Bozja feedback thread

[Phileas]

Im finding it super difficult to rank up when im under rank 8....

I am late to the bozjan party and i was in a capped instance where the lowest rank was 11...

How on earth can you gain mettle without the ability to solo skirmishes.

I gave up after my third fruitless try to rank up. This is very frustrating

[Reinha]

How on earth can you gain mettle without the ability to solo skirmishes.

Sometimes it's best to just afk and wait for Critical engagements. Especially when your party members are higher level and doing skirmishes in the last area, or when skirmishes die so fast that you are just running around the map and never reach any of them.

You will also gain mettle if a skirmish fails so you can kill a couple of easy rank I enemies in a monster-type skirmish when it's safe to do so.

Hang in there, it definitely gets easier after rank 8.

Edit. You can also buy some low level fragments from the MB if you haven't gotten many so far. They really help with survival and dps.

[Gemina]

Im finding it super difficult to rank up when im under rank 8....

I am late to the bozjan party and i was in a capped instance where the lowest rank was 11...

How on earth can you gain mettle without the ability to solo skirmishes.

I gave up after my third fruitless try to rank up. This is very frustrating

You are correct, it is pointless to try to get anything done in Bozja solo. Getting to rank 8 was difficult already on day 2, and since HW FATES have a 100% drop rate, not many players will remain in the lower section of Bozja to farm those particular memories if they are after the relic specifically. The first 10 ranks are also loaded with cutscenes, along with lower rank can prevent other members in your party from participating in CEs. In short, it sucks to get to rank 8, but once you do then the entire area opens up, and the only other thing you are excluded from at that point is Castrum at rank 10 with the exception of fragment appraisals that are locked behind the higher ranks.

Even after getting to rank 8 and 10, you have to contend with a increasingly larger gap to get promoted to the next rank, and the increased loss to mettle if you are KOd. There are particular encounters you might want to avoid if you are concerned with losing too much mettle as a result of being incapacitated multiple times throughout the instance.

In your position, what I would do is hangout at camp and wait for a CE to pop up, join it and announce your are looking for a party, or start inviting those who are (might be easier to just say you're looking tbh). If there are other people in the group around your rank, they will likely be thinking the same thing you are, and will want to remain with those players to help get things done. The higher ranks will just...leave. Especially if Castrum is about to pop, or a CE is up they can't join because of the lower level players in the group.

In any case if you find yourself with a group of players around your rank, try to stick it out with them. I am actually really surprised players aren't selling their help to get players up in rank. The lower portion of Bozja is actually a great place to farm clusters.

[KageTokage]

Castrum doesn't spawn once an instance is "dead" and no longer accepting new players, so if you know it's been a hour since the last castrum and/or no new players have joined for that long, it's time to pack up and find a new instance.

[Jirah]

Still started out but the landmass is pathetically bland and linear. I know its a warzone but this is FF14 wheres the flare?

[Rae88]

Still started out but the landmass is pathetically bland and linear. I know its a warzone but this is FF14 wheres the flare?

Hydatos is the same. I think the playerbase wasn't really happy with Pagos and Pyros and so Square Enix have gone for more flatness and linearity

[KageTokage]

I think letting everyone who qualifies requeue after the initially chosen player fails (For as long as time remains, at least) would be the best solution to the current issue.

One attempt on the fight per spawn really isn't reasonable with it generally taking over a hour for each to return afterward and unexperienced players often dying within the first few mechanics.

[Malakii]

I am so glad they hot fixed castrum but, did nothing to the duel. It wasn't like people were in shout saying trap ce don't enter castrum soon, but there is nothing we can do about the bullshit rng system that is associated with the duel or the oversight that players might complete them multiple times for rewards. Another sword of the south won the lotto and took another chance and failed. So not only did the deny another person the chance to obtain sword of the south or a new player to experience the fight, but they also didn't give the mettle buff. Part of me can't blame them. It's super fun content when you get in. I have always wanted some ultimate style solo content, just not behind some rng wall. The other part of me is why do you let us complete it more than once, it just inflates the lotto pool and more and more people are going to qualify. Like hotfix this. Make it so you can't compete more than once after you have defeated the duel. Then next time you do solo duels that are challenging put them in an instance or something, that we can actually experience and refight them without feeling like a dick because we want to do fun content, sitting on the sideline watching is cool for like the first 10, then it's brooding over the system and toxicity when people of different skill levels get selected after sitting in bodjza for a week hoping for one chance at a duel.

Also since I am on my rant, it always funny how like 2 people are the skirmish to spawn the CE then 40+ register for it. Like, give us priority for the duel granted we meet the regular qualification, if we helped spawn it. Get these players out of the base and help spawn them if they want to do them. Or coming out castrum after a 3 part chain to yank the spot enjoying the spoils of castrum and the duel back to back. The requirement to get selected for the duel vs the actual duel itself is night and day. The Chocobo fight is "the hardest one" and it's just getting easier for people to qualify for the duel. It needs a better qualifying system over all.

