Locking lvl 370 items behind savage content IS ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS.

[ObsidiaVol]

A couple things are important out of the gate when discussing this issue. The first of which is to question why you want 370 gear in the first place. Ultimately SE has decided 350 gear is the minimum Ilvl needed to reasonable complete 08s and this is achievable in 4 weeks of Sigma normal + mendacity. If you have no desire to attempt these fights or do not find them enjoyable, simply do not partake in them. The gear you have now is likely more than enough to challenge any other content.

If you want to focus on the progression, remember there is a lot of horizontal progression too. Crafting, gathering, glamour, various collections, and housing to name a few. Your character is not finished when you are done normal PvE content unless that is where you choose to let it sit. If none of these things interest you then imagine you clear God Kefka by the next raid tier. What is your goal then? Item level is nice but its a finite journey and the work you put it gets replaced often. If you take defeating content as the goal instead it'll make the gear grind a lot less painful.

Parsers certainly exist in the game but they are not the only way to tell if you are playing competently. If you kill the respective savage dummy in the allotted time you can feel confident that you can kill that boss if you can maintain up-time or follow mechanics. Of course DPS checks have to exist otherwise there would be no point but to take 6 tanks and two healers to trivialise incoming damage since you have infinite time. DPS checks usually aren't tough to beat. Play competently and don't die for 10 minutes. If 8 people in a party do that it results in a clear, even in savage. While that is a lot to ask of pugs, many people pug the first two savage bosses every day and some clear the third with a few even pugging God Kefka himself. Maybe you got unlucky with your groups but I know from experience savage bosses can be pugged. The content is designed to make the first two relatively easy while the third and fourth both take massive steps up.

You called yourself bad, I don't want to be insulting, but you should question whether or not you deserve to be geared just as well as people who put in the time to get good at the game. Savage content is reserved for people willing to challenge themselves a little. 370 and ultimate gear is the reward they get for putting in that time and testing their abilities. If there was no challenge to this final step then what would even be the point of gear? Why get so many stats when none of it matters? You cant completely blame pugs when many fights end up being pugged and there is always the option to look for a soft core static. If you can't call yourself good, why do you deserve to get anything anyone else has when they put in the effort?

You say you cant think of an MMO that's been this infuriating but look at WoW. WoW is often described as the game with the best raiding of any MMO despite what ever flaws we may say it has. It wins out by experience in this field in most cases. Due to the prevalence in parsers and UI add-ons, healing and DPS checks are way tighter than anything this game has offered so far. I hate to say this but if you encountered all of these issues with XIV, you may not be cut out for theme park styled MMOs.

A bit of advice on progression would be to work on a job until you feel like you are really doing well on it and then rethink this thread and the challenges you've faced. Im sure it'll make a difference on your outlook and do far more for your DPS then one or two 370 pieces.

[Vivi_Bushido]

I personally disagree. Locking 370 behind savage is perfectly reasonable. It's the hardest content in the game, and as such the rewards for completing it should be well worth it. If they gave you the best gear outside of the content, then there would be no incentive to complete it other than personal satisfaction.

On the bright side, they'll have a catch up patch in 4.3 that'll allow those who want to be max level without raiding to catch up. I don't think there is anything wrong with giving those that put in the time and effort some time to enjoy their gear before others can catch up. It's not like the gap is that large of a difference. If it was say, 40 item levels, then sure I might see an argument.

Secondly, @ OP. I don't know how much dps you do, but most statics don't worry to much about dps if you can do enough to kill the boss and not mess up mechanics. I think plenty of groups would rather a player that can survive and do poor dps, over a player that dies to every major mechanic to greed their numbers. Of course a player that can do great dps and survive would be a perfect world but you don't achieve that status until you get several upgrades later from farming after you clear. Numbers while important to almost everyone doesn't mean to much to players until after you have content on farm status. The clears come first, the padding comes later. If you can do the content without dying, you'll naturally do better dps over time. Low dps only stresses groups out if you're hitting enrage, but most groups can overcome enrage naturally if nobody on the team dies. Survivability and reliability over maximizing damage. In addition, don't feel discouraged because another player is doing more damage than you are because of gear, if anything, look at it like it's less competition for rolling on gear if something you desire drops. The better the gear your teammates are, the quicker things die, the more chances you have at rolling on gear you otherwise might have had competition for assuming they already have it.

[Soupa]

This thread is absolutely rediculous and OPs formatting makes my eyes bleed. Try harder on both content and formatting next time.

[KaldeaSahaline]

but i am still a player that cannot do the content that gates my character progression, i sit at ilvl 354 and i am like 30% weaker than the guys who have a good guild and do the savage content with help of a parser and the items they already got, thats really nice isnt.

I'm only 356 and just cleared God Kefka playing hyper-casually. I did all of my progression in pugs up until God Kefka where I grabbed a static (I'm a tank though so my ilvl is a little misleading).

If you put in the effort to be better, the gear will come. You're doing savage for all the wrong reasons.

I think plenty of groups would rather a player that can survive and do poor dps, over a player that dies to every major mechanic to greed their numbers.

This is actually a pretty common misconception that I'd like to clear up. No player does good DPS and dies to every major mechanic. It simply doesn't happen in WoW where a Bres is fast and doesn't handcuff you, and it SURE AS HECK doesn't happen in this game with spawning with no resources, a 10s animation, and a damage down debuff for a minute...

[TitaniaYaerem]

You don't have to do Savage, also if you aren't enjoying Savage content then maybe its not the content for you. Also a good handful of people cleared the whole Savage tier at or even below your gear level, ilvl isn't everything more than anything your skill is what's really going to make or break you.

[Aylis]

I'm a little confused about the part of "you have to complete this to further progression" most of my friends and I never stepped foot in any savage content and we progress our gear from patch to patch just fine. The highest level gear no matter the game will always be gated behind this kinda content at the start of it. It's what gets players to want to do it. It becomes more open to get yes once the content has run its lifespan. It goes without saying that by making the strongest gear in the patch open to get by any other means aside from savage means very few would even bother with it and opt for the easier paths instead.

[Vaer]

OP you must have only started playing recently since this has been a thing for about 4 1/2 years.

[NephthysVasudan]

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*Offers a box of tissues*

Oh..I'm sorry..was I supposed to take this seriously? Must be losing it...

[SenorPatty]

Did we not have this thread before?

[Tridus]

Did we not have this thread before?

Haven't we done pretty much every thread before? At least it's not another healer DPS thread.