It's that time again folks! (Tomestone thread)

[LaylaTsarra]

The number of tomestomes isn't the issue but more the fact that SE just continues to roll out the same content style patch after patch.

They are introducing 250 level craft able fully mendable gear from what I understand. How is that the same stuff? One doesn't have to do tomes if they don't want to. I know personally i have fully meldable 220 gear currently and didn't fully gear my roles in Lore, I used it more for alt roles than my main. Seems people what things to change and they have made changes, I just think people don't want to see it.

[Skivvy]

They are introducing 250 level craft able fully mendable gear from what I understand. How is that the same stuff? One doesn't have to do tomes if they don't want to. I know personally i have fully meldable 220 gear currently and didn't fully gear my roles in Lore, I used it more for alt roles than my main. Seems people what things to change and they have made changes, I just think people don't want to see it.

So our options are now: grind tomes (as usual), run raid (as usual), and buy gear. That isn't really worth getting that excited over..

[LaylaTsarra]

So our options are now: grind tomes (as usual), run raid (as usual), and buy gear. That isn't really worth getting that excited over..

And what exactly would you like? Another horizontal change the entire system solution? It's not going to happen. They are introducing new options to the gear scene and it's a good thing in my view. I was told although I haven't seen it in writing that the new tome gear will also be over mendable as well allowing for more customizable stats. If anyone can confirm this it would be appreciated.

[Synestra]

So our options are now: grind tomes (as usual), run raid (as usual), and buy gear.

Besides these 3 options i could only think 3 more and those are Dungeon/Diadem and Hunts but all those would be mostlikely huge grind due RNG compared to tome stuff so majority would popably skip these, unless SE plays "dirty" and sprinkles BiS pieces across all 6 options + upgrade items.

[Neophyte]

So our options are now: grind tomes (as usual), run raid (as usual), and buy gear. That isn't really worth getting that excited over..

In 2.x it was

Viable weapon: tomes, raid, relic, Shiva weapon (? Well, not in the last raid cycle at last)
Viable gear: tomes, raid, crafted
Complaints about gear: Almost nonexistent?!

Now it's:
Viable weapon: Primal, PotD, Tomes, Raid (hard), crafted, relic
Viable gear: Raid (normal), Diadem, Tomes, Raid (hard), crafted
Complaints about gear: A lot.

[Alberel]

In 2.x it was

Viable weapon: tomes, raid, relic, Shiva weapon (? Well, not in the last raid cycle at last)
Viable gear: tomes, raid, crafted
Complaints about gear: Almost nonexistent?!

Now it's:
Viable weapon: Primal, PotD, Tomes, Raid (hard), crafted, relic
Viable gear: Raid (normal), Diadem, Tomes, Raid (hard), crafted
Complaints about gear: A lot.

Primals dropped viable weapons back in the 2.X cycle too. The only new method by which to acquire gear added since 3.0 is the diadem, and it's arguably the most boring content in the game. People are complaining because they're tired of the cycle. Every patch we're just doing the same thing with a different set of textures and names. Other MMOs tend to introduce new things that shake up the routine a bit but we rarely see much like that here in FFXIV. That's why people are getting fed up.

The majority of the people that take no issue with the tomestone grind are the ones that haven't been here doing it since 2.0.

[HaelseMikiro]

The number of tomestomes isn't the issue but more the fact that SE just continues to roll out the same content style patch after patch.

They are introducing 250 level craft able fully mendable gear from what I understand. How is that the same stuff? One doesn't have to do tomes if they don't want to. I know personally i have fully meldable 220 gear currently and didn't fully gear my roles in Lore, I used it more for alt roles than my main. Seems people what things to change and they have made changes, I just think people don't want to see it.

It's the exact same thing they did with 3.2. We had i220 fully meldable crafted gear, and 220 Midan gear. Only new thing is crafted weapons this time around. And it'll be hit and miss if crafted or 250 Sophia weapons will be BiS for any given job until after 7 weeks of Alex NM when most people start getting Scripture Weapons (non-raiders + non-dps raiders).
If anything you could say we're getting a similar but worse deal this time around because crafted ilvls are expected to be 10 ilvls lower than Alex NM. This is probably solely to slow down raid progression, because with the tuned down difficulty this tier, Alex Savage would probably be even less a challenge with full raid teams in full 260 crafteds, completely negating the need to grind Alex NM.
Also if we get fully meldable raid/tome gear.....that again is the community getting a sort of 'shaft'. The added customization will help people who are pushing content that requires specific accuracy/speed values, but anyone not in that niche will actually be under a greater burden than previous tiers as the gear will be STRIPPED of secondary stats in order to balance the materia potential. Also add in losing all that materia when Scripture gear is upgraded, and people are now required to pentameld each piece of gear twice, or just settle for under optimized equipment.
I foresee much settling, and significantly less gearing of alt jobs between now and 4.0

[Sparktacus]

The majority of the people that take no issue with the tomestone grind are the ones that haven't been here doing it since 2.0.

I feel this statement is, for the most part, the most accurate. Doing the exact same thing 3 years on is monotonous no matter how people try to candy coat by saying its good because we get new gear/glamor. Its a means to an end and the means is just completely oversaturated at this point.

When 2.0 lauched the weekly cap was 300, but they changed it pretty shortly on to be 450. Then they added 4 new jobs and guess what! Didn't increase cap, strictly because it was the best gate the devs had to keep people playing. You could argue that those jobs share gear with other roles so it is not a huge impact, but it still is because the combination of which jobs a player chooses may not at all be jobs that overlap gear.

Bottom line is Yoshi knows it has gotten stale a bit which is why he said he is going to change the direction of things in 4.0. However, as he has already stated, he is keeping the raid design the same. He is proving more and more that he is out of touch as to the Western mmo endgame market, and therefore my optimism in the future design decisions is a bit dire at the moment.