Well I wouldn't plan on beating out all the Primal weapons outright, just as there are better later drops for gear than AF. I'm sure they'll be good though and upgradeable.

They're designed to be hard to get and take some time but I don't see it being the most awful thing in the world. It'll take a little bit sure but nothing like XI. I just don't get all the hate for Hamlet Defense, it's a fun event IMO.

Edit: I'm in no way trying to sway anyone from anything… Not that I could anyways. Just saying I don't see this being for me; especially, if the weapons are anything less than THE BEST.

My problem with Hamlet Defense is it feels like a waste of time, in my opinion… This new news just makes me think that the JSE weapons being tied to it, is to secure it's survival, instead of making it worthwhile via a good ratio of reward, enjoyment, and difficulty.

I've tried Hyrstmill's for 3-4 hours (on 2 different occasions) and got nothing but lame fireworks, more dm, and some anima back (majority of the runs were at rank 2 and we never lost a battle). Not to mention, the over-all opinion of Halmet is that it's terribly implemented by the majority of people who have talked about it.

The benefits are under-whelming. Just to get a chance at gear seems to require being in the top 20 (from what I've heard and understand). Top 20 is pretty much DoL/H land, only… And even if you are in the top 20, the drop-rate is abysmal, like everything else.

The biggest benefit so far is the return in anima, and that is bordering on "meh" since Inn returns were implemented. (last I played i had 29 anima and i was running all over Eorzea for days straight, as opposed to barely being able to keep 3 anima for an event tele).

*Of course, this opinion was formed while only Hyrstmill had Hamlets, before the adjustments that MAY be planned for AFTER players have bitched enough, and before the influx of this pretty crappy info… It could get better, but I am not counting on it.

*I would much rather grind AV & CC, Primals, Dungeons, NMs, hell even leves… At least those somewhat feel like your making progress.

The implementation is pretty spot on, aside from it being instanced. That's about the ONLY complaint I've heard that holds any merit. It's whatever though, it's easier to balance and play that way. Can you imagine trying to do anything in it if it were open world? 100+ people + enemies all in one spot? No thanks.

The DoL/H secondary tools are the only rewards Top 20 get on their additional chance. Also worth noting, the secondary tools are tradeable and already up on the MW. If you don't want to be a Top 20 provisioner just fucking buy it. From what I've heard all the Militia gear is dropped from the chest.

Drop rates are bad in there just like they're bad everywhere else. Ifrit/Mog runs, you can go 100+ without seeing the weapon you want all while getting duplicates that go to the floor. People have run AV/CC day and night seeing not a single Darklight drop. Hardly feels like making progress. All of the content is like that, it's how chest drops work.

At least with the Primal seals it doesn't seem like you HAVE to be in the top 20 to get them. Hell you don't even need to do anything, just let everyone else get the supply rating up and then do the battle. It takes 15 minutes, better than doing an hour-long dungeon and getting nothing.

Just because YOU don't like the content doesn't mean SE fucked up in any way. If you want the good weapons you have to put in the time.

I am loathe to discuss things that I haven't seen myself, but if the text is correct the amount of times you will have to do this is much, much more than 7 since you need one of each. So that is 21 times total (7x each Hamlet) IF it is a 100% drop rate. If the items are unique and the different Hamlet Defense areas are staggered in the times they are active then SE effectively stretches out lame content to 21 days if they are staggered. If they all occur on the same day and time it's reduced to a minimum 3 days, counting the day hamlet starts, since there isn't any way you could get that many runs in even if you started at the minute they opened up not to mention the travel time involved even if the special seals are not unique. Defend it all you want, but if this is how it is then it is shoveled crap thrown in with hardly a thought in a futile attempt to stretch out lame content.

By lame, I don't mean the Hamlet Defense itself. It's fun for what it is. I am talking about the complete lack of story here coupled with the desperate we-need-to-get-people-playing-this-was-optional-thing-we-made vibe. "Some guy is good at making weapons so go grind for me" is a WoW quality quest. I thought SE was better than this, but if this is really how to get the AF equipment then I was wrong.

I don't care, honestly. You asked… I replied.

Tried it… Hated it… Would rather do something else.

I was just offering my whys… To each his own, I guess.

At least with AV, CC, Primals, etc… You can get better and better at doing them. Hamlets aren't a challenge at all. We demolished the battle phase, everytime.

And there have been tons of complaints on several aspects of Hamlets… (Not unlike any event)… But, this is the first one where I feel most people's dismay is valid.

