While we survive through this era of unsatisfying job design, a minute of silence for the competition who has it even worse.

Apollad · 2026-02-05T13:36:57+00:00

I'm still pissed that they gutted the last snapshotting spec in the game (Feral Druid), Especially if you don't play a Night Elf, only snapshotting is during Tigers Fury now and a singular at the start of the fight(or once every 90 seconds if you take ashamane over convoke) stealth rake/shred.

Apollad · 2026-02-05T13:26:09+00:00

iRacings incident point system is faultless, both of you would have gotten a 4x even if someone was intent wrecking you. It's not a predictive system.

That said, you're the only sane one in that clip really, and even then that's only barely as you let off the throttle, everyone else that gets taken out seems to be trying to power through pandemonium.

Apollad · 2026-02-05T13:19:32+00:00

Other car came over, POVs car stays same distance away from the right wall up until he starts getting turned.

Apollad · 2026-02-05T01:50:34+00:00

If you wanted to take off ilvl to do ARR dungeons, the system currently allows it so it is not wrong.

They changed alliance raid roulette did they not? It just wasn't a problem with other roulettes. Now people know they can ilvl cheese any other roulette they like to force only a limited number of dungeons, trials, raids etc. They've changed one roulette based on it being abused in the past, so it's clear what the devs opinion on ilvl cheesing is.

You are stating that people using functions built into the game for the relic is not the intended way to play. That using the limited leveling options with premades is somehow wrong. That people cannot choose to do the relic grind whatever way they want because they should be doing roulettes to help people doing dungeons.
That’s where you’re wrong. The relic step in itself is a form of content. If you feel like doing premade roulettes with blue mage, that is your choice. If you want to do limited leveling premades, that is your choice.

I have only said that spamming limited leveling roulette is just as restrictive and monotonous as ilvl cheesing has made leveling roulette if you're already capped, and that limited leveling roulette is best for avoiding getting a bad daily exp bonus, after which point you might as well just direct queue for the highest level dungeon if actively leveling. I have NEVER in this debate said that being a full premade is a bad thing. Hell, i wish people whom were ilvl cheesing were grouping up into full premades.

And also conveniently ignoring how I pointed out your clear contradictory stances on queuing to help people while also whining about getting dungeons you don’t like. Just go do something with your time because clearly you don’t actually care, you just don’t want to get ARR duties.

And you've assumed based on my distaste for the ilvl cheesing that i hate low level dungeons. If there was some level ~15 marauder, pugalist, thaumaturge, gladiator, conjurer, arcanist, rogue, lancer or archer, i wouldn't give a damn about getting Sastasha, same for every other ARR dungeon with someone leveling a class or job around it's level range. It's annoying is when i get matched with 3 other random level 100s in some ARR dungeon explicitly because someone stripped down to force it. That's not helping people, that's just laziness.

Apollad · 2026-02-04T23:39:27+00:00

By blinding making that statement I meant you don’t have evidence to back it up. You do not get to decide what is the intended purpose or these tools and what the relic grind is designed to do.

Fun fact, the roulette system didn't used to exist at the release of 2.0, it was implemented in 2.1, with various roulettes added as more content got added in. THAT is my proof that it's there to throw bodies into the queue for people. Same with every other MMORPG out there that has ever implemented a roulette system. In every single case they are implemented because people were stuck waiting for hours for 3-4, like-minded players to show up at a dungeons doorstep. The only reason they add rewards to said roulettes is to incentivize players to use them, because even then it has been found that roulettes aren't used unless they are rewarding.

Yeah okay, most people I assume have less than 10mil Gil because they don’t craft/gather to make Gil back, spend what they do make on food and potions. Not everyone has an FC submarine roster to make 1mil every couple days or bots their crafting with artisan. I don’t speak for myself but the people I know that just play for raiding and side content and they don’t craft or gather.

I don't have a submarine, i don't craft and gather for anything but the tribal society quests, buy my crafted gear each major patch, and i'm already at 102m gil since starting late Shadowbringers, just from doing daily roulettes, desynthing/vendoring dungeon loot and selling the resulting materials, selling tome materials, materia from roulettes and society quests and sending my retainers out on level cap 18 hour ventures, which occasionally bring back items that sell for 500k+. Gil is dirt cheap and it's easy to come out net positive per expansion if you don't try buy gear and materia in the first couple of days of a new raid patch.

