changes to the game that would go hard

[Purrnauskis]

All of this will cook the brain of the average "casual" who struggles with expert therefore we will never have any of these. Sorry.

[Collin_Sky]

I think gearing in FFXIV would be much more interesting if, for example, when a new expansion releases, the best gear that we have access to immediately is dungeon gear from the highest level dungeons, then we use that to get the extreme weapon and accessories, then we use that ex gear to do savage, then we use savage/tome gear to do ultimate.

This is exactly what happens now except we have crafted gear on Savage patch as well. Crafted gear exists to serve as a reset. To allow people who only care about progression or are behind for whatever reason to still be able to enjoy the content as it releases.
You are looking at gearing singularly from the perspective "I get my gear to do the next content with the gear" and not "I get my gear to push myself as high as possible in content that is already out" or "I get my gear to help out my friends who are struggling" or "I get my gear to play other jobs without griefing everyone else in the party"

The majority of the playerbase doesn't give a shit about Ultimates, so what are they even doing Savage each week for?

The answer is because fundamentally, gearing up and doing more damage is fun. Being able to do that on more than one class is even more fun. Gearing up multiple jobs should be faster. Idk why this is such a controversial thing.

[Collin_Sky]

All of this will cook the brain of the average "casual" who struggles with expert therefore we will never have any of these. Sorry.

If you still struggle with expert after 100 levels, I worry.
But also the rest of the playerbase shouldn't have to suffer such a stale game just because you're unwilling to improve after 300+ hours in a game.

[BigCheez]

This is exactly what happens now except we have crafted gear on Savage patch as well. Crafted gear exists to serve as a reset. To allow people who only care about progression or are behind for whatever reason to still be able to enjoy the content as it releases.

Nah, it isn't what happens now. What happens now is that an expansion releases, you turn your brain off for 3 hunt trains and buy the uncapped tome gear to do extreme, then you get extreme gear which serves no purpose other than parsing. Then you buy a set of crafted gear to do savage, which rewards you with savage and tome gear which serves no purpose other than parsing. Most people stop here and don't do ultimate on content. They might do it later but we'll have access to higher ilvl gear and you won't need savage gear by then. For the people who do prog ultimate on content, you do actually get some mileage out of your tome/savage gear but the 4 month delay between savage and ultimate completely removes any feeling of progression.

The problem is that there is no progression from content to content. The progression is "buy easily accessible gear for content > do content". Progging ultimate on content is the only exception to this.

I'm fine with crafted gear allowing people to catch up but it shouldn't be mandatory and should not replace your previous BiS. It should be the same ilvl as previous BiS.

You are looking at gearing singularly from the perspective "I get my gear to do the next content with the gear" and not "I get my gear to push myself as high as possible in content that is already out" or "I get my gear to help out my friends who are struggling" or "I get my gear to play other jobs without griefing"

Yes, I'm looking at gearing from the perspective of it being functionally beneficial in-game, rather than tangentially beneficial in the FFLogs metagame. Pushing damage in content by being better at the game is inherently more interesting than pushing damage by getting gear that makes the content easier.

The majority of the playerbase doesn't give a shit about Ultimates, so what are they even doing Savage each week for?

The answer is because fundamentally, gearing up and doing more damage is fun. Being able to do that on more than one class is even more fun. Gearing up multiple jobs should be faster. Idk why this is such a controversial thing.

Because, as garbage as it is, the illusion of progression is the only progression that the game affords them. There's nothing else to do. Reclearing for gear so you can play content without grey parsing is better than clearing once and coming back in 8 months.

[Collin_Sky]

Nah, it isn't what happens now. What happens now is that an expansion releases, you buy the uncapped tome gear to do extreme, then you get extreme gear (which serves no purpose other than parsing). Then you buy a set of crafted gear to do savage. Most people stop here and don't do ultimate on content. They might do it later but we'll have access to higher ilvl gear and you won't need savage gear by then. For the people who do prog savage on content, you do actually get some mileage out of your tome/savage gear but the 4 month delay between savage and ultimate completely removes any feeling of progression.

The tomes for that uncapped gear come from dungeons, which also drop the accessories you need before you can even get the uncapped tome gear. It’s essentially the same process.

