I wish everything was harder and there was capped level content.

If you didn't get wipes in Void ark, id agree. but the average player cant do basic easy mechanics. I think at this point I've wiped on the first boss, the 2nd trash pull, the 2nd boss, the 3rd boss, and the 4th boss. because people cant do the most basic thing required.

Personally, I think the "theme park" mentality means we cannot have really difficult lower level content.

Things are so centered around Duty Finder and "hop in, hop out" random parties, so the content needs to be clearable by uncoordinated groups where people just play at a minimum level of competence. With no social connection/obligation to the people you play with, there is no need to stick it out, and parties will simply disband after a wipe or two.

Fortunately or unfortunately, that is what the game is now and there is probably no going back to rejig lower level content. The only challenge is endgame.

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

If you didn't get wipes in Void ark, id agree. but the average player cant do basic easy mechanics. I think at this point I've wiped on the first boss, the 2nd trash pull, the 2nd boss, the 3rd boss, and the 4th boss. because people cant do the most basic thing required.

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To this day, ranged DPS, mostly BLMs, STILL camp on the pad even when asked not to.

*EDIT*
And not to mention the magic and physical resists on the Dog and Tree, as well as NOT killing Keds.

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Originally Posted by Eyervan

The game should have an exponential difficulty. Ramping up every dungeon. By level 40-45 I want to be failing dungeons because it requires skill. Not just breeze by them because I can dodge two easy mechanics etc. Implement Merit Points. Make my level 60 quests and dungeons have an actual point to them. Not just some thing to get bad gear, and some tomes... Please. Merit Points. Have 1 Merit Point cost 1million EXP. Give us just that please.

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For a single player game, maybe.
In an MMORPG? Not unless you want to have nobody show up for new content.

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Originally Posted by Eyervan

Another note. I took me about 8 month of grinding to reach my first capped level job in FFXI. A serious time sink and effort of straight up hard work. I felt so baller once I got there. So much pride. I got to 60 in under a month casually playing FFXIV. Someone can easily cap literally every job, DoL, DoH in under a year. What... the... f*ck is that... Zero pride in my two level 60s.

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well it's a lot easier now since we have all these roulette bonuses and weekly bonuses and increased exp gain from dugeons,fates etc.

While I do feel there needs to be much more midcore content. The fact less than 1% of players have cleared A3S is why we will never again see that scope of difficulty. It just doesn't make sense from a financial perspective to invest resources into challenging content few players can readily complete. Sure, you can use the adage, they will learn, But the thing is, few players do. Most will simply complain or give up, instead of buckling down and actually evaluating what they are doing wrong. Hell, I know people personally who have abandoned the game entirely because they reached a point too challenging and refused to grind or accept advice.

People like instant gratification. And unfortunately, so long as that garners high profits. That is exactly what any smart company will cater towards.

A feature already exists to set your ilvl to the entry level of the content. If they just added a bonus reward system to that so players who used it got bonus rewards it would actually facilitate a system that allowed players to remove the overgearing factor to increase rewards.

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Originally Posted by Eyervan

@Cilia

I just think back to my FFXI 75 cap lifestyle and the sense of accomplishment I had for doing literally everything I had to do. Even mid-level stuff was hard/took time to do. The sense of accomplishment was real. Getting AF (artifact gear) was a relatively epic accomplishment and quite a glamour, but it felt better. FFXIV is like having your parent hold your hand through every step making it easy for you. And don't get me wrong. I still love it and have fun doing it, I just don't feel the challenge, nor do I see the general audience of players have a higher skill level like they did in FFXI. Even I'm relatively new with 2 lvl 60's and shouldn't really judge much, but oh man. Game needs to be harder overall.

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While I understand you and many have this sentiment, you have to understand what you see as difficult, many of us see as boring and tedious. Getting to 75 was not hard, in fact I feel the worst part of it was sitting in Jeuno looking for a party. lol xD Different people with different mentalities. :) I think you'll get more of that sense of accomplishment you seek once you get your first job over i200.

Alex savage is overtuned but nearly every other piece of content is undertuned. It's pretty stupid that you can drag some crap 300 DPS whatever through """"""Expert""""" dungeons. Some of the bosses in this game have pretty neat mechanics but you never get to see them since they have about a fourth of the HP and a third of the damage they should have.

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Originally Posted by Eyervan

@Cilia

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And making the early game harder from the get-go while ramping up the difficulty throughout the story would provide more a sense of accomplishment as well. Why not just make it stupidly hard from the beginning, so you feel really accomplished for finishing? ... because that's not enjoyable to more people than it is, and the game needs to appeal to as broad an audience as possible to be profitable.

There is difficult and/or time-consuming content to do. For difficulty, find a static and do Gordias Savage. For time-consuming, get a Zodiac or Anima weapon. Also remember that a lot of the content you do from 1-50 has been nerfed into the ground. Both Titan and Garuda were serious challenges during 2.0's story, their respective Hard Modes (which everybody did for their Relic weapon) even more so. Steps of Faith? You were lucky to get a group where people didn't drop when it was first released, because it took serious effort and a few tries to succeed, and even then it was a close shave.

Ravana was difficult on 3.0 release because people were used to being able to just overpower the content through gear and ignore mechanics; he's the first fight where you can't do that in 3.0. Bismarck similarly throws a curveball, requiring attentiveness and having a DPS check that some groups can't clear; I still die to this day in Bismarck HM (normal) because people just can't hit the shield generator when he dips down and can't burn adds quick enough.

Content is usually more difficult when it's first released and later made easier so people who join (or people who suck) can catch up to the endgame raiding scene, which is what the game's built around. When content is easy people complain it's not hard enough, but when they're taken out of their comfort zone by new content they complain and quit (or: Halls of Reflection). The glory days of requiring tremendous effort to get anywhere in an MMO is gone, and I agree it should be a little harder (just a little), but...

WAIT! Wait...

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Originally Posted by Eyervan

I just think back to my FFXI 75 cap lifestyle and the sense of accomplishment I had for doing literally everything I had to do.

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Originally Posted by Eyervan

I just think back to my FFXI 75 cap lifestyle and the sense of accomplishment...

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Originally Posted by Eyervan

I just think back to my FFXI...

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Dang, just another XI vet with rose-tinted nostalgia goggles on reminiscing about how great XI was.

Putting it as politely as I can: XIV was not, is not, and never will be XI-2 mechanically or in terms of the world. Wanting or expecting it to be or to become as such will only lead to disappointment. It's a very different game, made to compete with the contemporary market, not the MMO market of 15 years past.

To everyone else: there's nothing to see here. Move along. Keep moving.

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Originally Posted by Jim_Berry

Nope. There are too many of us who only want to play Softcore. Making everything hard will cause unsubscribers.

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I'm not suggesting it be made too hard, but the current content is boring to casual players because it's so easy. Also my main gripe is with the Knights of the Round fight, since even on release it was absolutely pathetic for being derived from one of the most awe-inspiring summons from the franchise ever. I just hope they don't butcher Ark if they put it in...

Also, "softcore?" *snicker*