Mount farming

[gorezilla1]

So, this has been on my mind for a bit, but it wasn't until I saw a struggle tweet that I felt need need to bring it up. I've been farming trial mounts religiously since ARR and so ShB is no different. It always sucks when you have to get 99 totems to buy a mount but it's still better than ARR when it took me over 200 clears for ramuh (I tracked it with my tank mount achievements).

That said: Why are we forced to wait 2 patches (an average of 6 extra months) to redeem our tokens? It's technically a rhetorical questions because I know the purpose is to keep the content alive. That said, have the people who cleared it 100 times not paid their dues? The tweet in question showed the people with over 600 tokens. That is over 300 clears. I only have 269 (spent 1 on the g-warrior card), but it's rather vexing. The funny thing is that I would probably still be doing it if I didn't find the prospect of losing the mount to a healer who lets a tank die which causes me to take a tank buster.

I'm probably in the minority but I personally enjoying fighting the trials even after I get my mount and I've continually done so (Except for RUBY: There was Memoria to do and LR fried my brain).

I'm legitimately asking: Would there be a significant downside to the devs simply letting us get our mounts asap? The people getting carried and that are lucky enough to win definitely do not return. Why hold the mount hostage from people who make the effort?

[Vidu]

I mean... you answered it yourself, both by making the correct assessment - "keeping the content alive" - and by providing an example that shows that their stratgy is clearly working: Instead of stopping after getting the needed tokens, people are willing to clear that content up to 500 more times to get their mount asap. So its very much working as intended: More bodies in the pool for the content - they have very little reason to change that.

Personally, I never understood this rush of "I need to get everything asap!!" - maybe I'm just a very patient person, but seeing how little benefit there is to having these mounts right away (bragging rights? Very poor bragging rights, though...) I have no issue to stop after 99 kills and wait it out. Seriouyl, the biggest issue seems to be that one inventory slot is blocked by these tokens...

[gorezilla1]

But I had an additional question at the end. And we all know that most people who reach 99 stop the moment they get there so it's not working as expected. The only reason people seem to be going so far right now is because it's the last mount and there isn't really any more hard care content to expect. So during the regular patch cycles, this would not even have that effect.

Also, I definitely can't explain to you if you don't get the desire to get everything asap. It's simply a fundamental difference (which isn't even a bad thing). And it technically 2 slots because we often have to wait 2 full patches. As someone with 9 retainers space is also precious.

[Caitsithhh]

I mean no, people who want it then farm well over 99 tokens...
It’s there to keep content alive as you said and a high-five to ppl with good rng.
Working as intended really.

[Caitsithhh]

More “ITS MY CONTENT AND I WANT IT NOW!!!” Just as toxic as anything else considered toxic on ffxiv’s guidelines because the more those ppl lose the mount the more jaded they become.

Just keep going and get it, no reason not to. I smears consider them personal goals and go for it til it’s done. We’re not owed anything. Tokens were a nice addition but they didn’t have to do that either.

Just consider these farming days much more nice compared to ARR

[Arkevorkhat]

More “ITS MY CONTENT AND I WANT IT NOW!!!” Just as toxic as anything else considered toxic on ffxiv’s guidelines because the more those ppl lose the mount the more jaded they become.

Just keep going and get it, no reason not to. I smears consider them personal goals and go for it til it’s done. We’re not owed anything. Tokens were a nice addition but they didn’t have to do that either.

Just consider these farming days much more nice compared to ARR

This is an attitude I keep seeing around here, and it just baffles me.

We pay SE a decent sum every month to play this game. It's not unreasonable to expect that our time isn't going to be wasted with dozens of hours of mindless drudgery.

I cleared Emerald EX 82 times in order to get my dragon, and I could have done so many other things with my sub time, but instead, I spent a solid... Well, let's do the math here:
It takes order of 10 minutes to clear EmEX, accounting for loading times and the gigantic phase transition.

That's 820 minutes actively in instance doing EmEX. 13 and two thirds hours.

Those numbers also don't account for the hours I spent in party finder waiting for parties to fill, nor the time that it took to actually learn the fight, nor the wasted runs from people dying to easily avoidable mechanics and wiping the party.


This kind of drop rate doesn't make people appreciate the content, and it barely even keeps it alive. All it does is make people loathe fights that could have been so great, but were absolutely beaten to death by a system that encourages people to do them repeatedly without breaks once they find a party that can actually clear the fight in a reasonable timeframe.

You're on Aether too, so you see the same PF that I do. If you take a look at it today, you'll notice that old fights only occasionally get a party, Titania EX, Ruby, Hades, even SoS doesn't get many parties anymore, and it's known as arguably the best EX trial in FF14's history.
There's a simple reason for that: it's impossible to make the drop rate for dragons low enough to actually prop up the content without making it seem like the devs don't want you getting the drop at all.
The thing that props up Current Tier EXs isn't the dragons, it's that they drop relevant weapons.
I would argue that a large proportion of the playerbase will be using a Diamond EX weapon on their main job going into Endwalker, and that's because most people don't want to do savage, and that's the only way to get either Augmented Cryptlurker, or Edenmorn, weapons.

[Stepjam]

It's a bit patronizing to assume that everyone getting their mounts are being carried to it. A lot of them are putting the patience and effort to get their mounts. Either do the same or accept you won't be getting them. The only EX combined mount I have is the ARR one. I've got a few birds, dogs, and gwibers, but I don't have all of them even though I have done some grinding for each tier. But I'm not begrudging others their mounts that they worked for.

Beyond that, getting "carried" only goes so far. They still have to have the patience to do the fight up to 99 times to get their mounts, so even that is a level of dedication even if their mechanical skills suck.

[Arkevorkhat]

It's a bit patronizing to assume that everyone getting their mounts are being carried to it. A lot of them are putting the patience and effort to get their mounts. Either do the same or accept you won't be getting them. The only EX combined mount I have is the ARR one. I've got a few birds, dogs, and gwibers, but I don't have all of them even though I have done some grinding for each tier. But I'm not begrudging others their mounts that they worked for.

Beyond that, getting "carried" only goes so far. They still have to have the patience to do the fight up to 99 times to get their mounts, so even that is a level of dedication even if their mechanical skills suck.

Also this.

I can do EmEX's mechanics perfectly, no avoidable damage taken, no deaths, and no vulnerability up stacks obtained.
I got my mount, and I was not carried in the slightest.

[TheMightyMollusk]

If it takes a while to drop, people complain that their time is being wasted by having to do the fight repeatedly.

If it drops immediately, people complain they have nothing to do.

There's no winning, really.

[MrPresident]

For reasons you already stated, to keep good players doing it. The talent pool available in farm parties is already dropping with lots of people either getting their mount or taking their 100 tokens and bouncing.