How do people calling themselves casual feel about the difficulty level?

[Fawkes]

I haven't touched EX primals. I haven't even tried Ultima. People say it's about on par with Titan HM and that's just not for me. I probably could do them, if I tried, but I don't want to. It's not fun, it's just work memorizing the dance you have to do and then executing it flawlessly for 7 minutes or whatever.

I kinda like CT because people can screw up and the run keeps going. Hell, an entire party can go down to Thanatos and you can still pull out a win. And I typically don't have to worry about getting yelled at or kicked in CT. Maybe occasionally one or two people will get pissed, but not as frequently or angrily as in the primal runs I've done.

So, no, I don't want more difficult content. Maybe if they change the game so that difficult doesn't just mean unforgiving, but I'm not even sure what that would be.

[lxSch]

In my opinion content past WP is not worth the time it requires (in rewards) and is not entertaining.
WP is:
- a major mitigation and threat building check;
- cooperation check;
- healing check;
- dps check in both pulls and and 2nd/3rd boss fights (not parsing xxx numbers, but doing the task right);
- is enough to gear in i90 set (but weapon and ring).
I just don't see a point of doing any content past WP more than once. If they add more of it - i may do it once, gear in i110 and probably leave the game, same as majority (i see a massive player loss atm, almost noone uses preorder/3month/6month sub mounts).

If ffxiv was released like 10 years ago - it may have been like this:
- dungeons would drop crafting resources;
- crafting would be the only way to get high level gear;
- gear would be crafted without attributes, but 8 materia slots;
- each dungeon would drop resources only for a specific gear piece (like WP - only chest armor materials);
- there would be 30 classes;
- leveling would take 6-8 months;
- there would be pvp with gear drop and exp loss;
- primal battles would be in the open world with pvp for the right of looting.
But i think such setting is bad for sales.

[Noahlimits]

That's because a part of the minority which had zenith weapons now have primal weapons (wich are for the majority better than relics, let's be honest). Also, no wonder people downing T5 (their number is slowly growning, I think I read something about 5% of playerbase) have their allagan weapons you know? ^^

The majority of the EX weapons are NOT better than Zenith. Most of them don't give the required accuracy needed for T4-5 or of the primary stat, so way less than half are actually BIS (not counting i95, of course) for i90.

The main reason people use EX weapons so often for alt classes is the mentality of: "I'm not going to spend 900 philo and 900 myth for an alt weapon."

I personally have all the EX weapons (even though I don't have everything at 50). It basically comes down to (for alts at least), do I want to spend 6300 philo and 6300 myth on 7 alt classes? Or get a comparable item for free once a week for 30 minutes of time investment?

[Nekodar]

I consider myself casual, leaning towards spending too much time in game.
Difficulty is set to a decent level.
Haven't completed the extremes yet, or Turn 5.
Got a Garuda Extreme the other day when I wanted to learn the fight... Before starting, everyone was talking about it as if they knew how to do it, but as soon as it started it was obvious they either had no clue, or had been carried previously, and rather than stay and admit they didn't really know the fight, they ran away on first death...

Anyone that wants more of a challenge than the game provides them can make up their own challenges... Like the Scholar that solo'd AK, Copperbell HM, etc. Do it for the challenge, not for any reward.

[Darksword]

What do you call someone who loves hardcore difficulty, but likes taking their sweet time getting up to it?

As far as difficulty goes, my favorite things to do in FFXIV right now are farming HM Titan as healer or DD, farming Ultima as any role, and farming Coil T1 as tank. My favorite dungeon in the entire game is Pharos, especially with my SCH. Haukke is too easy, with the difficulty coming from BS boss moves. Copperbell hard is just annoying.

WP is too easy. I got sick of it about the time I hit i65. AK was fun until the nerf. CT was fun for about 2 weeks, now unless I'm MTing everything its just boring. I like straight up fights. Not BS minigame mechanics in the middle of fights. Give me a party of adventurers, a boss mob that has tons of HP and hits like a truck, and a little crap to dodge and I'm happy.

Of course, SE thinks I'm "casual" just because I've only started on T4 and T5. They need to nerf them to make things easier on poor little me. Or so they think.

[BoboTheHobo]

I like the difficulty of the current content but I wish there was more variety.

[Ulathskullsplitter]

I'm on the border of casual and hard core because of the amount of hours I work. I'm still stuck on titan ex and have no hope of beating it anytime soon. I'm also antisocial and don't have a FC. I think the only difficulty in this game comes from running endgame content in pugs. Those in FCs or statics are going to have a much easier time on ex Primal and coil t4 and t5. I know I'm good enough but the difficulty comes from doing it with 7 random strangers every time.

I think you grossly overestimate the amount of casuals that have gotten past titan ex. And without buying a win which I refuse to do.

[Cherie]

As a "semi-casual" (I play fairly often, like 2 hours each night

Two hours a night is kinda hardcore wouldn't you think? I hope you don't think I play like all the time. What would I do? >.> You actually play more than I do currently. And I wouldn't put myself into the hardcore category. I just said that someone might accuse me of that, even though I wouldn't agree with it. So, you may not agree with me, but I would also say you could fit into the hardcore category as well.

Please allow me to restate my point. I did post a lot of statistics that either some people may not agree with (didn't you kind of do that as well to dispute me? where are you getting your numbers from?), or perhaps, maybe my server leviathan is not typical. We are both stating numbers based on what we have both observed. So I don't think it's going to do any good for us to go back and forth on this. We see what we see, it's not like either of us have done or can actually do a test to get statistics.

Forgetting any commentary or opinions I made, the question I did make was do people that would call themselves casual think this game is too hard (if you think about it, it is basically the thread title).

It seems you say yes. Ok, that's totally cool. If you think about it, that's why I was asking. Thank you for your input. I guess I am thinking you are taking offense like I'm doing a whole hardcore vs casual thing. That is a dead horse I don't want lol.

[Nekodar]

I just don't see a point of doing any content past WP more than once. If they add more of it - i may do it once, gear in i110 and probably leave the game, same as majority (i see a massive player loss atm, almost noone uses preorder/3month/6month sub mounts).

Do you seriously believe you'll gear up to i110 average by doing the new content a single time? (if i110 is the new max)

What game are you playing again? It sure can't be the same as I am playing.

[Noahlimits]

Two hours a night is kinda hardcore wouldn't you think?

Hardcore, casual etc are all subjective. Is someone who plays 4 hours a day yet only does basic content (no hard content) hardcore simply because (s)he plays a lot? Or is the person who plays for 2 hours on Monday clearing all EX's and coil for the week hardcore?

That's one of the reasons I never liked that debate since it's all up to the perspective of the person viewing it.