Can we finally get real content / gameplay?

[ssunny2008]

I really like this game, it has a lot stuff in its world, great graphics and a good storyline. But gameplay and content - wise it´s getting worse and worse. It feels like the devs just want to give us fast content over quality ones.

The world

While the world in ARR is well thought and more filled with life, it´s going downhill with the expansions. We´ve 6 big terrains to explore, but there isn´t much to explore.
All we do is a questline and running from one wind-ether to another. Yes some maps still look beautiful, but that´s it. They´re pretty empty and loveless designed. We just move through them and might come back for tons of stupid FATE-grind or Hunts.

EDIT: Some kind of groupquests aren´t a thing too. Which is pretty sad since it´s a MMORPG.


Dungeons

The probably biggest thing i´m dissapointed about are dungeons. While even here the early ARR dungeons still has multiple pathes, some little ideas or secret rooms, all of them are "no efford - content".
You just pull your 2 packs of adds 2 times, then you beat a boss and repeat this 2 times. The only way to wipe is with a newcomer heal who don´t know what his buttons do.

Shadowbringers at this time put a nail on them for me once again. All the Loot has become totally worthless unless you want to farm that specific BIS gear for ultimates. But it´s no fun or challenging.
Bosses has become even more simplified and thanks to a bunch of reworks (especially tanks) you can run them down halfblind lefthanded.

Dungeons are a core-aspect of any MMORPG, but i can´t see any enjoyment here. The quality in their design doesn´t exist and some hardcore endgame dungeons to get our gear for the first raids aren´t a thing.

Other games do it a way better. There are some normal dungeons with better gear than your current level is. They´ve hardcore dungeons with pets or mounts for those who beat the challenge. Even random chests are still useful.
I do even know some where crafter jobs can open secret pathes or activate NPC´s who help you. Or you´ve a sidequests in the dungeon with a bonusboss in the end, maybe even different bosses per run, based on the players decisions.
Such stuff brings way more enjoyment than the named "pull as much adds as you can, beat the boss, repeat" - cycle.


Raids

Raids should be a challenge, but they´re no challenge anymore. It´s all about stack/spread mechanics or to avoid an aoe. CC and silence, which are sadly the last existend tools, have become super rare.

The only real challenge we´ve is, that ALL of the 8 players have to play mechanics clear or it´s a wipe. It isn´t a great design when 7 players always rely on that 8. player to move to a marker or something.
Yes we´re a group, but the game should challenge the players in a good way to find solutions or strategies against all the issues the current party has. But this is not really possible when the whole challenge is to remind where you´ve to move at mechanic X. As we all know it goes even so far, that Raidbots are well presented in FF14 especially in ultimate.

The game could need a better design here and more possibilities on all the classes. Give us something to do, bosses we can grow at. 2 or even more bosses at once, tanks / dps who need to kite and no instawipe because someone failed when the rest of the party is able to handle it with timed cooldowns or smart decisions.



FATES

They has become the hate of my life. They´ve never be fun and were never challenging.

Now we´re at the point, where fates represent like 50% of the content of the game.

EVENT? = Wow, let´s do one fate.
RELICS? = Here let´s do a like 100 fates.
SHADOWBRINGERS? = Here let´s do like 1000 fates.
BOZJA / EUREKA? = Do 10 000 fates and hope to be lucky?!

Yes, i got it. You devs want to bring life to old content. But next to a bunch of dungeons or alliance raids, you just spam fates in any serious questline. I don´t get how anyone out there can find some enjoyment in this braindead grind. Especially Relic weapons and events should be more like this.
I remember the summer event where you´d to climb up the tower. Yes, copy and paste from gold saucer in some way, but still more than a fate.


Events

As i´ve written above, Fates, Fates and more Fates. Even here other games do a better job with daily PvE / PvP Areas, instanced Raidbosses normal or savage and a bunch of Pets to drop, Housing stuff to farm, whatever.
FF14 has like 10 Events per year with a quests where you´ve to move from A to B or you just have to clear a dumb Fate. Then you get 1! thing for your efford. Might be easy loot, but it´s not enjoyable and yes i blame you devs for calling it an event.


