Changes To Darklight Gear and Relic in 2.0

[Dux]

I'm afraid I dont have the exact source for this, somebody I know posted it in another forum. Looks like some interview with Yoshi-P and a magazine somewhere.

There is something called Dark Light Gear which you can obtain from Cutters Cry or Aurum Vale, what grade will these gear be in ARR?

Yoshi-P: We already have the hierarchy, not sure if I can say this...... you should have it for going against primal battle? It's something like that. Compared to previous FFXIV you should be able to obtain it without going through as much trouble.

So Dark light is minimum requirement for battling Ifrit / Moogle / Garuda? Well for Garuda it was pretty much a requirement in the past anyway but it looks like Darklight has taken a bit of a downgrade and is going to be made much easier to acquire. Good news for all the people who never got it before, bit of a kick in the teeth for those who actually worked to get it.

Mr. Yoshida don't run away! I also obtained a relic, but i went though a lot to make the relic. Weapon kept on breaking when crafting, the material itself was hard, and it breaks, and even if you buy from the market it's really expensive! When you finally got that crafted, and you start materia melding it breaks! Then you have to start all over again.
You stated that relic weapons will evolve, but if that's true, after putting in all that work, you'll be like new relic again? (laugh). Will there be something like FFXI's mythic or enpyrean?

Y: Can you stop turning into Garuda? (laugh). There is some misunderstanding, Relic in previous XIV was in the highest rank, but in ARR we want players to obtain it to go through Crystal Tower. And there are weapon you can obtain in Crystal Tower is higher than Relic. Next with those weapons/gears you obtain from Crystal Tower you challenge Great Labyrinth of Bahamut which is higher. This is how it's going to be at the official service start.

However, we'll have contents added later. Next we'll have contents which will upgrade the Relics. By doing this it will become the next highest. To clear that you will need to go through those contents. By making it same design, you'll get bored right? So by upgrading it more to something like Relic2 we'll make sure both items doesn't die, make sure it doesn't go to waste.

So relics are essentially useless in 2.0 until x months?years? down the line when they eventually release a quest, assuming the game lasts that long, to make them better than you can get from Ifrit / Garuda? Again great news if you didn't get it in 1.0, bad news if you did.

[Etra]

Re: Changes To Darklight Gear and Relic in 2.0

So they're following the standard MMO gear grind. Who knew.

[Dux]

Re: Changes To Darklight Gear and Relic in 2.0

So they're following the standard MMO gear grind. Who knew.

I didn't read it that way. Standard MMO gear grind would be to release new gear that is better. I read this as a deliberate downgrade of the 'best gear' so it is not better than the regular gear you get from quests or your Walmart NPC.

[jenova_9]

Re: Changes To Darklight Gear and Relic in 2.0

Naturally a tier of gear has to be surpassed eventually, and if there are more gear options within a tier, that adds more flexibility and variety.
Otherwise, you might as well be able to upgrade low tier Onion gear so it can rival the best gear out there and not become useless, mew.
but then what's the point of new gear or gear that's just as good and grants alternatives for that tier?

[Malacite]

Re: Changes To Darklight Gear and Relic in 2.0

Uh, holy shit?

No really, holy f'ing shit - Darklight was pretty batshit good in 1.23, which means 1 of 2 things;

1) They've nerfed it into oblivion (unlikely)
2) The new gear from crystal tower and then the Labyrinth is just that bad ass.


Also, in the live letter he mentioned they've begun work on adding Primal Armor as well, which is pretty sweet. We've also known from day 1 that what is currently considered "Relic" wouldn't be so forever - I forget which letter it was exactly that he said this but it was a long time ago. I'll admit, part of me hates it and I loved how XI tried to do things horizontally rather than vertically (that is, providing alternatives rather than outright obsoleting old gear) but it sounds like they're doing it in an intelligent manner;

Making the new content difficult enough to still warrant getting the older gear first. Now, the only thing I'd like to see done is some form of magian trials again to help buff that older gear to keep it on par with the newer stuff. That way you satisfy both camps;

The people who don't want to be forced into throwing away their old gear aren't, and the folks who absolutely love new shinies can then proceed to move on and replace their old stuff. Everybody wins. Shit, I should probably post this on the beta forums.

