Reasons why you might feel normal content is "difficult".

What it says on the title.

If you're having trouble with boss tells and mechanics feel random, chaotic or unpredictable, it's probably because of one or more of these reasons:

You can't see the enemy cast bar. The default HUD is quite bad. Go into System > HUD layout, then get the Target Info (Progress Bar) element and put it IN THE DEAD CENTER OF YOUR SCREEN. You can also increase it's size.

The enemy cast bar is the number one element that you need to pay attention to in a fight. It contains information that gives you a hint of where the boss is gonna hit (i.e. Left, Right, Forward, Backwards). It can be used as a timer for when you gotta stop greeding and disengage. It tells you in which point of the fight you are. If your cast bar is not in the most visible position of your screen, put it there.

You don't know your rotation well enough and are staring at your ability bars. You're not supposed to be looking at your abilities. You are supposed to be looking at the boss model and animations, the cast bar, debuffs, and other relevant elements that are related to solving mechanics.

If you feel the need to constantly stare at your abilities other than a quick glance to see if you got a proc or to check a cooldown timer, go hit a target dummy until you don't need to look at it anymore. You can also use an enlarged, unbound ability bar to put your cooldown abilities, so you can keep an eye on the timers without having to look down. It's like learning to type without looking at your keyboard.

You don't understand how snapshots work. If you are waiting for the orange floor markers to appear to start thinking about moving, you are going to get hit most of the time. Even if you play at low ping. FFXIV is not a game that relies on reaction. Think of it as a puzzle, where you have to figure out where you have to go to before the area of the hit is declared. Normal content tends to be quite lenient about this, but you need to learn it regardless or you're gonna keep getting hit. Watch this video for a straightforward demonstration.

Continued below:

You didn't learn the basic types of enemy attacks that exist in the game. Most of everything you will see is a variation of something that exists already. Donuts and circles, crosses Xs and crosshatches, stacks and spreads, wild charges, proteans, half-room cleaves, cone attacks, etc. Once you learn what already exists, you'll be able to even predict what a boss you've never seen before is gonna do, because you've seen it before.

And finally.

You have no patience. You get frustrated too easily when you fail and stop thinking. Failing is normal. It's part of the basic game loop. Instead of getting angry when you die, try to understand WHY you died. On Savage/Ultimate statics, it's not uncommon to record your screen so you can see what happened that caused you to die. You don't need to go this far, but you do need to understand what happened and try again instead of ragequitting.

This game is a mixture between a puzzle and a dance. The bosses do the same things, in the same order, every time. Once you solve the puzzle and know your steps, you will succeed. Stop trying to react to orange AoE markers on the nick of time and learn the music.

This sounds like hardcore elitist stuff to learn. I shouldnt have to deep dive into the game to be able to play it.

I dont think its elitist. Its the basic things to look at/pay attention while your doing your rotation.

I just think OP is trying to be helpful, not hardcore. (great tips btw)

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Originally Posted by Estguard

This sounds like hardcore elitist stuff to learn. I shouldnt have to deep dive into the game to be able to play it.

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You can either learn it (there's even a video!), or you can keep getting smoked by the easiest content in the game over and over. Your choice.

This is not even "hardcore" stuff. No one here is telling you to learn to late weave, align your burst windows, spreadsheet your GCDs, or anything remotely advanced. These are the basics of gameplay that the game fails to teach in an approachable manner.

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Originally Posted by Estguard

This sounds like hardcore elitist stuff to learn. I shouldnt have to deep dive into the game to be able to play it.

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there is no "deep dive" here - OP is trying to help but you're immediately writing their advice off as sweaty gamer nonsense. if basic gameplay tips being presented and explained in a concise and non-judgmental manner (even with a demonstrative video!) is your idea of 'hardcore' and 'elitist' that sounds like a personal problem on your end.

I think Estguard was being ironic.

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Originally Posted by Merrigan

I think Estguard was being ironic.

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This is the same person who in other threads said that they want a 'very easy mode' for the entire MSQ and said that current form of content is "the worst its been" and "too expert oriented."
They are not being ironic, they are, somehow, actually serious.

They do not believe they need to learn the basics of how the game's combat system works and want a free ride through the MSQ and side content.

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Originally Posted by Aniya_Estlihn

This is the same person who in other threads said that they want a 'very easy mode' for the entire MSQ and said that current form of content is "the worst its been" and "too expert oriented."
They are not being ironic, they are, somehow, actually serious.

They do not believe they need to learn the basics of how the game's combat system works and want a free ride through the MSQ and side content.

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LOL really? That's sad. Maybe they should choose a different game, one that caters to their preferences of play. FF14 has gotten easier and easier over the years. Any easier and it'll be a kiddy ride and nobody will like it anymore.

