Variant & Criterion Dungeons

[Knot_D]

I just realized after I saw Sil'dihn Throne is tradable, that Criterion Dungeon is just Unreal but without weekly restriction

[Deveryn]

This is the kicker for me. The content I look forward to the most was told to Take 5 this expansion and this is what they made in it's stead. Rather disappointing by comparison and the bad rewards, 2 mounts I personally don't care for and an outfit that doesn't look good on me, aren't exactly stimulating for me. Hoping something improves for the future V&C Dungeons as the game now lacks larger scale content that I like outside of one weekly Alliance Raid run

We really didn't need another exploration zone. For starters, it would make Bojza irrelevant. A lot of us may be over and done with it, but plenty of people still go there. It still serves a purpose. This is something new and I believe they're still adding another before 7.0. We need some different types of content once in a while. Bozja was a nice improvement over Eureka, but even that still has room for improvement.

Larger scale content has too many issues that need to be addressed, including what happens as people start to trickle out. Chasing FATEs got to be a drag when people were able to melt the bosses. CEs were actually fun, but it didn't take too many people to mess things up on some fights. The elemental snake fight was one of the biggest shitshows with those donuts being moved around. Castrum and Dal (mostly castrum) also had a lot of people problems. I'm thrilled that we're not going through another exploration right away. They need to take the time to think of a better way to do exploration.

[Midareyukki]

We really didn't need another exploration zone. For starters, it would make Bojza irrelevant. A lot of us may be over and done with it, but plenty of people still go there. It still serves a purpose. This is something new and I believe they're still adding another before 7.0. We need some different types of content once in a while. Bozja was a nice improvement over Eureka, but even that still has room for improvement.

Larger scale content has too many issues that need to be addressed, including what happens as people start to trickle out. Chasing FATEs got to be a drag when people were able to melt the bosses. CEs were actually fun, but it didn't take too many people to mess things up on some fights. The elemental snake fight was one of the biggest shitshows with those donuts being moved around. Castrum and Dal (mostly castrum) also had a lot of people problems. I'm thrilled that we're not going through another exploration right away. They need to take the time to think of a better way to do exploration.

For me, the explorations suffer from the same reason Alliance Raids can feel like a coinflip. In some fights, and in the case of LotA some trash pulls, can go south because one group failed to do their job. I'm guessing JP has better coordination overall, and that's why it works? But with stuff like "B and C didn't get to the pad and got teleported to A", "C didn't chain on time so Cerberus is going ham", "Someone failed the pads at Thunder God" and "Someone aimed the Puppet's Bunker lasers at another team and they wiped", I wonder why they continuously make these sorts of content. Sure, a bit of elbow grease called "coordination" and setting up a standard when people run content is fine. But on Puppet's Bunker, at least, all it takes is one guy (three if you ignore the healers that can Rescue).

For the rest, especially the Elemental Snake, Belias or Red Chocobo, it's got more to do with how the fights are designed. Because not everyone can quickly know which way to go, and if it's too strict, it leads to easy wipes that snowball under duress.

[Winterfang]

Bozja was a nice improvement over Eureka, but even that still has room for improvement.

Oh I'm definitely not going to disagree with you there. I love content like this, but even the most recent Bozja content was riddled with issues, from internal decisions and external circumstances beyond their control.
On the rest of your post, that's fair enough. Trying really hard to remember if they mentioned why no large scale content for EW in a previous LL or Q&A, but if that is the circumstances with their stance on large scale content at the moment then I can't fault them for that.
I do worry whether this is just taking a break to learn from mistakes or they're not going to do them going forward anymore.

Now that being said, that still doesn't really change my stance that what did replace it with isn't good so far and the lackluster rewards are just a cherry on top of a spilled sundae so here's hoping it's improved for the next dungeon.

[Iscah]

"C didn't chain on time so Cerberus is going ham"

There is absolutely no reason why this needs to be Alliance C's job – all it takes is two individuals who know what to do. Always check if someone is doing the chains, and if nobody else has taken it yet, do it yourself.

[Midareyukki]

There is absolutely no reason why this needs to be Alliance C's job – all it takes is two individuals who know what to do. Always check if someone is doing the chains, and if nobody else has taken it yet, do it yourself.

Good point! I do know that, of course. I only mean C because that's what people usually say: Adds, Belly, Chains. But anyone of any team can do any of these.
The issue might even be because people are expecting people from Team C to do it when they could have just done it on their own. But the point remains: why have something like this where all it takes is one guy carry the tether and not use it, everyone wipes? Alternatively, I'll also point out that a common strategy is to wait to allow DPS to kill Cerberus without disruptions, but they can mistime it. Because at least there is an effort there xD

[Baxcel]

This is the kicker for me. The content I look forward to the most was told to Take 5 this expansion and this is what they made in it's stead. Rather disappointing by comparison and the bad rewards, 2 mounts I personally don't care for and an outfit that doesn't look good on me, aren't exactly stimulating for me. Hoping something improves for the future V&C Dungeons as the game now lacks larger scale content that I like outside of one weekly Alliance Raid run

Yep, major shame on SE.. not only can we not wear the hat, but the suit looks awful on Hrothgar

[DarkMasamune]

I just realized after I saw Sil'dihn Throne is tradable, that Criterion Dungeon is just Unreal but without weekly restriction

It is? Damn, I wouldn't have guessed. Everything is usually locked behind content lately (like the island). It's almost disappointing to be honest. At least it gives a reason to farm it, now people with tons of gils will just buy it from the marketboard.

[ForteNightshade]

Variant rewards tomestones. I received both Causality and Astronomy for the clear, and additional Astronomy for the first time bonus.

I find it difficult to believe that Criterion doesn't likewise reward at least the same amount if not more.

There's your gear rewards. It's not instant gratification but you will get something eventually. It remains to be seen if SE will upgrade the tomestones when the new one comes out in 6.4 but at the very least we should still be getting Causality at that point.

Criterion takes 20+ minutes for a full run of content at or above the current Savage tier while offering a paltry 30 Causality. Meanwhile, three hunts which die in all of five seconds a piece give the exact same amount: 30.

That's a pretty terrible "gear reward" relative to the time investment.

[Absimiliard]

There is absolutely no reason why this needs to be Alliance C's job – all it takes is two individuals who know what to do. Always check if someone is doing the chains, and if nobody else has taken it yet, do it yourself.

It's an EU thing, evidently. I'd never seen or heard of the practice until moving one of my alts to Louisoix. Suffice it to say I was a bit surprised by it. It just seems completely unnecessary.