FATE improvement wishlist

[mallleable]

FATEs kinda suck, but they really don’t have to. With the right changes, I think they can scratch the Exploration Zone, non-raiding combat itch that a good number of players seem to want. The advantage FATEs have over other combat instances is that they come prepackaged with an expansion’s launch, and their barrier to entry is incredibly low. If you enter a zone, you should have a videogame to play that might actually be kinda fun. Please consider these changes, and additions to the FATE system.

Please increase the difficulty/complexity of mini boss FATEs to be around a similar level as Dawntrail dungeon bosses (or dungeon bosses in general). It seems like both non-raiders, and experienced raiders agree that the dungeon bosses from Dawntrail dungeons have been fun while still maintaining an easy, and accessible difficulty. So I think their complexity, and difficulty would be appropriate for mini boss FATEs. This is the most important request, the below requests mean nothing if FATEs are not fun to fight.

Please add more FATE chains. I think that every ‘kill lots of enemies’ style FATES should always chain into a mini boss FATE. This would mimic how Notorious Monsters, and Critical Engagements are spawned in exploration zones. Also we just get more FATE per FATE.

Please add a world boss FATE to every zone. Six alliance raid level bosses with rewards would be available to players at the start of an expansion. And please allow us to trade in excess world boss tokens for either bicolor gems or bicolor vouchers. It would also be great if world boss FATEs from previous expansions had chance of having the bonus reward buff applied to them.

Please add more Forlorn Maiden interactions. I made a post outlining a rare ‘Forlorn Mistress’ enemy concept, so please consider it. Another change that would be great is dramatically increasing the spawn chance of Forlorn Maidens/The Forlorn in 1 or 2 zones per expansion. Increasing the spawn rate for Forlorn Maidens in a zone will make that zone great for leveling.

Please add more long term FATE rewards. A long term FATE reward I would like to see in the future is like some kind of universal accessory that increases the amount of bicolor gems you get from FATEs. Another would be a consumable item that can be bought with vouchers that forces Forlorn Maidens to spawn in FATEs you are participating in.

Some miscellaneous wants: a FATE log with achievements, and rewards for completing it, get players out of combat faster when a FATE ends, an auto sync option, don’t remove tank stance when syncing for a FATE, add bicolor gems to FATEs up to at least Heavensward zones, and add challenge log entries that reward bicolor gems for completing FATEs within your level range. I genuinely think it would be worth it to apply these improvements to FATEs in zones from previous expansions as well.

[VictorSpoils]

Still waiting for that enmity bug to never get fixed

[Loggos]

Another thing could be integrating Fates into the MSQ.

Not as in "Farm 100 fates to progress" of course. But as in creating Fates that narratively tie in with the MSQ and are perhaps a bit more fun gameplay-wise than normal run-of-the-mill fates.
(Of course they have to spawn reliably and often, no matter how many people are in a zone or anything. Perhaps the player could even actively trigger them. And they'd have to scale with the number of players so you can solo them on any class if nobody is around but also have enough of a challenge when you do play with several people.)

Like this you interrupt the long stretches of cutscenes and fetch quests between dungeons and instances with more battle content and active participation.

I think it would help a lot to make the progression through the story feel more dynamic and engaging.
The world would feel more alive as well because you'd use the game's actual main gameplay mechanic in the actual world.

[Kaurhz]

Just make the boss-level ones more normalized, and more frequent and they'll be good in my book... Doing ones like Archaeotania and Chi are still really enjoyable.

Breadcrumb ones that have nothing to them just aren't fun.

[Jeeqbit]

Please increase the difficulty/complexity of mini boss FATEs to be around a similar level as Dawntrail dungeon bosses (or dungeon bosses in general).

I'd be alright with that and I don't really know why they stick to ARR-level mechanics for FATEs in Dawntrail. People are obviously beyond dodging a telegraphed conal AoE by then.

