Let's address the Elephant in the Diadem.

[Turntapeover]

I personally think Ishgard Restoraton was a genius idea and I would like to congratulate the team for coming up with this. Now that this is out of the way, let's get to the darker parts of it. This is gonna be a long post. Fair warning.

1- The leaderboard in gathering has become a sleep deprivation contest. Now while some people might argue that no one is forcing you to participate, I think its pretty alarming that some people openly, and proudly state that they are going to stay up for almost 48hrs to win a bunch of letters above their heads. I personally think this should (and was intended) to be about gathering skills and speed, and not about who can sustain lack of sleep the longest.

2- People are cheating. Yeah. They are. Through botting (which is provable) and account sharing (which is a lot harder to prove unless the person actually states it). But I invite you to read medical sleep studies and you cannot gain efficiency after 5 days of sleep deprivation. You should be hallucinating by then. Yet some people posted scores that suggest they've been going at it almost 24/7 and not only that but improved midway. This is a lie. While I cant be in this person's room, math and biology say its just not possible.

3- People follow suit. Not all people are cheaters though. But some of them do considers those cheaters as "heroes" or "legends", and are enticed to do the same with the wild dream of accessing the top 12. And I think this is where there is a big problem. To try to catch up with cheaters, some actually legit people are gonna sleep deprive themselves to spend the same amount of time gathering. I could go on the side effects of sleep deprivation but I will limit it to "weakened immune system" which is a pretty bad idea during a pandemic. Just saying.

Now. What to do? There's only 1 thing to do really. Limit the amount of time you can spend in the diadem during the leaderboard season and boost the points of items turn-ins. Not only doing this will prevent 1- Cheaters from account sharing as it will become irrelevant 2- Bots from running around the clock 3- Due to limits, prices of said item will go from memes to actually profitable. 4- It's actually gonna become a contest of skill and speed and not sleep deprivation which I think was the goal to begin with. I think 9hrs a day would be reasonable as i think 12hrs is already too much and 6 might actually cause too great of a rarity on the items for crafters. But they absolutely should limit the amount of lockouts you can spend in there for the seasonal event. .

I cant just let it slide and ignore it with the excuse "People can do what they want". Yes, they can, but a lot of them are doing it because of people who are actually cheating so they're decision is quite misguided. I think this content was a great idea, but some bad apples completely rotted the basket at this point and I think something should be done about it.

[Zolvolt]

I agree that if things are going to continue for ishguard restoration rankings then there has to be change. Gathering is a sleep-deprivation issue. While there is some debate over what cordials to use, whether to go one path or do both paths simultaneously and which timed nodes to go for, there is only one correct answer because its all math based. You're either making good decisions for your time spent or you're not. And as for Bots, they straight up deleted people botting from high rankings. Thanks Square ^^

I got saint the first season as BTN and then second season as MNR and I can assure you I am never going the gathering route again. Its simply too much and too unhealthy. I leave for work every day at 7:30 and come home at 5:00. If I had anything to do in my "free" time it was to be done on the +5 nodes. Making dinner? do a little on every +5 node. Keeping up with the top 12 is incredibly difficult for anyone who can not stay home from work and is even impossible in some cases (such as Sargatanas BTN)

I think some small changes could have big impact though. The instance timer for example discourages you from taking breaks because the longer you're in and instance & the faster you clear nodes, the more auger shots you get per instance. If you want the most points you need to stay in an instance until you can't afford any more time to do an additional +5 node. Lowering the instance timer to 120 minutes would be a good change. But lowering the speed at which aether auger accumulates and balancing it so that you don't lose shots by quitting an instance early would also be less punishing for players who leave a diadem instance early. (sorry I've only been in the instance 60 muinutes. I can't make dinner for 120 more!) Its not good.

I'm surprised that diadem lacks the use of many of the gatherer's special abilitys. We don't collectible anything. There are no uses for anything besides Bountiful Harvest/Yield II or King's Yield II / Blessed Harvest II. \\
Ageless Words and solid reason are useless. You can't use pick clean. The Giving Land/Mind of the Mountaineer is useless. Brunt Force/Deep Vigor is useless. Luck of the Pioneer/Mountaineer too. Diadem is an environment that focuses on a single thing that that breeds cause for depravity. Its a sleep deprivation contest.


