The horizontal gear progression of the Chaotic Alliance raid is near useless.

[SacraAnima]

We've been asking for means of horizontal gear progression for years, be in the the form of alternative ways to earn augment materials (twines, shines), or in alternative ways to acquire BiS other than weekly grinding of tomes and lockout riddled savage raids that stretch for way longer than they should.

The live letter last night announced that Cloud of Darkness Chaotic will reward players with ilvl 730 gear, which is the same ilvl as current BiS. Win, right? Not quite.

The issue here is that they've chosen to introduce horizontal gear progression long after it would be helpful or meaningful in any way. Chaotic Alliance Raid will be releasing on Christmas Eve(yikes), bookending the final piece of battle content until the next patch's delivery of the second tier of Savage. This will also be coming many months after Savage, and shortly after the newest Ultimate, arguably the only two places where gear actually matters.

Now, it would have been really great to get this kind of horizontal progression if it were releasing as originally promoted, before Future's Rewritten Ultimate. It would have served as a fantastic way for raiders to gear any alt jobs for FRU that they wanted to play around with, or for players who have to switch off of their Savage jobs onto something else to fit their comps. Obviously, Chaotic gear won't be BiS across the board, but it would have been useful to get people the ilvl they need to prog well.

Apart from maybe replacing the normal raid and crafted BiS for Healers at the moment, Chaotic gear will be completely useless. The next patch will bring crafted gear that will render it nothing but glamour.

It's upsetting that their first attempt to implement something that the community has been begging for for years is done in such a pointless and frustrating way. Feels a bit offensive even. Glams are fire though, so that's cool I suppose.

We'll see what future iterations of Chaotic, and Criterion, bring in terms of opportunities for horizontal progression; but I hope that more care and thought is put into when these kinds of rewards are implemented, so that they can help what is a friction point in the experience of this game, and not just be concession rewards devoid of practical use.

[Jeeqbit]

I think the issue is that some people think it's useless because the only thing they care about is gear and power progression.

People who see mounts or glamour as a form of progression don't find the timing such an issue.

[SacraAnima]

RE: Jeeqbit's comment
Those fun things aren't an issue and not what I'm addressing, those are obviously welcome. What I wanted to offer my feedback on was their implementation of alternative ways to acquire BiS, which many people who care about that have been asking for for a long time.

[Shougun]

Those fun things aren't an issue and not what I'm addressing, those are obviously welcome. What I wanted to offer my feedback on was their implementation of alternative ways to acquire BiS, which many people who care about that have been asking for for a long time.

Ah I liked the feedback, I just meant to toss this item back into value territory without it being too much of an ordeal- and then moving forward they can use your feedback to perhaps plan it better :P. Sorry that it came off as more tangential, I was bringing the moogle bandaids but I understand the larger goal / desire.

[SacraAnima]

Oh no, you're fine! I meant to reply to Jeeqbit's comment. I enjoy your idea, reminds me of the boots from Eureka that let you sprint for longer in cities haha. I doubt they'll do that with this gear, but it's still a fun idea.

[Valence]

I think the issue is that some people think it's useless because the only thing they care about is gear and power progression.

People who see mounts or glamour as a form of progression don't find the timing such an issue.

Yes but we still do care about gearing alternatives. The only other time in XIV history that did this was proto ultima in Dun Scaith, offering alternative accessories on tomestone level for casual players that only had tomestone gear to eat. Similarly to chaotic Crystal Tower here, it came too late and too close to Stormblood release (it didn't even come with 3.5 Dun Scaith, it came out with 3.55 Dun Scaith when proto ultima replaced the much better and funnier gate boss that was there before it).

Gearing alternatives are direly needed for casuals, and glam isn't mutually exclusive to it, which makes it a problem in execution.

[Kuroka]

Yes but we still do care about gearing alternatives. The only other time in XIV history that did this was proto ultima in Dun Scaith, offering alternative accessories on tomestone level for casual players that only had tomestone gear to eat. Similarly to chaotic Crystal Tower here, it came too late and too close to Stormblood release (it didn't even come with 3.5 Dun Scaith, it came out with 3.55 Dun Scaith when proto ultima replaced the much better and funnier gate boss that was there before it).

And it sucks we never got that again... it was sweet glamour, it had some good stats... no one was hurt lol

Ive said it before, the very least would be giving the gear 735 with better stats, cause some of the tome and crafted stuff is flat out an insult...

[Fatch38]

People who see mounts or glamour as a form of progression don't find the timing such an issue.

maybe because they aren't progression ? they are only collectible so only for collection. you are in a MMORPG, progression is tied to character getting more powerful. don't try to make ppl think that fluff like glam is progression. having your maid glam won't make you clear the content.

[Jeeqbit]

maybe because they aren't progression ? they are only collectible so only for collection. you are in a MMORPG, progression is tied to character getting more powerful. don't try to make ppl think that fluff like glam is progression. having your maid glam won't make you clear the content.

That's your opinion though.

As I said, some people collect mounts, thus mounts are progression to them.

Some people progress their character by decorating themselves with glam sets.

Just different perspectives on "progression" for each player.

[SacraAnima]

That's your opinion though.

As I said, some people collect mounts, thus mounts are progression to them.

Some people progress their character by decorating themselves with glam sets.

Just different perspectives on "progression" for each player.

This is a strange point to argue here, friend. This thread was made to discuss how gear progression is implemented. I'm not personally interested in the philosophical observations of what "progression" means to different people. Gear progression is a core pillar of MMORPGs, and is an incredibly important point of friction for long time players of XIV.

Also, needless to say, if your sense of progression is tied to getting glams and mounts, then you're eating every single patch and your sense of progression is guaranteed and well supported. Rather than attempting to diminish other avenues of progression, you could advocate for healthy progression in general, of which gear is struggling.