July 2024 Version Update

Ahh another month that SE is proving they are a terrible company unable to listen to their fanbase. I hope I beat Bumba tonight so I can end this nightmare but honestly, I would rather apply PTM7950 to my 7900xtx instead.

I am *** tired of SE missing the mark on ffxi constantly. They never meet with us in the middle. Always the worst possible outcome. Always a *** kick in the nuts. I truly believe they are trying to make veterans quit and this time it's working considering the cucks playing ff14.

This is why we're called the entitlement generation, just so you know.

"The devs need to provide me with enough free items otherwise I refuse to play the game or try anything new, and it's THEIR fault that I'm not progressing"

They're "catering" to those who grind every day (heavy use of quotes here because a one-time RoE targets absolutely nobody) because those who are casual and do 2 bosses a week already have an incentive: muffins. They lack motivation, not incentive.

If you're miserable playing the game, you don't need R30 armor for a game you hate, just quit now.

oh ***its my dad guys telling me what to do.

FU DAD

They honestly don't mind at all if you grind up mules for more sendable Sortie Earrings. Your misery is their money.

People saying we are entitled would have a point if:

Square Enix didn't spend years turning XI casual, just to hit us with this grindy ***. It gets people to quit/play 14, and they still get money from addicts. ?

Nobody wants this 1% drop rate ***anymore.

Square Enix is a ***company. Especially after buying a few IPs just to kill them/pull some pre order DLC ***.

They are running ff14 into the ground too, the last expansion was asspants.

I heard about the grapes people are making fun of....
Man I would pay big bucks for an FFXI graphical overhaul and ***like more/new inventory system.

I swear every month, the same "how could square do this, I keep paying them and they keep doing this!?
This cannot stand, next month they better stop it!
They better stop treating me this way or I'll keep paying them and being very poutty about it!"

With absolute zero self awareness.

Group therapy for battered spouses.

What game have you been playing? Odyssey is casual, non-grindy content now? Dynamis [D] Volte armor has a really good drop rate, and it's really good casual content.

FFXI has been a grindy, RNG-dependent game for its entire history.

AMAN Trove
GF mobs with 1% drops on pulse, Sphere armor
Sinister Reign
DM Augs
Regular Oseem augs
Random drops from Unity NM boxes
Mobs have random TP moves and can absolutely *** you over by picking the wrong 2 back-to-back
HTBF random (low) drop rates

Ambuscade is...maybe the one exception to this?

IDK what you guys are smoking when you make statements like this, but I hope it gets you REALLY high and you have a good time.

Maybe people want to go back to the "good old days" with...
Random abjuration drops from Sky
Random enemies in Einherjar
3% drop rate on Dring
Random armor drops in Salvage
Random armor appraisals from assault
Random drops from campaign ops (100 pieces, valuable crafting mats, etc.)
Farming NMs for random drops
Crafting with random HQs for BiS gear
Low drop rates on every NM's best gear
Lottery spawn NMs

WHEN DID THIS GAME SUDDENLY BECOME LUCK-BASED AND GRINDY GUYS?!

I can't believe SE did this to us.

Because of FFXI's lack of new content, SE has prolonged its latest content to last for several years. This was the case in the early days, but it changed philosophy about 15 years ago, which mostly alienated the hardcore players who felt like they wasted their time.

The current game does not encourage casual players because getting everything you want takes so long that they won't be motivated enough to keep playing. If you love the grind and have the patience, you will steadily plug away at Odyssey, Sortie, and Master Levels.

However, there are many who play games who don't care to spend 2-3 years to get a +2 earring they want, or to set up Sortie every day for a year to get a fully upgraded Prime. I'm somewhere in the middle of that, so I see it from both sides. The lack of new content hurts the current content because SE has no choice but to hang that carrot really high, and some will reach for it, while others will find better things to do.

I got a guy in my group who has to have done 5mil galli with me and he'll be getting his first +2 this week if they get his power back on from the storm that just came through. Their earring math is so bad they had to add a grief system because they realized that some people would never get a +2.


