What to do with all of this trash?

Let's discuss "trashmobs" and their importance (or lack of) in dungeons. Trashmobs are not new to MMOs or RPGs in general, they are a staple of the genre. However, there is a huge difference between MMOs and Traditional RPGs. In FFXIV you pretty much full-regen after every encounter, whereas in classic Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy you can get worn down by having trouble against trash mobs.

So really, if you full regen after every battle, and the monsters pose no actual threat of wiping the party...why even put them in the game? All it does is slow down your gameplay. I think SE might be trying to get away from this because in CT you really only have to clear those first 2 rooms before Bone Dragon and that's the only trash in the dungeon.

If we take out trashmobs then our sense of adventuring will be diminished. We would join, fight the boss, leave. That doesn't make that great for a game that boasts adventure. So what should we do?

1. Give them gimmicks, just like normal bosses. Have rooms set up in very gimmicky ways, etc.
2. Give them decent crafting look (from here on out, kinda hard to go back and redo old dungeons).

Thoughts?

tl;dr: Trash mobs leave a lot to be desired and slowdown gameplay; however, could be used in fun ways.

I think Square Enix is already ahead of you on this one. In my opinion the "trash" mobs in the end game dungeons are quite interesting :o

In Wanderer's Palace you have to avoid the invincible Tonberry stalker the whole time; AK has you dodging attacks from monsters you can't even see yet; hard mode Manner has you trying to save wood wailers from becoming demons, dodging attacking lanterns, and collecting keys; hard mode Copperbell has a gauntlet where you're pelted by spriggens while taking down walls and fighting increasingly numerable adds, and a whole segment where you defend miners while they break down a wall; and Pharos Sirus has mobs that spawn mini versions of themselves unless you're on top of things, valves that send exploding gas clouds at you, and surprise monsters that come along with falling crystals of death; and not to mention that all of these dungeons have monster abilities that keep you on your toes.

None of those mechanics have anything to do with bosses and I think they keep you engaged pretty well. I wouldn't like it if all of this was removed in favor of a pure boss dungeon :( though I wouldn't mind if trash mobs were given a loot table of their own, crafting or otherwise.