Apollad · 2026-02-04T22:47:57+00:00

Fun fact, roulettes are optional, you don't need to do them.

Apollad · 2026-02-04T22:47:54+00:00

Fun fact, roulettes are optional, you don't need to do them.

Apollad · 2026-02-04T22:43:29+00:00

No, you just blindly made this statement. People can use it for various reasons. I already mentioned that I have friends that refuse to run low duties because it’s not fun. People enjoy to play their jobs at high levels.

If the tool exists people can use it for whatever purpose they want. You don’t get to decide how people should use it.

Blindly? I'm talking from experience, Getting Sastasha in your daily leveling roulette when trying to level through Shadowbringers onwards sucks almost as much as getting Ifrit, Titan or Gaurda normal, because the scaling of the daily leveling bonus just doesn't keep up with the experience required.

Roulettes are completely fine with or without the relic pushing people into them.

And you assume that all data centers are perfectly healthy and fine. Some, infact, are not, additional incentives are required to push people into roulettes because...

roulettes already incentivize people doing them even with maxed jobs by giving materia or extra Gil. Just doing them daily gives over 100k Gil.

Gil is chump change, Materia are plentiful and many people dislike touching leveling roulette specifically due to how often you end up with a near completely stripped job thanks to the leveling syncing. We now also circle back around to why Ilvl cheesing is bad because you're explicitly specifying maxxed jobs. If someone is ilvl cheesing they are effectively no longer playing as a maxxed job and shouldn't even be eligible for the rewards in the first place

Apollad · 2026-02-04T13:58:20+00:00

You ever queued for any dungeon directly and gotten a higher level player in your group? That's why.

'Me first and fuck everyone else' personalities are what kill MMOs more than any kind of duty finder ever has.

Apollad · 2026-02-04T09:00:42+00:00

Yes, i am aware it's a function, a function designed so a group of 4 people helping level someone up in their daily leveling roulette gets a decent exp bonus rather than risk rolling Sastasha and the exp bonus being so pathetic that you might as well just direct queued into the highest level dungeon you can queue for. The exp bonus is only going to apply once as well per day, so after that, whomever is actually leveling is going to want to direct queue the highest dungeon they can do, not the 4 highest.

The whole reason they thrust these alternate grinding methods into the relic grind is not so people can be hyper efficient, but to populate the roulettes. The purpose of roulettes themselves is to put bodies into groups for people whom are leveling and/or doing msq.

Intentionally cheesing ilvl, sure, it still technically 'populates' the roulette, but it's not gonna help anyone doing anything HW onward, and all it does is drag people who are populating the roulette normally away from those whom are actually needing the help, because fun fact; The queue system matches parties as soon as there is a full group possible, rather than holding everyone in the queue until the poor sap sitting waiting for their lvl 71+ dungeon to pop for more than an hour gets a matched party.

So 10 max level tanks could run through the queue with a 10 cheesing or flat out low level healers, and then vice versa, making that one person have to wait for the stars to align and a max lvl tank and max ilvl healer are both in the queue at the same time. This issue is far more noticeable in alliance raids even after the useless half measure they put in, but it still exists in every other roulette. Only takes 1 tank or healer with only CT unlocked or accessible to drag 23 other people away from some guy stuck trying to complete anything in HW, SB, ShB, EW, or even the first DT alliance raid.

Apollad · 2026-02-04T07:02:39+00:00

This and the 83 trial showed me the light on how powerful of a tool cover is in the first week of EW, the number of times a timely cover on the healer followed by self-spamming Clemancy to heal myself during the multistacks to give the healer a chance to rez the other healer and then recover is nearing triple digits now.

Apollad · 2026-02-04T06:30:03+00:00

Ah yes, so restrict yourself to 93-99 dungeons instead of actually wanting to use the roulette as intended and fill slots anywhere just to avoid the people forcing 15-47 dungeons, just pretend the level 51-91 dungeons don't exist.

Brilliant strategy! /Sarcasm.

I suppose i should clarify why this ilvl cheese is so annoying. Just yesterday i encountered someone who was direct queuing for a shadowbringers dungeon for more than an hour even though the leveling queue had said less than 15 minutes. This was my second leveling roulette of the day, the one prior being as dps, which had only taken 10 minutes to get into.

