I'll first start off and introduce myself as a fairly active reboot player as of recent months but have played on and off since its inception in GMS.

I originally made a post back in January with reference to the topic.

I'm hoping with this post we can revisit the topic at hand as well as have a healthy discussion along the topic.

At this time, it's been a couple weeks since we have received the V-Care update. Which overall was a great QoL with regards to dailies in mind. The overall result is less time committed to completing certain dailies. This post is directed to the next steps to help improve 5th job progression for Reboot.

The issue I want to raise is the inaccessibility to Arcane Symbols via Hunting. As much as I want to welcome new content with open arms, I am less reluctant to play any newer characters because of how gated (we as reboot players are) with access to arcane power. New players are also constantly playing catch-up due to this restriction which is a very 'unfun' experience for them as well. Players who are not sold on a main character yet are punished even further due to falling behind even further every day.I also want to clarify that I am not looking to rapidly speed up progression in Arcane Power, but look for additional ways we can potentially obtain it.

For players that rely solely on arcane symbol daily quests the amount of time it may take to make significant strides may be deemed unreasonable.

Important thresholds need to be met to even consider hunting in respective areas.
The thresholds below are required to contribute effectively to late game content
540 AP for Lucid/ Arcana
900 AP for Esfera
1140 AP for Will

It takes the following amount of time to fully max out your symbol (2769 symbols) via daily quests:
Vanishing Journey - 8/day, 335 days to max
Chu Chu/Hungry Muto - 15/day, 179 days to max
Lachelain/Dream Defender - Clearing floor 40, 5/day, 554 days to max
- Clearing floor 90, 10/day, 268 days to max
Arcana/Spirit Savior - 10/day, 268 days to max
Morass - 8 Symbols/day, 335 days to max
Esfera - N/A till Black update

Having the following symbols at respective levels
VJ, ChuChu, Lach, Arcana @ Lvl 20 = 880 AP
Morass @ Lvl 14 = 180 AP
Esfera @ Lvl 8 = 100 AP
Given the information above, this would take a new level 200 up to 554 days of dailies to contribute in Will. This is over a year, because the player has limited resources to acquire symbols. Not to mention there are other variables/considerations including leveling up which may keep you from symbol progress overall, as well lack of sources of damage to clear certain areas consistently.


With this in mind, I am proposing some possible solutions:
1) A significant increase in the drop rate of symbols from monsters within Arcane river so that players who play more feel rewarded and can make progress quicker. This will also spread out the player base around arcane river instead of everyone collating at the best maps for meso.

2) An increase in gifted symbols from events, dailies or hot weeks so that progress feels faster. This is starting to be done with the release of symbol selectors but could be more plentiful as currently it's not worth using these on anything except Esfera.

3) While not great for new players and players happy with their current class, allowing for Arcane catalysts to be used in Reboot will lessen the punishment on veteran players choosing to change their main class.

4) Potentially adding symbol selectors for a moderate price in the legion shop could also be beneficial, this would promote progression on alternate characters.

In short, if you were to advance to 5th job today, it would be almost impossible to contribute to a Will party for over a year even with 100% efficiency on dailies and a large amount of farming due to the almost non existent drop rate.

If you miss a day, month or year for that matter, you are set really far behind from current content.
The drop rate change that was made last year negatively impacted our progress in regards to acquiring arcane symbols. Nodestones were slowed down, but with the changes made in the winter (Nova Update) I personally think it was well deserved.

I won't speak much on the topic of droplets but with the recent announcement of 25*, there may be a segue into the discussion of droplet accessibility although it shouldn't be too concerning.