@Casuals , do you think the message has gotten through?

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Originally Posted by Erzaa

Nope. If you don't raid, you don't exist to them.

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Which is a shame because the playerbase are mostly non-raiders. I'd almost rather they switch things up. Make the raid balanced jobs more like BLU - "content restricted." And give us something new for the rest of the game.

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Originally Posted by Volgia

Social as in I need to interact with you in order to play the game. In non-raiding content I don't need to talk to you to play the game, some content even disables your ability to communicate when you play (Crystalline Conflict).

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Right. I doubt I would've tolerated SE's slip-ups as long as I did if I didn't have an FC with friends (all of whom have now unsubbed). Our social interaction would include taking a multi-seater mount to watch the sunset at Costa del Sol, discussing if Mikel Arteta was a human being or a Thunderbird Puppet.

Again, you've just shifted the vagaries of "social" to "interaction." Am I not interacting with 71 other players when I play a Frontline match? Certainly not something I can do in a single-player game.

A few years ago, Josh Strife Hayes (who has probably played more MMOs than anyone) put out a fascinating video on how "solo players" are required for MMOs to survive. It's a pity more people haven't watched it.

And you can communicate in CC. There is a lot more to communication than someone yelling "cleave right" on vc.

We're in the "Roman Reigns-push" era of FFXIV

(and I mean the "Big Dog" version of Roman, not the Tribal Chief)

This was basically an era in WWE where the creative team decided to make Roman Reigns the face of the company and the Universal Champion, despite the fact that almost all of their fans hated him at the time, largely because he couldn't cut promos (talk in-character) and didn't really know how to sell the illusion of pro wrestling. But, just like CSIII, they thought they knew best and did it regardless of what their fans thought, they made every decision possible to push the angle until it was almost too late to recover.

And yes, I do view Wuk Lamat as the "Roman Reigns" of FFXIV, but that's not actually my point.

My point is to describe the same sort of "we know better than you, fans" stubbornness that was going on behind the scenes in the WWE is also the same kind of stubbornness that Yoshida and co. have slipped into in regards to this game.

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Originally Posted by Kaurhz

Like I also said in my initial post... People were actually wanting -- and expecting to have a reason to play the game.

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When I say, people get surprised this is an MMO is because any attempt to step-up the difficulty, the grind or to strengthen it as an MMO is met with anger from the community.

As an example I cited a lot, Leveling Dungeons were slightly faster, and one single expert had a creative and funny boss fight in the beginning, people were angry at Yoshi P catering towards the HARDCORES, because he said before DT came out that he was getting inspired by Elden Ring. IDK if it's an MMO or a 14 player thing, but people are super reactionary, it makes the conversations around this game really hard to engage in.

All the systems you described and remember so fondly if implemented today would make the community stomp their feet in rage. I know that I used to like the systems that were in place in Stormblood, but my friends who joined during the ShB drought think I'm a boomer talking nonsense when I mention how butchered the game became after Shadowbringers. They think that all of this was just an improvement.

nothing useful to contribute other than the following: crafting will always be macro glurge.

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Originally Posted by Volgia

When I say, people get surprised this is an MMO is because any attempt to step-up the difficulty, the grind or to strengthen it as an MMO is met with anger from the community.

As an example I cited a lot, Leveling Dungeons were slightly faster, and one single expert had a creative and funny boss fight in the beginning, people were angry at Yoshi P catering towards the HARDCORES, because he said before DT came out that he was getting inspired by Elden Ring. IDK if it's an MMO or a 14 player thing, but people are super reactionary, it makes the conversations around this game really hard to engage in.

All the systems you described and remember so fondly if implemented today would make the community stomp their feet in rage. I know that I used to like the systems that were in place in Stormblood, but my friends who joined during the ShB drought think I'm a boomer talking nonsense when I mention how butchered the game became after Shadowbringers. They think that all of this was just an improvement.