Anyone remember when Yoshi-P was like ‘if you’re dying to Titan just zoom out’ lol

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Originally Posted by Connor

Anyone remember when Yoshi-P was like ‘if you’re dying to Titan just zoom out’ lol

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Not ironically, camera control is something a lot of new players struggle with. I've seen:

- Being zoomed in way too close to their character.
- Camera pointing at their own feet all the time.
- Moving the whole camera away from the boss when they need to move the character away.
- Don't know how to switch the camera to prioritize relevant information in general. For example, having the bosses' arms out of the frame - you usually need to see those.
- Do not "seek north" or "align camera with north" during encounters. Specially when the arena is round, this is essential, or it's very easy to get lost.

It's something that's trivial if you're used to the game, but can be a struggle to a newcomer. Specially one who's not used to 3D cameras.

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Originally Posted by Estguard

This sounds like hardcore elitist stuff to learn. I shouldnt have to deep dive into the game to be able to play it.

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Pokemon shouldn't make me "deep dive" into the game with things like type effectiveness. My pokemon should just always be able to win no matter the match up.

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Originally Posted by Estguard

This sounds like hardcore elitist stuff to learn. I shouldnt have to deep dive into the game to be able to play it.

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No, OP is posting the absolute bare minimum of endgame expectations.

If they were posting about 'hardcore elitist stuff,' we would be delving into topics like server ticks, animation locks, clippping, command queuing and why macros are bad in combat content, pre-positioning, lines on the floor, why limit break 1 is a dice roll on whether it's worth casting or not, buff alignment, mitigation plans, maintaining uptime responsibly, res priorities, dance partner priorities, when to hold versus use abilities, fight kill times and sandbagging... any number of other very precise aspects of the game that most normal players never heard of or even need to think about.

Understanding that an AOE has already resolved once the orange indicator on the ground disappears is basic.

Understanding that an enemy castbar gives you a clue of what the upcoming ability might actually do is basic.

Exercising grade-school level pattern recognition is basic.

Whether or not you want to put any effort in at all is your prerogative, but don't call the advice in this thread "hardcore" or "elitist" when in reality it is the absolute bare minimum to not grief the people you are playing with.

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Originally Posted by Estguard

This sounds like hardcore elitist stuff to learn. I shouldnt have to deep dive into the game to be able to play it.

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This has to be bait. There's no way an actual sentient human being thinks looking at the enemy cast bar is "hardcore elitist."

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Originally Posted by CidHeiral

This has to be bait. There's no way an actual sentient human being thinks looking at the enemy cast bar is "hardcore elitist."

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It's pretty funny bait, though. Calling anything more than the absolute bare minimum 'hardcore elitist' is plain funny.

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Originally Posted by Estguard

This sounds like hardcore elitist stuff to learn. I shouldnt have to deep dive into the game to be able to play it.

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I don't know about you but the VERY first thing I do in every game I play is delv I to the settings, get things right as much as I can then adjust later. Not every one has to do this and you don't have to.

Essentially what OP is telling people and giving really good advice might I add, is use the tools provided in the game to help you. Default UI is fine but if your struggling with something it's on you to recognize it and adjust accordingly. The games incredibly customizable with its UI many options in there to mess with. People who don't care enough to fix a problem they have are hurting themselves.

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Originally Posted by Estguard

This sounds like hardcore elitist stuff to learn. I shouldnt have to deep dive into the game to be able to play it.

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Do you feel this way about any other kind of game? For example, any type of fighting game, or racing game, or any kind of platformer like Mario or Sonic? Because you're absolutely incorrect. The difference between these types of games and XIV is that it IS expected that you need to understand the fundamentals to start but that you need to learn to do some more advanced, "elitist" things to finish them. Unless, of course, you would rather choose to spend hours upon hours in a RPG or JRPG grinding out levels while holding down attack so that you can just be supremely over-leveled, in which case, I'm sorry to tell you, but a game with a level cap that is the same level as it's content to intentionally prevent exactly this, just isn't for you.

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Originally Posted by Estguard

This sounds like hardcore elitist stuff to learn. I shouldnt have to deep dive into the game to be able to play it.

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This is simply ridiculous. Look I'm sorry if you had the 'road to' buff to level your jobs and missed half of the traits and upgrades you got.

Blame SE for your lack of understanding stuff with no tutorial and enticing you into a server that was under populated so you gain 3 levels per dungeon.

Some people actually want to engage in content, not just steam roll through it.

Signed, a 2.0 player

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Originally Posted by Estguard

This sounds like hardcore elitist stuff to learn. I shouldnt have to deep dive into the game to be able to play it.

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Wait, how the heck is this hardcore elitist stuff? This is basic game knowledge, which some people don't know some of these points and it may ACTUALLY help them a lot.
Learning things that might make you play the game better is elitist now?