Fine, which game's budget do you think they used to pay for fluff pieces on clickbait websites?

I get this and it makes sense, but I think the problem is just setting the goals in the wrong place, TBH.

A stage 3 prime weapon is still useful and quite badass (in Sortie). Can change your strategy and give you really nice numbers.

A stage 4 prime is really powerful and can be used outside of Sortie, making it a really impactful milestone.

Both of these can be obtained in < 3 months if you're dedicated, or certainly < 9 months even if you don't do a whole lot of Sortie. Meanwhile, the whole time you've been getting +1 cases left, right, and center. Any one of those could have the +2 earring you want in it.

Saying stuff like "Mathematically, it would take 85 years to get all 22 +2 earrings with max augments" and using it as the reason why you don't do Sortie is just lazy IMO. How many people really need all 22 earrings or all 16 stage 5 prime weapons? It's a really dumb bar to set and OF COURSE the numbers are ridiculous, because that's not the goal you're supposed to be aiming for...

You also don't even need a +2 earring. There's this attitude that formed in the early adoulin era when delve was the hardest content that you could be fully best-in-slot. It was reasonable then, because the best gear was all very attainable and you could have 50% of the endgame population be fully best-in-slot. For a while, you didn't even need REM weapons to do it on most jobs.

But, that's pretty much the only period of time in the game's history when that's been true. BiS isn't something that everyone can get, and very very few players have fully BiS jobs. Even without the earring, you have things like Nyame R30, Primes, ML50, Crepuscular Gear/Omen Bodies, Refresh/Phalanx DM augs, and so on that most won't acquire without luck, perseverance, or both.

Why does the bar have to be a perfectly augmented earring +2? Shouldn't you still be happy when you roll a decent earring +1? Shouldn't upgrading a prime to rank 3 still give you more enjoyment in Sortie? If you are valuing progress as progress, these are substantial improvements to your character. If you're measuring it against total completion/perfection, you're the one placing the unrealistic expectations on yourself.

The best part is that if you do 99k damage ws's with your prime weapon.... that +2 earring with max augs is going to do sooooooooo much more damage!

All kidding aside, no prime weapon, let alone a single earring slot is going to miraculously make someone better at their job nor is it required to clear content like odyssey or even cheese Aminon. All of the content considered the most difficult in the game at the present moment (outside of new master trials perhaps... but I can't really comment on that specifically) which is arguably v25 ody, does not require one to have either prime weapons or earrings.

The drive to obtain the perfect earring or stage 5 prime is simply because you want it that badly and are aiming for a trophy job. Which there isn't anything wrong with, but like Thorny said... some are putting unrealistic expectations on themselves or putting themselves under the impression that certain things are a must when they simply aren't.

The moral of my longwinded story here is that you should enjoy and have fun during the process... don't treat a game like a job.

The design philosophy around FFXI in recent years has been about expanding playtime / encouraging playstyle diversity. Odyssey bosses are an example of this - no repeat jobs, each strat requires different damage types - while gear can make the fights flexible, you simply cant go in to odyssey progression as a "MNK only" player, etc.

The system is designed to encourage you to level multiple jobs to a high level so that you have versatility and, more importantly, you are encouraged to play MORE. Each job you level extends your commitment to the game and requires more reforge, more REMA, more Master levels, etc.

Sortie earrings are another approach to this. When you calculate the incredibly low odds of obtaining +2 earring for your "main" with high roll stats, its simply irrational to believe the SE expected you to grind for a specific job. Instead, the intended reward loop is instead "oh cool, I'm playing warrior, mostly, but I got this RDM +2 earring, maybe I should give that job a try again".

I understand that no one needs a +2 earring but some jobs benefit more than others from said +2 earring. I do not run Sortie for earrings. That doesn't mean I cannot see how horrible the sortie earring system is or that I should ignore this fact. The worst part, is the we know SE can get it mostly right. Compared to Odyssey Gaol, Sortie comes up short in a lot ways and the earring system is the most egregious. With no way to limit the impact of bad luck, obtaining earrings is one of the worst grinds in the game: a RNG grind.


