Endgame gearing in FFXIV

[Xukuthd]

I don't understand why people complain about getting gear too fast will make people quit. I feel the opposite, and am experiencing it right now. I have not been able to win a single thing from p8s in PF since I cleared it in week 4. I don't even want to login and even try to get the loot anymore, I just feel completely burned by this game. Rolling for loot in other MMOs is hell, and it's especially so in this where there are absolutely no restrictions on end boss loot. Even if a person already has chest, they can still roll and, going off of experience, still win over another player without that item. Even though I need it, and they are simply there to greed(but can still roll need??????????). I feel the same sort of burnout that I'd feel in those MMOs in this one currently, and no doing something else doesn't fix this. It is quite honestly soul crushing to know I have to do this fight for another 9 weeks to get the second item this boss drops because this game will not allow me to roll over 70.

[LysDusoir]

Yep, I'm also completely burnt out by the gearing system; I've unfortunately been unlucky since week 1 and have yet to get a single twine drop. I had to purchase the augmented weapon upgrade with books since that has never dropped for me either, and even now that I finally found a static.. I still have yet to get a single twine, even after progressively pleading(pathetic) for three weeks for one so that I can catch up; and so, I'm quitting the static now as well. This loot system is toxic, and I find it bizarre when people compare it to far worse systems in other games or even in this games past.. there is a reason I would never play those games, and now even this game is pushing me away. I need to feel the sense of some kind of weekly progression, I am putting in the time, so why not? why can't it just be an equal system where everyone gets something(equally), period. Top it off, I am often asked to flex to healer or would like to, but obviously if I can't even reliably gear up my main what chance does even a single alt job have? Ironically, I actually have a lot of fun doing savage content when I don't have to worry about gear, when I already have it and can just play to challenge myself in performing better.. and I would love to be able to play more than just one role in that regard; last tier I was hard locked to just playing healers. The game feels strangely at odds with itself, and each week that I get somewhat excited about what I could get.. I am left demoralized, with nothing, and with less interest in even reclearing. Once my sub runs out I guess I'm done?

I play a game to have a somewhat controlled and ideally enjoyable experience that is removed from the "RNG" and anxiety of life..

[ForteNightshade]

It's in their best interest to delay the rate at which players acquire the best gear possible, so that they can have more time to come out with new content.

If everyone could completely Savage and gear up all their jobs in just a month, then they'd be hard-pressed to release new Savage content faster, because those players would end up "bored" and possibly unsubscribe.

By making it so that raiders have to spend almost half a year gearing up a couple of their main characters, the company can enjoy the benefits of having their playerbase subscribed to the game. And that way, they don't have to rush out with the next content, giving them more time to work on other games, for example.

Except this hasn't been working. PF slowly dies off as the months drag on. Which is fine for those of us who cleared prior and are gearing maybe our second or even third job. It's still frustrating but at least we're done. For the others still progging or even attempting to get in the tier, they have a substantially smaller pool to work with. A lot of people simply lose interest playing when after two months they've barely gotten anything for one job much less two.

Speaking as someone who simply likes doing Savage PF. I'm not going to play a i610 job in week 10. So I'll either stick to the few jobs I've managed to get a lot of gear for or simply play a different game entirely. The fact Sfia has garnered 400 likes should highlight just how immensely unpopular the current gear progression is.

[Ayche]

Augmented crafted gear is pretty much "free" +10 ilvl boost to be honest.

[dspguy]

The rate of obtaining gear is just fine. Today's gamer has a "gimme gimme now now" mentality. It used to be commonplace to NOT be fully geared when a game's next expansion dropped. The drop rates were low, the mobs were competed world spawns, and it required dozens of players to kill it.

The system we have right now is very player friendly:
- you pick when you want to work on max iLvl gear (essentially savage gear right now)
- you only need 7 other players
- there is no competition since it is all instanced
- the vast majority of players have opened the content to get to savage (34% as per an achievement tracking site)
- there is a negligible penalty for death

Tomestone gear is capped weekly, but again... if someone just runs expert, that's upwards of 75 minutes/week for what is essentially a drop of your choice.

Personally, I'd like to see some world contested enemies that drop savage-level gear. It would add a new facet to the game. Of course, they'd have to be very difficult and a group would run the risk of dying and having someone else get the kill. And the enemy would have to be locked to the party/alliance that engaged it. Another option is an enemy that took a long time to spawn... but if you wipe, it just despawns.

Let's be fair here... raiding savage-level content is hard. They can't just give that gear away for free nor should they make an alternative that is far easier.

