New Normal Trial was actually the hardest I ever played in FFXIV in MSQ.

I was kind of surprised how much was going on, I really really really HOPE they continue this for future content.

It wasn't too brutal I can tell the healers were thrown off a few times.

I think I only got hit by one thing. It was extremely intuitive and definitely not the hardest normal mode I've done.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I think I only got hit by one thing. It was extremely intuitive and definitely not the hardest normal mode I've done.

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Why I said it wasn't too brutal, but it was definitely on the right track.

Bosses in general still suffer from scripted mechanics, wish it was more random.

Yes it was a very good normal trial, this should be the standard at least moving forward. Lots of debuffs to esuna, lots of dooms to clear, lots of incoming damage. Very engaging trial for healers, more please

I disagree.

It was too much going on all at once in the last part, and too brutal. Had people dropping constantly and it was too hard to tell what was going on. Good music, though, but the fight itself was overtuned by far.

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Originally Posted by Elucesta

Yes it was a very good normal trial, this should be the standard at least moving forward. Lots of debuffs to esuna, lots of dooms to clear, lots of incoming damage. Very engaging trial for healers, more please

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After seeing what happened from Barbie to Rubicante, I'm genuinely surprised they're willing to make an MSQ trial with such bite as Abyssal Fracture. A fitting 'climax' battle to conclude an arc imho. I personally rate it 2nd only after Barbie in term of enjoyment amongst all EW Trials.

My first run was paired with a random SGE and we're all bunch of first timers! I died once to the blackhole cause I wasn't expecting the radius xD. No wipes, but I hope the trial stays preserved in its current iteration in the future. :)

It was really easy, but the fight was light years better than Rubicante and Golbez.

The mechanics were quite intuitive, but the flow of the battle was fun.

However, in terms of difficulty, I didn't find it more complex compared to the trial we've had in the past.
But I have to say, after Rubicante and Golbez, who were so uninspiring in terms of mechanics and difficulty, it was a step up from those two fights.

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Originally Posted by Kaliesto

I was kind of surprised how much was going on, I really really really HOPE they continue this for future content.

It wasn't too brutal I can tell the healers were thrown off a few times.

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The new trial is always the "Hardest" for the first couple of days, but then you realize it's actually not.

Abyssal Filter should be it's name.

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Originally Posted by Renathras

I disagree.

It was too much going on all at once in the last part, and too brutal. Had people dropping constantly and it was too hard to tell what was going on.

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If you look at the actual telegraphs and not the particles above it's very manageable. It's supposed to be at least somewhat challenging if you have never done it before.

Going forward trials like that should be the norm and not get cheesed as the ilvl increases. Unsynch it next expac if you want but leave the normal DF fight intact. The game sits on a myriad of excellent fights but they might as well not exist for how easily you can steamroll them.

I enjoyed it. It was more imposing due to the size of the aoes but overall it wasn't all too difficult. Once people get a hang of the safe spots it should be much easier.
This is great though. The final boss of a story should be harder then previous ones.
Imo, this one was a win for this patch.

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Originally Posted by remiff

The mechanics were quite intuitive, but the flow of the battle was fun.

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Agree. The flow of the fight and the music is really enjoyable. When the music transition happens, it feels energizing. I hope it doesn't get left behind with ilvl creep.

I think what people really mean is that:
"The lack of body checks made the fight appear easy"

But it's also a normal mode, what more do you want.

Most players should do fine with this fight after a couple of repeats. Busy, yes, but as Jeeqbit said most of the mechanics were intuitive.

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Originally Posted by Kranel_San

The new trial is always the "Hardest" for the first couple of days, but then you realize it's actually not.

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Mount Ordeals was never hard and I usually rate them by the difficulty I expect less skilled players to have. That was a fight that really disappointed me on the first clear, especially coming after Storm's Crown.

Abyssal Fracture definitely will have a learning curve for less skilled players.

My first run, 5 people died to 'that mechanic', but we pulled it back because as others said, it is intuitive

Had to press E.Prog a couple more times than usual, but as people get more practice at the fight and stop eating so many vuln stacks we will likely be back to the regular schedule

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Originally Posted by remiff

However, in terms of difficulty, I didn't find it more complex compared to the trial we've had in the past.
But I have to say, after Rubicante and Golbez, who were so uninspiring in terms of mechanics and difficulty, it was a step up from those two fights.