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To be frank, I think casuals are babied so much by yoshi-p that they never gain a skill level beyond what you'd expect of someone in sastasha. It's actually pathetic when I see people die 3-4 times on an expert dungeon boss which is still very casual. People have no idea what their abilities do, don't know how to read cast bars, and expect people to carry them though the game. "normal mode" is absolutely the equivalent of story mode in other games, a mode designed to push players through the story with very little resistance. Yet people with 1000+ hours into the game still can't dodge a floor AOE or keep more than 50% ABC.

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Originally Posted by Altina_Orion

To be frank, I think casuals are babied so much by yoshi-p that they never gain a skill level beyond what you'd expect of someone in sastasha. It's actually pathetic when I see people die 3-4 times on an expert dungeon boss which is still very casual. People have no idea what their abilities do, don't know how to read cast bars, and expect people to carry them though the game. "normal mode" is absolutely the equivalent of story mode in other games, a mode designed to push players through the story with very little resistance. Yet people with 1000+ hours into the game still can't dodge a floor AOE or keep more than 50% ABC.

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More evidence that the game needs skill sliders or a dual-track.

You don't want to play with the babies. They do not want to play with you.

Incidentally, if one accepts that skill is something one gains through practice (which I do up to a point; there are also massive intrinsic skill variations in a MMO player pool), you might solve your puzzlement by realizing how little instanced PvE one is compelled to do in this game. For those of us who play each MSQ dungeon/trial once, we get hardly any practice at all.

This is also why I would like to see Duty Support extended to all required content. I don't want to be a burden on the players who are good at PvE, yet I am compelled to play those awful 8-man MSQ things with other players.

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

This.

The next expansion needs to, basically, be Shadowbringers II. They really can't afford for it to be anything less than exceptional.

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It's not a popular opinion but ShB wasn't exceptional
The first thing that pop in my mind when i think about it is a "bland square"
Meaning : everything is well executed and polished but it has no soul. The story is well writen with a good pacing but it doesn't delivers emotion like with HW. The gameplay is good and polished but isn't as fun and engaging as SB patchs.
Overal it's well done but, for me it was really the confirmation of the decline after SB started it.

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Originally Posted by Mikitan

Doesn't feel super great as a person who plays MMOS to try and handle social anxiety, having to get in random discords to do anything with anything (I soloed all of Crescent before this tower thing... why cant I just hit a button to que in like bozja? I could be a silent follower learning from others, no discord required. What was so wrong with that? All these people's sub money going to those 400 clears of tower... man that's like the biggest $$$ to player ratio I think I've ever heard of. Would be nice if my sub money went to something I could participate in, just saying. (my warrior set for crescent 100% made, bard set halfway, butr alas, this was wasted time, forked tower is for poeople who can talk and perform, silly me solo grinding all that gear... I WAS PLAYING WRONG YOSHI FORGIVE ME FOR TOUCHING RAIDER CONTENT)

Also while I can function, barely, in these disco-ball lvl100 dungeons. But I get overwhelmed, I get shamed for dying over and over (Your healer rez macro is not cute the 10th time, it feels like you are mocking me) and yoiu know... the top couple categories on the random dungeon finder might as well be deleted to me. I associate them with failure, anxiety, shame. I just wanna kill some monsters man, not play seizure DDR where "YOU ARE TOO LATE IF YOU ARE IN RED SO WHY IS THERE RED AT ALL". Its fun doing world content I guess but it gets a bit dead feeling when you do fates for hours and never see anyone else (if you arent in a raid or a discord, you are falling behind silly!)

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Bosses literally tell you what they are going to do in their cast bar, so anticipate mechanics. Why complain that you are standing in bad when you are not making an attempt to learn how fights work? There are very few people complaining that dungeons or even normal raids are too hard.

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Originally Posted by Altina_Orion

Bosses literally tell you what they are going to do in their cast bar, so anticipate mechanics. Why complain that you are standing in bad when you are not making an attempt to learn how fights work? There are very few people complaining that dungeons or even normal raids are too hard.