Relic Weapons

Yes of course, they should be hard to earn. But what you´ve to do there is not hard content. It´s a fed timesink to grind old or new content. 30 times Delub? 34 alliance Raids? 100 Fates? In the end i can´t even feel the glory to get my weapons, i´m just glad that this kind of low budget content is finally over and i´ll never look back.

But sad to say, that they´re pretty much useless. They have their use when the current content is finally over and raids already become plagued with huge buffs for the last ppl out there. You can´t even make use on them in any further content because we just get new relic weapons. Wow....


Classes

Yes, even those are part of the content. We´ve a bunch of them, but they get dumb´d down in a lot of ways. Variation or customization in the subclasses are no thing. We lose more and more abilities / utilities until the last guy on earth is able to play them.
This is a serious issue when we talk about gameplay enjoyment and it´s obviously a major fact why we´re not getting serious dungeons and raids anymore. It wouldn´t be possible to play more than spread / stack every 30s with the lack of tools and possibilities we´ve on the classes.

Oh and don´t forget that class-quests got cutted with Shadowbringers and we all got that "too hard, press easy" button, if we fail. It´s not like a player should grow in games and not that the game should become easier if someone fails.




Yes, yes and yes... i´ve obviously become really dissappointed about the way the game goes. I can´t believe that , away from the graphics, story, housing, glam, gold saucer or the upcoming island, anyone can really enjoy the "fighting" - content we have. Even if someone is that big casual, i´m sure this guy wants to throw is PC / PS4 / PS5 out of the window when you´ve to repeat some content 100 times to finally get this relic weapon or mount or whatever.

And if we´ve a look at the expansions, it´s every time the same. 6 big maps, a handful of dungeons, 12 raidbosses, 2-3 wild tribes, eureka / eureka 2.0 ähhh bozja, old content grind in form of a relic quests.
All what change are the environment and story in some way. Nothing real new, nothing exciting... everything just becomes easier and classes getting cutted. It´s really a shame, this game could be so much more and even was more in the past.
Let´s be excited about Endwalker now. The end of AST and the next step of the healer dumb downs, combined with 6 new beautiful maps, 1 million fates, some roads with 3 bosses every couple of meters ähhh dungeons , eureka 3.0 grind now with new glam and estinien without his long haircut... oh and animal crossing for those who can´t buy a switch.

[DrWho2010]

sounds like someone needs a break from the game.

[ssunny2008]

sounds like someone needs a break from the game.

So obvious.... sorry that i expect more from SE than perma grind, copy & paste, trash dungeons and dumb downs with each new expansion. It has become a typical asia-grinder in a lot of ways already, but sadly the class gameplay isn´t that much enjoyable as it is in games like BDO or Tera and the loot is not a thing.

Pls don´t tell me that you´re overwhelmed by dungeons, fates or 5 minute events. I could atleast except it in raids with all those casuals out there.

[Illmaeran]

Pls don´t tell me that you´re overwhelmed by dungeons, fates or 5 minute events. I could atleast except it in raids with all those casuals out there.

Tbh, instead of claiming that i´m burnt or whatever, how about you guys? DO YOU ENJOY to repeat the same dungeons all over again? Or 1000h of Fategrind for 2 pets and 1 mount? 99 tokens or random drops in the same "no efford" EX primals?
From DrWho2010 i already know, that he just wants to finish dungeons in 1 minute or less. Of course it´s understandable since the content is a joke noone wants to repeat 100 times. Is this good content if ppl get this attitude? Just give me some answers, why all of this is so satisfying pls. I´m excited.

Given the join date of 2014, it looks like we've been playing for roughly the same amount of time. Here's a serious, non-trolling, question: Why haven't you realized this game is for "casuals"? This has never been a "srs bsns raiding" game like WoW and others before it. Yes, we've had raids, and in general I would say the ARR raids were more difficult for the time than the current non-Savage/Ultimate ones are for this time. I did a lot of raiding in Vanilla and TBC and when coming to XIV, I quickly realized that the instanced content was never going to be as challenging as WoW. To be frank, I appreciated that and it's what's kept me coming back over and over.

