Why FFXIV endgame is flawed and how it could be great, one players opinion

[MicahZerrshia]

In my opinion there is no depth or creativity to endgame in ffxiv.

At its core it's learn mechanics, fight the same boss 200 times, cross your fingers when you pop the chest, fight the same boss 200 more times, cross fingers, repeat. Bosses just change every 3 month patch.

It was great that they added a token system to Alex since farming coil was a pain. But they are sticking with a single boss/objective endgame cycle that makes the bosses of coil and alex nothing more than glorified primals with maybe a trash mob thrown in here or there before you get to the boss that really doesn't hinder the raid in anything but time and adds nothing to the enjoyment of the player.

What I would love to see in ffxiv is an actual raid, not just boss after boss after boss... after... boss... after... boss. It would be great if they could include a story as great as coils was (alex's story...meh) with more engaging and less linear content.

Think of how awesome coil would have been, or Alex and regular dungeons could be, if you entered and had various tasks that you could complete but didn't necessarily have to depending on your objective. There could be a boss and a plethora of mini bosses in a zone, which could be a static maze, a maze that you could alter by completing objectives or an open field like Diadem. Trash mobs who are more than a way to lazily impede the speed of your progress, dropping minor tokens that could be used to purchase items to buy relic or crafting materials with. Minor bosses could give broken armor that could be used to make gear slightly lesser than big boss gear, glamour pieces, mounts, furnishings, the list could go on.

You could go in and get the win to open other zones or that big loot or you could go in and farm trash mob tokens and mini bosses. It would open a whole new world of content and stay relevant next month when the ilvl went up thanks to the abundance of other items that would still be in demand.

They could add challenges that didn't require 8 people of maximum ilvl at the peak of their skills and some that did. Sure it would still be grindy but show me an mmo that doesn't have grind to it in one way or another. Grind is a fundamental staple or mmo's that will likely never disappear.

It would be a true raid and really fun. Not to mention remove the need of normal and extreme modes.

But as it stands right now, every 3 months we have a couple more bosses to kill and more tomes to grind and it has been that way since arr launched.

I just wish the devs would get more creative and get out of that loop they are in.

What are your thoughts and ideas?

[FoxyAreku]

I'm just gonna say right now that I don't raid in MMOs to do some broad open-ended dungeon. I raid to down bosses with friends. Your idea is...interesting, but it lacks any real substance, if they went with it I'd probably quit my raid group and go to crafting 100%.

[Elky]

Raiding and dungeons are extremely linear. Its nothing more than "Go on this set path, kill trash, kill boss x3. Raids are Go to room, do mechanics through memorization. Repeat multiple times until RNG grants you a drop. Diadem was their chance to break the mold, but it failed. I am enjoying my time in the game again though so thats nice. I'm just worried it won't last long. I would love extreme dungeons instead of Expert. The word "Expert" is overglorified in this game. Its still easy. I think a 4-8 man extreme dungeon with different mechanics throughout it would be very interesting. Granting one drop after each boss, instead of 4 after you kill one boss. Like Alexander does.

[MicahZerrshia]

I'm just gonna say right now that I don't raid in MMOs to do some broad open-ended dungeon. I raid to down bosses with friends. Your idea is...interesting, but it lacks any real substance, if they went with it I'd probably quit my raid group and go to crafting 100%.

But that's the thing, there still would be bosses to grind on, but multiple other things to do as well. It's all in what you choose to do.

If single bosses are for you, great go get em, but there would be other things to do too if you got bored with that one boss.

[FoxyAreku]

But that's the thing, there still would be bosses to grind on, but multiple other things to do as well. It's all in what you choose to do.

If single bosses are for you, great go get em, but there would be other things to do too if you got bored with that one boss.

Yeah but that's completely unnecessary.

This is a theme park mmo to begin with, you can already go do something else if you don't want to raid. Having it all in one place would just be weird.

[MicahZerrshia]

Yeah but that's completely unnecessary.

This is a theme park mmo to begin with, you can already go do something else if you don't want to raid. Having it all in one place would just be weird.

Maybe, but weird or different isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Not to mention it would add more depth to endgame than a single boss with static mechanics. It would open endgame to more players while keeping truly hardcore endgame intact and they could add to the lore by adding small tidbits here and there.

Plus you still get what you want and other players do as well, no one else would be in the dungeon with you so who cares what people do in their own instance.

[FoxyAreku]

Maybe, but weird or different isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Not to mention it would add more depth to endgame than a single boss with static mechanics. It would open endgame to more players while keeping truly hardcore endgame intact and they could add to the lore by adding small tidbits here and there.

Plus you still get what you want and other players do as well, no one else would be in the dungeon with you so who cares what people do in their own instance.

Another thing I don't play MMOs for is single player experiences, that's just a waste of resources.

I'm all for these things you want being in the game (most of this stuff already is, honestly), it just wouldn't make sense from a lore or development standpoint for all of it to be within alexander or whatever the next raid will be.

[MicahZerrshia]

But SE write's the lore, so that could easily be done not to mention be new, shiney and they could get really creative with it from patch to patch. Creating new themes and new forms to the content.

And really if you MUST have single boss fights with absolutely nothing else for the sake of having exclusive content, we already have the primals for that. There is no difference between primals and Alex bosses or coil bosses and that is what I am talking about. They could expand endgame, the zones and the options for what you want to do and what you can do all in a neat package. It would be inclusive to more players and have some really fun tactics. They could be more creative than just throwing bosses in our faces.

And this endgame would still be for a group, its not a one person run thing. It would just give more options in a dungeon then enter here, go here and fight, then fight here, here and here, pop chest and leave.

[mirta000]

I do agree with Foxy.
The reason why I prefer FFXIV end game scene to other MMOs, is BECAUSE the boss in a box design. If I had 6h a raid day, I could be doing Wildstar instead, where cleaning the raid WOULD feasibly take 6h a raid-day, because their raids are "proper" old school raids - with lotsa trash, bosses and corridors with multiple teleporters. Boss in a box design is far more user friendly. You go in, you try, you go out.

[Grux]

I do agree with OP, in the sense that the direction is a little too linear.

It would be great if we have something similar to some great raids in WoW - Karazhan and Ulduar.

Also, what they can do is to make improve the achievement system like in WoW. This would make you tackle challenges in any way other than the linear tank, spank, dodge concept.