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Ahahahaha. Haha.

Just half the player base in DT.

I swear some people need to get out more.

there were a few who said normal raids are too difficult. so difficult they would never do them again.

guess what? that was on release day because they went in with people of similar skill and wiped several times.
a few weeks later they suddenly had several normal raids pieces and nobody said its too difficult anymore

the same thing happened in other raid tiers. lol
and tbf normal raids and a-raids is the endcontent for casual players so isnt it alright to die a few times. especially when nobody knows the fight your gear is low and you dont have anybidy in your group who can carry you?

I dunno, this thread got pretty deep into the expansion, with less-skilled players struggling with the increase in difficulty, and the skilled ones mostly insulting them as usual.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...eon-difficulty

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Originally Posted by Mawlzy

Ahahahaha. Haha.

Just half the player base in DT.

I swear some people need to get out more.

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No, its a loud minority of players on the FFXIV forums who think they represent the population. Go around and ask people in game how they feel, I have. Shout chat, NN, etc. I haven't found a single person in game who actually feels DT is too hard.

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Originally Posted by Mikitan

"Shut up person with social anxiety disorde, get overr the processing issues, just raid and play like I do" Whatever, I'll just not say anything, sorry.

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Bruh its story mode content, I never said go out and learn savage. The game literally tells you what to do, you just have to listen to it. I also don't know what your social anxiety has to do with trying to learn story mode mechanics nor do I understand why you are anxiety dumping on a public forum.

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Originally Posted by Altina_Orion

No, its a loud minority of players on the FFXIV forums who think they represent the population.

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And you know this how?

Do you think all those "Limsa AFKers" that you scorn have time to come to the forums???

How would you have any interaction with players who avoid PvE?

The fundamental issue impacting both sides of this debate is that there is a broad range of skill in the player base. I understand you find it incomprehensible that many FFXIV players have no real interest in dungeons and trials, let alone EX+, but your lack of imagination does not prevent something from being true.

Also, free fashion tip. If you're going to wear spectacles that large, you need to lift your bangs.

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Originally Posted by Mawlzy

I dunno, this thread got pretty deep into the expansion, with less-skilled players struggling with the increase in difficulty, and the skilled ones mostly insulting them as usual.

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...eon-difficulty

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It's like the same 10 people posting over and over about how the game is too hard and only hardcore raiders diagree.

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Originally Posted by Altina_Orion

It's like the same 10 people posting over and over about how the game is too hard and only hardcore raiders diagree.

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Do you understand what you just said?

Only hardcore raiders disagree that the game is too hard.

Yes, quite.

The good news, for you, is that you've won this battle with the people who matter. And I suspect the game will be able to carry on quite well with one third the players of the EW peak and the focus primarily on raiding.

I'm mostly trying to communicate why so many of us feel betrayed.

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Originally Posted by Mawlzy

Do you understand what you just said?

Only hardcore raiders disagree that the game is too hard.

Yes, quite.

The good news, for you, is that you've won this battle with the people who matter. And I suspect the game will be able to carry on quite well with one third the players of the EW peak and the focus primarily on raiding.

I'm mostly trying to communicate why so many of us feel betrayed.

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No I didn't? I sad that the 44 uber casuals out of the million people who play the game called everyone better than them a hardcore raider when most of there weren't. The casual content is largely agreed to be BARELY harder than EW, if at all. Most players think they brought the game back to ShB/SB difficulty.

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Originally Posted by Altina_Orion

No I didn't? I sad that the 44 uber casuals out of the million people who play the game called everyone better than them a hardcore raider when most of there weren't.

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44 out of million?

You really have no clue, huh?

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Originally Posted by Mawlzy

44 out of million?

You really have no clue, huh?

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It literally says 44 likes on the post, you can check. You're the one with absolutely no clue. Someone who doesn't even play the game anymore but still lives on the forum to complain its too hard telling me I need to get out more, absolutely wild.

