Challenge Dungeons (New Path w/ Variable difficulty)
I was playing through Skydeep Cenote a few days ago and was a bit disappointed by the fact that it feels kinda like wasted potential such a pretty level 93 dungeon.
I thought wouldn't it be nice if the dungeons you get for an expansion could all be level 100.
This led me to think about how many people find dungeon content boring, which to be fair as time has gone on Dungeons have become more tame.
But as we've seen by just adding a bit of spice to MSQ dungeons, it can also ostracize those who don't want extra difficulty and as much as I don't relate to this complaint in the least... I do empathize with people feeling ostracized from their own game they seek comfort and friendship from.
So I thought to myself if the Devs are going down this path of Variable difficulty maybe I can kill two birds with one Stone V.
Challenge Dungeons.
For an expansion would take all dungeons from an expansion in this case (91-100)
And scale them up to 100 further more these dungeons would crank up the difficulty with more mechanics, perhaps even that can be tiered in a sense more challenge you want the more reward. Perhaps even have certain status conditions similar to a deep dungeon floor to up the ante.
MSQ dungeons will go back to a more passive and manageable difficulty for casuals. (I.E. Normal Dungeons)
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In doing a Challenge Dungeon you will receive gear that looks like the gear you'd receive if you did the Normal Dungeons.
However, Challenge Dungeon gear will be 5 ilvls higher than what ever the max story dungeon is - have the potential to be given an additional Materia slot.
Materia that drops will be the highest Materia available.
And the Challenge Dungeon Gear will be dyeable and not only that be dyeable via 4 channels.
- The harder the difficulty, the more guarantee of getting the Job-specific gear you'd want; completing a Challenge dungeon at any tier ante would still nab you a token for your troubles.
Completing all Challenge Dungeons in rotation for that patch cycle will get you an exclusive title ^v^
Whenever a new set of two dungeons comes in the bottom dungeons in the roster will be removed from the cycle BUT the Challenge dungeon gear you could have gotten will then be able to be bought by the secondary Tome currency for the expansion and later poetics.
That way even players who missed out or found it too challenging won't feel bad if they see a piece of gear they really like.
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Think of this as a return to how dungeons used to have (Hard) dungeons - back when it actually meant something but with added benefits and greater challenges. Or how there's a difference between Normal Trials and Extreme.
I think this be a very neat addition to the game.
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EDIT
One last thing;
Doing Challenge dungeons with your FC mates gets you put on some type of leaderboard.
A Leaderboard — not for pure min-max competition, but as a way to celebrate community participation, teamwork, and consistency.
That way, it's celebrated as a team effort. If people don't have an FC you can register your friends together as a 'Vanguard' >:3 a
You'd simply get points for all the different challenge dungeons you complete in a week.
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Every Challenge Dungeon you complete during the weekly reset adds Vanguard Points to your FC or registered Vanguard team’s total.
Each dungeon’s contribution scales with:
Difficulty tier (more “ante,” more points).
Completion modifiers (no Deaths, time clear, full party of Vanguards/FC members '1x to 4x').
No need to rank purely by speed — instead, it’s about participation, consistency, and team effort.
Top 100 on the server will get there own rank kinda like pvp, character portrait frames/adventure plates, and maybe a cool banner as a furniture item with your FC/Vanguards crest on it. (some rewards will be awarded even to those outside the top 100... like maybe portrait/plate stuff)