[Aeni]

Re: Changes To Darklight Gear and Relic in 2.0

I'm not surprised at all. This is not unlike a WoW expansion coming out and even quest items from that expansion would trump dungeon or early tier raiding from previous content.

Remember, even if it is 'rebranded', that doesn't mean they're exactly starting anew (saved character being testament) I would call it more of an expansion than a complete overhaul.

[jenova_9]

Re: Changes To Darklight Gear and Relic in 2.0

Exactly mew, things have to move forward. And 1.0 veterans are going to have problems having as much to do as the newcomers, so remaining in one tier isn't going to add enough incentives to keep veterans active before the next tier of content is added. It's silly for anyone to be against the idea of new launch gear surpassing the top gear from 1.0, unless they want to remain elitist as long as they can, but it's really self destructive to play only for the endgame because they are going to get burned out of things to do several times faster. Other mmorpgs really spoiled people into the endgame mentality as if that's all that "matters". It's a highlight, but the beginning and the journey matter just as much.

[Etra]

Re: Changes To Darklight Gear and Relic in 2.0

Darklight gear was so ugly, though. Let me keep my WHM AF on. :/

[Malacite]

Re: Changes To Darklight Gear and Relic in 2.0

Hmm it wasn't that bad.

I wonder though, if all the primals will be equal in power (in terms of their gear) or if the later ones will be better like it was before?

e.g. Ramuh and Levi are due out next, followed by Shiva so will Shiva's gear be better than all the others? I actually don't care for that one bit, as they're all Primals so it should all be equal in terms of power but with key differences (diff elements and stat benefits/additional effects etc.)

For as bad a game as XI was, and as horrible as Tanaka was, that was one thing they got right - they never obsoleted old gear.

[Aeni]

Re: Changes To Darklight Gear and Relic in 2.0

For as bad a game as XI was, and as horrible as Tanaka was, that was one thing they got right - they never obsoleted old gear.

That was because FFXI was messed up in terms of itemization. Players would use gears from levels 50 to 60 at 75 because of 'superior' stats. Some weapons (e.g., Kraken Club) would end up being abused by level 75 players due to some unique abilities or enhancements that tend to skew towards over-powered. SE could never do away with old gear because it would make the game even worse in terms of itemization.

Hopefully SE will avoid those problems in FFXIV. Obsolesence is the essence of progression. Without it, what incentives will players have to actively participate in new content if items from older content continue to remain powerful or even more powerful? And for that matter, I refuse to believe there is nothing wrong with assigning 500 itemization points on a level 56 gear and only 100 on a level 75 gear. That's just retarded.

[Malacite]

Re: Changes To Darklight Gear and Relic in 2.0

Not saying it has to be exactly like XI, just that the concept was a good one; it's what made XI's endgame so varied. Don't like a particular event? Go do something else for similar rewards. I don't disagree that harder, more challenging content *should* reward you with better gear. But I'm not the biggest fan of putting a tonne of effort into 1 set of items simply to move on to the next - particularly when there's no level gap between said gear.

[Aeni]

Re: Changes To Darklight Gear and Relic in 2.0

Not saying it has to be exactly like XI, just that the concept was a good one; it's what made XI's endgame so varied. Don't like a particular event? Go do something else for similar rewards. I don't disagree that harder, more challenging content *should* reward you with better gear. But I'm not the biggest fan of putting a tonne of effort into 1 set of items simply to move on to the next - particularly when there's no level gap between said gear.

They did say level cap was going to get lifted. It's only a matter of time. As for concerns over changing stats on 'old' content gear (just be grateful they didn't erase your inventory), I think they're non-trivial, because you're going to explore the new content and get the drops anyway. /shrug This isn't something that will occur all the time. I'm pretty sure this is just for this particular instance, this particular slice in time, due to transitioning and rebalancing the game to appeal to newcomers.

[jenova_9]

Re: Changes To Darklight Gear and Relic in 2.0

Even if there is no level gap between said gear, that doesn't mean all gear in the same level have to be equal.
New gear should still count as something better than there was before, even if it's the same level and level cap has yet to be raised.
In turn, that actually makes that tier of gears more varied because you have the original gear, which is decent, and the new gear for that tier, which is better, but
the other gear still is effective for those levels. And either gear is better than still wearing gear that is a tier below them.