Hexed/cursed Re-cursing Travesty

It's only one aspect of the update, which I'm sure will be adjusted with all the negative feedback. If people aren't coming back just for that then they probably weren't anyways and just used that as an excuse. Also gear having a shelf life of 1-3 months is so far from the truth.

I'm pretty sure they'll adjust it too, much like the other things they've introduced that have been wildly unpopular.

Looks to me like SE is making pie-in-the-sky sets for everyone that is going to keep playing after content updates stop.

Indeed, and to put it in perspective a bit - they've said that they have plans at some time in the future to lift the crafting caps so everyone can bring every craft to 110. So if you really want the stuff you'll be able to do it all yourself, eventually.

I'm pretty sure SE saw it as giving the hardcore folks a challenge. If you cared enough back in the day to have sought out and upgraded HQ stuff and you're still around and playing, then you should be able to tackle ADL solo (or in a small group) by now. So it's an extra challenge for extra reward and nothing you can't handle. Quit whining and grind.

Just cuz I Get It doesn't mean I like it. :)

I think the word "goal" would be better suited to that than "challenge". Playing roulette with purchasable mats isn't a challenge. Soloing ADL can be a challenge, but its inherent challenge is independent from synthing HQs.

Agreed, good point. In fact, was just saying the same thing about freaking d.ring. :P

Maybe if it was a 10% chance flat out for the HQ it'd make more sense. But having the already low chance to HQ the original Hexed piece coupled with a new 10% chance to make that HQ Hexed piece into an HQ HQ Hexed piece... PLUS the possibility of random augments is just silly.

The game's population is dwindling, the number of crafters capable of making these items are subject to this population decline. The number of materials available to make these items is also highly affected by the population instability. Introducing such enormous amounts of RNG for such material and workforce dependent items at this stage in the games life frankly doesn't make much sense.

You can have items for the super hardcores who want to grind out hundreds of millions of gil every 3 days, level multiple mules for all the crafts to 110+, and who will grind and farm the materials, abjurations, and de-curse reagents solo or with their massive armies of mules. But don't make the vast majority, almost the entirety, of 1 of the 3 final content updates of your game be filled with such equipment.

Unless SE actually plans on introducing abjurations and cursed armor to the list of items that can be acquired from Moogles after completing Rhapsodies' missions, this whole augment synergy system is just horribly wrong and makes me want to punch a Tanaka.

This is a huge point. There has been a big drop off in materials available to make both Cursed and Hexed gear in the last 6~ months. In the case of Alchemy there's been a large slowdown on Wyvern Scales to the point where they are nearly impossible to get on Asura for the last month. They only had one real source, Voidwatch, which doesn't seem to be very popular anymore. Squama for Hexed gear has almost never been easy to get but seems to have slowed down a little also. Even Angel Skin for Heca is harder to get in reasonable amounts now, especially since people even skill up off it.

Chicken. Sky. Falling.

The augments of the new cursed gear are through Nolan. As in, using eschalixirs to choose the path for augment.

Haven't had a chance to sit down since downloading the update. My question is, does the recurse attempt on an hq uncursed cost you the hq, or are you given the option to keep the hq uncursed, like with synergy augments?

If you already have an HQ uncursed, you use synergy to get the -1 cursed item back. Then you take that -1 and an item from the new Escha area to do a normal crystal synth. If you want the upgraded cursed gear to be HQ, you need to HQ that new synth. The recipe using -1 is around skill 95 and so can be T1 HQ rate. If using an NQ cursed item, you need extra materials and the skill is 111+ so will be a T0 HQ rate. You then trade the upgraded cursed gear along with a new abjuration (which you have to get from the NMs in the new Escha area) to the priest in Sandy. After that you take the uncursed armor to Nolan to do some augmenting.

so which hq seems worth it?

pre augments since we dont have that info yet.

Basically the entirety of the Khepri/Adhemar set is phenomenal. Most sets missed the mark, or they need augments, but Adhemar is ridiculous. Pretty much every piece is just mind-boggling. So, please flood Sylph with HQs so I can feel pretty.

It's not the truth but it's not too far either.
It's undeniable gear doesn't last as long as it used to.

