Could you be more condescending in your reply? You assume much about me and your accusations of what, how, and why you believe you can stuff me in to your world view of how you believe a person place. I'm sorry, but I don't fit your woke vision of things. As a tank main, I use every ability I have, including Blade Blitz to mitigate any movement impairing effects affecting me. I use all DCDs effectively. To that point, I just completed H4 Aurora Cannon on my Juggernaut after a long time and did so without fail and killed the end boss. My comp set to heals only. However, based on your post I get the impression that you don't care because I don't fit your narrative. I guess this is what I get for asking a important question only to get an trolling demeaning answer from some keyboard warrior.

You should see the diagram on Reddit. They are putting more weight in endurance/hit points for tanks while lessening shield and absorb tertiary stats. A clear nerf to mitigation tanks one that will cause stress problems for healers in all game mods. I guess BW developers are trying to push for more skank tanks.

I have to ask, I've read so many different conflicting things concerning the "pruning of skills" that I cannot see straight. I main a Guardian and Jugg Tank. Are they making me choose between those DCDs that the tanks depend on when facing mobs of all types and bosses? Namely, Reflect, Awe, Blade Blitz, and a couple others that are intrinsically tied in with the tanks? If they are, I need to know now. Thanks.

Hey, here's a bit of a suggestion to you using WTFast. Instead of using 2 connections, choose 1. Then, connect using the Los Angeles servers and WTFast will do the rest. Since I started doing that a while ago, I get an average 210ms ping to the servers from my home in the southern Philippines. Give it a go to see if it improves for you too.

And buying Cartel Crates with Cartel Coins purchased from BW's site isn't real money transfer? Your miserable 500 CCs you get for a sub per month isn't going to count either. You'll have to spend your money to purchase cartel coins required for the amount of crates they demand. You (speaking figuratively) use your credit card or whatever payment service. Purchase 5400 CCs for $42 (tax included). Then you buy max number of crates for 5400 CCs. You then give said raid member said 30+ crates to be taken into the NiM ops for the gear. That is the definition and example of a RMT transaction. Everyone should read ToS/EULA concerning this action. This is also what is called Pay To Win as it directly affects the player's ability to play the game granting them the highest level of gear for the cost of the crates purchased with real money. There is no disputing this. As I said, Blade & Soul turned a blind eye (as one stated above) it filled their coffers so they didn't care. In B & S case, it is purchasing gold to give directly to the raid members. Depending on the raid costs could be low as 300 gold to as high as 5000. Though I love the amazing story, setting, and game play of B & S I will never play it again because Team Blood refused to put a stop to it. Should BioWare do the same thing here, I will do the same thing. And those who just shrug saying, 'well that's okay for me if they want to do that,' are enabling this act turning a blind eye to it with nothing more than a shrug. Ambivalence and Apathy allows this to happen without a doubt.

CC's = Cartel or Hyper Crates.

Not only this as Damask_Rose states, it is involving real world money. Credits isn't the commodity of choice for this kind of raid and gear. They are demanding cartel crates. How many? Depends on the NiM op. Buying a raid ride is against the ToS/EULA. It involves RMT (Real Money Transactions) in that they are buying cartel crates and giving them to those charging for the "wait at the door" type carry. It doesn't matter if there's just an achievement, mount, or highest level gear involved. It is wrong. However, as I've read through this tread, ambivalence and shoulder shrugging is apparent. It is for this very reason I quit playing Blade & Soul forever. Even when given proof of this to Team Blood they turned a blind eye to it. Square Enix on the other hand, will not tolerate RMTs of any type. In my book, it falls under cheating and gaming the system to get what one is too damned lazy to work for in the first place.

Correct. From my view point as an associate professor of business and experience in the field, I dare say they exhibit the kind of business attitude that they are not answerable to their customers and will do what they damn well please. Even to the point of violating laws when they discriminate under the protection and guise of their EULA and ToS that they can do whatever they want to the game. That's EA's influence. EA has turned BW into a puppet controlled developer filled with corporate yes people. Neither of them actually care to meet the desires, wants, and needs of the player base. That is a fatal mistake for any business, period.

