eh...this game, for the most part, has always been designed around the team-up factor...nothing really new.

This fight is by far better than the maat fight. I failed my first attempt because I didn't set up my macros quite right and my sleep didn't go off. Took me an entire weekend to farm a new testimony. Note that was about 8 hours a day, 3 days in a row. Compare that to roughly 3 hours to farm all the items for one olde rarerab tail, plus one or two items for each of several other members of my group. Had an established plan of action thanks to our time doing CoP back before it got the easy button (and let us not forget the fun it was farming the mats to make those items beforehand), won the fight with minimum effort in just under 7 minutes without blowing everyone's 2 hours. We didn't even use the easy way out with SMN or BLM burn....was basically a conventional party setup we would xp with.

All in all, I'd say it was about on par with Maat in a way. Sure...depending on the job selection it can be a real challenge (ie: BLM or RDM Maat compared to this fight using MNK/SMN burns or a regular Tank/DD's/healer setup) All that it really requires is a group of friends you can depend on to follow a strategy (or a pick up group) just like most any other fight in this game---that's nothing new. If socialising a little or joining random groups (or <gasp> making your own group) is not your cup of tea....than IDK, maybe this style of game just isn't really suited for you?