If I were to quickly summarise my feelings on V&C dungeons, I could do it really easily with a meme, so here's my visual TL;DR


(caption in case of image break or visual impaired readers: "Drake meme - Criterion Nah, Variant Yah")


Why Variant works:
  • It's story rich and wholesome
  • Branching paths, choices, boss modifiers and the solo/group aspect makes it a joy to replay
  • It's a quick experience and the tomestone rewards reflect that (I capped on tomestones within 2 days of the content, which is super convenient)
  • If 3/4 die on a boss, you can still solo it with the right variant actions
  • Nanamo and Silkie <3

What i'd love to see for the next Variant dungeon:
  • Removal of the random drop minions/furniture etc - add them to the currency vendor, BAM more things to spend tokens on!
  • A new pool of Variant actions as Cure/Rampart feel like the only two that are necessary
  • It'd be cool to "borrow" from a short list of fan favorite job spells/abilities for your variant actions

Why Criterion misses the mark:

I echo the community in my disappointment regarding the rewards.
  • Materia isn't hard to obtain and should never need to be on a currency vendor other than the dedicated Materia and Scrip vendors.
  • I may be speaking for myself, but I'm never sinking event currency on earrings
  • The mount reward is nowhere near as cool as Silkie

The Criterion content is otherwise cool - we asked for hard content and you definitely delivered - but why would we prioritize this over other activities when the rewards are so poor? Contrary to what some others have said in their posts, I don't think we need an extra gear treadmill with this content, but some Sil'dihn combat glam would have been nice, as well as a couple of mounts/minions themed around the content.

Thanks for this new content, FFXIV team