Um...there's no skills removed from FFXIV Endwalker. Changes to classes such as the Asterlogian and Scholar for including the new Sage class the former is pure healing with no shielding, while the latter remained the same (shielding & healing) Sage took the place of the Asterlogian for shielding. Changed how Summoner summoned their Primals. My main, a Paladin, gained a new skill and had others with new infinity powers added that improved the play. Skill loss? Not at all. Square Enix knows it's player base, had they done what BW is doing, the uproar would be deafening. BW isn't following FFXIV in any way, shape, or form. They are sticking to the outdated WoW design and expanding on it. They still believe this is a method that players love. However, their hallmark and track record makes a mockery of that latter statement. They do not, never have, nor would they unless it cost them a major hit to their net income as it did with the great companion 75% nerf back in 5.0. Let us not forget what brought us to this point in time. Update 1.2 disaster that nerfed both the Sage and Sorcerers into utter uselessness for nearly 4 years after that. 1.5 million players unsubbed which ushered in their crappy F2P and the firing of most of the original development staff. BW is following it's on path, same as they did when the took up the methodology that WoW uses. As we know now...FFXIV offers a true RPG MMO universe where the story drives the game, where gear is not gated behind any dungeon type and you can play in a nearly drama-less environment. Should BW truly follow exactly how FFXIV is doing, you'd not see 7.0 in its current form. The proof of that is clear too see. FFXIV has nearly 25 million active subscribers (note: this does not include F2P to Heavensward players) and had to stop sales for new subs because of their back order server issue. SWTOR has what? 500k active subs? Someone is doing it right while the other has failed to remotely try or do what is necessary to improve the game for the fans. That is a sad testament to BioWare's entire legacy.

You don't have to wait long in queues now. There's practically no wait to get on and play on my server. 20 to 40 in the queue...then in a minute or two...you're on. They are opening up a Oceanic server; however, I'm not transferring to it. So let me know if you're going to play in NA, I'm on Aether/Adamantoise. If you want to be part of a Free Company, I'm in one of the best I've had the opportunity to participate in.

I said nothing about instant gratification. You tried to make my post say something completely contrary to what I wrote. Let me spell it out to you in plain terms: Higher gear is gated behind group content. Conquest gear is all green. You cannot obtain blue or purple static gear, let alone any other type or I ANY modable gear through conquest, heroics or by any other means except doing NiM mode operations. It means, if I were a Kool-aid drinking white hat for BW this would be okay. I am not. This means those, like myself, who enjoy doing the stories and heroics for leveling and gearing cannot advance or upgrade any of their armor unless, they DO GROUP CONTENT. I don't do group content anymore because those who I played years with in guilds or friends I've know for 30 plus years have quit this game permanently. I have my own two guilds. When 5.10 hit, the 20 members of my guilds quit and walked away and have not returned to play. I do not like playing randoms anymore, especially in this game. Toxicity runs amok in randoms. Therefore, I am relegated to solo play. When they fixed 6.0 for gearing, I spent two months gearing up my mains to fully 306 min/max'd gear. I was happy with that. If that was in the picture now, I'd not say word. But it's not. They're removing Renown. Nerfing Conquest to give us practically nothing. To that end now, they've made that fracking impossible to obtain gear unless you do group content. And you and others think that's alright! FFXIV is my main game now. I will NOT put forth the effort nor buy anything from their cartel market or spend in extra money on this game except for my sub. BioWare doesn't give a flying frack about us non-NiM raiding/Ops players. Keith and Charles made it abundantly clear. And you and others think that's okay. In essence, you are okay with the blatant discrimination they are using against all solo/non-group playing players like me. If you cannot see that, well...that's what happens when apathy clouds people's judgement.

Trixxie, you play? You wouldn't by chance be on Aether would you? If you're on one of those servers, PM me. My life long friend and I are and we're real close to completing Endwalker! We play M - TH. Best.Game.Ever!

It's easy to get around that. Just us special accents over the vowels.

