Just me or is the new Variant dungeon actively unfun?

Like normally I try to avoid complaining about content being too hard, but jesus fing christ I feel like the variant dungeon bosses for Mount Rokon are actively designed to suck the fun out of the game.

split second tells for -every- attack, sometimes without ANY warning whatsoever (at least one of the ninja mini bosses requires you to actively be running around or you WILL get hit by her clones after the first example pass of them), the samurai armor boss's entire sword mechanic is just the most insanely unfun shit ever.

Why make it a tiny freaking purple symbol over his head? If it was the criterion dungeon I'd get it but ffs this is meant to be the semi-casual version of the variant dungeons just for funsies. Put markers on the ground for f's sake.

And _ALL_ of the bosses are giant health bricks on top of all of this. First time the game has ever driven my entire party to rage quit.

I agree that boss HP feels too high and you see the same few mechanics too many times. I think they need separate midbosses on the three paths, at least.

Thus far I've only done each path once. I didn't have trouble with dodging the ninja's shadow, although I was playing as dancer so it was easy to move around freely.

The samurai's sword swings were confusing and I had to record the fight and watch it back to understand what was going on. When he does the sword swing, he turns to face away from the safe zone, so you have to predict which way he will be facing before you can identify the safe spot for the second swing.

Non-standard attack markers aren't really rare enough that they have to be kept out of normal combat.

Eh, Mt. Rokkon's mechs are mostly designed to catch you by surprise, they're banking on you to get sucker punched so you feel that it's challenging when it's not that bad. Standardizing the tells between the bosses to some run of the mill AoE markers would make the encounters pretty dull imo, even more so considering the last bosses are fought multiple times with only one or two different mechs.

It's kind of silly how many of the mechanics on the final bosses don't even appear in criterion/savage in favor of just repeating the same ones from earlier in the fight.

The "hidden" boss being excluded for both difficulties also strikes me as unusual.

Having vague telegraphs that are liable to blindside you the first time you see them is hardly exclusive to variant dungeons, though and kind of the basis for much of XIV's "difficulty" in general.

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Originally Posted by shadowclasper

Like normally I try to avoid complaining about content being too hard, but jesus fing christ I feel like the variant dungeon bosses for Mount Rokon are actively designed to suck the fun out of the game.

split second tells for -every- attack, sometimes without ANY warning whatsoever (at least one of the ninja mini bosses requires you to actively be running around or you WILL get hit by her clones after the first example pass of them), the samurai armor boss's entire sword mechanic is just the most insanely unfun shit ever.

Why make it a tiny freaking purple symbol over his head? If it was the criterion dungeon I'd get it but ffs this is meant to be the semi-casual version of the variant dungeons just for funsies. Put markers on the ground for f's sake.

And _ALL_ of the bosses are giant health bricks on top of all of this. First time the game has ever driven my entire party to rage quit.

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So the sword guy actually faces a specific direction when he does the Tenka Goken thing, and whatever direction he faces is relative north for the mechanic. I believe his hitbox circle also rotates to give away the tell, then you just read the marker above his head and adjust into the safe spot. It gave me some trouble too until I noticed his hitbox circle being at weird angles.

As for the Ninja, depending on the route, some of the tells are basically Eden's Promise: Eternity, where you're 'supposed' to get hit by them the first time, so you memorise which element does what, and use that information to 'read' the mechanic the next time.

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Originally Posted by ElysiumDragon

So the sword guy actually faces a specific direction when he does the Tenka Goken thing, and whatever direction he faces is relative north for the mechanic. I believe his hitbox circle also rotates to give away the tell, then you just read the marker above his head and adjust into the safe spot. It gave me some trouble too until I noticed his hitbox circle being at weird angles.

As for the Ninja, depending on the route, some of the tells are basically Eden's Promise: Eternity, where you're 'supposed' to get hit by them the first time, so you memorise which element does what, and use that information to 'read' the mechanic the next time.

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Ty I copied this info down so I can play better. I have the mount and located all 12 routes so im good just wanna be better. I usually follow someone who knows the mechanics but that's not a good way to play but i am sucessful at it. so?

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Originally Posted by shadowclasper

I feel like the variant dungeon bosses for Mount Rokon are actively designed to suck the fun out of the game.

