3.1 Revamps; look forward to them in 3.2
Quote:We've been receiving a lot of feedback, and we understand that the game balance has been disturbed as of Patch 3.15. Due to this, we will be revamping the overall balance in Patch 3.2
Regarding Alexander: Gordias (Savage)
This raid is currently the hardest content in FFXIV, and it is the top of the item hierarchy. Since this is relevant to the future, I’ll start off by talking about this first.
We implemented the more difficult Savage mode in addition to normal mode to answer the requests we received globally for more difficulty content.
However, we received comments stating that it was too difficult, and we've been reflecting on this--especially the aspect where the DPS check was too severe. It has been difficult to find members that have the motivation to clear this content on the same World, and players have even took to transferring Worlds in order to beat it, which makes me feel that we overdid it. Additionally, for the people that feel it’s too difficult to even attempt to challenge Savage, it’s essentially the same as if this content never existed.
Alexander: Midas will debut in Patch 3.2, but compared to the current Alexander: Gordias, we have eased the difficulty in the Savage mode. As an image the difficulty is something in between Second Coil of Bahamut and Final Coil of Bahamut.
There are three paths for obtaining equipment in FFXIV:
Obtaining items via difficult raids.
Obtaining equipment by earning tokens over time.
Spending a long period of time (such as Anima weapons)
Regardless of the path you choose, you will be able to reach the top of the item level hierarchy.
However, due to the fact the reward for completing The Burden of the Father (Savage) was low, and in order to maintain it’s value, it affected item levels of other equipment which can be obtained from other content.
In Alexander: Midas, we're thinking of setting the value higher for the items earned when completing it, especially compared to that which can be obtained from other content. Also, by lowering the difficulty of the more difficult version, that doesn’t mean it’ll be much easier. Normal mode’s difficulty will remain as is.
We believe those trying to clear the content at the earliest possible moment will try different methods, and we would like to set the difficulty to where players can enjoy the challenge overall.
We think it'd be best to have the difficulty set to a point where players can say "that wasn't too bad" after completing the content.
Regarding The Diadem Wrote:Regarding the Diadem
While most of the content in FFXIV has various rules, we didn't set any hard rules for exploratory missions, and designed this content around the concept of players creating their own rules. However, we've been receiving feedback asking for such things as a system that makes it so gatherers and battle classes are not mixed together.
I feel that the largest issue with this is the fact that system-wise the rules are lacking. We're not done with exploratory missions, and we’ll be adding the next phase of content based on the feedback that we have been receiving globally. We’d like to thoroughly establish rules and objectives. Additionally, we’d like to create a system that allows for players with the similar objectives to group up--such as players who wish to gather.
Due to the fact that there are changes in the materia system in Patch 3.2, we know that there will be more of a demand for materia, and although there hasn’t been any issue with the amount distributed from item exchange, we were watching the amount of item level 210 gear being distributed. If it remained as is, it'd have further lessen the drive to complete raids so we had to introduce limitations.
As everyone’s feedback mentioned, we believe the optimal item level for gear obtained from exploratory missions should have been 205.
For the next exploratory missions, we would like to not only include balance adjustments, but feature more of the "exploration" aspect.
However, in Patch 3.2 there will be a greater demand for materia from exploratory missions, so we would like to change the content time to around 45-60 minutes, and make adjustments to amount of aether currents to accompany this.
Regarding Anima Weapons Wrote:Regarding Anima Weapons
This content is focused on creating weapons over a long period of time, and we understand that there are pros and cons to this.
We’ve been receiving feedback asking for more challenging elements; however, just as I explained earlier, there are three paths for obtaining equipment in FFXIV
Obtaining items via difficult raids.
Obtaining equipment by earning tokens over time.
Spending a long period of time (such as Anima weapons)
The third path on this list is for Zodiac and Anima weapons.
For players who are confident in their skills, they can make their rounds of the extreme primals. However, for players who are not confident, it is possible to earn a powerful weapon by spending their time working towards it.
With that said, we don’t plan on associating extreme primals without the Echo for this content.
We understand that there have been requests for content with a difficulty similar to the Hydra trial or hard mode Garuda and Titan, but after looking over player data, the number of players who obtained weapons during that time period was quite low. Due to this, they were unable to challenge the subsequent content. Currently, other content has has been affected due to the difficulty of Savage, and since there has not been any easing for upgrading Esoteric weapons, Anima weapons have become the sole option for increasing everyone’s weapon item level. We will be thoroughly revamping this in Patch 3.2.
In order to explain about the above, I started off by first explaining the state of Alexander: Gordias (Savage). We’ll be balancing these aspects in Patch 3.2.
Next I would like to talk about the lifespan of the Anima weapon.
There are comments saying if it was this, it could have started from Patch 3.1, but the reason behind why we have set the item level to 170, 200, and 210, is because we wanted new starting players to be able to focus on obtaining Allagan tomestone of Estoreric gear as a priority which has weekly restrictions. As for the phase where players need to obtain items from FATEs, we made adjustments based on feedback so that players can choose their path while upgrading from item level 200 to 210, or obtain the various items while leveling other jobs.
For example, if Alexander (Savage) weapons were item level 215, then we could have shortened the amount of time it takes to reach item level 210. As for the lifespan of Anima weapons that everyone is concerned about, we will make adjustments to their overall lifespan. We will make updates on Anima weapon in Patch 3.25 and Patch 3.3.
However, Patch 3.25 will likely focus more on adjustments, while the large update to this quest will occur in Patch 3.3.