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This is it. It's not that this trial is 'too complex' or 'overwhelming' per se, but moreso that we've had so much 'underwhelming' that this feels like a massive step up. No, it's just going back to the level we've previously had. And it's pretty justified considering it's Zeromus we are fighting. If he fell over as easily as Rubicante for example, god that'd be tragic

The new trial and 24 man were far too easy. Undertuned if anything.

I feel like one of the biggest issues with both the trial and the 24 man that are indisputable is that even when they have an interesting mechanic, it lacks punch. The indicators are obnoxious, the cast times are long, and the damage is low. I understand they're catering to people who have no patience and can't understand anything without giant throbbing arrows but idk, I don't like that.

And it isn't that a single spell should nuke you (most of the time), it's that you can make 3, or 4 mistakes in some cases and still have 30% health left. That's not fun imo. As long as healer is even slightly competent the damage stacks hardly matter. It's not enough of a consequence.

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Originally Posted by Kaliesto

Why I said it wasn't too brutal, but it was definitely on the right track.

Bosses in general still suffer from scripted mechanics, wish it was more random.

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this is why i love barbaricia, total chaos and i hope we get more
phase 3 of zeromas is exactly what we need more of, it keeps you on your toes. you get how the mecanics work, but u cant preposition or "cheat" the mecanic. you need to wake up and pay attention

i also love how intuitive the fight is. is it an awesome ex like thordin.. no.. but it has SO MUCH potential. i hope going forward we can realize it

I enjoyed it. I thought the mechanics were intuitive, there's plenty going on to keep people busy, there's more personal responsibility, and it's forgiving but without sacrificing the fight being fun and enjoyable.

The EX, while definitely easier than Golbez, was enjoyable as well.

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Originally Posted by Kranel_San

The new trial is always the "Hardest" for the first couple of days, but then you realize it's actually not.

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so, i have evidence against this. now zeromas is NO barbaricia. she was absolutley insane and i think theyre afriad to go so nuts again. but barbaricia got worse as she died.. i couldnt go a single day with more than 1/20 pfs clearing her. as the fight begin to wind down in favour of rubicante.. barbaricia became IMPOSSIBLE to clear, yet when current. she was VERY farmable. i got 50 farms on her in

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Originally Posted by Renathras

I disagree.

It was too much going on all at once in the last part, and too brutal. Had people dropping constantly and it was too hard to tell what was going on. Good music, though, but the fight itself was overtuned by far.

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I 100% agree. As a whm this trial almost made me use more than 5 abilities.

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Originally Posted by Turtledeluxe

I feel like one of the biggest issues with both the trial and the 24 man that are indisputable is that even when they have an interesting mechanic, it lacks punch. The indicators are obnoxious, the cast times are long, and the damage is low. I understand they're catering to people who have no patience and can't understand anything without giant throbbing arrows but idk, I don't like that.

And it isn't that a single spell should nuke you (most of the time), it's that you can make 3, or 4 mistakes in some cases and still have 30% health left. That's not fun imo. As long as healer is even slightly competent the damage stacks hardly matter. It's not enough of a consequence.

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FFXIV already has Twice-come ruin and Thrice-come ruin. I don't think it'd be unreasonable for normal-mode content to be tuned as if <Four-times>-come ruin were a thing.

That said, I also think that the hallmark of normal-mode content is that it's reasonably obvious why you took damage and/or died.

I believe all new normal endgame content should be tuned to provide the same challenge as Twintania did when she was current content. You want to finish the story? You better strap on your big boy booties and earn it.

I found Hydaelyn to be the most difficult of the normals for this expansion.

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Originally Posted by AmiableApkallu

FFXIV already has Twice-come ruin and Thrice-come ruin. I don't think it'd be unreasonable for normal-mode content to be tuned as if <Four-times>-come ruin were a thing.

That said, I also think that the hallmark of normal-mode content is that it's reasonably obvious why you took damage and/or died.

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I don't think any kind of debuff in this game is a threat , atl least in casual mode. With that said, you are correct in that it is a hallmark of normal content to know why you died.

That is exactly why a giant pink laser beam foretelling the Kamehameha in the trial should take like 90% of health in one shot if not kill you instantly. You're failing a super obvious mechanic. Conversely if things are going to hit like a pillow, stop telegraphing them so much moreover stop making them look so big and flashy when they aren't really threatening.

That might be a bad example though because honestly I don't remember how particularly hard hitting that attack is.

I liked the mechanics but I would prefer more random selection of the mechanics, scripting is only needed when they have NPC's help us.... oh.... yea, I forgot... there going to start adding the NPCs in 7.x series to the MSQ trials.