The difference is that, at least in Gaol, you are rewarded extremely well for your efforts to play multiple jobs at a high level.

The way you describe it, SE thinks player should play another job just because RNGesus hates them. There is no direct reward for playing another job because you got a +2 earring for said job, it is more like a punishment.


Nothing in FFXI has ever been as bad as the Sortie Earring RNG experience, when it comes to obtaining an item. First you have to get a case +1 to drop, then you need the case +1 to drop a +2 Earring, then you need the +2 earring to roll a job you play and finally you get to hope for it not to min roll. That is 3 pure RNG task that have to hit and a 4th RNG task just to make sure not everyone gets to feel great about hitting on the first 3 RNG task. Obtaining a +1 for a specific job isn't that much better either.

At this point, I believe whomever is behind Sortie design actively hates the player base. Why add a 1 time guaranteed +2 earring if it is still a random job? There is really only one answer to that. Either it needed to be weekly\monthly RoE or it needed to guarantee the job roll. There is literally no point to a 1 time guaranteed +2 if RNG is still involved.


Well, +1 is missing an augment, which may be important and you are likely missing a decently rolled +1, if you have one at all, as well.

BD3 was made to run the mmorpgs and they are paid out of the subscription fee to do that job, now they are making other numerous other games (currently 3 other games I believe).

Even Blizzard don't do this, and the teams are assigned to and only work on WoW. Yet they know we will put up with it and we have little choice so they just do it anyway, not only 11 but they are scrimping on 14 too. The level of disrespect is disgraceful.

Worst part is people lavish praise on Yoshida while he does it.

Completely anecdotical and the sample rate is almost zero, but my group just completed Aminon + 2 basement bosses (E + F).

I haven't opened my chests yet (I hesitate, but I will), but one person received 3 +2 earrings (one from the +2 case, two from the +1 case) and another person received 2 +2 earring (again, one from the +2 case and another from one of the +1).

Sooo, this doesn't prove anything other than "it's cool this happen" but it's really suspicious that these chests came from the quests. Again, not trying to imply anything, just sharing the anecdotical outcome from today.


-Edit-
meh, I spoke too soon, the 3 +2 were from 3 different chars ¬¬, the person who got 2 +2 was just luck to get another +2 from RNG. Nothing to see here, wishful thinking, etc.

Some people want to finish their goals before quitting for good. It's possible to want to finish these goals and still hate Sortie, along with be frustrated with what SE is doing. The game has diverse enough content at this point that it's possible to like small subsets of it and dislike the rest. Most of us have at least a decade committed at this point, so its not unreasonable to say they want to finish the last of the difficult content before bowing out.

I would also point out that people are paying for this game as a service, expecting developers to at least give people some obtainable and reasonable way of earning +2 earrings is not entitlement. Calling it that way is an easy way to be dismissive of complaints, which is 99% of what people call entitlement these days, but it really isn't that in any way shape or form. It's just the easiest way to dismiss what is otherwise a legitimate complaint about SEs consistent behavior towards veteran players.

Anyway, I know you think it's all golden with this content, but the bleed of veteran players says otherwise. 90% of the players I was running Odyssey with 2 years ago have quit. You can ride that train into the ground when everyone is gone, but it doesn't change the fact this game has lost its appeal to a lot of long term players and is catering to the minority, which will ultimately result in its death. As a whole, I don't think the +2 situation is going to be a big driver behind this, rather it's a smaller, but good example of how naive SE is to the needs and wants of veteran players. The earring system was stupid when they added it, they had a chance to un-stupid it here and instead decided to stupid it just as much

Love the conversation, but some +2 shouldn’t count….for example, I have SMN +2, a totally useless augment (hint pet STP sub 15…) that’s literally useless. Another earring I have BLM, the augment is absolutely amazing for its use. So yeah the ability to pick the job would be great for that single guarantee ROE.

