Newb question about group game play.

When / at what level does group content actually become somewhat challenging ?


Background: I am a new player that returned to FFXIV over a month ago after being gone for years. The furthest I have every made it was a 50th level Paladin at launch.

I started fresh on Goblin and have pushed through the ARR MSQ storyline and am just a handful of quests away from the end of 2.0,still have 2.1-2.55 before Heavensward finally unlocks.

Problem : Group play up to this point is really light, there is little challenge since the Sync feature seems to leave folks over powered compared to the low level content :(

The Storyline is interesting but I am getting bored playing solo all the time and when the group stuff dopes happen it seems to be mostly faceroll, even with me being a level appropriate White Mage :(

I guess I am hoping to hear that the the group play gets better because I don't think I can handle slogging through 100+ hours of generally "meh" solo story for the privilege of playing group content that is actually scaled properly.

The more expansions that pile on, the worse balanced the older stuff seems to get. I agree that nearly everything prior to ShadowBringers now feels easier than it did before the expansion hit, even if you do it level-synced. The Lv1~50 stuff is now SUPER EASY, so I can only hope the lv51+ stuff can hold your interest a little better, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

The good news is that there is challenging content available starting at level 50 (The Binding Coil and/or Extreme Primals). The bad news is that content is 100% optional, nobody runs it in the Duty Finder, and you'll find it nearly impossible to convince people to actually do it level-synced at its original level-cap, thus removing most, or all, of the challenge. Very few people are interested in bashing their head against a wall for no benefit.

Barring convincing a small group of people to trudge through old content at its original level cap for zero benefit, you might start to see some challenge at or above level 60. I still run across groups in the Duty Finder that struggle with some of the Alexander raids (Lv60; note, however, that Alexander is optional side content). Beyond that, there's another difficulty bump at Lv70 with the Omega raids, the 24-man Ivalice alliance raids, and some people even struggle with the some of the MSQ trials they throw at you (lookin' at you, Tsukiyomi). I bet some of the Lv70 extreme primals are still challenging, even if you run them at lv80.


tl;dr: Yes, the early game was always boring, and with Shadowbringer's recent culling/condensing/simplifying of nearly every job's skills, the early game can feel even more boring than it used to. I certainly never enjoy getting synced under level 60 for most jobs. Most people will want to complete content in the easiest manner possible, so they'll often opt to absolutely steamroll stuff unsynced just to get the rewards faster. If I had to give a context-free answer to your question, I would say Level 70, which is... yeah... an unfortunately very long way away from where you currently are.

Don't forget about Eureka. Now there's a good place for a challenge.

lol

The most challenging dungeons pre-50 are optional content. Sunken Temple of Qarn, Cutters Cry, and Aurum Vale still have bad enough reputations that some people will leave them and take the penalty immediately on showing up via the leveling roulette(not even waiting for the gate to drop). Among the level 50 content, one "story mode" trial is head and shoulders above the others in terms of difficulty(Chrysalis - honestly, from this trial onward almost every story trial has a chance to go horribly wrong and end up in a series of wipes). Keeper of the Lake is probly the hardest dungeon of the level 50 cycle. Both of those are required content to continue the story. Of the optional stuff, a few of the Coil raids were still tough at level 60(by 70 you could only say this was the case if your people didnt know what to do) - so you likely will have a hard time finding a group to do them without unsyncing. Ditto the extreme trials on the "hard time finding a group to do them the hard way" side(not so much the "still tough 10 levels later" side). The first two alliance(24 man) raids are a joke, the last one of the 50 cycle(World of Darkness) can still be rough with a bad-mediocre group. None of the optional dungeons stand out in my head as exceptionally hard, but a few of them are certainly harder then faceroll.

I havent heard an update this month, but everything ive previously heard says that the first true test(a trial by fire if you like) for a healer is the level 57 story dungeon. That one has served as a wake-up call for healers for awhile now. A good tank and dps can pull a truly sorry healer through(most of the time), but an average tank/dps means the healer will have to work(and a bad group means youre gonna earn that clear if you get it at all).

You can use the duty finder to queue into extreme trials. It's a little wonky in EU/NA as most people would expect you to PF those but with the mentor roulette you eventually get a group that's willing to give it a shot for a bit.
I'd say it's 50/50 chance you get a clear that way. It isn't uncommon for parties to ride the lockout and not manage to clear in that time for some of the trials.

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Originally Posted by EaMett

You can use the duty finder to queue into extreme trials. It's a little wonky in EU/NA as most people would expect you to PF those but with the mentor roulette you eventually get a group that's willing to give it a shot for a bit.
I'd say it's 50/50 chance you get a clear that way. It isn't uncommon for parties to ride the lockout and not manage to clear in that time for some of the trials.

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You can, but set your expectations low, because it also isn't uncommon for those mentors to get frustrated and leave the second they find out they're in an extreme trial. Also, thanks to the new expansion, there's probably fewer mentors than ever actually running mentor roulette. Aside from just having other newer stuff to do, some of us no longer have access to the mentor roulette if we never bothered with some of the SB extremes (and the Great Hunt, ugh).