Proposed Fixes for FATEs (& dungeons).

[Whitemage82]

There are some problems with FATEs at the moment. (And dungeons.)

1. Currently there are just too many players in smaller zones where FATEs are close together. Mor Dhona for example. This is causing FATEs to be easily zerged and less fun because you're not really playing your class other then spamming AoE abilities like Flash.

2. FATE's are not scaling well to the number of people involved.

3. Some FATEs are exploitable such as Dark Devices by Bluefog and give much more XP then they should due to an endless supply of mobs that give kill XP.

4. There is no other play alternative for leveling to FATEs. They give more XP then any other option in game.

These issues can be easily fixed. Nerfs the FATEs with limitless XP monsters being farmed while avoiding the objective. These monsters should not give XP; just the objective should.

Decrease spawn times of FATEs in other zones for higher level players such as Southern Thanalan, East Shroud, etc. Increase the times FATEs spawn in places like Mor Dhona. Get people out into the world instead of two zones. Scale these FATEs past the 5000 server population they are still set for. 7500 server populations decimate the content now past the point of it being enjoyable.

Increase dungeon rewards in terms of crafting mats in chests, aetherial gear in chests, and over all XP rewards. Let us have chains for increased item drops for trash that give better drops up to dropping Tomestones. This would be like the monster kill XP chains, but would apply to monster crafting drops until you cap the chain at which point the trash gives a Tomestone per kill until the timer wears out.

Please leave comments for improving the experience. Other threads are just complaining about the issue and feedback is being drowned out by complaints and people that currently vehemently defend the system without thinking about how it could be improved. Thanks!

[Onolock]

In P4, xp was buffed by at least 50% in dungeons. They got rid of this for live.

A bonus to xp or something at the end based on time would be cool, but make it a bit challenging. Though since most people speed run, this might not be the best idea.

[Balzaque]

completely agree, there should be more compelling ways to level then just grinding fates.

it would be awesome if they tuned fates a little bit and then tuned better leves and dungeons for it to be competitive.

at the very least make then scale with the players doing then >.< spamming aoe or trying to run and hit something before it just evaporate in the air is really not fun..

[Talmaran]

The only real solution would be to have a lot more side quests and even if it is slower i would rather do that then the fates but currently there is no REALISTIC way to level a second job or a third without the zerg grind.

One of the ideas that i have is that the could make it that in all 3 of the city zones there are enough quests to level 1 job.
And when u have completed all 3 zones u could for example buy with company seals a reset token to reset all the side quests so you can level the other jobs as well trough quests.

Whether SQ is going to do that or not is up to the devs of the game and if it is even double for them.
I dont expect a solution fast what i do hope for is a descend solution eventually (and i mean in 1 or 2 major content patches so 2.1 or 2.2 )

Now let the bash fest begin its maintenance after all i am grabbing the popcorn.

[Whitemage82]

The only real solution would be to have a lot more side quests and even if it is slower i would rather do that then the fates but currently there is no REALISTIC way to level a second job or a third without the zerg grind.

I totally agree with you that leveling the additional jobs past your first requires the use of FATE, however some of the FATE XP needs to be shifted into other mediums. Those mediums should be dungeons and leves.

There needs to be a balance. FATEs being the main font of XP is causing issues where players are woefully inadequate at playing their chosen roles.

Not only are FATEs #1 for XP but only FATEs in certain zones are being used, while other areas are ghost towns. There's some major imbalances that should be addressed to spread the XP out from FATE to other areas of the game and FATEs themselves need to be balanced for players in all zones.

[Soulburn32]

Is everyone like dead set on not grinding adds in open world anymore? I enjoyed it in FFXI

[Moontide]

A simple fix to stop the abuse would be to make any individual FATE refresh with a timer that depends on the participants of earlier one. More people steamrolling it through = longer time to refresh. That would probably spread the people out more evenly also, instead of a few maps becoming giant grindfests. There needs to be more done to the other leveling options too though.