Is this game too casual or too hardcore for you?
I was going through the FFXIV Forum, in the "Question for Live Letter" thread I come across 2 posts:
5- Are you ruining the game it patch 2.4 putting only good gear in coils (I don\\\\'t do coils ) or are you balancing it so that people like me get,... Not a good gear but at least a decent one without doing coils.I was pretty much forced to post "are they playing the same game?"Are you going to add more things for hardcore players instead of everything being catered to casual players?
Are you going to stop allowing everyone access to the best gear in the game?
Casuals think they don't get access to enough, whereas hardcore think they got access to too much, which is probably the problem every MMO has at the moment.
For those that are not familiar with FFXIV:
You can get Soldiery Tome (similar to Valor Points) with a weekly cap, they can buy ilvl100 gear from vendors.
Coil, 8 man raid, highest content in game atm, drops ilvl 110 gear and ilvl115 weapon, most (if not, a lot) are BiS. Currently there are 4 Turns, other than the usual gear drop, T2 can also drop "Oil" and "Unidentified Tome", T3 can drop Oil, Tom and "Sand". T4 drops Oil, Tome, Sand and ilvl115 weapon.
Oil can be used to upgrade the vendor accessories to ilvl110, while some of them can be better than the Coil drop for some classes.
Tome can be used to purchase an ilvl100 weapon, and can be upgraded to ilvl110 with 1300 Soldiery Tome (weekly cap is 450).
Sand can be used to upgrade vendor main pieces to ilvl110, again, some can be better than Coil drop for some classes.
You can do Crystal Tower (24man LFR style easy mode raid) for ilvl100 gear, or, oil and tome in the rare occasion from last boss, however has a 1 drop per week lock out.
You can do Hunt, go after rare monster that spawn every few hours, or every few days, they drop allied seals that can be used to purchase oil and sands. No weekly cap.
Casual think they are not being access enough for Coil and the better drops (Coil drops and the ilvl115 weapons).
Hardcore think they got accessed to too much (Crystal Tower for oil and tome, Hunt for sands and oil).
I personally think it is just right.
Casual shouldn't have access to the best coil drop and ilvl115 weapons if they cannot do the hardest content in game.
On the other hand while they do have access to ilvl110 items, many of them are not best in slot (due to best in slot is Coil drop a lot of the time), and no access to ilvl115 weapon. Even if the upgraded vendor piece is better than the Coil drop, the Coil drop generally, look better (subjective), so it can be glamoured.
So I think it at the level of just right, Casuals don't get the very very best gear, while hardcore will and at least use look for glamour if it is not the best in slot, and generally get gear at a much faster rate. And Casual still have access to the ilvl100 gear minimal from doing dungeon farm, ilvl110 if they do some Cystal Tower and Hunt, while may not be best in slot, at least on par with Coil drop if you talk about ilvl.
So, what do you think?