If none of you've seen the Gearing Chart on how their "newfangled" gearing system works with all the new tokens...here you go: New Gearing System. Our mains will take a long while to get up blue levels and longer if you want purple static gear doing MM ops. Months, not days or a few weeks. And gear drops is all RNG. You'll earn tokens...that going on BioWare history for purchasing upgrades, will require a high number of them...2 different types...to obtain the static blue gear. The proof is in this chart. Keith and Charles...you've really fracked us solo players and stripped us from playing our way. I won't be doing any content (save story) passed 6.0. I will not give up my min/max'd 306 gear just to wear the bovine excrement static gear. Thank you very much Keith and Charles for discriminating against those players who do not NiM raid or participate in group play. Next time, when you want to frack us over, kiss us first.

Simply put what you say and do is called apathy and ambivalence to what's going on in chat. No matter how you try to color it or explain away in long diatribes, it is an apathetic and ambivalent attitude you both have. If you do this in game, guaranteed you are that way apart from the game. Apathy: 1. absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement. 2. lack of interest in or concern for things that others find moving or exciting. Synonym: Indifference Dictionary.com Ambivalent/Ambivalence 1. having mixed feelings about someone or something; being unable to choose between two (usually opposing) courses of action: The whole family was ambivalent about the move to the suburbs.She is regarded as a morally ambivalent character in the play. 2. Psychology. of or relating to the coexistence within an individual of positive and negative feelings toward the same person, object, or action, simultaneously drawing him or her in opposite directions. Dictionary.com

You really believe nothing happened? Funny thing....a WEEK after nerfing the companions they did an emergency update and buffed companions to their current state. Just as we suggested it should be...a 25% nerf. Why did they do that? I cannot give you an exact number, but it was enough for the devs and producers to respond and fix what they did. Oh, do I have to remind you what happened when they nerfed Sorcs and Sages with update 1.2 that brought their current F2P system? 1.5 million subscribers quit the game. Nothing's going to happen you say. If you say so.

Nicely put.

I'm pretty sure that's not going to be a problem Trixxie. Players find out exactly what is happening with gearing, skills, and playability, they're going to react in a very negative manner. Especially when the results causing them angst in their fun and not being able to do what they've done before prior to 7.0. People, for the most part, hate being told how they must play in a game or doing something in-general. We're seeing the results of that in real life today.

I suggest, if you haven't already, screenshot chat with time stamps. Then send it directly to CS via email, not the in-game support system. If they fail to act, send an email to the community manager, Eric, Kieth, and Charles or PM them directly with links to those screenshots. If they refuse, on all accounts, to act then you know beyond a shadow of a doubt they do not care.

So turning a blind eye to this is your answer? This is called enabling. This is where ignoring such egregious actions be it physical or verbal continue to happen and never face any consequences. Burying one's head in the sand does not make the problem go away, it propagates it. Shrugging one's shoulders at this is a sign of apathy and ambivalence. History shows us what happens when people act as you suggest.

There is only one way they will listen. That requires everyone to vote with their wallet. Meaning, unsub from the game. They quickly listen to us when we did that after the companion nerf when that happened with KOTET. I'm pretty sure if that happened again...they'd respond in a like manner. Cut off the flow of cash, see what they do. Their current FTP would not support them as they are not a true free to play game.

This is their legacy and hallmark since update 1.2. BW developers and producers have tried so many things to "improve" the game. However, when players finally agreed on the status quo of things (as we have with 6.0 current set up), they fall back on, "we can make it better," or "we don't like how the players are using and gaming the system to get where they are," they produce updates like 7.0 The same can be said about 6.0 until they decided to eventually morph it into what we have today. That, in my book, is a sign of failure.

One thing they can do immediately is assign BoL on all companion gifts. Purple level sells from the vendor for 10k. Legendary sells for 250k. I see these being sold at 12k plus for stacks of 100 or more. These aren't being farmed. These are being bought and resold at higher prices, especially the legendary gifts. If someone wants to level up their companions to 50, they can spend 5mil on 500 purples and do so in a few minutes. Or they can buy the companion booster from the GTN or the CM. BoL for gifts would immediately end the price gouging for gifts. I'm willing to bet that a great many newer players don't know about buying those gifts from vendors and go to the GTN where they spend 20% to 50% more depending on the gift.

