The Savage loot system fails on nearly every level

[Yukidaore]

This system is anti-social.
I routinely have times where a friend or group of friends needs help, or just one fill, or I might just feel like pushing buttons and helping out a PF... but I'm not welcome there, because the system will punish them for my presence by dramatically reducing loot if I already cleared.

The RNG protection from bad luck isn't enough.
I've been clearing through P7S in PF since Abyssos landed, 8 weeks in total, and won almost nothing. I still have 12 more weeks of P6S and 8 more weeks of P7S to get BiS for a single job if I don't start getting insanely lucky. My deep, deep frustrations with how badly RNG has screwed me this tier might not have any real relevance to the community at large, except...

Content that requires BiS is occasionally released before Savage unlocks.
At the time DSR launched I had barely managed to finish gearing a single job, depriving me entirely of options for it. You can make the argument that it's fine to not be geared for Savage, that 610 crafted and pentamelded is good enough, but this simply is not true of Ultimate.

Not only does this deprive players of the freedom to swap roles to reduce the sometimes hours long waits to fill, or to find groups to play with, but it can outright block people from even making the attempt. If the next ultimate lands a month from now and my drop luck hasn't turned around, I literally may not have enough HP to survive some of the mechanics in there on my main, much less consider a role swap. Nor would most groups even allow me to join in the first place, and they'd be right not to. "Wait until you have the gear" is not an acceptable response to this problem, as there are going to be far fewer people approaching any given fight after the release patch and it becomes much more time consuming to attempt, even without considering concerns of wanting to attempt the fight before gear scaling makes it easier.

ASS(S) might fall in this category too, but I admittedly have no clue how tight the DPS checks are just yet since I'm still working on the last boss of normal. I sure as hell hope not, because that would force me to quit playing with my friends since I had to pick up an off-job for our group to work and would be a liability to them, and have no ability to do anything about it in this system.

Finally, this system doesn't respect our time.
If I want to be able to play with friends at my leisure, and engage with current content and do it on multiple jobs, there is exactly one way to accomplish that. I have to make one or more alts, level them to 90 on potentially multiple jobs, and grind out additional tomes for each one weekly. This is completely contrary to the stated design goals of the dev team.

Please give us some more options for horizontal progression, stop punishing groups for having people that already cleared in them, and improve RNG protection.

[Jeeqbit]

The reduction in chests is annoying and forces you to have alts to help people clear with 2 chests, but without it, 7 people who cleared for the week could guarantee the 8th person full loot. To prevent that, it could force the other 7 people to roll Need on the loot but automatically discard the item if they win.

[Oizen]

IMO Savage loot lockout could be gone like a month after it comes out and I don't think it affect much other than letting people who clear help more with the fights.

I'd also love to be able to play other jobs than my one I picked for savage back in August.

[Atelier-Bagur]

To be fair, part of the problem is also the PF community gating groups from not getting clears due to their restrictive ilevels.

I still want for the game to have more ease on allowing multiple gear piece acquisitions per week but we cant solely blame it on the devs when I see this behavior on the current savage raid community as a whole.

Granted me saying this isnt going to change minds so the statement is pointless but still.

[Fendred]

The lockout itself really complicates the whole dropping loot thing. I'd venture something radically different could solve it. Like the seasonal PvP experience rewards or a mog tomestone type thing where people get more for clearing the later floors and can spend it on any loot from the raid.

[Jeeqbit]

To be fair, part of the problem is also the PF community gating groups from not getting clears due to their restrictive ilevels.

Not every party has these and it's possible to make your own party. Restricting to the possible tomestone gear for that week and what you could get from books is usually enough because someone who didn't bother with capping their weekly tomestones probably didn't bother with a lot of other things.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Not every party has these and it's possible to make your own party. Restricting to the possible tomestone gear for that week and what you could get from books is usually enough because someone who didn't bother with capping their weekly tomestones probably didn't bother with a lot of other things.

yeah thats true, I was just thinking about that minutes after I posted what I said lol.

I think the game would benefit more with the current raiding community by either reducing the needed tokens for gear exchange as well as reducing tomestone prices.

[TomsYoungerBro]

This system is anti-social.

It is quite annoying when you want to help friends with prog and clearing, but they want a 2 chest. You either have to have an alt account that hasn't cleared for the week to help, or they have to sacrifice a chance at loot for the week. I sadly don't know what the solution is here as the reasoning is clear for why they reduce loot if you've done your weekly.

The RNG protection from bad luck isn't enough.

Books in general need more value across the board, and i've been saying for awhile that if you don't win any loot for your weekly clear, you should just get another book. Lower the cost for accessories, legs, chest, and weapon, and also make books tradeable downward to be used on previous turns' gear.

If you think about it, FF14 currently has zero RNG pity system because regardless if you win loot or not you get a book XD. That is why I think if you get no loot from your weekly clear, you should get another book! Its a good start at least.

Content that requires BiS is occasionally released before Savage unlocks.

This is the biggest argument to why the loot system needs adjustments. I can understand the argument for the current gear progession if ultimate didn't exist, but it does. It does not matter if it is not that popular. The fact that you have to clear week one to ensure that you'll have BiS by the time the ultimate releases is pretty absurd.

Either release Ultimate when the lockout is removed on the tier, or properly fix the gearing progression during the lockout.

ASS(S) might fall in this category too

On the note about ASS(S), I would definitely like to see a group of top-tier consistent players attempt this with even the most optimal comp at 610 non-pentameld to see if its doable. The dungeon enrage timer seems too strict for that low ilvl however.

Finally, this system doesn't respect our time.

Outside of housing, Savage is the only piece of content that forces you to hold your sub even if you want to take a break. Due to content being released that requires BiS before the lockout is removed, you are heavily incentivized to keep doing your weeklies to roll on more gear, acquire more books, and cap your 450 tomes. If you miss a month, average RNG will ensure you don't have BiS for the content (assuming you PF). That strictly goes against the philosophy of the game. And we haven't even gotten into gearing your alt jobs...The biggest strength of FF14 "alt friendliness" is non-existent in high end content

[Atelier-Bagur]

Books in general need more value across the board, and i've been saying for awhile that if you don't win any loot for your weekly clear, you should just get another book. Lower the cost for accessories, legs, chest, and weapon, and also make books tradeable downward to be used on previous turns' gear.

If you think about it, FF14 currently has zero RNG pity system because regardless if you win loot or not you get a book XD. That is why I think if you get no loot from your weekly clear, you should get another book! Its a good start at least.

Yeah its quite baffling how this system stayed in the game for this long. Every player deserves to at least get their guaranteed item upgrade once per week nor should it punish players trying to help other people get their clears by reducing chests and what not. Its so stupid considering the game's philosophy.

[Zarkovitch]

I really hope they fix it at 7.0 that would be a great change for this game. gearing a job to bis for 8 weeks is bad.