this game relies too much on instant death attacks to make endgame harder

[Tsukino]

I think it doesn't mesh particularly well with RPG mechanics in general, and the instant death AoE attacks are so plentiful sometimes they make it seem like that's the only thing the game has to offer.

Typically in an RPG you have to focus on maintaining your strategy and then adjusting tactics slightly for certain things. You achieve victory over time when you stick to the strategy and the strengths each role has. If the tank misses one provoke or the healer misses one heal this is typically recoverable as long as the other 98% of the time everyone is doing what they're supposed to be doing. In an MMO, you can also usually recover if someone lags for a second and it forces them to miss something, as long as they're not lagging out constantly.

These instant death AoE dodge sequences, however, are completely all-or-nothing. It doesn't matter if you've been doing everything perfectly up to that point; if you don't move exactly at the right time you die and your party is reasonably likely to fail completely. If someone has slightly more lag or doesn't see it coming 100% of the time, you lose.

I think the main problem I have with it is that it removes emphasis on the actual mechanics of the game. Your damage, tanking, healing, and even your overall strategy don't have to be 100% perfect, but your AoE dodging does, making it feel like the single most important aspect of gameplay despite being just a single little gimmick.

[Rydin]

snip

Very good points. The most important part of that is if someone in your party suffers from one of the lag spikes that have been plaguing every instance (thank you duty finder) at the wrong time... then everyone wipes.

Healer gets a lag spike and gets knocked off by a landslide... game over.

This lag has almost become a mechanic unto itself.
So some runs it's like one game mechanic (the nasty lag spikes) fighting another mechanic (insta-death) and players are just collateral damage caught in the middle