Raiding is becoming less and less optional

[Nestama]

Honestly, yeah. It's easier to say they're angry rather than try to figure out what they're really on about in their posts.

If difficulty was their main reason, then their argument is immediately dismantled (over many pages), but it isn't. Their reason seems to be because it's group content, which uh... what kind of game are we all paying to play again? Of course people are going to defend that because this is an MMO.

[Enla]

I see cabin fever has begun to set in for some people.

[Rymm]

If difficulty was their main reason, then their argument is immediately dismantled (over many pages), but it isn't. Their reason seems to be because it's group content, which uh... what kind of game are we all paying to play again? Of course people are going to defend that because this is an MMO.

From what I can tell based on how he keeps blindly presenting his personal opinions as unassailable facts, his position is even more simplistic than that. It seems to boil down to "I don't like it, so I shouldn't have to do it." To which all I can really say is, "Tough cookies." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Razard]

Snippety.

Easy there slick. If you project any harder you could hire yourself out to movie theatres. I often find that the ones who whine the most about other peoples performance are the ones who have the performance issues. Maybe instead of "paying attention to other peoples gameplay". You instead focus on yourself. Your attitude on these last couple of posts really tells me that, if you act this way in game, no wonder people respond to you the way you say they do.

And no, I don't get why doing three 15 min instances that came out about 6 years ago exactly once is such a herculean task. You don't start playing an online shooter and complain about constant death matches.

Oh by the by, if you want people to take you seriously. Try a coherent rant, rather than stream of consciousness tomfoolery you have going on here.

[JohnSpawnVFX]

Imagine "doing 1100 dungeons on this character alone" and not having a clue about how facerolling CT raids (or 24 man in general) are.

[Frizze]

Easy solution: So for the people having massive issues with this, i offer a solution. You have a legitimate gripe, and you dont want to run this content. Fine. Unlock the first raid. Get a group of friends together(you want a full group if you can help it, but 4 or more friends plus you is fine). Get them to run the content, while you actually afk. The raid will 23-man it with no issues. You just need to go back to the game every 5 or so minutes and hit a couple keys. No, not attacks or heals(we arent asking you to help or participate, just to be present). Just open and close a couple menus. When you do your 4th check in, the instance will be over. Now unlock the 2nd raid. Do this again. This time, the raid will be done when you do your 3rd check in. Final raid unlock, group up again. This last raid is easily the hardest of the three, and has a few actually interesting fights. Skip em, go afk. The raid should finish up between your 5th and 6th check in(its possible but rare for this one to go over 30 mins).

Alternatively, you could unsync the raids. The first one requires 12 people because of a mechanic that needs 4 standing on a platform for each group while the groups are in separated areas(in this case, you would take turns attacking - or if you had 5 per group youd just do it normally but with only one person going forward). The second could be done by 3 level 80s(actually 3 70s would be fine... im curious how many 60s itd take). Id probly want 6 people in a run of the third raid because of the atomos fight mechanics(if you go with 3 and all get knocked down at the same time without the jump pads being powered its a wipe because you cant hit the enemy), but 3 could do it with good coordination and DPS.

In the first case, you have completed this requirement without actually playing the content - good for you on gaming the system. In the second case, you technically played the content but in an even easier way then normal(and with less people, if the people are your issue). The third option is just do it like the rest of us did - not appealing, but totally doable. The fourth option, is that since this is becoming a story requirement then a story skip potion used after the change goes into affect would trigger these as completed(it sounds like the roadblock will be added pre-HW, so a HW skip should be enough - this is just an educated guess though, so purchase at your own risk). Option five then, is keep playing but stop advancing the story... kinda a sucky option. That leaves option six to quit - you do you. The final option(seven) of complain about it and hope they change the story thats already written and currently being coded and tested(along with voice acted in four+ languages) probly isnt a viable one. Choose what fits you best.

[Melichoir]

Thread's been pruned a bit. Oh well.

Snippity

At this point, itd just be faster to just bite your tongue and run the 24 man and get it done faster though. I mean this is still a non issue, the 24 man isnt that hard and gets blown out pretty quick. The irony is Ive gotten through CT faster than some dungeon runs Ive been in.

[Arngrim_Greyashe]

Man, I'm really tired of this mentality that some people have these days. You don't want to do it so you shouldn't have to? Okay, well that's tough stuff, bud. The raid is such a faceroll that it's laughable. Even bad players clear it with only one to two wipes per each raid. I just hop in discord with friends and we laugh our whole way through it. I get it, I get frustrated by bad players that think they don't need to improve. I'm not an amazing player by any means but I've done extremes and poked at savage here and there. But my point being (before I go off the rails any further) that you suck it up and deal with bad players. Complain in discord or voice chat to your friends. But bad players aren't a reason to not complete the Crystal Tower raid series. It's easy.

[FF16Necromancer]

I’ve never been a raider in any MMO I’ve played. That included this one. But Shadowbringers got me into it a bit because of Crystal Tower. This has prompted me to go back and do all of the old raids, and of course I did Eden and Copied Factory.

Then when the relic weapon was announced, it was revealed that you had to do the Ivalice raids in order to do the relic quests. And now it’s been revealed that starting in 5.3, CT will be required to advance in the MSQ. Or something like that.

This can only be seen as a pattern now. Raid content, which was always optional, is becoming more tied to the MSQ as characters and events that happened in the raids are having more and more impact on the main story. I feel like going forward, certain raids will be required to unlock other content as well. This is an interesting design choice on the part of the devs since FFXIV is not a raid-centric game. Or at least it wasn’t. The devs themselves stated that most people do not raid, yet now they appear to be pushing raids on people.

It’s also worth noting that raids aren’t really optional anyway if you’re really into the story, like I am. I realized this when I went back and did Bahamut, CT, Alexander and Ivalice. I skipped Void Ark but I’m doing Omega now. In each one of these raids, there are major characters and significant world building going on that really fill in the blanks of the overall history of the Source.

So, I’m wondering if this is going to be a thing now for the foreseeable future.

They're not that difficult so I don't see the big issue