They didn't talk about weaving, about 2m, about DPS stuff or anything really advanced.

I'm sorry but like, if you believe that basic game know-how is considered hardcore-elitism and you refuse to at least learn the basics, then maybe the changes in Dawntrail in terms of normal dungeons difficulty/difficulty in general were sorely needed in the game.
We're level 100 for hecking sake, one is not supposed to two button through the the whole dungeon anymore.

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Originally Posted by HemlockEvergreen

You don't know your rotation well enough and are staring at your ability bars. You're not supposed to be looking at your abilities. You are supposed to be looking at the boss model and animations, the cast bar, debuffs, and other relevant elements that are related to solving mechanics.

If you feel the need to constantly stare at your abilities other than a quick glance to see if you got a proc or to check a cooldown timer, go hit a target dummy until you don't need to look at it anymore. You can also use an enlarged, unbound ability bar to put your cooldown abilities, so you can keep an eye on the timers without having to look down. It's like learning to type without looking at your keyboard.

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I don't have problems with normal difficulty, but I'm curious about this point. Because while I know my rotation just fine, there is unfortunately no convenient UI element to let you know the status of the GCD aside from hotbars. Because of this, I do spend a significant portion of any fight glancing down at my hotbar so that I know when my GCD has progressed to the point where I can queue my next GCD action. For that reason I put my BLM-specific UI elements down with my hotbar so that all of the "me stuff" can be seen at a glance in roughly the same spot.

But I'm curious how other people handle this GCD issue. I'm guessing some people mash buttons instead of doing a single press within the appropriate window? But I'm interested in hearing all manner of ways folks navigate this issue.

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Originally Posted by LilimoLimomo

I don't have problems with normal difficulty, but I'm curious about this point. Because while I know my rotation just fine, there is unfortunately no convenient UI element to let you know the status of the GCD aside from hotbars. Because of this, I do spend a significant portion of any fight glancing down at my hotbar so that I know when my GCD has progressed to the point where I can queue my next GCD action. For that reason I put my BLM-specific UI elements down with my hotbar so that all of the "me stuff" can be seen at a glance in roughly the same spot.

But I'm curious how other people handle this GCD issue. I'm guessing some people mash buttons instead of doing a single press within the appropriate window? But I'm interested in hearing all manner of ways folks navigate this issue.

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On high APM jobs my faves MCH - oh I mash mine all day on PS5. Infact I just hold how L2 and mash X until my dots expired or someone needs a heal on WHM too.

People need to realise that these fights are just dances - go here go there. Wipe? Get back up and memorise. It's really simple.

What people don't understand is the iLVL sync. If you look in your DF (if you have 100 unlocked) there's none, therefore power creep. Is incoming with each week, nerving content even more. :)

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Originally Posted by LilimoLimomo

I don't have problems with normal difficulty, but I'm curious about this point. Because while I know my rotation just fine, there is unfortunately no convenient UI element to let you know the status of the GCD aside from hotbars. Because of this, I do spend a significant portion of any fight glancing down at my hotbar so that I know when my GCD has progressed to the point where I can queue my next GCD action. For that reason I put my BLM-specific UI elements down with my hotbar so that all of the "me stuff" can be seen at a glance in roughly the same spot.

But I'm curious how other people handle this GCD issue. I'm guessing some people mash buttons instead of doing a single press within the appropriate window? But I'm interested in hearing all manner of ways folks navigate this issue.

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For CD timers I use a larger, semi-transparent hotbar with only the abilities I need to track. Looks like this:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...30d4f0703218b&

It stays to the left of my character, close to the center of the screen to I can get that peripheral vision glance on it.

For the GCD spin time itself, I kinda go by feeling, but I also play a job with no casting and I can spam. I also spam because FFXIV's netcode is shit and sometimes it simply does not register input if I tap "too lightly". I've fucked up burst windows because of that.

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Originally Posted by LilimoLimomo

I don't have problems with normal difficulty, but I'm curious about this point. Because while I know my rotation just fine, there is unfortunately no convenient UI element to let you know the status of the GCD aside from hotbars. Because of this, I do spend a significant portion of any fight glancing down at my hotbar so that I know when my GCD has progressed to the point where I can queue my next GCD action. For that reason I put my BLM-specific UI elements down with my hotbar so that all of the "me stuff" can be seen at a glance in roughly the same spot.

But I'm curious how other people handle this GCD issue. I'm guessing some people mash buttons instead of doing a single press within the appropriate window? But I'm interested in hearing all manner of ways folks navigate this issue.

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I have a couple hotbars near the middle of my screen under my character's feet, and I put anything I need to track rotationally there. For paladin, that's steps 2 and 3 of my combo, my oGCDs, defensive cooldowns, etc. GCDs get tracked on those icons alongside everything else, although I don't really think about the GCD because I just mash my keys anyway. Job gauges (in simple mode, obviously) sit above or alongside this bar.

