The only thing I miss about WoW when playing FFXIV: Scrub's rights.

OP, I find it very telling that you assume you are of average skill level despite having needed a dozen attempts on "very easy" to barely squeak out a clutch victory. And then you've only dug in your heels further despite the thread coming together to tell you we all found this quest much easier than you did, dismissing experiences counter to yours as people who are just being mean or people who have some kind of Stockholm syndrome and don't even realize how twisted the game has made our expectations.

If your worldview requires that you view everyone else in a conversation as rude or wrong, you have to eventually come to terms with the fact that the problem lies with you.

It's okay to be bad at the game. You know this, or you wouldn't have made a thread advocating for the "scrubs" to have a more positive experience. But now that you are being told you aren't at the mid-level of skill you thought you were, denial has kicked in hard? It's okay if you're bad. That's why the game gives you a very easy setting that you're allowed to hammer away at a dozen or more times.

The game absolutely does have "scrub rights"... and you've seen it firsthand. It's not an insult to tell you you have room to improve, nor to point out most of us didn't fail the battles or need to lower the difficulty. Take that feedback and use it to realize you could do better, not to huff away and insist you aren't going to stand around and be insulted like this.

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Originally Posted by Omedon

This is very on the money as to what I’m getting at, yes.

Challenge my character, don’t challenge me. Why even have gear levels if they are to be nullified in an effort to check if I, as in me typing, am “good enough” to see the next chapter?

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This sounds like you're more looking for a book, a TV-series or a game without any real gameplay (aka Walking Simulator or Interactive Movies) - not for a roleplaying game like this one.

I would argue that by the point you reach these tests of skill in your role then you will have already crossed greater tests, we are talking high level content.

One of the things I found this game was good for levels 1 to 50 was easing you into various role concepts, how your job plays and how mechanics work and builds on that existing knowledge post 50.

There are moments when a player will hit walls, yet, i feel that's to be expected in a video games, moments where you have to improve your skill as a player.

What I'd hate to see is for the game to hold your hand any more than it already does, because I feel it already does this more than most. I'm not sure the answer is to make those walls easier to climb but only to have the means for people to climb over them. If they're too easy to climb then all sense of fighting a tough bad guy is lost in that experience.

How come every time there is a thread like this by a "Wow Vet" and they are given constructive criticism, they always escape to the age old excuse of "Wow this community is worse than WoW"

Like no dude/girl, we are just telling you to improve, as Role Quest are literally just that, quest that test your capability on a specific role.

I died one time on a single Role Quest, and that was on the last Tank quest, you know what that told me? That I was personally doing something wrong and needed to improve and get better at the role, and I did, and my 2nd try, breezed through it.

"I feel I'm up to the challenge when I can barely pass role quests on very easy settings!" Um... you might want to reconsider? Try actually learning the ins and outs of your class. Know how basic mechanics work. This game is, by far, one of the easiest MMO's out there in regards to MSQ and general content. If a role quest on very easy is causing you concern or nearly halting your progress, you need to do some self reflection.

I wiped on one of my alt's first Ascian duties because I was overzealous with my multi-dotting and the NPC tanks weren't supportive of that playstyle. I did my second attempt on Very Easy but honestly didn't notice much difference except that it took longer because I was appropriately cautious that time.

That's been my only encounter with the difficulty system. It's a good addition but it sounds like the difficulty may need to be adjusted more if the difference between normal and easiest isn't particularly notable.

My heart sank when I read your original post, OP. I knew your misconception that this is a nice community was about to get blasted into oblivion. Most people on the forums have no time or patience with anyone who struggles, especially if they struggle with solo duties in the MSQ.

I have posted on a number of occasions - and mostly been flamed or ignored - about how the hard content, the challenges, should be in optional stuff that players can choose not to do. I don't disagree with the concept that every player should be working to improve as best they can so that they're not a burden in group content. And they should stay out of Savage and Extremes if they cant play to that standard. But everything else should be available to them (that is to say, the non-optional battle content should not be a bar to progression). I disbelieve the story that everyone who struggles is lazy, bad and should stop playing.

Sadly you will find very few folks on the forums who agree

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Originally Posted by Omedon

I’ve obviously ruffled some feathers in actually speaking out loud about some of the “social compacts” that let this game work as it does. If I’ve offended I apologize but I’m not going to hang around and be insulted.

In case it wasn’t clear: I do not seek out optional difficulty, so don’t worry about seeing me in your harder modes in the game. This is true in any game I play, not unique to FFXIV. So you can all relax. I am fairly confident that I’m up to the challenge for any base core story content that is put in my way. The only concern I have is that I cannot formulaically promise myself that that will always be the case because of the design philosophies of “you’re level X you should be this good by now.” That doesn’t ever bother any of you? I’m seriously asking here.

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It does and it doesn't. It doesn't because I know I'm generally decent enough at the game that I know it's unlikely to become a problem for me personally. It does in that... Well one, I know people who I'll never be able to enjoy the game with because this is part of why they don't enjoy it. And also because SE kinda trapped themselves in this type of design.

What I mean is, the challenges are easy enough that the number of people they'll truly block out is probably relatively small so they aren't a fantastic gate to begin with, BUT they also sort of do act as a gate for anyone who is genuinely incapable of performing even at a basic level, for whatever reason. Which on one hand super sucks for those folks cause they'll never finish the game and will seriously need to go to YouTube to experience the story... and I can see SE not wanting to remove that gate because the story REQUIRES you to go into group content by design. You can't separate group content from the story. Which means you're gonna be expected to be "good enough" for group content, which means if you can't clear the solo duties then you're stuck anyway cause your dungeon and trial runs are probably gonna be miserable too. It kinda?? Goes in circles a little there

But yeah. More sleepy thoughts.

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Originally Posted by Omedon

In case it wasn’t clear: I do not seek out optional difficulty, so don’t worry about seeing me in your harder modes in the game. This is true in any game I play, not unique to FFXIV. So you can all relax. I am fairly confident that I’m up to the challenge for any base core story content that is put in my way. The only concern I have is that I cannot formulaically promise myself that that will always be the case because of the design philosophies of “you’re level X you should be this good by now.” That doesn’t ever bother any of you? I’m seriously asking here.

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Of course it doesn't bother me. We need more of it. You've spent hundreds of hours on the game at this point. You've already beat shinryu at the point you're at. And your next trial is coming up. Yes, you should be "this good now."

If you asked me, should you, as a player, have a "please just show me a cutscene" level of difficulty for your role quest in an abstract Final Fantasy XIV: The single player edition, I would certainly said yes. Sure, skip tutorials, mash one attack button, don't read quest texts its your decision to drool from boredom in this beautiful single player world.

But this is Final Fantasy XIV: the online edition, where you're expected to interact with players, if only once per MSQ dungeon or raid. And not only that, but for some god forsaken reason you decided to interact with them using one of the two most demanding roles in terms of impact on party progress. So yeah, game wants you to understand that you have this little button that makes pretty shield go off and save your ally. Yes, game will ask you to DPS and Heal as a WHM during your role quests. Yes quest duties will force you to dodge glowing puddles on the floor, stack on stack markers and make decisions on the fly, all that so you don't feel completely lost in a dungeon or a trial.

Does it filter out players that can't do those things? Yes. Does it suck for them? Yes. But it means that 3 (or 7) people don't have to waste 90minutes of their time struggling with a tank or a healer that can't perform their role at most basic required level.