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Originally Posted by Altina_Orion

It literally says 44 likes on the post, you can check. You're the one with absolutely no clue. Someone who doesn't even play the game anymore but still lives on the forum to complain its too hard telling me I need to get out more, absolutely wild.

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And the number of people who read that post is 1 million. Gotcha.

Literally a post on the second page has more likes than the first post

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Originally Posted by Masekase_Hurricane

These sort of threads really p*** me off because 9/10 times SE listens to them. The gap between msq dungeon difficulty to Ex Savage has gotten wider and wider over the expansions. There needs to be a more consistent rise in difficulty as you progress through the game and the only time lower dungeons should be nerfed is when the next expansion comes out.

I'm not a Savage/Extreme player as such, but I do like to dabble and challenge myself at them every so often. Nerfing them just makes the end game content harder as it's more of a shock to the system when you reach them.

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Absolutely wild that you think "half" of the players find it too hard. You've only weakened your point and it's weird that you think you're in the majority here.

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Originally Posted by Altina_Orion

...

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Jesus, Mary and Joseph! You and Volgia just arguing in bad faith, cherry picking and straw manning talking points most haven't even made, ad hominem attacks.

Completely hijacked this thread and what it was about.

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Originally Posted by Altina_Orion

Literally a post on the second page has more likes than the first post



Absolutely wild that you think "half" of the players find it too hard. You've only weakened your point and it's weird that you think you're in the majority here.

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Oh if you told me it was only one third I wouldn't argue with you. Figure it's a few more than 44 though.

But as I said, you won. Be happy!

And when you and yours complete the mission and the last non-raider quits the game, you'll have the place all to yourselves!

And then...

You will fall upon each other like crazed hyenas, glassy eyes half-seeing from the cumulative effects of dungeon flashbangs, heads drooped from bending over your keyboards, ears ringing with tinnitus from voice chat.

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Originally Posted by Altina_Orion

Literally a post on the second page has more likes than the first post
Absolutely wild that you think "half" of the players find it too hard. You've only weakened your point and it's weird that you think you're in the majority here.

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And a post on the JP forums about OC feedback saying that Forked Tower should have only had a normal mode and not a hard/savage mode at all has 130+ likes, while other posts in the same thread suggesting the difficulty is fine can barely crack 10. What's your point?
People are vowing to continue voicing feedback in that thread (which itself is 130 pages long) until management gives them concrete, tangible changes, not just to Forked Tower, but to ffxiv as a whole

So yea, I'm gonna say the majority opinion is that people don't like the difficulty direction in dawntrail. The dam has broken on the JP side, and it's about ready to burst on the NA side too. That's probably why the person you quoted is lamenting these people being listened to. Not because they're a fringe minority, but because that's actually where the vast majority of players are. That's why they get listened to

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Originally Posted by Velthice

And a post on the JP forums about OC feedback saying that Forked Tower should have only had a normal mode and not a hard/savage mode at all has 130+ likes, while other posts in the same thread suggesting the difficulty is fine can barely crack 10. What's your point?
People are vowing to continue voicing feedback in that thread (which itself is 130 pages long) until management gives them concrete, tangible changes, not just to Forked Tower, but to ffxiv as a whole

So yea, I'm gonna say the majority opinion is that people don't like the difficulty direction in dawntrail. The dam has broken on the JP side, and it's about ready to burst on the NA side too. That's probably why the person you quoted is lamenting these people being listened to. Not because they're a fringe minority, but because that's actually where the vast majority of players are. That's why they get listened to

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Exactly this. And the reason this point of view has been largely neglected up until this point is that the director and devs get their input during media tours from streamers, nearly all of whom stream raiding content.

Imagine trying to deduce the number of players that find content too hard/not hard enough by counting likes on a forum post.