Wether this is a good or bad thing I can't say.

So if i understand right (because my english is not so great as i want) but if i try to upgrade my blood cuisses, i won't get auto an HQ one ?

correct. 10-15% chance only

So where do I get a neon sign stating I'm a 110 alchemist when people are desperate for 119 Blood Cuisses?

And of course (because its always fun) i can't go back and retry, so if no HQ, bye bye blood cuisse and bye bye news abju @ 18%, i will need to get again a crismon/blood and retry...

Or you mule another pair of blood cuises wich are not augmented to your main xD

Went 1/3 on my 2nd W.abjuration legs and 1/5 on my 3rd. Login campaign with sky pops helped saving time. Chances are slim to buy the -1 sometimes but camping AH.com and using wanted function + talking with crafters and farming mats helps i heard.

As i stated on FFXI Official forums about this though, someone should NOT be punished for owning a HQ. Especially when the NQ never is synthed. and the Mats are impossible to get.

I'm not really seeing the issue here, SE has given you something to do, that could possibly give you something to do once the game enters apocalypse, and most of you are complaining?

Do people just want to put this game down as soon as possible once the final content is out and cleared after a week? I mean I could understand that, but pretty sure most want to cling to it for as long as possible, and with something to like, idk, actually work for, you'd think this would be beneficial to you.

Allways like that since some years - and the JP hate. Get used to it or avoid it.

My guess is the edge is slim - so starting to complain bout ***on OF so they make it easier is just in favor of the gilfarmers - complain till the new trend is just a tad too hard for the casuals and just easy enough for gilfarmers to do it in a daily/weekly basis - "win".

If that step is done, same ppl complaining produce/craft/sell wins and flood the market so "everyone" can have it. I also guess the same are now whining bout doin story content because until now - "it's not worth it" and all those mules run around in sparks/skirmish until now are worth jack for the new stuff - Beside the Escha NMs like the new Tiamat - guess a BST army can do something there. Regardless of story progression in WoTG and ToAU.

My complaint about it was that they flat out lied.

This isn't "upgrading". This is literally just new sets of gear that share models with the lower level sets.

"But you can use your uncursed gear!"
No.
No you can't. That's why it's not upgrading. While the old hexed gear is used in the new synths, that's not upgrading.
No more so than regular hexed and cursed gear is upgrades of the generic gear that are required for their synths.

They added a system to "desynth" your uncursed hex gear, but that's not actually a real part of the process.
Because the process is EXACTLY the same as the old stuff: craft a cursed item, farm a NM for abjuration, trade item and abjuration to priest.

The only difference is that they use Nolan for augmenting instead of random synergy.
Which is good.
But ultimately no different than Honors v tatters.

tldr: These aren't upgrades, these are just 119 variants on the old abjuration gear. No different than the Eschan Pulse gear not being upgrades to the old Pulse gear.

That's quite a limiting overview though.
Despite the plentiful and disappointing differences, I'd say that overall the new sets are pretty similar to the old ones.
Some sets more than others of course.

Some of the lacking features might be back in the form of augmentation paths, we don't know yet.
(too bad we can't datamine those...)

I appreciate how lucky my wife was.

My alt getting it is basically worthless. :p

This is a thing people have been confusing for years. Being able to grind out mountains of money vs. actual ability.

Yeah I think the real problem maybe lies in the *quantity* of these hardcore-targeted items.
We're not talking about a few carrots-on-a-stick like Tartarus Platemail and friends.
We're talking about the vast majority of armor items added this patch.

What's even worse is the fact that the set bonus has been bound as being an HQ exclusive. If it were a matter of just white square + slightly better stats (which has almost always been the case in the history of FFXI) it wouldn't have been a big deal, but also gating the set bonus really sounds like a kick in the balls.
Even though I'm quite confident that the set bonuses will be quite small, but regardless of that it "feels" bad.

Not sure about how other players feel, but unlike other "hard to reach" goals, this one kinda rubs me the wrong way and demotivates me, instead of making me will to "work hard" to obtain them.



Trying to see the glass half full, we have a few other items which seem to be quite powerful coming from the new Sinister event. There's not much to complain about those. It looks like a fun event with generous rewards.