. I'm really concerned about the state of the game right now. It's suffering from some major issues, things that I'm not sure the dev team is willing to or can even fix.