[ArcaviusGreyashe]

The rate of obtaining gear is just fine. Today's gamer has a "gimme gimme now now" mentality. It used to be commonplace to NOT be fully geared when a game's next expansion dropped. The drop rates were low, the mobs were competed world spawns, and it required dozens of players to kill it.

(...)

Let's be fair here... raiding savage-level content is hard. They can't just give that gear away for free nor should they make an alternative that is far easier.

It's not a "gimme gimme now now" mentality, it's just that people are more burnt out than they were back then. They don't want to deal with rng or "the prestige" of having a ridiculously low drop rate item. They want "the prestige" of defeating harder content and being able to show it. Because yeah, whether you like it or not, people having these ridiculously low drop rate item aren't more skilled, they just got more lucky, and "life is not fair" may apply everywhere, it's still a bad thing when it applies to something that you do to have fun.

I'm not asking for anyone to have everything, I'm saying people taking the time to learn and prog through savage, in PF, deserve the same amount of rewards than people learning and progging in statics. And the only way to do this is to bypass RNG, one way or another.

As for the "People gearing up slowly keeps PF living", no, it doesn't, people are living because they don't drop or drop everything, and don't want to waste time gearing up an alt they won't play. At least if it was easier to gear up their alts, they might play a bit longer to try and do fights in another role, or just as another class.

[Deveryn]

The rate of obtaining gear is just fine. Today's gamer has a "gimme gimme now now" mentality. It used to be commonplace to NOT be fully geared when a game's next expansion dropped. The drop rates were low, the mobs were competed world spawns, and it required dozens of players to kill it.

The system we have right now is very player friendly:
- you pick when you want to work on max iLvl gear (essentially savage gear right now)
- you only need 7 other players
- there is no competition since it is all instanced
- the vast majority of players have opened the content to get to savage (34% as per an achievement tracking site)
- there is a negligible penalty for death

Tomestone gear is capped weekly, but again... if someone just runs expert, that's upwards of 75 minutes/week for what is essentially a drop of your choice.

Personally, I'd like to see some world contested enemies that drop savage-level gear. It would add a new facet to the game. Of course, they'd have to be very difficult and a group would run the risk of dying and having someone else get the kill. And the enemy would have to be locked to the party/alliance that engaged it. Another option is an enemy that took a long time to spawn... but if you wipe, it just despawns.

Let's be fair here... raiding savage-level content is hard. They can't just give that gear away for free nor should they make an alternative that is far easier.

I agree with most of this. I don't think a world-contested enemy is going to help anything. You already have a crazy amount of people show up for S ranks. That old system of rare spawns dropping good loot created so much drama. It's why so much is contained in instances.

I'm still of the opinion that once you finish a set of gear, you should be allowed to get enough books etc to get whatever you want for an alt job.

[Meowdyj]

Let's be fair here... raiding savage-level content is hard. They can't just give that gear away for free nor should they make an alternative that is far easier.

No one is asking for free gear or far easier alternative. The current setup is only here to please statics. People who rather do savage by party finder have no benefits whatsoever even tho it's more challenging to get clears. Weeks of raiding with low rolls on loot only to end up having to buy gear with books delaying one of the appealing reasons to play this game: switching and playing multiple jobs.

System should be revised yet don't think it will happen until a large group of angry people start complaining on the Japanese forums.

[dspguy]

To add to my earlier post:

The current system in place, not only gives you a guaranteed drop after so many weeks which is a drop of your choice, but nothing goes to waste in the loot table. It isn't a DRG-only head item. It is any any-job head item.

Not all raiders have the "gimme gimme now now" mentality. That comment was reserved for those that complain about the rate of drops and "how long it takes."

Spending 2-3 hours/week (after it is on farm status) to drops tailored to your party plus the guaranteed token drops from each turn? That seems more than reasonable. Maybe a compromise could be... continual 1 chest drops after multiple clears - if everyone is in minimum iLvl gear.

[LittleImp]

Maybe in the future people who aren't affected by what is talked about here just learn to shut up and let improvements happen based on feedback from people that are actually affected. But I guess for clowns like above me can't stop pretending to give out opinions on things they have no clue about.

White knights don't appear reasonable because they're never acting in good faith. Their core objective is to defend the game and the company that creates it, and all of their apparent beliefs and opinions about systems within the game are basically just performative. That is to say, their stances aren't derived from rational consideration of each individual issue or game system; They're just projections of the already forgone conclusion that aspects of this game cannot have flaws. That's why they're so prone to ridiculous mental gymnastics and authoritative hand-waving