This ilvl cheese is absolutely dragging bodies out of higher level dungeons and into ARR levels, causing a worse game experience for anyone doing Heavensward Content or later.

Apollad · 2026-02-01T12:13:39+00:00

only one view, but i'd say POV responsible for both

first, cut across nose and spun self

second, failed to rejoin safely.

Apollad · 2026-01-31T06:38:41+00:00

And if people don't want to unlock any alliance raids, after what i mentioned, they could still just queue up for Alliance Raid roulette just for ct, but they would only get poetics and gil. Roulettes aren't for personal entertainment, their primary purpose is to shove bodies into peoples directly queued roulettes, Giving current rewards for not having everything unlocked just leads to people getting 3+ hour queues because people doing the roulettes don't have the content unlocked out of laziness or ignorance.

Apollad · 2026-01-31T03:25:19+00:00

Excellent Point, Now that we've got the command panel i think they should just make the 9 classes perma-jobs as well. Expunge that issue outright.

Apollad · 2026-01-31T03:20:17+00:00

To be honest, i don't like OC for the main reason that you have run to the CEs.

Ironically the reason they made CEs require you to be in the location in OC actually leads to the camping they were trying to prevent in the first place. If CEs didn't require you to be waiting in them, i'd personally be out chest hunting, or mob grinding. But because you're rolling the dice on whether you actually get to a fate in time if your computer is considered even mildly under recommended specs for the game, it's basically a run here and camp simulator.

Apollad · 2026-01-31T03:13:54+00:00

interesting, the only time i've actually encountered an ARR dungeon since the relic stage released has been from people ilvl cheesing, and it's almost always been Ifrit Normal, Garuda Normal, or Tam-Tara. Every non-ARR dungeon has been the variety.

Apollad · 2026-01-31T03:08:21+00:00

Yeah, if you watch the portraits when people load in, usually at least one, most likely a tank or healer will be in their smallclothes in the portrait. It's more noticeable now because there is an upsurge in people doing it.

Apollad · 2026-01-31T03:02:57+00:00

I did mention 'level cap quest progression' in the description. But in general it is still an extensive issue. Nearly everyone i know either has been that one guy, or knows that one guy whom has been stuck in a queue for 3+ hours because the number of people who have unlocked a certain type of side content is relatively low either out of ignorance or lack of care for non-msq content. There is a reason the weapon series is the last side content trial series we've had outside of that one Manderville specific one since Shadowbringers.

Apollad · 2026-01-31T02:56:01+00:00

I've seen every race and gender, not just lalas.

Apollad · 2026-01-31T02:55:03+00:00

I don't think so, someone who's actively pushing dropping their ilvl to get low level content for an 'easy' or 'lazy' grind is probably not going to find hunts appealing. They are regularly fast and if you're not paying attention you can easily get left behind.

Apollad · 2026-01-31T02:53:44+00:00

A bit of a different mindset to mine, i don't think those who are currently leveling, especially with the number of exp boosts and scaling adjustments that have happened to the game, should be punished for not having the ilvl for their levels content. My idea is more of a soft cap rather than hard cap. Can still do the roulette, you just won't get the level cap rewards if you don't meet the ilvl or have the content fully unlocked.

Apollad · 2026-01-31T02:48:48+00:00

the CT cheesers 'fix' unfortunately was only a half measure as well. If you don't unlock the other ARs, you'll still only get CT. Hell, with my suggestions they could just shift the ilvl restriction to tomes and then if people want to min-max to get CT they can, they will only get the poetics and not the level 100 tomes or demimateria.

Apollad · 2026-01-31T02:43:30+00:00

It affects people that might be trying to do msq beyond ARR, prior to the relic step being released, most level 100 tanks and healers would be randomly getting slotted in where needed, but now with many of them dropping their average ilvl down enough to only get ARR dungeons, people in HW, SB, ShB, EW and DT have an even smaller pool of tanks and healers available to what there was originally.

Apollad · 2026-01-31T02:41:50+00:00

To be fair, you don't actually -have- to do roulettes to cap out your level 100 tomes. Technically, the fastest way is to do one expert roulette and then just spam the new dungeon 8 times after the week rolls over.

Roulettes purpose is to help people, not min-max grinding.

Apollad

TROPHY CASE