Finally, can we really not just let everyone who qualified fight the duel. Like the boss just say whos next and a new player gets to go. Have a waiting area or something where people can apply buffs and the fight starts when you get in, except for the first one keep it with the 2-minute cd so the player can buff or w/e. Like it's not going to extend these fight too long 50% are going to die in the first 30 seconds if not more. The others are going to progress or beat the duel. Then if you lock them out after they beat it once it will keep the flow going. I would much rather have to wait for another random CE and let everyone get a chance then to keep going with this current system. It doesn't even make sense, do you accept the duel, yes. Oh, you weren't chosen. Another player dies, oh well I guess we will let him escape cause he didn't choose to fight me.

[Chasingstars]

1. Castrum doesn't offer mettle, so your better off farming mettle outside the castrum unless you need it for the questline.
2. Castrum offers augmentations, but they are a low drop chance and are only for giving you haste (in bozja) and no other upgrade to your gear.
3. Castrum offers coins for gear and augments, but the small amount of coins you get are better off spent on getting regular gear pieces for each set (Aiming/Striking/Fending/etc) unless your really serious about saving the 500 or 900 needed for augments.
4. Castrum offers fragments, but most of the time for people new to it, you got unusuable items in your inventory until you raise your rank after the first go. And to raise your rank you need more mettle which means avoiding Castrum till your rank is higher.
5. Castrum offers fun fights, but if you don't know the mechanics and/or don't use an essence, your gonna be lying on the floor for a good portion of the fight. And each death costs you mettle.
6. Castrum offers 5 non-fragment non-coin rewards. Which are a minion, field notes, and 3 orchestrion rolls. But once you get those (or buy them) there is less incentive to keep doing the castrum.
7. The field notes especially, as that is akin to only 1 lockbox on subsequent times you get it which is half the reward for successfully completing a normal Critical Engagement but for more time instead. Which the 'Kill It with Fire', is one of the easiest CEs of Bozja has the potential to offer mettle, 2 lockboxes, and field notes which can be turned into a 3rd lock box for a fraction of the time.

So lets say you don't care about augments. What is the most promising reason to do Castrum after the minion, the regular bozja gear (from coins), the field notes, and the three orchestrion rolls? A title called Siege Liege. But that title comes after running it 50 times.

And to get to the point to do the Castrum requires sinking a fairly good chunk of time and effort into reaching rank 10 if you are starting fresh.

Maybe if the castrum offered mettle and lockboxes as a CE there would be more of an incentive to bother doing it. As Otherwise it seems like a bad time sink.

[ADVSS]

1. Castrum doesn't offer mettle, so your better off farming mettle outside the castrum unless you need it for the questline.
2. Castrum offers augmentations, but they are a low drop chance and are only for giving you haste (in bozja) and no other upgrade to your gear.
3. Castrum offers coins for gear and augments, but the small amount of coins you get are better off spent on getting regular gear pieces for each set (Aiming/Striking/Fending/etc) unless your really serious about saving the 500 or 900 needed for augments.
4. Castrum offers fragments, but most of the time for people new to it, you got unusuable items in your inventory until you raise your rank after the first go. And to raise your rank you need more mettle which means avoiding Castrum till your rank is higher.
5. Castrum offers fun fights, but if you don't know the mechanics and/or don't use an essence, your gonna be lying on the floor for a good portion of the fight. And each death costs you mettle.
6. Castrum offers 5 non-fragment non-coin rewards. Which are a minion, field notes, and 3 orchestrion rolls. But once you get those (or buy them) there is less incentive to keep doing the castrum.
7. The field notes especially, as that is akin to only 1 lockbox on subsequent times you get it which is half the reward for successfully completing a normal Critical Engagement but for more time instead. Which the 'Kill It with Fire', is one of the easiest CEs of Bozja has the potential to offer mettle, 2 lockboxes, and field notes which can be turned into a 3rd lock box for a fraction of the time.

So lets say you don't care about augments. What is the most promising reason to do Castrum after the minion, the regular bozja gear (from coins), the field notes, and the three orchestrion rolls? A title called Siege Liege. But that title comes after running it 50 times.

And to get to the point to do the Castrum requires sinking a fairly good chunk of time and effort into reaching rank 10 if you are starting fresh.

Maybe if the castrum offered mettle and lockboxes as a CE there would be more of an incentive to bother doing it. As Otherwise it seems like a bad time sink.

Best layman's answer on the entire issue at hand. I dont want to touch Castrum till 15, and even then theres a chance I could go into exp debt as people have coined it. Solo duels should just allow people to continue for the time limit, if nothing else. Sword of the Souths, shouldnt get priority rather be a last resort if too many noobs fail the instance within 30 seconds of it beginning. The fights may be scripted or difficuly, but hands on experience would change that altogether. Lets be honest about Castrum, its main rewards outside of story completion, is the initial gear itself. And upgrades if you're lucky. If you're rich you can just buy the upgrades. Sounds like castrum for the inital gear, and cluster farming until you're sicki is the proper way to do this content.