I'm fine with crafted gear allowing people to catch up but it shouldn't be mandatory and should not replace your previous BiS. It should be the same ilvl as previous BiS.1

Even if it were the same ilvl, it would still be stronger because 5 materia slots > 2. Granted, some pieces have less desirable substats like SKS or TEN, but in general, more slots still provides a clear advantage.

Yes, I'm looking at gearing from the perspective of it being functionally beneficial in-game, rather than tangentially beneficial in the FFLogs metagame.
Because, as garbage as it is, the illusion of progression is the only progression that the game affords them. There's nothing else to do. Reclearing for gear so you can play content without grey parsing is better than clearing once and coming back in 8 months.

But wanting to improve my performance isn’t only about parsing. I’d still strive for better gear even if logs didn’t exist. Saying the only reason to gear up is for FFLogs is incredibly reductive.

I’ve offered plenty of reasons why gearing multiple jobs at a decent pace is reasonable, yet the only response you've provided is "lol it doesn't matter you don't really need the gear just stop caring about your parse". I actually enjoy the content we have, I’d just like to play it on other jobs without feeling like I’m griefing the party because I want to play something that isn't my main.

[Kaurhz]

Generally a pretty good list.

But IMO above anything I would just take an open world that is actually alive and matters versus something like scaled 4-man instanced dungeons, which is, at best disappointing with the amount of over-reliance on instanced content to have a remotely engaging experience. I agree with the sentiment, of having repeatable content, but in 4-man content.. I already feel like I am not playing an MMO.

Dungeons and other side content used to actually be tied in really well with crafted content, if you look at some of the material requirements from HW, people were driven all over the place for getting materials, e.g., Grand Company... That was an amazing time for crafted, so anything that creates a stronger connection with battle content and crafted again has my thumbs up. This disappointing "Go cap your old tomestones", just ain't hitting it.

Alliance Raid gear should be equivalent to BiS, it releases an entire patch cycle later, and is still weekly capped. It's beyond a disappointment.

I have a love/hate relationship with the idea of nerfing crafted gear, crafting is in a really bad spot, IMO, and that 1 week every 9 months is one of the few good things about it. Not speaking monetary/Gil-wise, but the amount of collaboration and prep that people put into that is one of the few good things. Although, I understand and appreciate the perspective or reasoning behind it to a degree for some people (e.g., the savage gear feeling like it matters long-term).

[Akonyl]

2. this also makes questing/overworld combat less cringe, because it won't feel wasteful to pop giant cds for a mob that will die in five hits, run 20 yards to the next mob, and then not have any cds for the rest of the quest

You know you don't have to do your 2 min burst on a random mob, right? You can use some of your cooldowns on one mob and then your other CDs on another.

Not to mention, staggering CD timers won't actually help this at all, because if you're of the mindset of "I gotta pop all my CDs!" then with the spacing of fights in MSQ, most likely when you get to the next group of mobs all your CDs will be ready despite differing CD timers, you'll press them, and then you'll still have the same issue even though some of your timers (for example) are 90, some are 120, etc. This sounds like an issue you're making yourself.

Then the others:

II: These suggestions are terrible and would either be extra dev for nothing, or a balancing headache. The last thing this game's encounter design needs is less balance, just because WoW does something doesn't mean it's necessarily a good thing to take.

III: Yeah, I think dungeons could do with more mechanics, but considering how some people handled DT's launch, we might need to wait a bit more if we're gonna introduce more of a bump there. I don't agree with having M+ type mats be required for savage gear progression, but some kind of sellable item from dungeons would be cool (and Criterion basically does that to an extent already, mounts are decent money).

IV: Nah. As someone who gets BIS every tier, and then has it all invalidated by the introduction of crafted the next tier, I prefer how it is now. If new crafted was only equal to savage, then with substats/etc there would inevitably be savage pieces that are better than the equivalent crafted, and I'm not a fan of prog from the previous tier bleeding into the current tier.

V: Yeah this gets suggested often enough, it'd be a good idea but I assume at this point SE has some kind of backend issue with it that makes them not want to implement it. Oh well.

VI: "Just make trusts not do mechanics to not have to do extra programming" shows how little this was thought about, considering how many mechs there are that'll kill someone (the player) for someone else's mistake (the NPC). This would be a substantial amount of work regardless of how they choose to implement it. It could be neat though.

VII: Complaining about SE making combat boring in point 1 and then going "yeah take away positionals except from one melee" is quite the take.

