Former WoW player: Suggested changes to FFXIV Raiding end-game

[Shurrikhan]

I think more varied boss arenas would be the way to go currently as the boss fights are the focus.

That'd be a better expenditure of resource, imo, than "trash", but that's assuming the "trash" is as braindead as, well, trash.

For my part, I'd actually really like to see a more cohesive raid, as per the alliance ones, so long as the "trash" can be made interesting (and, ideally, CDs are all reset upon entering the boss arena proper). But yes, I'd take some variety in boss arenas over even good "trash" fights any day, despite loving ​the sense of exploration to a raid.

The part that doesn't quite sit right, in any either-or discussion of the two, though, is how much the two seem connected. True, we lost unique boss arenas (a la T1, T2, and especially the original T5) well before we lost trash, but it seems like there'd be some wasted opportunity or break in cohesion in introducing those boss arenas if not for some efforts meant to situate it prior, even, to the boss fight itself. Idk. It's just a nagging feeling.

1) Dungeon design has become more boring with each successive expansion. I am not talking about the aesthetic or music, which has improved tenfold. I am strictly talking about the design. Whereas in ARR we had unique dungeons like Haukke Manor and Qarn, with multiple side/secret paths and mobs that had to be interrupted or prioritized quickly (ie. bees), SB and ShB dungeons have become incredibly linear with wall-to-wall pulls to each boss. While I understand that over time people would speed run dungeons in the most efficient way, the current formulaic dungeon design leads to a stale experience.

I don't think it's the pathing that makes dungeons feel formulaic. If it even has a impact, it's probably notably less than well, almost everything else. While I'd enjoy a dungeon that actually takes advantage of its multiple paths -- such as by having a series of bosses available through multiple routes, each granting some bonus that carries over with designed intent into the fights after it, or even a dungeon in which we attack an Imperial base and it actually feels like an attack (franted, as a fresh PuG nightmare, I would not put that on a roulette) -- Haukke, like Matoya's Reliquery or w/e it's called, only feels worse to me for its backtracking.

2) Raid design too has simply turned into boss arenas, with no dungeon to actually explore. The boss encounters themselves are great, but I have not felt the same sense of wonder exploring a raid, as I did in Coils. It's sad that after 8 years playing this game, nothing has topped the experience of first venturing into Icecrown Citadel in WoW.

See above. I miss that exploration component, too, and the ocassional actually good trash fight, but I wouldn't sacrifice much for it.

3) 4-man dungeons and Savage raids need scaling difficulty. Savage is challenging, but since they are now designed to be cleared in initial crafting gear, they are completed rather quickly in a patch cycle, leaving very little to do for months on end. SE can take a page from Blizzard's book and introduce a scaling + system; ie. if you clear a dungeon/raid, you can then attempt a +1 version that scales enemy health/damage (eg. reverse echo), and then +2, and so on. Rewards for these challenges could include additional tomestones, titles, minions, and mounts.

Agreed. I'd love some replayability there, especially just to give some sort of content for those who like playing with friends but don't have enough simultaneous logged on to do 8-man content on the regular.

4) Gear stats are very boring. Besides glamour, there is no excitement to end-game gear when it's only a slight stat improvement, and every materia meld is prioritized for Crit. I would love for more interesting materia options (new competitive sub-stats or enchant procs), set bonuses, or even a trinket slot. I understand balance is an issue. But I also don't think that should excuse SE from not even attempting to make more interesting gear options. They definitely have the creativity in them, as Bozjan has shown. We lack that carrot on a stick to keep playing end-game.

Just keep it within reason, apart from balancing out the secondary stats we have now. FF7R, for instance, seemed to do a decent job with the amount of choices it brought. I certainly wouldn't want gearing to feel convoluted, though I suppose one could already make the case that the illusion of choice in our stats (worse, in some regards, than even in modern WoW), especially for how stale their effects are, is already pretty unintuitive.