Now I've seen it all. At least until the next, even more stupid discussion comes up :D

BTW: I find normal trials and raids too hard. I did Cruiserweight M4 Normal 14 times (because I wanted two of the weapons), and even on my very last run died to some of the mechanics I cannot solve in real time. And guess what? That's ok. I'm now officially a carry, a burden to the friendly people that play the roulette. So when you see me next time, kissing the floor again to a mechanic you deem Hall-of-novice level easy - please know that I'm doing the best I can. Obviously it's not enough, but it's all I got. Sorry.

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Originally Posted by Velthice

And a post on the JP forums about OC feedback saying that Forked Tower should have only had a normal mode and not a hard/savage mode at all has 130+ likes, while other posts in the same thread suggesting the difficulty is fine can barely crack 10. What's your point?
People are vowing to continue voicing feedback in that thread (which itself is 130 pages long) until management gives them concrete, tangible changes, not just to Forked Tower, but to ffxiv as a whole

So yea, I'm gonna say the majority opinion is that people don't like the difficulty direction in dawntrail. The dam has broken on the JP side, and it's about ready to burst on the NA side too. That's probably why the person you quoted is lamenting these people being listened to. Not because they're a fringe minority, but because that's actually where the vast majority of players are. That's why they get listened to

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I agree with this though, thats a VERY different thing then what they were arguing about/saying. They were saying that story dungeons are too hard and that most players agree with that.

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Originally Posted by Altina_Orion

I agree with this though, thats a VERY different thing then what they were arguing about/saying. They were saying that story dungeons are too hard and that most players agree with that.

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Well that position I can't argue. I can only give insight to the reception of Golden Legacy content overall

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Originally Posted by Altina_Orion

I agree with this though, thats a VERY different thing then what they were arguing about/saying. They were saying that story dungeons are too hard and that most players agree with that.

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Let us suppose that it's only 25% of the player base that find DT story dungeons and trials too hard.

There are many simple fixes for that problem - particularly in duty support dungeons - that could be implemented that would make them not too hard, without impacting those who think they are just fine.

Would that work for you? You could still mock them for not reading their tool tips, and not reading cast bars and boss tells, and standing in the bad and all the rest of it. Hey you could even point and laugh simply because they choose the "very easy" mode, like so many of the pros like to do in the context of solo duties.

Or would you rather they just leave? Because many already have.

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Originally Posted by Erzaa

Jesus, Mary and Joseph! You and Volgia just arguing in bad faith, cherry picking and straw manning talking points most haven't even made, ad hominem attacks.

Completely hijacked this thread and what it was about.

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Always the same players with the same posts, if you join the forum one time per day atleast, you will be able to see this.

The same history everyday, ouuuuf.

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Originally Posted by Gwenkatsu

Imagine trying to deduce the number of players that find content too hard/not hard enough by counting likes on a forum post.

Now I've seen it all. At least until the next, even more stupid discussion comes up :D

BTW: I find normal trials and raids too hard. I did Cruiserweight M4 Normal 14 times (because I wanted two of the weapons), and even on my very last run died to some of the mechanics I cannot solve in real time. And guess what? That's ok. I'm now officially a carry, a burden to the friendly people that play the roulette. So when you see me next time, kissing the floor again to a mechanic you deem Hall-of-novice level easy - please know that I'm doing the best I can. Obviously it's not enough, but it's all I got. Sorry.

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thats alright. its not hall of the novice level. dieing is allowed. and there are no 8-man body checks in normal. so not like it matters in most cases

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Originally Posted by Altina_Orion

To be frank, I think casuals are babied so much by yoshi-p that they never gain a skill level beyond what you'd expect of someone in sastasha. It's actually pathetic when I see people die 3-4 times on an expert dungeon boss which is still very casual. People have no idea what their abilities do, don't know how to read cast bars, and expect people to carry them though the game. "normal mode" is absolutely the equivalent of story mode in other games, a mode designed to push players through the story with very little resistance. Yet people with 1000+ hours into the game still can't dodge a floor AOE or keep more than 50% ABC.

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Play as you want! But never forget there's a strict meta and rotation you must perfectly memorize if you want to clear anything harder than a normal raid.

