Endgame gearing in FFXIV

[XaiQ]

When we talk about the "speed" of gear acquisition, I think we need to think about the life-cycle of an ilvl tier. When we say that "getting alt gear is too slow" - who do we mean that it is too slow for. I think we have to be specific about this because realistically when you look at loot acquisition for BiS (for a single job), it's not really THAT slow relative to the content cycle. If we get 6.3 (and potentially the next ultimate) in December or January given a 4 month dev cycle, we likely will not see another raid tier until May at the latest. We got this raid tier on August 22nd, which meant that the gear cycle began on that day (tomestones) and savage loot unlocked the following week.

That comes out to about 9 months for a single ilvl lifespan. 630 ilvl will have been BiS for 9 months by the time we get new ilvl. Somewhere along the way, halfway through that, it will become farmable.

If you have eight to nine months to achieve BiS on multiple jobs, Square obviously is going to say that you have more than enough time to get the gear.

Could of points I want to address that aren't correct:

Gear does not become farmable in Savage until 2-4 weeks before the next tier comes. Asphodelos Savage unlocked its coffers in patch 6.18, just before 6.2 released.

Asphodelos Savage was added in Patch 6.05 on 4th of January 2022, and Unlock happed in 6.18 on 4th of July 2022. 181 days inbetween ( 6 months )
Ultimate was added 26th of April
6.2 was 23rd of August

This means that i600 was a weekly lockout of 181 days until Ultimate was released (what the gear is used for).
50 days later, 6.2 was released. This is far from half of the duration(1.5months of unlocked gear vs. 6 months of locked in a 7.5 month life span) This pattern exist also for other raid tiers within similarities. The only exception so far was Shadowbringers, with a much longer raid tier due to covid and they unlocked them in an earlier patch.

I agree that there is an argument for "who is it too slow" because ultimately, the savage bis is designed to be used in Ultimate content (and also why some people do not go for BiS after clearing because they have no use for it.)

But it's slow for those who wish to use the sets for Ultimate, locking themselves into specific roles and it assumes a world where you have only one group, one job you play on. It allows for very little flexibility.

Then we have to look at what an RPG is, and who plays it. This actually affects casual players more than raiders, because those who are casual(In this context, I refer to players not doing savage raids.) have it even worse: Tomestones. These take forever to get, 450 per week, and god forbid if the game we played were to have one of its main qualities about playing multiple jobs on one character it would be a huge slog to actually get gear on most jobs in a timely manner. Savage players aren't AS concerned about this because they DO have savage gear (bis isn't 100% necessary for ultimate, it just stacks all cards in your favor so running non-optimal pieces is still valid just not sought after or desired).

Now, one can make the argument:
"But Mia, they casuals don't need that higher item level gear. The content they do doesn't require it!" and while in essence, it would be true, who plays an RPG and wishes to live in a stalemate for for 7 months with gear? RPG's and especially games with items with increasingly higher stats, everyone aims to get stronger and stronger.

[xenahawk]

So lets hurry to get fully geared for our jobs so we can then complain there isnt stuff to do. Don get me wrong i would love to get stuff quicker but i also know the quicker i finish gearing whatever im playing the sooner im gonna be logging in trying to figure what i want to do. My circumstances might be different then your because im not into the highend compedative savages and ultimates. Some catchup alt gear might be a little nice but dont think you need to play all jobs in the high end stuff either.

[SaberMaxwell]

I'm in total agreement with Sfia. It'd be nice if they looked at the gear acquisition rate, or figured SOMETHING out.

[Garnix]

Even from a casual perspective, when you are not raiding at all, it's not great.
Like, yesterday, I wanted to do the criterion dungeon with a job I don't play a lot. My iLvl was too low, so I would have to buy some crafted gear.
End result -> Well, back on my main.
The way we get iLvl increase once a year or so is just a boring progression system IMO.

[Grimmelnoob]

Totally agree, i was barely able to half gear my whm because im not lucky enough to get loot drops from chests. Now I want to gear up my blm but I lost the passion to do so. Mainly because of the tombstone cab and how it limits gearing.

[Stasya]

Criterion should have had 620-625 ilvl drops from normal and considering savage dungeon difficulty AND MISERABLE LOOT THAT MAKES IT DEAD ON ARRIVAL CONTENT LIKE DRS it should have been 630 or even 635 ilvl (armor/acc) weekly drops

(635 ilvl sync gives a useless mount/title, ultimate with similar sync gives BIS weapon ....)

But fixing loot system will not fix crucial problem ff14 has: there are barely any ways to use gear we aquire besides doing parse runs or ultimate. Criterion atleast added new activity but because of trash loot system majority of people right now are locked to 1-2 classes to play there.

[Miyuyu]

Could of points I want to address that aren't correct:

Gear does not become farmable in Savage until 2-4 weeks before the next tier comes. Asphodelos Savage unlocked its coffers in patch 6.18, just before 6.2 released.

