Tomes vs random drops

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Someone said it eloquently earlier in the thread, that an RNG system is not necessarily bad, it's how the RNG system is implemented. I don't think that the FFXIV dev team has found an RNG system that works well, but there are systems in other games of the genre which do.

Personally, I haven't run Neverreap in 1.5 years, and I've done ARF 5 times ever. I don't do 50 roulette. So, I guess from a personal perspective, I don't think they are doing a great job of encouraging me to want to run those instance. The only things in this game that I currently feel encouraged to run are expert roulettes (up to this week, now I have all my scripture gear I need, so I won't be capping any more), and Savage raids.

I'd rather systems which don't encourage burn out. I think RNG with small and frequent rewards is the way to go. FFXIV seems to excel in low drop rate, high reward, weekly lock out type RNG. I think a system which does not have a lockout, drops frequently, but only has a chance at small upgrades is more enjoyable. That way, every time I log in, I can obtain an upgrade and feel that my time was justified - even if it's just for a small boost. Instead of gaining major upgrades every week (i.e. every week I seem to gain ~20 INT and a bunch of secondary stats), I could gain a minor upgrade every day (i.e. +2 INT per day).

You not doing Neverreap or ARF doesn't mean they aren't done. One of the most frequent complaints I here regarding WoW is how dead most content is outside the current expansion. What you're advocating would only transition that same issue to FFXIV. There would be no reason to queue for anything except whatever's current. All the old dungeons still get fairly good queues despite some being several years old. It's also a bit silly to complaint about burn out running the same two Expert dungeons when the most optimal means of capping is to do all your roulettes. Granted, I do agree the two dungeon format they've stuck with for Heavensward needs improvement. Just not at the expense of rendering all old content obsolete.

More enjoyable for you, perhaps. I don't fancy having no control over my upgrades nor do I find RNG in anyway rewarding. Why? Because I'm not progressing. I am simply crossing my fingers and hoping lady luck was kind this time. If I get it on the first few attempts, sure, it's exciting to some extent. On the other hand, if I had to run Xelphatol 10+ times. I'll just get utterly sick of it. In fact, I stopped queuing for Alexander Normal because of that very reason. I no longer need gear from it unless I level up other classes and don't just craft 250 gear. It's needlessly tedious to roll against people and hope this time, I'll get lucky. Now I would necessarily be opposed to smaller upgrades at a more frequent pace, but FFXIV is never going to do away with weekly caps due to farming.

I don't really think that would be a good system to implement. Only because there was already a very heated debate about speed-runs here not too long ago. Adding i260 loot will only increase the pressure to speed-run Expert roulette, and, while its a common practice, it's not something that everyone should be pressured into doing. I just see this as something to already fuel the current abuse towards those that don't want to do speed runs or do Big Daddy pulls in Gubal HM/Xelphatol.

This. Healers refusing to DPS wouldn't just get judgmental groans. They would be straight up kicked from the party. As would any tank who dared to pull less than the entire room. Queue times would also slow considerably since it'd be far more efficient running with friends you know will handle the dungeon fast.