On a minor note, heat waves was physically painful to look at sometimes. Most of the time actually, but especially after transitioning from one of the better weathers on the eyes. Levin especially. Please remove heat waves as a weather from any area that is not a desert ; ; And if the music could be better for an area intended for a long grind that would be spectacular.

[Payadopa]

Friend of mine (she's in the top three with one of the gatherers) actually said the very same thing. She's not sleeping and she'll 'be free' once the contest has concluded.

Kinda brings back memories of Absolute Virtue from XI and how that turned out.

[Zolvolt]

The first night it was over I went to bed at 8:30 and slept for 10 hours. I can only imagine what the people who pulled 15 hrs+ every day are feeling like.

[Seraphor]

I'm surprised that diadem lacks the use of many of the gatherer's special abilitys. We don't collectible anything. There are no uses for anything besides Bountiful Harvest/Yield II or King's Yield II / Blessed Harvest II. \\
Ageless Words and solid reason are useless. You can't use pick clean. The Giving Land/Mind of the Mountaineer is useless. Brunt Force/Deep Vigor is useless. Luck of the Pioneer/Mountaineer too. Diadem is an environment that focuses on a single thing that that breeds cause for depravity. Its a sleep deprivation contest.

Obvious health issues aside, this bothered me as well.
There's literally no reason to meld for Gathering, so you go full GP and Perception and just stick to the Perception route.

What I think they should have done is fix the gathering rate for the 2 star lvl 80 mats in the fifth slot, so that 100% gathering rate is only achievable with a full set of Aesthete that's fully melded for Gathering. Scaled so that someone with no Gathering melded in full Aesthete would be hitting ~80%.
This would provide some valid reason for choosing between Gathering, Perception, or both, and result in rarer Artisanal mats that actually make a profit on the MB, while warranting the use of at least your gathering rate boosting skills.

In addition, have HQ have an effect in some way, even if landing a 'HQ hit' on a gathering attempt does something like, increase the Auger gauge by twice as much.

[Shadygrove]

Stuff

With full iL490s I am melded to 2705 gathering, 2643 perception, 866 GPs. Add HQ peppered popotoes, Gathering +38 & +50 GPs and I am above the minimums for every gathering buff in the Diadem.

Stats for max node bonuses:
Gathering 2740, Perception 2642, GP 858.

Seeing as 858 GPs is trivial in iL490s one needn't meld to my specs as there is HQ mushroom saute for gathering +76 & perception +38.

[Liam_Harper]

You can actually meld the 490 to just about reach all 3 Diadem bonuses without any food at all. I'm at 2741 - 2642 - 858 without food.

[Espritduo]

You can actually meld the 490 to just about reach all 3 Diadem bonuses without any food at all. I'm at 2741 - 2642 - 858 without food.

It's actually possible to meld very precisely and hit all FOUR Diadem caps without food. You also want 2300 gathering on your fisher to hit the Double Hook yield+1 bonus for mantas/oscars. It took me a lot of futzing with my melds, but I managed to hit 2741 Gathering, 2645 Perception, 858 GP, and 2302 FSH Gathering without food or FC buffs. It's glorious:

https://ffxiv.ariyala.com/1DYJI

Fishing rod is just fully loaded with Gathering all the way down.

[Liam_Harper]

Ah nice meld set, mine's close but I went and forgot fishing even existed. Need to switch a Gathering or two from my MIN/BTN tools to my gear. Gives me something to do with the endless stream of Extract Materia.

[Vickii]

1- The leaderboard in gathering has become a sleep deprivation contest. Now while some people might argue that no one is forcing you to participate, I think its pretty alarming that some people openly, and proudly state that they are going to stay up for almost 48hrs to win a bunch of letters above their heads. I personally think this should (and was intended) to be about gathering skills and speed, and not about who can sustain lack of sleep the longest.

The problem is there’s no real such thing as gathering skills. If me and you read the same website, buy the gear they tell us and use the rotation they tell us we are essentially the same. And that’s the case for most all end game gatherers.

So then it becomes a choice - make it a sleep deprivation contest or make it a frustrating RNG contest.

I think this is the best of two evils but agree it’s not perfect. I just don’t really see any other way besides making it where I can beat you by doing exactly the same thing but getting luckier. At least you have control over the sleep deprivation.