Those are some odd examples to pick.

Ody might be unfriendly to pickup groups, but it offers some of the best rewards for time spent in the game, and doesn't rely on drop rates at all. Aura RNG is a thing, but can usually be overcome with better gear or more ML; Bumba v25 might be the only fight where bad RNG can doom a run no matter how well prepared your group is.

Dyna D might not be solo friendly, but as long as you have two other people to enter, Volte is relatively easy to farm as well. As best we can tell, the Wave 2 NM volte slot is always open and has something like a 5~10% chance to be armor. Not to mention that unlike earrings, you can specifically target the type of Volte armor you want for a given job.

The only recent content I can think of with ultra low drop rates were the rare pieces from Shinryu HTBF, and the player base was extremely vocal about that, at least until the rewards were added to Trove.

I've lost plenty of friends over the past year or two. I definitely agree that the game is in decline. I doubt that these people would still be playing if the +1 earring rate was double or the augments were more heavily weighted on the higher end.

I think it would be difficult to say one way or the other, but I think very few people would say they quit because they really badly wanted a maxed aug WAR+2 earring and couldn't get one.

All the people I know who quit left because they had other stuff going on IRL, they were hitting a brick wall with endgame content (unable to find group, unable to kill things with group), and/or they had already finished all the endgame to their satisfaction.

I'll take it a step further: If our hypothetical player really wants a WAR+2 earring and that's their motivation...why the hell would it be a good strategy to give them a WAR+2 earring guaranteed? Then they would DEFINITELY quit the game...because they met their goal and have nothing to look forward to or work on.

Everything they've released in the past 5 years has been grindy and/or RNG-based, was my point.
-Ody is grindy as hell
-Dynamis is grindy and RNG. I've been doing Dyna [d] twice/week for the past 3+ years and we've seen < 5 pairs of Volte Tights ever. We've never seen some of the bodies, not a single time. The highest body we've seen I think twice?
-Sinister Reign is 3 layers of stacked RNG
-HTBF (Odin, Lilith, Cait Sith) all have terrible drop rates and require tons of spamming to get the drop you want (also grindy)

I'm not saying they're bad content or anything, I'm just shocked that people think FFXI has taken a turn away from being grindy or relying on 1% drops lately...I'm not sure I see that in their design decisions at all. What was the last content that was released for FFXI that didn't involve RNG or heavy grinding? As I said in my post, the only thing I can think of is Ambuscade; everything else they've ever released has heavy elements of one, the other, or both. It's what FFXI does. Pulse weapons, HMP, Rifts from Voidwatch. Rare scroll & gear drops in Legion, random spell learning on BLU. Everything in this game is a random, usually low, percent chance.

I'll grant that +2 earrings (with max augs) are very rare, and especially if you're saying you only want a specific job, sure that's obscenely rare. I think there are significantly more +2 max aug earrings than there are KCs though. If you look at level 75 era, there were far fewer relic weapons, mythic weapons, and drings in the community than there are +2 earrings in the current community. The game has foundations in RNG, rare drops, and extreme grinds and it's never deviated from that.

Heavy grinding is an understatement, you will literally never get the right ear. And yea people quit over it and its not keeping people subbed, I un subbed like 10 accounts for over a year because SE thinks im a retard and yea i want the ears.

I have been after a single DRK+1 earring since I returned over a year ago, and I've found a +1 for all my other jobs, but have no hope I'll find it. And that's just a +1. It will likely take years of doing regular Sortie to see a DRK +2, and even then it will have the worst augments. It's a cruel system.

Sing it with me kids. By masochists for masochists.

Always has been, just stepping it up more and more. Just keep going every day and you will "definitely" get it.

Hi Ejiin browsing the drama again

I feel like some people forget about how casual ***got after 2010.



But Sortie comes out, and the devs are all "*** all that noise."

The other reason is because I don't like the absolute *** argument of its keeping people subbed, You don't know everyone to begin with, i understand people need cope tho, carry on

No ones quitting because they got one either, gtfo of here with this ***