What happened to this game's challenge?

[Dale]

It's almost sad to admit, but even after over a decade Final Fantasy 11 (the first MMORPG I played) is still one of the best MMORPGs on the market. The complexity of its battle system and actual group mechanics are difficult to find these days in a genre saturated with tedious solo-oriented quest grinds and lame button mashing combat.

But what on earth happened to this game's challenge? Almost everything I fight is incredibly easy. I got the expansion hoping the monsters there were higher level. Sadly they are not. Almost everything I have encountered is still easy prey.

I don't mind many of the new conveniences, such as easier travel and faster experience gain. But why turn nearly everything on the game into incredibly easy prey? To me that is going too far.

I understand many of the battlefields and perhaps some of the newer notorious monsters are still a challenge to defeat. But that's not enough. I would like to see higher level monsters out in the field again like in the old days.

[Byrth]

Doh and Woh Gates have higher level monsters for you to challenge. You may be able to solo Woh Gates monsters, but it would be comparable to most IT monsters at level 75.

[Zarchery]

What exactly have you been fighting and where? Delve, Incursion, and the new high tier mission battlefields are quite challenging.

[Shirai]

Doh and Woh Gates have higher level monsters for you to challenge. You may be able to solo Woh Gates monsters, but it would be comparable to most IT monsters at level 75.

This is the most correct answer if you're looking at outside world monsters.
Otherwise, as said by Zachery, you can try your luck at Incursion, basically a monster meatgrinder of which you can level the content up the more you do it and thereby make it more challenging.

Apart from that, you can always try to throw unconventional setups at things.

[Selindrile]

This game's challenge is now optional, most of the new fights are piss easy on VE, and really quite challenging on VD, if you choose the easy route prepare yourself for a hellofagrind because droprates are atrocious. Most people I know settle on Difficult, which is a decent mix of the two.

I personally am pretty comfortable with this.

[Malithar]

I would like to see higher level monsters out in the field again like in the old days.

Honest question, why?

I personally always hated when areas were full of IT++s, it just fostered the behavior of sneak/invising through an area. That was far more boring of an exploration than everything being EP-T, which only happens once you've got some decent ilvl gear.

[Afania]

What exactly have you been fighting and where? Delve, Incursion, and the new high tier mission battlefields are quite challenging.

They are not, actually. Delve is very easy, most endgame LS can clear delve2 with 100% win rate and sell wins. Incursion is only hard when you build up the lv or set a goal such as "kill all NM in 1 run". If you only play lower lv and not aiming to kill all NM in a single run, it's easily doable with PUG and wide variety of setup without a risk to fail.

Higher lv BC is a bit harder than delve/incursion IMO, but that's mostly because you need merits to enter, so it's harder to find skilled player willing to do VD together. So I almost always PUG for BC, making VD a lot harder. Otherwise VD isn't that much harder than delve when you go with friends/LS.

IMO none of the current event(barring optional goals like super high lv incursion aiming for all NM clear) are harder than many other events in the past such as legion or Einherjar T3.

[Aeron]

If the OP hasn't done so yet and is looking for a good challenge, you should do Stellar Fulcrum (D) or higher and I'm pretty sure you'll find the difficulty you are looking for. It's one of the hardest fights in the game imo.

[Zarchery]

They are not, actually. Delve is very easy, most endgame LS can clear delve2 with 100% win rate and sell wins. Incursion is only hard when you build up the lv or set a goal such as "kill all NM in 1 run". If you only play lower lv and not aiming to kill all NM in a single run, it's easily doable with PUG and wide variety of setup without a risk to fail.

Higher lv BC is a bit harder than delve/incursion IMO, but that's mostly because you need merits to enter, so it's harder to find skilled player willing to do VD together. So I almost always PUG for BC, making VD a lot harder. Otherwise VD isn't that much harder than delve when you go with friends/LS.

IMO none of the current event(barring optional goals like super high lv incursion aiming for all NM clear) are harder than many other events in the past such as legion or Einherjar T3.

I knew this was going to happen. You can never say "this is challenging" without someone saying "lol no it's easy". That's been how the game has been forever.

1) New endgame activity is introduced. It is thought to be challenging.

2) Organized and skilled linkshells figure out how to clear it, develop a strategy, and clear it regularly.

3) The endgame activity is declared "not challenging" and usually people start to prefix "lol" to it.

I very distinctly remember this happening with Vrtra, Jailer of Love, and Dynamis Lord back in the old days.

Challenging doesn't mean "it's very difficult for people to do this". Challenging means "you can't take a random assemblage of strangers from /yell and mow it down effortlessly". I gave up on Delve when more pickup groups failed than succeeded. People scoff at how easy Tojil is, but every Tojil I've done seems to fall apart the second he gets off a single AOE attack.

See, you said that these things are not challenging because you have an easy time with linkshell associates and friends. I don't think you realize what a big condition that is. Non-challenging to me means that you can just take any group of people in moderately good starter gear and any combination of jobs and just do stuff without breaking a sweat. Like last week when I killed jailers in Al'Taieu for the Records of Eminence objectives (the higher tier ones including Jailer of Love and Absolute Virtue). I took 7 people, told them to come as whatever they wanted, didn't care about gear, and we still mowed stuff down effortlessly.

[Zarchery]

Honest question, why?

I personally always hated when areas were full of IT++s, it just fostered the behavior of sneak/invising through an area. That was far more boring of an exploration than everything being EP-T, which only happens once you've got some decent ilvl gear.

Ra'Kaznar Inner Court is like this. It's packed with scary looking aggressive mobs that check T-IT even with full level 119 gear.