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Originally Posted by Mawlzy

More evidence that the game needs skill sliders or a dual-track.

You don't want to play with the babies. They do not want to play with you.

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To me the problem is not that I think casuals are dumb babies, is that the game just doesn't teach you how to play, there's no resistance from the MSQ content and that's how someone can be here since ARR and have no idea how to manage their abilities. When I got to the endgame in Stormblood I was a DPS deadweight cuz I didn't know what a rotation was and I had to learn it from other players/eventual guides.

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Originally Posted by Asari5

thats alright. its not hall of the novice level. dieing is allowed. and there are no 8-man body checks in normal. so not like it matters in most cases

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Which is the exact reason why I never will set my foot into anything above MSQ level. Not because of anxiety, or some evil addon-using discord leet players gatekeeping me... it's just that I'm not good in solving FF14's boss emote puzzles in real time. But the more this stuff bleeds into normal content, the more frustrating it gets for people like me. And when the game evolves to a point where I cannot even finish a normal dungeon any longer, I will simply be gone. Seeing how well catering to hardcore players only worked for Wildstar, I have my doubts whether FF14's current direction regarding combat difficulty is such a clever idea...

I'mma be real, the people unironically struggling with normal raids won't learn unless we stop dumbing content down. You've seen what Pandemonium did to people. Hitboxes the size of a meteor, five thousand ways to recover from mechanical failure.

Like, look at M7N. When I last did it in week 6 or something, people were still dying on the first platform. That's fine, but we can't keep catering to the smallest common denominator.

It's like in education where if you keep lowering the requirements to suit those who don't keep up, everyone else eventually decays from boredom.

e/: Like when Seat of Sacrifice (Normal) came out, we had to kick a WHM because they kept failing the ATE. For a player like that, any content is too hard.

Lord Almighty! Just stop!

The discussion is about the game only providing content to high-end raiders, not about difficulty.

The original poster has cleared EX. They're not struggling with normal dungeons or raids.

Casual players are a large group, with varied interests. Some just enjoy the MSQ and are here for the story, some also enjoy the normal Trials and Raids and nothing else, others dip their toes into EX, others such as myself enjoy the deep dungeon challenges.

The problem we all agree on, is that, for the last year, they've released nothing except raids. So, if you don't enjoy raiding, you've got nothing to do. We might as well not exist. Nobody's looking to take away your precious raids, we just want other options and stuff to do for ourselves.

Normal raids and dungeon difficulty has increased, yup, and some players don't like it, some do, some couldn't care less. Again though, they only increased the difficulty artificially, by just increasing the speed at which mechanics happen, while vomiting twice as many effects into your face. They've done nothing to make them interesting or fun. It's still the same, die until you memorise, press buttons, stand in the tiny safe spot, rinse, repeat.

And I see no reason why players who just want to enjoy the story, can't have difficulty options, without having a bunch of high-end raiders jumping down their throats. They're not asking to enter your statics or PFs. And nobody, except you, cares if you believe that they're dumbing it down, or if you don't like seeing players die to mechanics you consider simple.

Increasing the difficulty in a game, doesn't force players to improve. It just pushes them away. Players who don't enjoy a certain type of content, won't do a type of content, no matter how much you might want them to.

But again, the main point is that the game is releasing only raid focused content, leaving nothing for the rest of us, not the difficulty of said content.

They could've made normal Forked Tower, they could've released twice as many treasure dungeons, they could've made a CLL or Dalriada equivalent, they could've made the CE and FATE and mob grind not be a miserable slog with no payoff. They could've made the Cosmic FATEs interesting, they could've made the tool be more that just click windows and craft useless items for "research", they could've released Variant already, they could've added Deep Dungeons to the atma grind.

