LebargeX wrote:
Shortly before I stopped playing Rift, they changed the way you could get the tier 2 dungeon gear. It was still purchased with the same currency, but you had to buy the tier 1 piece first.
For example: If you want to buy a belt from the new tier, the cost would be 375 "X" tomes and 1 myth/allaghan belt. So the myth/allaghan item is a hard stop prereq for the new tier. This would keep myth farming a viable past-time, would negate the need to nerf drop rates, and keep all the current methods viable. You could still do turns 4-5 for those drops as well, especially if they keep the cap at 450. Why farm for two weeks to get a chest piece when you could run turn 4 for a chance to get it instantly?
They could do the same for a new tier of weapons too... You have to get the allaghan weapon from turn 5 or the one from the 3 EX primals to convert it into whatever..
Being familiar with how Trion handled this myself, I'm of the mind this only works as a one-off upgrade. To make it a continuous chain risks turning it into a needless grind while at the same time making life more difficult for newcomers without legacy adjustments to the earlier tiers.
As an example where Rift went wrong here, I'll talk about the 50 cap and the Planar set. Basically, one would collect Inscribed Sourcestones from the various level 43+ zone events, usually 5-10 with EI being more around 15 when it came out. Like XIV has done with tome costs, certain equipment slots were weighted at different values. I can't remember the precise costs, but let's say the most expensive of the first tier cost 275 ISS. For people who didn't play Rift back then, ZEs could run anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour depending on the event and time of day/participation, which could make getting that 275 a definite grind. The actual piece of gear you wound up with would also wind up being equal or even lesser than its introductory dungeon counterpart. Upgrading to the next tier usually cost the same amount it took to buy the piece, or up to like 1/3 more. Come third tier, some items ran for over 1000 ISS to upgrade, which for someone who wasn't around when this system was implemented, basically created a wall of thousands upon thousands of ISS needed if your only interest was open world. At the time, I certainly tried to suggest to Trion that the earlier tiers needed cost adjustments. As well, I was also vocal about the disparity in performance compared to dungeon/raid gear relative to the actual time commitment. As per usual, you'd get that community swooping in like angry vultures declaring who deserved what and who didn't even though I'm pretty sure the amount of time/effort one put into getting an ISS T3 eclipsed any and all time/token requirements from raids. What struck me as a further insult before the SL release, though, was how the Planar gear wound up getting an incomplete tier release... like Trion was trying to say, "Whoa, buddy, too much power for the plebs!"
But yeah, more relative XIV, requiring the current myth armor to get the next tome tier is okay. SE just needs to remove the myth cap or at least cut the current costs by 1/2 or more. I just hope they're mindful of the fact people would like to gear up multiple jobs on a single character at a decent pace instead of the rough 2-3 months that launch yield with now being slightly better, but still laden with lockouts/restrictions.