This is a game for casuals, is designed around casual play, and will always be that way. If the high-end content here isn't what you'd like, it would probably be best to play XIV casually and find your challenges in different content, such as Mythic+ or the equivalent in other titles.

You mention this is turning into an Asian Grinder. For one, it's certainly Asian, no denying that. Secondly, when have Final Fantasy games NOT been grindy? Seriously, in the single player games, in order to continue along the story, there are times when you have to grind to get levels and improve gear before being able to defeat the next "tier" of enemies or boss. Furthermore, FF games provide so much side content or things like Materia to be leveled up that it's clear players are meant to grind if they want to 100% complete everything.

Regarding FATES: They're the best way for SE to introduce individual content for things like seasonal events as well as provide something to do in the wild. Tying things like relic improvement to FATEs gives a player the ability to solo their upgrade in their own time at their own pace. On top of that, they're the best way to make sure the player is challenged by them since they require level synch. Clearing 60 FATES in 45 minutes at max level trivializes relic upgrades.

Relic weapons should never, ever, in no way shape or form, be exclusively tied to raids or high-end dungeons. I know many people who have valid reasons for not raiding or running EX/SVG/ULT content so regular dungeons and FATEs represent a fair amount of game play and means to do things like relic upgrades.

No, I don't enjoy running the same dungeons 100+ times, so I don't do it. I find other things that I enjoy doing and do them instead. If there's nothing I feel like doing at that time, I stop and do something in the real world.

It sounds like you're trying to "finish" the game. Completing all content and collecting everything in this game is the path to madness. You should realize that you'll get burnt out and frustrated with a game like this if you try to do everything. I get the impression this is exactly what's happened to you. Try taking a break until EW drops to clear your head and refresh your enjoyment of the game.

I'll say it again, it looks like you need to find a different game to meet your need for challenging content. This one isn't and will never be that.

[ssunny2008]

snip

1. Having a game that is more casualized or having a game which got dumb´d down from "casual friendly" to "your grandma should make an account" is something different.

2. We get every expansion the same things just with another visuals. Ok, if ppl enjoyed this or that thing, why not?! But on top, we get less and less overall content combined with class dumbdowns. SHB has brought us the worst state of dungeons, the worst state of classes (especially tanks) and endless fategrind.


3. I can´t take you serious when you claim stuff like "FATES are the best way...". Looks like you´ve never played a decent game. Fates are fine as optional occupation while waiting for dungeons, friends, whatever. Even those bossfates with special rewards are fine, it keeps the empty maps alive. BUT over 1000 fates with some vendors? 1000 fates for a relic weapon? How can you call it "the best way"?!?!?!?

And seasonal events.... do you even know what the name "event" means in games? If "event = fate" is a thing, why don´t we call it "seasonal fate" then? What´s the point to be like "Oh cool, an event comes to FF14!", when we´re getting spammed every 2 months with a so called "event", which is nothing but a fcking FATE?!
How can you even be serious about this? This has nothing to do with "individual content"... IT`S JUST LAZYNESS and you guys enjoy really enjoy it? That 1 fate to get some new glam? 3 minutes work for an "event"?

Have you ever heard of instanced content? It´s not hard to create such stuff like we have with our classquests or even instanced areas with different level syncs.

There are a lot of ways to sync newbies and oldies with different levels in any events. It´s not hard and pretty much every other game out there shows how real events can and will work. But having 1! yes 1! FATE or in case of the yokai 1000 FATES!, content we all have done 100 years ago for 100 000 times, then yes, it´s bullshit. It´s absolute bullshit and i really would like to know how much SE has paid you for the sentence "It´s the best way...."

4. Relic weapons are nothing but glam imo. What´s the point not to offer them a bit earlier, so players can actually make use of them in the raidtiers before they official ended? Nobody said something about "raid-exclusive" or something.