We could argue that hunts fit the bill of what you're wanting already, it's just that they don't sync like FATEs do, so they reach a point where they melt. This can happen to FATEs as well depending on their level. But they could just do what they are with hunts when making FATEs too.

Please add more FATE chains.

FATEs died after POTD was released in Heavensward, especially after the anima relics got old and nerfed. It felt like nobody did them in Stormblood at all except the ones with achievements. In Shadowbringers, they wanted to fix the fact nobody cared about FATEs, and made lots of FATE chains, taking inspiration from an extremely popular lore chain in the Azim Steppe.

It seems this project failed, and people didn't care about the Shadowbringers chains as much as the bicolor gemstones, so they put their focus on the gemstones and making long term grinds for a mount and other rewards.

Please add a world boss FATE to every zone.

Almost every zone up through Shadowbringers has an achievement FATE. 2 of them are scaled for 24-48 people while the rest are scaled for 8 people. I'm not opposed to more of them needing 24 people, but it can be hard to find people, especially when they get older.

Increasing the spawn rate for Forlorn Maidens in a zone will make that zone great for leveling.

Good idea. I think one of the problems with FATEs is that, because it's world-based, there are naturally less people than a Field Operation, which shares the population across worlds, and that's a potential problem they have with this.

get players out of combat faster when a FATE ends, an auto sync option, don’t remove tank stance when syncing for a FATE

Agreed.

add challenge log entries that reward bicolor gems for completing FATEs

That might help with getting people to form parties each week like happens with Blue Mage weeklies, which is super niche but you can in fact find a party for their weeklies if you look.

Still waiting for that enmity bug to never get fixed

If you mean where you have to generate enough enmity to get gold rating, that isn't a bug. In fact, SE teaches you about it via Active Help as a new player upon your first encounter with a FATE. I can confidently say that most players do not read this because they are "unaware" of this always their first time doing them.

[Immut]

It used to be standard that each area had an area boss FATE. That seems to have been largely replaced with hunts, which are just worse in every way.

My biggest wish for FATES is to expand bicolor gem shops to include twine/glaze like hunts have. There is zero reason for hunts to reward savage level gear and fates not to.

Of course ideally all these different kinds of content would have their own sets but that's asking a lot of the art team.

[Jeeqbit]

It used to be standard that each area had an area boss FATE. That seems to have been largely replaced with hunts, which are just worse in every way.

No, they continued the boss FATE concept but stopped doing it as of Endwalker.

Hunts have existed since ARR, and are far better mechanically.

[VeyaAkemi]

No, they continued the boss FATE concept but stopped doing it as of Endwalker.

Eh? we have two big boss FATEs in DT, The Serpentlord Seethes and Mascot Murder, both of them drop unique currency that is used to get items that can't be gotten otherwise, much like we have two in EW(Chi and Daivadipa), two in ShB(Formidable and Archaeotania), two in StB(Ixion and Tamamo Gozen), so on.

...unless I completely misunderstood what you meant.

[DiaDeem]

Please add more FATE chains. I think that every ‘kill lots of enemies’ style FATES should always chain into a mini boss FATE. This would mimic how Notorious Monsters, and Critical Engagements are spawned in exploration zones. Also we just get more FATE per FATE.

This, so much. The Dataqi Chronicles is one of the best narrative bits of content in the open world specifically, and though not as interesting, the chain with the Fuaths and our Pixie friend in Il Mheg is also a fun one. Each zone should have at least one of these chains.

Also, new music, for the love of Hydaelyn.

[Hallarem]

Make the bosses themselves drop rng loot, not currency. A chance at some rare glam, mount, pet or something. PLUS a weekly coffer you can get something ultra-rare from.

I'd say gear, but until the gearing in this game becomes less boring, I don't think gear should be attached to anything unless its in a vacuum like Bozja etc. Where it can thrive away from the horrible crafted catch-up gear system.

And yes, new music. This game in general needs to stop being lazy with music... with everything tbh.