If it doesn't have a cooldown or procs and I can just hit it without thinking about it (ie: fire IV), it's down at the very bottom of my screen shrunk down to minimum size and I literally never look at it.

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Originally Posted by Aniya_Estlihn

This is the same person who in other threads said that they want a 'very easy mode' for the entire MSQ and said that current form of content is "the worst its been" and "too expert oriented."
They are not being ironic, they are, somehow, actually serious.

They do not believe they need to learn the basics of how the game's combat system works and want a free ride through the MSQ and side content.

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Yeah... I realized this later. Oh, well.

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Originally Posted by HemlockEvergreen

For CD timers I use a larger, semi-transparent hotbar with only the abilities I need to track. Looks like this:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...30d4f0703218b&

It stays to the left of my character, close to the center of the screen to I can get that peripheral vision glance on it.

For the GCD spin time itself, I kinda go by feeling, but I also play a job with no casting and I can spam. I also spam because FFXIV's netcode is shit and sometimes it simply does not register input if I tap "too lightly". I've fucked up burst windows because of that.

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THIS.

If people are struggling with keeping their dots and buffs up all the time, use a free hotbar and place it somewhere in the center of your screen. Mine is right next to my job gauge (which is also centred int the middle of my screen). This hotbar contains all my buff and dot skills and makes it far easier to keep track of them instead of looking at my cross-hotbar / hotbar.

One can also use their unused hotbars to create cheat-sheets for their rotations. In the beginning I had two hotbars in the lower right corner containing all the skills of my rotation in their proper order. Helped a lot while learning. And I do believe one has to learn a bit in this game. Even in normal content people should now a little bit about how their job works. Not as important for dps jobs but a tank should know what their mitigation kit does, same goes for healers (yes, fellow whm players, there are more skills in our kit than just Medica II xD). And no, this is no "hardcore elitist stuff" to learn, this is the core gameplay of XIV and everybody should be able to do this much in DT. No one expects anyone to be able to play something like the old blm advanced rotation etc. xD

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Originally Posted by SerenMarliot

THIS.

If people are struggling with keeping their dots and buffs up all the time, use a free hotbar and place it somewhere in the center of your screen.

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One of the main reasons imo why people are bad at the game is, that their UI is terrible and they can't see what the boss is casting or their buffs/debuffs.

An easy solution for boss attacks is to make them the same as red prompts that we get when boss is going to do something.

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Originally Posted by Estguard

This sounds like hardcore elitist stuff to learn. I shouldnt have to deep dive into the game to be able to play it.

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You need to re-read the OP second post especially this bit:

You have no patience.

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Originally Posted by Laerune

An easy solution for boss attacks is to make them the same as red prompts that we get when boss is going to do something.

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I think the solution is to just look at the boss, they're already telling you what type of AOE you'll be dodging/baiting once you've seen it the first couple times. The only time the bar is particularly useful is in the cases where that *is* the tell (Strayborough final boss), or cases where it's a cinematic attack and that kind of alert is cool (basically stuff like Valigarmanda). I'd really rather they don't use that for every mechanic that doesn't have ground AOEs.

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Originally Posted by Estguard

This sounds like hardcore elitist stuff to learn. I shouldnt have to deep dive into the game to be able to play it.

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What about this stuff is deep diving? It's just the basic game mechanics. These tips are just the bare minimum to not have a super frustrating experience with this game and aren't nearly scratching the surface of the game's complexity.

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Originally Posted by Estguard

This sounds like hardcore elitist stuff to learn. I shouldnt have to deep dive into the game to be able to play it.

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This isnt elitist. and this isnt even diving deeping into the game

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Originally Posted by EiraWoqiso

I think the solution is to just look at the boss, they're already telling you what type of AOE you'll be dodging/baiting once you've seen it the first couple times. The only time the bar is particularly useful is in the cases where that *is* the tell (Strayborough final boss), or cases where it's a cinematic attack and that kind of alert is cool (basically stuff like Valigarmanda). I'd really rather they don't use that for every mechanic that doesn't have ground AOEs.

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Nothing helped me more than learning (embarrassingly, very recently) how to turn off player spell effects. This made non standard tells much, much easier to identify.

It brushes a bit the first advice about the target cast bar but in general, I'd advice people to look through the HUD editing options. Something I've found helping myself is position both party list and aggro list closer to the center. Some people might benefit of extra hotbars to show skill buttons just as timers in some easier to see spot as other comment mentioned. Twiggling where the buffs and debuffs are shown can help with awareness on them (and not all people even know you can separate them to partial HUD elements). A lot of the UI can be moved around and resized to make some things more noticeable and some things more out of the way. Try it around and find what works for you.