Request : In Stormblood, allow us to gear without tomestones

[Reynhart]

Many threads have popped these last weeks where people complained about the boring aspect of tome farming. Personally, I'm one of those...

So, what if Stormblood could grant you gear throughout your full progression without ever needing tomestones ?

Nowadays, dungeon gear has pretty much no impact at all when it comes to accessing content. If you wanted to access Gordias in 3.0, you needed almost a full set of upgraded Law. In 3.1, Arboretum and Sirius dropped i185 gear, so this time, you wouldn't need tome gear to enter Void Ark.
3.2, i195 drops from dungeons, i200 requirement for Midas...and since VA does not drop accessories, you're back to a bit of tome gear again, and so on and so forth...

What could be interesting in Stormblood is to lessen the ilvl gap between tomes and dungeon gear to cater to two types of players at the same time. You don't mind doing the same roulette over and over for a 100% reward ? Tome gear is for you.

You like going into a specific instance to gain one particular piece of gear at random ? Dungeons are the way to go.

Everybody wins.
For the record, I'd split the drops between the two dungeons so that you'd have t do both if you want the full set whatever your job is.

What do you think ?

EDIT : Since some people seems to have trouble grasping exactly what tome gear I refer too, I'll clarify it here. The idea is that EX dungeons would drop gear the same ilvl as uncapped tome gear. i.e Neverreap/Fractal would have dropped i170, Antitower/City, i200, Xelphatol/Gubal, i230. The goal is not to easily gain more powerful items, but just having another way of unlocking normal raid (So, i170 for Gordias, 200 for Midas, etc...), without having to farm tomestones, which can be boring. And, of course, the tome system would remain, so that you're not forced to rely on RNG drop. I don't really know where to put odd-patches EX dungeons, though...

Second EDIT, since apparently, one is not enough :I don't ask for any nerf in the tome system. You would still be able to farm tomestones as you want, this would just be an alternate way of earning enough gear to meet the ilvl requirement of the corresponding normal raid.

[Zojha]

What do you think ?

If people want to subject themselves to RNG, their call! I like it the way it is and don't want things changing for me.

Basically.

I don't mind if there was a way to gear up entirely with dropped or crafted gear - I just don't want to have to rely on that. I like tokens! I like the knowledge that if I just do content X an Y amount of times, I'll get everything I want from it, guaranteed and no questions asked. That's what's important to me. I wouldn't mind having the EX Trial/Savage system for all content >.>

[Reynhart]

If people want to subject themselves to RNG, their call! I like it the way it is and don't want things changing for me.

Like I said, the two systems can exist at the same time. There's no reason for dungeons drops to be lower than uncapped tome gear.

[Ashelia_Ferron]

Won't happen. This would let people gear up too quickly and so for every patch cycle people would "take a break" a lot sooner. The tome grind and cap are there to artificially increase the amount of time players must play to get what they want, and unless they find another way to do this, it won't be removed

[Reynhart]

You already can. It's called raiding, and to an extent, crafting. I think you forgot about crafted gear in your OP, because even half a set of crafted gear would set you way above the requirement for midas.

No, I didn't forget about them. When 3.0 launched, you had no crafted gear that could grant access to Gordias. And since dungeon drops were i160, you couldn't even enter Gordias to raid. What should be is that dungeons gear grant access to normal raid, normal raid grant access to 24-man raid, savage raid and odd patch dungeons, odd patch dungeons drops gear to grant access to even patch dungeons, etc...If you want to avoid tomestones, it mean you only access 3-months old content. Besides, crafting gear can be really expensive, especially if you only want normal raiding, and doesn't change the fact that dungeons gear is basically useless.

Won't happen. This would let people gear up too quickly and so for every patch cycle people would "take a break" a lot sooner.

No, this wouldn't. You can already farm uncapped tomestones as fast as you want, and it grant any access you need apart from Savage. The only difference would be that dungeon faming is RNG based, while tome farming is time based.

Here's my thing. I like the tome system in general. It ensures that the player at least gets something out of doing content. One of the most frustrating things in a game is constantly throwing yourself into content, and coming out with no reward at all. On the other hand, if there isn't enough incentive to do the content in the first place, then you run the risk of it becoming dead content.

For me, I'd increase the tomes rewards on roulettes, and reduce them from dungeons themselves to compensate for better drops, to separate more the two ways of earning gear.

[worldofneil]

You can already farm uncapped tomestones as fast as you want, and it grant any access you need apart from Savage. The only difference would be that dungeon faming is RNG based, while tome farming is time based.

But then someone could still farm their gear from dungeons in the first week and be done with it. It also puts more pressures on other players to "catch up".

Also more complaints of "I have max gear give me something to do!" and those people unsubscribe until next patch. SE won't want that.

I like it is right now, we gear up continually over time. What's the rush?

[ADVSS]

No, I didn't forget about them. When 3.0 launched, you had no crafted gear that could grant access to Gordias. And since dungeon drops were i160, you couldn't even enter Gordias to raid. What should be is that dungeons gear grant access to normal raid, normal raid grant access to 24-man raid, savage raid and odd patch dungeons, odd patch dungeons drops gear to grant access to even patch dungeons, etc...If you want to avoid tomestones, it mean you only access 3-months old content.

.

So much this, had a friend restart a new chara and were having trouble getting him to even get close to current as all the gear to enter that stuff is locked behind hunts, and his ilevel i too low to start doing dungeons and hes new and basically cant afford crafting gear essentially, so like potd is about the only thing he can grind to get his ilevel up

[TarynH]

For me, I'd increase the tomes rewards on roulettes, and reduce them from dungeons themselves to compensate for better drops, to separate more the two ways of earning gear.

I wouldn't reduce them at all. If you truly wanted to give people more choice, then allow for one group to continue farming tomes if they want. Perhaps they'd rather bypass the gear from dungeons, and just collect tomes. Roulettes are only once a day. Players that like to grind for tomes outside of the roulette system, might find themselves frustrated by the reduction in reward for time spent.

Personally, the only reason I can halfway stomach the RNG of 24-man raids, is the fact that I'm also being rewarded with tomes, and upgrade tokens. Otherwise, I have to pray the piece I want drops, and that someone isn't needing the same piece. Or even worse, lotting it for seals, or to gear their retainer. Randomness and luck absolutely suck sometimes.

[RyuSaarva]

[QUOTE=Reynhart;3908418]No, I didn't forget about them. When 3.0 launched, you had no crafted gear that could grant access to Gordias.
the 180 crafted gear was on the same patch whnen they added savage, at least I think it was, and if you dont wanna do them yourself or buy them....well go to your tomestone grind that you like.

[FoxyAreku]

You already can. It's called raiding, and to an extent, crafting. I think you forgot about crafted gear in your OP, because even half a set of crafted gear would set you way above the requirement for midas.

Sure, you need tomestones to be best in slot, but only hardcore players will fault you for skipping it entirely.