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I feel like this should be good solo content because the bosses make you watch the tells and figure out the safe spots. But I just find it boring for some reason. I suppose in part it's just all the dragged out time getting to the last boss solo and the time it takes to kill on a tank. I don't really know why I don't find it fun. I feel that I should because they put effort into these mechanics but I just don't find it fun really.

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split second tells for -every- attack, sometimes without ANY warning whatsoever

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Are you sure you aren't just misunderstanding the way they are telegraphed? I guessed right away that green was in from other content that uses green for in and that therefore the other was out.

It also uses a mechanic similar to Halone from the latest alliance raid, where you had to pre-position out/in and left/right, then swap immediately after for the last two hits. It's not quite that exact pattern, but the concept is similar.

If you aren't paying attention to the telegraphs then you probably would think they are "split-second casts" so just try to observe the environment and you may see things differently.

Completely disagree, the difficulty is kind of decent the first time and become a joke afterward, no need to dumb it down to the level of normal dungeon, if anything i wish there was even more pattern to deal with.

It's actively easier to do the fights solo much of the time as some components are just...left out if there aren't other players present.

IE, the towers on Gorai don't require specific colors to be soaked and there's less of them, and only one out of the four ghosts at Shishio will tether to you while the others just move in straight lines like exaflares.

They aren't unfun because of mechanics, the rewards are medicore and tedious because the fights are for the most part boring and easy in the base variant version.

I've been doing the new one with a friend and having a lot of fun. I find it exciting to discover the new paths and changes. The scenery is also very nice, especially the onsen! I personally want more content like this, things I can do with a friend and have a nice time, and which have good replayability.

Do you remember good times in gaming where people got killed by a boss, and instead of complaining that it's too hard after they died once, they kept yeeting themselves at the boss over and over again, learning his moves in a process, and eventually got a satisfying victory?

Variant already gives you unlimited heal, unlimited 20% MIT with a strong shield, while boss fights are barely harder than dungeon fights, the barrier is as low as it can get. And no, boss' HP isn't too high, your damage is just too low, they are equivalent to dungeon bosses. How long until dungeons bosses die? Like 2+2+3 minutes? Well, I just ran variant solo with meme 1.94 GCD SAM build with just 640 gear, and killed first boss in 3:01 and second in 4:21, which totals to same time as all 3 regular dungeon bosses.

I dont like the rat
but the Samurai and monkey tiger thing is great imo I haven't figured out secret boss yet

I found it passively unfun.

My only issue is that it feels like their health is really bloated. It just becomes a slog.

You want to talk slog, try completing it after 3 people are down.

Makes the normal solo health pool feel short.

I prefer it over normal dungeon structure. Bosses and difficulty are fine, encounters are perhaps a bit too long.

However, and despite putting limits on myself, like "only one path per day to avoid burnout" I ended up losing interest quickly, to this day I don't have the 12 paths unlocked and I don't feel compelled to go for it.

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Originally Posted by Deo14

Do you remember good times in gaming where people got killed by a boss, and instead of complaining that it's too hard after they died once, they kept yeeting themselves at the boss over and over again, learning his moves in a process, and eventually got a satisfying victory?

Variant already gives you unlimited heal, unlimited 20% MIT with a strong shield, while boss fights are barely harder than dungeon fights, the barrier is as low as it can get. And no, boss' HP isn't too high, your damage is just too low, they are equivalent to dungeon bosses. How long until dungeons bosses die? Like 2+2+3 minutes? Well, I just ran variant solo with meme 1.94 GCD SAM build with just 640 gear, and killed first boss in 3:01 and second in 4:21, which totals to same time as all 3 regular dungeon bosses.

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As time goes on, more and more this playerbase become welfare recipients

I plan to run a few rounds once I get in the mood to play again. I think Saturday I'm doing Bozja though because my goal is to be selected for a duel...even if I get spanked in seconds.

I do feel like the HP tuning needs some work because in its current state it feels like you generally get faster runs by soloing then doing it with other people, plus the mechanics are easier that way.

The only actual downside is that if you ever die you have to restart the fight, but pretty much nothing can one-shot you if Variant Rampart is active.

I did 3 kind of run after I was accustomed to most of the dungeon's mechanics:

1. First run was solo. It was fine.
2. Second run went in with pug. It was slower.
3. Third run went in with my group of friends (one of them was first timer). We were melting things noticeably faster vs my own solo & the run with pugs.

I choose to just solo my way through the rest of my uncleared routes after my friends had to go lol.