Funny that they HAVE to do that. Why? Because FFXIV is playable on PlayStation and they didn't prune any abilities. PS players aren't whining about it. What they are doing is simply dumbing down the game for those who don't have the cognizant ability to play a game with the kind of abilities that SWTOR has. In other words, they are catering to those who would be unable to handle our current skill system. Much like games like ESO or Neverwinter and the others who have 6 or 7 active abilities using up to 7 keys for interfacing with the game.

Okay, let me see if I can address what I've read so far. 1.0 to 5.0, and now 6.0 are story arcs that involve the Warrior of Light and their journey where Hydaelyn (Light) and Zodiark (Dark) forces are battling one another where the light or dark wants victory. My apologies for being a bit long winded with this; this required some explanation without spoiling anything just to give you a taste of the MSQ (main story quest). ARR 2.0: Yes it is slow and can be frustrating. However, at the end of it after you've completed Praetorium dungeon (lvl 50), things begin to pick up and dark...very dark towards the end ARR (I won't say anything about it to spoil it). At that point, you'll find yourself in Ishgard and the prelude to Heavensward. HW 3.0: When it starts, get ready, it accelerates and becomes a whirlwind of activity. That darkness I mentioned? It really starts to get heart wrenching. Especially when you're pushing into areas that really seem...darker? A lot of things are happening in this adding to what ARR built up and goes on from there. At the end of it...you'll find yourselves trying to overcome the sadness you encountered. Then you'll see yourselves stepping into the prelude to Stormblood. SB 4.0: The story arc continues and involves the Garleans and a very powerful leader of the Garlean Empire. You adventure in Eorzea and then travel to the far east. The story grows even more intertwined with more people on star (planet). This is where some really dark and crazy things happen. Just like the final MSQ missions that lead up to this. Afterwards...you will find yourselves in the final days of Stormblood and traveling through time and space into Shadowbringer. SHB 5.0: This is where it gets even darker or lighter depending on one's point of view. However, it is during Shadowbringer where the puzzle comes together and you find out why you slogged through ARR > HW > SB. Shadowbringer story arc puts it all together in a big reveal that catches everyone off guard in most cases. Though some hints are dropped during the previous chapters. Especially when you find out why your character is the wandering adventuring spirit that they are. Anyway...what really slams this home is at the end of Shadowbringer when you complete Dusk until Dawn. Likewise, any solo duties, dungeons, or raids are integrated into the MSQ. This group activity is not what you might expect. Yes, it does involve players who've completed the MSQ and those who haven't. Yet, the community does not treat new players with utter contempt. You tell the party this is your first time so they know and they will behind over backwards to help you through and tell you about the mechanics and how to do your part. Just be open to their directions and you'll do fine. FFXIV's player community is the absolute best I've ever had the pleasure to be involved in. Example, if a party wipes, they don't throw their hands up and quit (on a rare occasion I've seen this, though it was a sprout or two...probably a player from WOW.). They get back into the saddle and get it done. The point is, they're having fun doing these dungeons and participating in it with the others. You want to know about crafting, gearing, what, where, when, and how to do things? You ask in chat you'll have a number of people offering their help. You can join the new player's Sprout Chat, and get all kinds of things done. FFXIV has a mentor program where players who've maxed out all their jobs including crafting will lead dungeons for new and old players. It doesn't matter what dungeon or raid it is. They are there to help new and old players. Lastly, free companies aka Guilds/Clans. There are a large number of these organized player groups that do everything together from crating to raiding. And they spend the time with their newest members to help them flourish and be an integral part of the Free Company and by extension, the FFXIV community as a whole. Are there issues with some community members? Sure; however, FFXIV recently made some changes to put a stop to those who have started to be trouble. And in doing so...cut them off at their knees. Screw up bad enough, your account is terminated. This happened with a few people who was harassing Asmongold when he showed up this past summer. It was the actions of these individuals that prompted the change in their ToS in providing a fun fill and safe gaming experience and environment. So, if you're frustrated with ARR, you are not alone. I was too. However, knowing what I know now and experienced, I see why. Take it from me...it gets extremely better and exciting as you push forward. Now that I'm in Endwalker...things are really building to a head of what is coming. And I am excited to see it to the end and closing out the Hydaelyn and Zodiark storyline that's been going on now for 10 years.