the normal content is too easy

We also have that "In from the Cold" complaint post which reached 57 pages because it was too hard for people. When something like that gets such a reaction, imagine the reaction to other normal content being made slightly hard.

That scenario can be tough for people because, 1) it's fairly uncharted territory; 2) you have very limited resources; 3) the goals aren't entirely clear and require you to do a bit of probing in your environment. It's a different style of gameplay to what is typical of the game, so it catches some people off guard. I would dispute that it's that hard, but comparing it to normal content being say at the level of 4.3 or 5.3 trials, to me it is completely non-comparable, not least because you have other players to bail you out in trials and you'd have to ramp up the stakes quite a lot to take it to that level, not just a bit. People mention Shinryu - I can count on a single hand the number of times I've wiped on that since SB was left behind, and even that is exaggerating.

As for allowing an easy trust option for those who want to complete the MSQ? It certainly resolves the issue of the MSQ being too tough for some people if normal content becomes a bit harder, and no, it does not force anyone to be "exiled" from DF content, because you can still do that, if you are willing to accept that there may be a few wipes here and there the first few times. I've always observed players share mechanics that can cause a wipe easily, so it's not something that can't be resolved through a bit of communication... if you genuinely want a more social content mode, communication is part and parcel of that. The impression I am really getting here is some people just want to hit an I-win button and be showered with a loot/praise pinata for that.

I stopped having faith that the game would get harder when they added visuals to the second boss in Aurum Vale. I actually liked that fight; it was awesome to see people get hit by a mechanic and then find out which ones learned from it and which ones didn't.

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Originally Posted by Dzian

Even endwalker. the level 90 tank quest for example just tells you to interupt an ability. so i and apparantly quite a few other players were getting frustrated because stuns are interupts and they weren't working.... and the solution to the quest was use a role skill thats basically been obselete since second coil. (minus maybe a handfull of very rare situationally niche uses) and as a result is a skill that 99% (exagerated) of tanks never even have on there hotbars...

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Um...Stuns are NOT interrupts. They do interrupt, but they are not the same. Creatures that are immune to stuns can still be interrupted. How do you not know this as a tank? Interrupts also function differently mechanically. An interrupt will trigger a longer cooldown for the enemy than normal, whereas with a stun the enemy has a fair chance to immediately attempt to re-cast the ability once the stun expires.

Easy for me is not easy for someone else. Difficult for you is not difficult for someone else. The normal content is balanced around the average skill of the majority of the playerbase and whether or not that's undertuned will depend on individual perspectives and frankly that's all there is to it. We have people who used to call Extremes difficult and now say they're easy based on any number of variables while that easy content stomps others who may not be as skilled.

You don't have to agree with it and you're very welcome to rail against it but that's the path the devs have chosen for the content that the majority of players will interact with. Personally I'd like to see lower iLvl caps on older content so they regain/retain some of their teeth but that's just my singular want in a sea of others, and I'm okay with that in the end. If I wasn't I'd probably find another game to meet that personal demand (no this isn't a "leave then" statement).

Also amazingly spicy topic to post from a sockpuppet alt.

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Originally Posted by ValStryder

Um...Stuns are NOT interrupts. They do interrupt, but they are not the same. Creatures that are immune to stuns can still be interrupted. How do you not know this as a tank? Interrupts also function differently mechanically. An interrupt will trigger a longer cooldown for the enemy than normal, whereas with a stun the enemy has a fair chance to immediately attempt to re-cast the ability once the stun expires.

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This is going to sound mean to the person you replied to but there's no way around it so, this is why content gets easier. People lack basic understanding of their skills. There's like one fight in EW dungeons where an interrupt is needed (I say needed but it's 100% not) and that's on the Hermes fight. Just about every run you can see people just let the Truebravery cast go off.

Also if you don't have every single skill on your hotbar, you're playing your Job wrong. Everything has a use, this is what separates the good players from the bad.

The fact that there's an easy and very easy mode for instances tells one everything about the average level the playerbase is.

While I don't touch savage or extreme content most of the time due to the huge leap in difficulty (my fear of screwing things up, even after watching a guide), normal content should be NORMAL CONTENT!!! Not easy content. Not very easy content. But average level content that actually keeps you mentally active in the game and can prepare you for that leap into harder content!

This is why when I play any single player game, I always play on Hard Mode because I know normal mode is actually just easy mode pretending to be normal mode, while the real normal mode is actually Hard Mode.

Challenge the playerbase and it will improve. Keep handicapping them, and all you'll get are below average vanilla players. I hope Yoshi-P figures this out eventually.

The narrative value of fight difficulty is a better argument than anything else, and one I wholly agree with. Zodiark is pretty difficult for a normal and it makes the experience better- so were Shinryu (which was by far the hardest story trial since I started playing), Susano, and Nidhogg. Hades, Hyedalyn, and Endsinger were far too easy given the gravity of their fights and it made them less cool outside of pure cinematic flair. I don't think EVERY fight should challenge you that much, but it should where it's appropriate. The dungeons this time around are much harder than the trials and I really don't think that's appropriate.

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Originally Posted by AziraSyuren

The narrative value of fight difficulty is a better argument than anything else, and one I wholly agree with. Zodiark is pretty difficult for a normal and it makes the experience better- so were Shinryu (which was by far the hardest story trial since I started playing), Susano, and Nidhogg. Hades, Hyedalyn, and Endsinger were far too easy given the gravity of their fights and it made them less cool outside of pure cinematic flair. I don't think EVERY fight should challenge you that much, but it should where it's appropriate. The dungeons this time around are much harder than the trials and I really don't think that's appropriate.

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Zodiark is one of the easiest fights both normal and EX we've ever had. All it requires is two people to know where to go and the rest to follow their assigned shape.

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Originally Posted by Kyrj

Zodiark is one of the easiest fights both normal and EX we've ever had. All it requires is two people to know where to go and the rest to follow their assigned shape.

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Yeah but that first blind run on release was really fun and that's what matters the most to me and what I'm judging it based on.