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.

[Shougun]

Maybe slap it with some ilvl sync (like the earrings) or weird effect for value, like first and second occurrence of any type of materia is doubled in effectiveness (counts for all materia).

[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.

[mallleable]

Eh, the gear is gonna be nice I guess, but I want those mounts, and other goodies! The real loot!

[OMGJesuis66]

I mean... Granted that not everyone does Savage. Therefore, if the content is actually accessible to people despite it's challenge, it is a vastly easier way for people that are still around 710 ilvl, to get a BiS level of gear.
Think about it as a catch-up system for those who do not do Savage. It doesn't trivialize Savage gear this way and allows other players to be able to have competitive gear with the same criteria, even more, due to not having weekly lockout to farm.

If a new Chaotic Alliance Raid is added ever .5 patch? It is excellent to keep those who do not partake in Savage to have something to aim for in progression.

[GartredZW]

That horizontal progression turns to vertical when it drops some more healer gear without Spell Speed or Piety
I'd be glad to swap out some of my gear for a slightly more optimal stat spread. It sounds fun.

[SacraAnima]

That horizontal progression turns to vertical when it drops some more healer gear without Spell Speed or Piety
I'd be glad to swap out some of my gear for a slightly more optimal stat spread. It sounds fun.

For sure, looking forward to that as a healer as well. It's just a shame that apart from a slight optimization in stats in content that we've already cleared, there's not any solid use for the gear.