[BigCheez]

The tomes for that uncapped gear come from dungeons, which also drop the accessories you need before you can even get the uncapped tome gear. It’s essentially the same process.



Even if it were the same ilvl, it would still be stronger because 5 materia slots > 2. Granted, some pieces have less desirable substats like SKS or TEN, but in general, more slots still provides a clear advantage.



But wanting to improve my performance isn’t only about parsing. I’d still strive for better gear even if logs didn’t exist. Saying the only reason to gear up is for FFLogs is incredibly reductive.

I’ve offered plenty of reasons why gearing multiple jobs at a decent pace is reasonable, yet the only response you've provided is "lol it doesn't matter you don't really need the gear just stop caring about your parse". I actually enjoy the content we have, I’d just like to play it on other jobs without feeling like I’m griefing the party because I want to play something that isn't my main.

Most people just run a couple of hunt trains for enough tomes for a full set of gear + clusters for the materia to meld it. Pretending that we're doing anything other than a very short mindless zerg for that gear is a little disingenuous.

Get rid of the overmeld slots or make crafted gear a few ilvl lower than previous BiS then. This feels like a very easily solved problem.

I completely agree that improving at a game is one of the most fulfilling parts of playing them but equipping a new stat stick doesn't really factor in to that. Optimising strats and ability usages are the interesting parts of an MMO. Gear should be a means to an end but FFXIV has no end.

The fact that you consider running savage without savage gear to be griefing demonstrates the problem with gearing in FFXIV better than anything that I could say. In the nicest possible way, I think you've been playing FFXIV exclusively for too long, have become XIVbrained and can't see past the status quo. I'd recommend trying another MMO, like XI or WoW, if only for a short time to remind yourself what meaningful player power progression in an MMO actually looks like. Getting new gear is infinitely more rewarding when it will allow you to do something that you weren't able to do before. Getting new gear to make the content that you're already able to do easier, and then throwing it in the trash and replacing it with a new freebie for the next piece of content, is just pointless busywork.

Working your way through ambu to omen to dyna and beyond in FFXI is fun. Pushing through heroic/mythic or pushing M+ keys in WoW is fun. Doing savage to get savage gear so the same boss you were already able to kill dies 6 minutes into the 10 minute fight is not particularly interesting or fun. The fulfilling part is supposed to be the progression that comes as a result of that upgrade but it's absent in FFXIV.

[Collin_Sky]

The fact that you consider running savage without savage gear to be griefing demonstrates the problem with gearing in FFXIV better than anything that I could say. In the nicest possible way, I think you've been playing FFXIV exclusively for too long, have become XIVbrained and can't see past the status quo. I'd recommend trying another MMO, like XI or WoW, if only for a short time to remind yourself what meaningful player power progression in an MMO actually looks like. Getting new gear is infinitely more rewarding when it will allow you to do something that you weren't able to do before. Getting new gear to make the content that you're already able to do easier, and then throwing it in the trash and replacing it with a new freebie for the next piece of content, is just pointless busywork.

Working your way through ambu to omen to dyna and beyond in FFXI is fun. Pushing through heroic/mythic or pushing M+ keys in WoW is fun. Doing savage to get savage gear so the same boss you were already able to kill dies 6 minutes into the 10 minute fight is not particularly interesting or fun. The fulfilling part is supposed to be the progression that comes as a result of that upgrade but it's absent in FFXIV.

For what it’s worth, I still play FFXI regularly. I 6box and can fully clear Ody C/Sortie on 3 of them (working on the other 3 now). I’ve more or less completed the game, which is why I'm doing 3 more chars. I love FFXI's endgame gearing progression. Furthermore, I also agree that FFXIV offers very little content by comparison, which is why I keep returning to FFXI. Unlike FFXIV, FFXI doesn’t heavily restrict how you gear up, and it offers far more than just two pieces of content for progression.

In FFXIV, I’m left with no real choice but to run the same content repeatedly, either to help friends or just for fun and to push for self improvement. But at minimum ilvl, neither of those is really possible. I love FFXIV's combat, but I can't enjoy it when I don't have any goals.

[Purrnauskis]

If you still struggle with expert after 100 levels, I worry.
But also the rest of the playerbase shouldn't have to suffer such a stale game just because you're unwilling to improve after 300+ hours in a game.

Say that to the people who were posting here at the start of DT because Alexandria was impossible.