That FATE system is kinda bad

[Ochimi1]

I know fates have lots of reasons to be there, they make the world feel more alive by having small regular events happen, they're pretty good exp for leveling, they give gemstones that allow you to buy materials, orchestrion rolls and the all so expensive mount.

But the way they are balanced, and designed is really bad and frustrating
First of all fates are not balanced depending on how many players are currently in the instance, but on how many players have last cleared that fate, which is already a bad idea, you can have a group of 8 or more players clearing a fate that hasen't been cleared in hours, so that fate will be on minimal difficulty and ridiculously easy to clear.
But after that, the fate will update, and next time it will appear, it will be balanced for 8 or more players, and if that group of players is done farming and leaves, and you have a solo player or a small group show up after, it will take them so much longer and so much more efforts to take it down because it was adjusted for 8 or more players.
Not only that, but if you now try and follow such a group and they're already full, or are doing some FC activity night or whatever and don't want you in, you now have to put way more efforts to have enough contribution to even get the normal amount of rewards.
And sure, you can make a PF of your own, but not only are most players who farm done with it, but those who join, may join for 3-4 fates and leave, and that small group will have to fight to contribute enough instead of working together with the other group.
On top of that if there are multiple groups doing it across multiple instances, they will end up sabotaging each other by going to different fates, different instances, splitting the amount of fates they could do and the amount of gemstones they could get.

And on a smaller note, for the fates that require to deliver a certain amount of items, it is so frustrating to have a group just, obletirate a pack of 15 ennemies, each getting 15 items, times 8 or more, depending on the amount of players, while you didn't have time to do enough damage to them, so you only get 3-4 items, basically oneshoting the fate, leaving you no time to contribute any more.
I don't know how it could be changed to make it better, my best guess would be to make it like Bozja critical engagements, where you can queue for a fate, it calculates the amount of players that queue for it and adapts the difficulty to the current amount of players, and not the amount that previously cleared
Or maybe allow fate farming groups to be bigger instead of the classic 8 man make it 24, like alliance raids, so you can have enough people join and don't have to do multiple, seperate groups that have to fight for contribution.

Then again, maybe that's just me, and it's completely normal by now, but for someone who's been farming for the mount for the first time, and realizing all these issues, it's been very tilting

[Sinstrel]

It would be very nice to have some new ideas for FATEs other than AoE the pack, or pick up shiny item from the ground. I thought we would get fresh new ideas for Dawntrail but its still exact same formula.

Can't we get some fun FATEs similar to some World of Warcraft quests? Perhaps flying our mount through an obstacle course, or using air balloon machinery to attack NPCs on the ground?

I'm just a customer, so surely the creative development team can have some fresh and new ideas. I'm not suggesting to copy WoW but how about some new and creative ideas?

[Raenra]

It is a rather flawed scaling mechanic, and one that's regularly abused by fate-farming groups - especially at the moment with instance-hopping readily available.

Another frustrating mechanic is how small the fate range is, relative to where the mobs spawn. They can often spawn outside of the fate area, but if a high-level player leaves that area to engage them, we unsync and can't interact with them until we resync.
Simply making the fate area extend beyond their spawn spots would resolve this.

Personally I miss the ShB story-orientated fates. Ones which tie into the story of the zone, and especially the chain fates which featured interesting NPCs telling a story as they journeyed towards some goal.
The current fates and chains are quite hollow in plot substance, much like the endwalker ones were.
"Here's some animals, go slaughter them."

[PercibelTheren]

Yeah, overworld FATES are really meh. I wish they would make them more like Bozja. Personally, I wish they were more dynamic like the invasions in Rift, but I guess that would be too much of a change.

[Sacae]

It is a rather flawed scaling mechanic, and one that's regularly abused by fate-farming groups - especially at the moment with instance-hopping readily available.

Another frustrating mechanic is how small the fate range is, relative to where the mobs spawn. They can often spawn outside of the fate area, but if a high-level player leaves that area to engage them, we unsync and can't interact with them until we resync.
Simply making the fate area extend beyond their spawn spots would resolve this.

Personally I miss the ShB story-orientated fates. Ones which tie into the story of the zone, and especially the chain fates which featured interesting NPCs telling a story as they journeyed towards some goal.
The current fates and chains are quite hollow in plot substance, much like the endwalker ones were.
"Here's some animals, go slaughter them."

You still have story fates? Endwalker had the Chi and Davidadipa stuff, same with DT for the Snek and Squirrel fates. There are plenty of two-part fates as well.