I found this trial to be really fun at the current ILVL. Lots of chaos. A slight shame you can't rescue someone from Black Hole, but that slow fade to death when you get sucked in never ceases to amuse me. Had many parties with a good laugh at the boss when it just did the big succ. There's a good amount of damage to heal and a good number of mechanics that want you to move. There's a good number of cleansable debuffs and uncleansable debuffs that you would have to heal through if you got hit by a debuff. The addition of Doom and dropping our HP not being the only mechanic that takes ages to resolve makes it feel good to heal as well. I'll be rerunning it again for the 5th time today and I'm enjoying every single run so far. Hopefully the difficulty doesn't deviate much from what it is at the moment.

Barbariccia was more dynamic than the new fights. :) I still love her. <3




Cheers

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I think I only got hit by one thing. It was extremely intuitive and definitely not the hardest normal mode I've done.

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Completely agree, that being said difficulty should never rely on lack of readability or non intuitive mechanic, this kind of design choices are cheap and lazy.

As far as i'am concerned, this kind of difficulty should be the baseline for "normal" content (meaning some dungeons/trials should be more intense), mechanics are easy to read, give you a fair amount of time to react to it yet can catch you off guard if your brain lag.

I would add that they should alternate between dance (mechanic happening in a set order) and intense chaotic randomness when it come to boss fight just to make things more exciting when you do the same content over and over and over.

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Originally Posted by Absimiliard

I believe all new normal endgame content should be tuned to provide the same challenge as Twintania did when she was current content. You want to finish the story? You better strap on your big boy booties and earn it.

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I'm not sure it works like that for anyone who finds the content difficult. Which I realise doesn't include pretty much anyone on the forums, but anyway....

I mean, I nearly threw in the towel several times during my journey through the MSQ - there was plenty I struggled with, in particular content involving playing as an NPC. I persisted, but how many players don't? How many stall at a particular point and just quit out of frustration? I mean, despite my persistence I'm still pretty awful at the game - just too stupid to stop trying.

I'll leave it there, as I'm aware this won't be a popular opinion considering the persistent theme of "this game is too easy" here on the forum. But wanted to express my opinion nonetheless.

can't say much about the difficulty, but it certainly lacked impact.
did it as healer : no wipe ; can barely remember any mech, like it had a 1hp raid and was kinda a revamp of diablos.

Of the Trials I've seen so far only Golbas managed to wipe the group.
I personally felt the Barbaricia one was harder, but I confess i did die 5 times in Golbas where I did not in Barbaricia. What got me most was that later mechanic of the half room insta cleave followed up by the melee range clearout, because it would sucker you into moving past him but if you didn't continue or if you got hit by the first cleave it was auto death. I got suckered into that one 3 times in a row.

But I haven't done this new one yet so we'll have to see.

I somehow found it easier than some others and there’s plenty of time to move around.

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Originally Posted by Kaliesto

I was kind of surprised how much was going on, I really really really HOPE they continue this for future content.

It wasn't too brutal I can tell the healers were thrown off a few times.

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Yes please! It's not "one hit die" hard but it is "move around a lot while staying as efficient as possible" hard. Your average player can live but the good players will live and continue playing their job extremely well.

Please ramp up the difficulty a bit on everything normal mode and add a hard mode to solo instances as well!

I don't think it was harder than 83 or 87 tbh, but it was very fun! It has a fast-paced feel to it with a bunch of new telegraphs that make sense and were easy to sight-read. I died a couple of times but could immediately tell what killed me and why. I didn't like it quite as much as my favorite trial in the game Barbariccia, but it was close so it gets an A+ from me.

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Originally Posted by Silverquick

Of the Trials I've seen so far only Golbas managed to wipe the group.

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Actually, yes, let's use "wipe the group" as the metric for if it's hard on average players that do it.

Golbez did that a lot and I would get it in progress a lot. The level 83 trial did it as well. So did the level 73 trial.

I felt it was easier than say, Shinryu on release.

The only part that surprised me was the blackhole.

It was fun though regardless. The presentation of the fight is fantastic, and the phase change was hype AF.

It's a copy paste of Zodiark, I hope they stop and do better tbh

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Originally Posted by strawberrycake

It's a copy paste of Zodiark, I hope they stop and do better tbh

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I don't see it as a copy at all. Care to explain why you say that?

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Originally Posted by Thurmnmurmn

I don't see it as a copy at all. Care to explain why you say that?

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Arena is dark and boss name starts with a Z, close enough.