5. Sounds like you don´t even know what "typical asia grinder" means. Besides that, not any FF title has been about grinding unless you were just bad, didn´t understand the gameplay or you´d multiple times just bad luck. I actually remember seeing me scrolling a bit about FF7 after my first playtrough and ppl have been like "You need level X to beat Sephiroth / Jenova." Me: "Ok... i was like 15 level under it?!"
Yes sometimes you might even had bad luck like the moment in FF8 when you stacked Aura, but the endboss stole it away from Sqwall. But overall, you never needed to pointlessly grind. There was always enough new to explore and next to that, you had possibilities. Go into a fight, check out what´s going on, die, prepare for what you´ve seen, try again.

6. So you don´t enjoy running the same dungeons 100 times again, but FATES are the best way. Seriously?! Imagine the dungeons wouldn´t be a braindead wall to wall bang, you might enjoy them?!

7. What we´ve actually seen from Endwalker are more Class-dumbdowns behind some cool animations. And what we heard from Endwalker is stuff like "No more XP on adds...", what if you dc right in front of the endboss or midfight? What if premades kick you just for being trolls right before the endboss?! What if...?! Don´t know who has some brilliant idea´s like this.... and i´m pretty sure we´ll meet more of them with Endwalker.

8. Looks like you haven´t read the other nonsense claims about "burnouts". It´s like "Oh no... someone criticize my lovely game, jesus... you can´t be serious, go to a therapist!". Sounds legit hmmmm?!
Have you every considered stuff like "Oh that´s cool -> oh, 1st addon is ok -> hmmm, why do things change like this in the 2nd addon?! -> Ok, that´s enough... that´s definately the worst things that could happen to the game...".

And well, i´m not the only one who is clearly dissapointed about the way the game went especially with SHB. A bunch of ppl stopped playing or never touch Tanks / MNK / MCH, whoever again. Dozens of ppl give af about 80 / expert roulette since all SHB dungeons are the worst the game offers. I´ve even quitted the game by myself for a while, when i started to AFK, yes AFK tank the first SHB dungeon boss. Moving a stupid road from A to B to C, just to move AFK at the endboss and you´ve 3 minutes later still the boss at your ass. Tankchanges ftw!

9. The game is becoming worse and easier because all you filthy casuals out there are like "The game will never has it, all is fine, go look for something different...". I´m not talking about super duper ultra expert difficulty, i talk about NON - BRAINDEAD content and CLASS VARIATIONS. But no... you guys have no expectations and are fine with some glam / animations.

[Easayia]

you need a break I agree with him the dungeons are story and the story is casual content. savage and ultimates are the hard stuff. Do not bring up BDO and Tera those are called grind mobs over and over for gear so you can smash someone over the head with it in PVP. I dont consider BDO an MMO if anything its a single player game with no reason to group with anyone and you can occasionally be ganked. WOW best combat but the Game depth of a puddle.

[DrWho2010]

Newsflash, 95-99% of this game is for "casuals". only the top 5% do the "hard" stuff (i.e. savage/ultimates).

[ssunny2008]

Newsflash, 95-99% of this game is for "casuals". only the top 5% do the "hard" stuff (i.e. savage/ultimates).

Those 5% are a joke and has become the actual casual content. The 95% are a stupid grindfest, nothing else. And as we see in SHB, dungeons are loveless routes and the half expansion relies on fates.
I do play with a bunch of casuals and they´re tired of the permagrind or if a dungeon takes longer than 10mins in the daily-roulette too. They even dislike the way classes have been made easier.

Casual content IS NOT super braindead content. And imagine any casual can get better if the game would force more than two buttons aoe spam or 123 - repeat.
So pls Mr. Newsflash, if you haven´t anything constructive to say...

[Jirah]

Newsflash, 95-99% of this game is for "casuals". only the top 5% do the "hard" stuff (i.e. savage/ultimates).

Id say its less than that, casual asside its getting to the point where they can start getting children to play, this is not a excuse it still needs to be fun

[DBriggs304]

We don't need equations to play our classes. Their are plenty of other games that offer that type of gameplay.