There's a million damn things they could've done, to give everyone and anyone options to decide what part of the game they want to interact with, and they didn't do any of it.

i dont disagree with the lack of alternativ combat content.

i mean there is creszentia, but that is pretty much fates which we had all along.
tribal quests, but i dont really consider these any content lol.
then we have treasure maps.
is there anything else?

next thing would be the deep dungeon. thats neither savage nor raid content.

but tbh i cant really imagine alternativ combat content. how would it even look like? xD

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Originally Posted by Erzaa

The problem we all agree on, is that, for the last year, they've released nothing except raids. So, if you don't enjoy raiding, you've got nothing to do. We might as well not exist. Nobody's looking to take away your precious raids, we just want other options and stuff to do for ourselves.

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But they haven't released "Nothing but raids", the only new raid thing they released was Chaotic. Everything else has been the same content patch release since Stormblood.

The problem isn't the lack of varied new content, the problem is the normal content has become dull and boring, they decimated most of the complex systems pre-Shadowbringers and now we're just on that late stage version of the game where no one is happy.

The game has also fostered a strong divide between casual/hardcore content. So if anything in normal mode gives you a bit of friction (STrayborough, M2N) people come here in tears asking why they don't toss that onto the hardcore pile, or wonder why no one is catering towards them specifically.

You accused me of arguing in bad faith and nitpicking so IDK if responding to you is productive, but this is my stance on the matter.

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Originally Posted by Asari5

alternativ combat content. how would it even look like? xD

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Hmmm...

How about, something like...

1. Patch includes a new treasure dungeon, or reuse the existing one. The further in you get, the higher the chance of Atma drops.
2. Include the deep dungeons into the grind, the higher the floor, the higher the chance. Keep the FATEs and CEs as well.
3. Mobs are stronger, still drop gold, but have a chance to drop silver. More Knowledge XP from them. Pulling big packs is risky, but still doable.
4. CEs can have stars. 1 star difficulty for players who want to have easy mechanics, less rewards per CE, 2 star, 3 star etc. Players can pick and choose or do all of them. Multiple CEs with different star ratings run simultaneously. Same for FATEs. Let players decide what they want to interact with.
5. Chests could spawn at random intervals, some unknown point on the map, guarded by a particularly strong mob. Any Phantom Job has a small chance of dropping from them.
6. If two versions of Forked Tower is too much, how about just have two entrances? Forked Tower: Blood for the 24-48 raiders, they're going in through the front door, actually committing to a full on assault, they kill the bosses, avoid the traps etc, get their rewards. The easier way might be 4 or 8 man pickup group, sneaks in through a hidden entrance that was "discovered", "avoid raising the alarms per se", by knocking out said bosses (easier mechanics), they get less loot, but still can work over time toward the same end goal?
7. As far as players who really want a difficulty lower, I still don't see any problem with that. Have a Story mode difficulty (Trusts only, or with friends, no DF), mechanics are slower, more time to react or notice things (maybe also don't one or two shot every time). Normal difficulty is what we have now, Trials and Raids still get their EX and Savage as normal.

Just a few thoughts, I'm open to adding more options and stuff.

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Originally Posted by Gwenkatsu

Which is the exact reason why I never will set my foot into anything above MSQ level. Not because of anxiety, or some evil addon-using discord leet players gatekeeping me... it's just that I'm not good in solving FF14's boss emote puzzles in real time. But the more this stuff bleeds into normal content, the more frustrating it gets for people like me. And when the game evolves to a point where I cannot even finish a normal dungeon any longer, I will simply be gone. Seeing how well catering to hardcore players only worked for Wildstar, I have my doubts whether FF14's current direction regarding combat difficulty is such a clever idea...

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There are currently no hardcore mechanics in the dungeons. We're a long way from that, in fact.

You have to stop exaggerating at some point. To say that you're struggling with normal content? That's fine. It's a game, no problem. But you have to keep a certain amount of lucidity and not make false statements. Here, the fact that you're struggling to complete this type of content doesn't necessarily equate to a design error in the encounters.

In any case, the majority of players can complete this content: all you have to do is play with people who will pick you up when you make a mistake - which is possible, because there's no general wipe in normal content when an individual mistake is made.