[FFXIV] Is this game too hardcore or too casual to you?

[Grym]

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.

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?

I was pretty much forced to post "are they playing the same 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?

[Arkenaw]

Too casual, all content outside of T9 and savage mode is mind numbingly easy. Savage mode was a step in the right direction, but I believe it should have also dropped i115 or i120 gear (even though I won't be seeing savage mode myself for a while).

[Clockwork Pinkie]

It's where it needs to be, this is something they call content for everyone. Plus this is the catch up patch anyway, so of course it'd seem casual and omg we still use these terms? Gah.

[Deleted]

I didn't play long enough to see if it was either; the 2.5second global cooldown made me quit by level 30. So I dropped a vote up there for the 'minor adjustments' because alt-tabbing and watching an episode of Archer in between every single button press, although nifty, isn't a game that wants me playing it.

[threads]

I didn't play long enough to see if it was either; the 2.5second global cooldown made me quit by level 30. So I dropped a vote up there for the 'minor adjustments' because alt-tabbing and watching an episode of Archer in between every single button press, although nifty, isn't a game that wants me playing it.

Oh look another gcd complaint from someone who barely played the game.

I feel like the game's fine atm.

[Orangetai420]

Oh look another gcd complaint from someone who barely played the game.

I feel like the game's fine atm.

I didn't play it at all but a 2.5 sec global cooldown ensures I will never play it, that sounds awful.

[Graeham]

I didn't play it at all but a 2.5 sec global cooldown ensures I will never play it, that sounds awful.

...and there's classes that don't have a 2.5 second cooldown and an entire stat that reduces it considerably.

As for the thread's question I consider FFXIV to be very balanced in regards to the sort of content available and it is improving with each new patch.

[threads]

I didn't play it at all but a 2.5 sec global cooldown ensures I will never play it, that sounds awful.

Some classes get reduced gcds, some have lots of off-gcd abilities. Like I said most people that use that as their complaint know very little about the game anyway.

[Nasriel]

I personally think it's good. There is extreme modes for those that want harder primals otherwise the rest of it is easily duty finder accessible with exception of maybe Twintania.

I love the game as it is and do not think SE need to make it harder just to appease a few vocal nobodies. Blizz tried that and look what happened there. Heh

[Sorrior]

I think it's pretty great TBH. And anyone ever notice how many people who do savage think gear should be there? Savage is there for prestige thus rewarding titles only. And frankly I like it. Shows who truly does it for the love of content instead of part of a gear grind.

[Miyani]

Most casuals players hit the primal extreme wall and end up complaining - Square enix answered their complaints by saying its called extreme for a reason ^^ i do love that response and its needed to be said in so many other games.

[Sorrior]

Most casuals players hit the primal extreme wall and end up complaining - Square enix answered their complaints by saying its called extreme for a reason ^^ i do love that response and its needed to be said in so many other games.

And don't forget echo buff. They give the skilled hardcore first dibs on EVERYTHING then introduce ways fpr the less skilled 3 months after it's released then 6 months they make it easier via gear.

I am playing catchup doing extremes and coil(was going to be in a fc raid static but life got in the way) and I don't bitch..

I also still have to learn the fights. Yes there is a buffer with echo but I don't pull suparna or chirada roght we stilk wipe
I don't survive Titans stacks or swap right we still die I don't dodge right we still die.

TBH I like this they buff us but not enough to make us gods.

As the type for whom videos are not only useless but actually hurt my performance(they almost always pitch for every role I do best knowing my job and why and I am good...I don't need damage percentages done by attacks or how a dps must do this or that as tank my first time in) ...So it works..Also note I tend not to repeat mistakes once I have seen/learned. So once I know I know can just take me a bit to adapt.

That said yeah people who bitch are idiots you don't want the challenge don't do it...And I JUST realized unlike wow we won't be able to outgear via expansion armor...Nice.

[Lyese]

Some classes get reduced gcds, some have lots of off-gcd abilities. Like I said most people that use that as their complaint know very little about the game anyway.

Abilities are still tied to animations. oGCD's are still hampered by the previous GCD's animation. Blah blah clunky gameplay yadda yadda beating dead horse.

Honestly, I wish we got more "hardcore" content than 4 bosses a raid tier (Primals aren't that bad, mostly gimmicky). Savage is fun, but I'd rather for more rewards.

[Sorrior]

See am I the only one who wants to run savage but not for rewards but to experience it?

[Grym]

I am sure they made Savage mode for prestigre, not for loot.

If they make Savage mode drop higher ilvl I'd probably against it, however if they simply drop more (3 pieces instead of 2 pieces) then I would be fine with it

[Sorrior]

I am sure they made Savage mode for prestigre, not for loot.

If they make Savage mode drop higher ilvl I'd probably against it, however if they simply drop more (3 pieces instead of 2 pieces) then I would be fine with it

It gives titles nothing more nothing less. EACH BOSS grants a special savage only title.

[Lyese]

It gives titles nothing more nothing less. EACH BOSS grants a special savage only title.

Yoshi P did say he was open to it giving higher ilvl loot for Savage down the line. It's in one of my roundup posts. I'd be ok with it.

[Sorrior]

Yoshi P did say he was open to it giving higher ilvl loot for Savage down the line. It's in one of my roundup posts. I'd be ok with it.

I like the title method myself. Some raiders claim it's not the gear but orestige...Welll alot of those sane people now bitch for better gear drops from savage when they can have prestige in the form of a title to display.

[MathAddict]

The problem with ff14 is incentives.

The incentives to raid are piss poor. Here is my character profile http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...acter/3085650/.

We have about six weeks before 2.4 and I have been clearing T9 for two months now.

-I am no where near BiS and most likely won't be BiS due to having to share caster loot with the summoner. We still have not seen a single caster earring.

-I don't get to really show off any visual HA gear because I am missing the biggest piece for casters: the chest. We have not seen a single caster chest drop.

-I don't have a HA weapon yet (the best reward for completing coil) and I only have six more chances before the next raid tier is released.


Outside of the satisfaction of the first clear, all the "rewards" from coil are RNG dependent. There is no real reason to raid after the initial clear. All you have to do is wait for the catch up patch twelve weeks after a new raid is released and you can be full ilvl 110 from casual content.

If SE is insistent in there being no difference in ilvl between raid gear and vendor gear, they need to add mounts, pets, and titles to raiding similar to what wow does.

FF14 raiding rewards suck, plain and simple.

I like the title method myself. Some raiders claim it's not the gear but prestige... Well a lot of those sane people now bitch for better gear drops from savage when they can have prestige in the form of a title to display.

Most coil raiders have names turned off. So, you don't even see titles.

I take it you have not tried savage coil yet? Because if you have, you would see how silly it is to only offer a title to beating those fights. You want to know the hardest part of savage coil? Finding 7 other people who want to spend weeks learning the fights all over again just for a title that no one can see in the raiding community.

[Graeham]

It's interesting how many high end raiders spend their time criticising part-time raiders gaining catch up loot via the duty finder and yet they themselves now want to be handed loot in a raid mode that was designed for the sake of a challenge and prestige.