Asphodelos Savage was added in Patch 6.05 on 4th of January 2022, and Unlock happed in 6.18 on 4th of July 2022. 181 days inbetween ( 6 months )
Ultimate was added 26th of April
6.2 was 23rd of August

This means that i600 was a weekly lockout of 181 days until Ultimate was released (what the gear is used for).
50 days later, 6.2 was released. This is far from half of the duration(1.5months of unlocked gear vs. 6 months of locked in a 7.5 month life span) This pattern exist also for other raid tiers within similarities. The only exception so far was Shadowbringers, with a much longer raid tier due to covid and they unlocked them in an earlier patch.

I agree that there is an argument for "who is it too slow" because ultimately, the savage bis is designed to be used in Ultimate content (and also why some people do not go for BiS after clearing because they have no use for it.)

But it's slow for those who wish to use the sets for Ultimate, locking themselves into specific roles and it assumes a world where you have only one group, one job you play on. It allows for very little flexibility.

Good catch. I did note in my original post that I think that the unlock needs to happen much sooner. Either way, it's a really long loot life-span and generally at some point in the back half we get to farm it. But THAT point does not come soon enough imo. So for the AVERAGE player, the loot lifespan is MASSIVE but for those of us who are ult gremlins, it generally feels extremely slow u no.

It's just a rough situation because changing it for ultimate raiders means changing it for everyone else and that has ripple effects that we need to consider.

[XaiQ]

Criterion should have had 620-625 ilvl drops from normal and considering savage dungeon difficulty AND MISERABLE LOOT THAT MAKES IT DEAD ON ARRIVAL CONTENT LIKE DRS it should have been 630 or even 635 ilvl (armor/acc) weekly drops

(635 ilvl sync gives a useless mount/title, ultimate with similar sync gives BIS weapon ....)

But fixing loot system will not fix crucial problem ff14 has: there are barely any ways to use gear we aquire besides doing parse runs or ultimate. Criterion atleast added new activity but because of trash loot system majority of people right now are locked to 1-2 classes to play there.

I wouldn't call DRS dead on arrival - people run and do it still to this day if not solely for the glams and the mount. I believe the same appeal is still existing for Baldesion Arsenal. The difference is, DRS has replayability because you have to go back to finish everything (glams, in this case) whereas such incentive doesn't really apply for Criterion. If they had glams with the books, people would run it again. That being said, I liked Criterion. I wish it had more incentive, but this was more fun than any savage tier in the recent years (I've done every raid tier week1 since Promise fully blind), nearly comparing enjoyment to a Ultimate. I hope we get more of them.

Good catch. I did note in my original post that I think that the unlock needs to happen much sooner. Either way, it's a really long loot life-span and generally at some point in the back half we get to farm it. But THAT point does not come soon enough imo. So for the AVERAGE player, the loot lifespan is MASSIVE but for those of us who are ult gremlins, it generally feels extremely slow u no.

It's just a rough situation because changing it for ultimate raiders means changing it for everyone else and that has ripple effects that we need to consider.

I edited my original post to explain that even casuals suffer largely of this. Arguably, even more than we raiders do. I'll gladly go more into detail as to why, but largely it has to do with people wanting to be stronger and mor powerful, without locking themselves into just one or two jobs in a game that heavily emphasises (and community gladly boasts of) on doing everything on one character.

[TomsYoungerBro]

Gear progression is definitely a little slow and needs some definite improvements. I agree with most of what you said, aside from another gearing path. Casual catchup progression already comes in the patch after with alliance raid, however something like criterion half way through the patch would be a great alternate gearing method.

I think books need more value. Accessories need to drop to 2, Legs and Chest to 6, and Weapon needs to go down to 4. Not sure why SE thinks Chest and Weapon are equal. There are only 7 chests, yet 19 unique weapons. That is almost 3x as many weapons to chests. The additional random wep drop in 4th turn does not close that gap.

I feel they should also implement a system where if you dont receive any drop, your second "reward" from completing for the week is another book. This would work regardless if it was a 0, 1, or 2 chest. Books should also be tradeable down. Book 4 should be able to be turned in for a 3, 2, or 1 level book, etc.

Lastly, tome cap should start at 450 still, but eventually be increased on or before the next patch. Astronomy tomes stayed 450 cap all the way through 6.0 and 6.1 to 6.2. That is a little absurd. Maybe an increase to 900 at 6.3?

[Furicorvus]

I 100 percent support this. We need some sort of way to get gear for alt jobs. The fact that if I want to change jobs mid-tier and have to restart from scratch with crafted gear is so demoralizing. We need something besides the alliance raids and the weekly tomes to bridge the gap and I think criterion dungeons could do that. Balance the Criterion dungeon around having crafted gear, and have it drop gear that is comparable to savage. Make it like 5 item levels under the savage gear or something to appease the raiders that will eventually complain that they had to work harder to their gear if needed.