I get what you're saying PT, I mean I would have also preferred a quest or a quest line, but I don't necessarily think this was put in just because they thought not enough people were doing Hamlet Defense. I mean systems like this aren't put in place as a last second deal, this was likely always the way they wanted to do it. Put Hamlet Defense in on one patch, make sure it works, implement AF weapons.

The pretense is a little flimsy but I mean it is what it is. Like I said, I'll admit I would have liked a quest line or some story to it but that's apparently not what they wanted to do this time, and that is assuming that all if this is correct. Judging by Rowena' speech, it would seem like it. Maybe this bit is only to get the weapon and then upgrading them is a quest line of some sort, we don't know anything past just the simple act of obtaining them and that is still admittedly conjecture.

It's really only 21 days if you're looking to get every single weapon. If you're looking to just get one, you could get your main weapon inside of a week easily. You could do two in a week pretty reasonably it seems, which isn't an awful pace. People have been complaining for over a year that everything is too easy to get or the rate of acquisition is too high. This was the dev's answer it seems.

Hey, they said seals that drop from each of the leaders. So, could those be the protection of the primal things from the dats? Garuda-natalan, Ifrit-Zaharak, Titan-Kobold.

Once again noting that I dislike talking about stuff that at this point is pure conjecture.

I don't doubt that this is how they planned it from the start. Shovel-tasks and time/amount caps to extend content that anyone could have designed is a staple of pretty much every MMO, this one included if this is how it goes. They throw some simple crap out at their playerbase so they can work on something else and if anyone complains that the content as it is presented is lame they can always fall back on the "well at least we gave you some content which is better than none" excuse.

About the whole "too easy" thing this content, once again if this is how it is, is not hard or really challenging if you think about it. Seals, which are currently capped at 45k so you can only have enough for 2 books at a time if you buy one, are easy but very time consuming to get. You are looking at a minimum of 25 Toto-rak runs and that only if you get enough loot for 1k seals per run. Easy but very time consuming. As for Hamlet, once you adjust your party so you can get consistent wins if the drop is 100% on the conditions that you win and have the book in your inventory then it is easy and does nothing to address the complaint. Even if it is not 100% droprate it is still easy. That just means that people with shit luck like me are likely to see their first special seal about the same time as we get our first personal Kupo Nut drop after over 200 Moggle Mog wins. If that is the case then the "pace of acquisition" is still the same shit we have meaning that some people will be lucky and others not, which does nothing to address that complaint.

Oh, and the 21 day marker didn't take in to account the seal grind you have to do in between for 7 books.

Once again, I am more disgruntled over the fact that they put no effort into the story than anything else, if this is how it is. But even so I am not going to white knight shovel-tasks.

Well I mean I'm not trying to white knight shovel-tasks, I just personally don't see any issue with it. Then again I actually like Hamlet Defense and this is far from the worst thing they've ever done. The instant I saw it I just accepted it as "that's how you get them". Not a lot of sense in complaining about it since they likely won't change how it's done, though they may adjust variables here and there.

And again yeah, it's pretty much purely conjecture at this point. Nothing's proven but it seems quite likely. We don't know anything about the drop rates though, or if you actually have to do it 7 times to get 7 weapons. Rowena gives you a note to get Gerolt off his lazy ass. It could be that once you do it once he's willing to make weapons for you at a different cost. It could also be that there's just little story in the acquisition step and that more story comes in as you upgrade them.

I just don't think it's too unreasonable to expect the playerbase to participate in a minimal manner in the Hamlet Defenses to get something. I mean Top 20 seems to be only for the secondary tools. As long as the Hamlet Defense gets to the appropriate Supply Rating you just have to do the battle which isn't that tough at level 1. I hear level 2 isn't that bad. Level 5? Dunno but so far it hasn't been too terribly difficult. Again, not trying to white knight, I just personally don't think it's all that bad from the info we have now.

Not a lot of sense in complaining about it since they likely won't change how it's doneArcell

I was actually pretty understanding of your position, but here I have to really disagree with you. Complaining / discussing / etc stuff is a staple of games like this. If it really turns out to be the shovel-task that it seems to be, or even if it isn't, people should always be able to voice their opinions on whether they like it or not without having their sense questioned. If people didn't complain this game wouldn't have grown into what it is now.

All that said, if your guess is correct and you end up only having to do this stuff once, then I will concede that it wouldn't fall under the category of shovel-task.

While we are on this topic, the items are supposedly in game right now. I have a book so we should participate in the next Hamlet event and see the details of whether or not these seals are a 100% droprate, if they are unique or any other thing we can scrounge up. Or we could wait for someone else to try it. I suppose that works too.