Current State of End-Game Contents - A Blog Post from A Japanese Player

[Kuwagami]

OP has a lot of true words.

Firstly, the part on mechanics :
I dare challenge anyone to tell me that what he said is false. In the entire game, there is nothing that can't be done at minimal ilevel (done with devs team sure, but they're still humans who just happen to know perfectly the gimmicks) and without echo. The only mean of ilevel is to get enough dps to get the fight done.

As a matter of fact, T6,T7 and even T8 have all been done with under i95 on average by super hardcore players (T6 and T7 by more average people now with same ilevel), which leads me to an estimation of i100 roughly for T9's minimum requirement. Which means anything above i105 (let's get a good error margin) is irrelevant. You do not need it. You just need to know the mechanics, and you'll faceroll the fight.

And yet, T5, with i96+ and 15% echo (leading to i115 at least in effect)is still a road block. Titan Ex, with 25% echo (i125+) is still a road block. And you could have 100% echo, they would still be a roadblock (around i230...).
(I took HP values as a basis, as 20 ilevel add around 1k HP for tanks, and they have around 7k at 90, 8k at i110)

All is do-it-or-break-it, and it becomes boring after 8 month.

Also, the groups.

Am I really the only one to find the 4/8/24 strict teams boring ?

Am I the only one wanting to go in coil with 10, 12 or even 20 people if I like ? Just give the regular 2 chests for the whole group and that's all. I want to enjoy the game with friends, not killing boring stuff with 7 other people only.
Example : FC's size. They are either 8-men, 16, 24 or enormous HUBs. There is no need of in-between. And people don't want in-between sizes.

Ever been to Brayflox HM? (What a stupid question, of course you have, almost everyone has). Ever been to Brayflox HM with a party whose iLvls are only ~60-65? Probably not. Let me tell you, it's a drastically different experience. Of the 2.2 dungeons, Brayflox HM is easily the hardest when 'barely geared'. However, go in with a higher item level party though and the entire thing loses any sense of difficulty whatsoever. You can ignore 90% of the details in each boss fight, as they just become "Well, we can just DPS race this shit".

meh. The only dungeon with some sense of "difficult" dps check is Haukke HM. Brayflox in i60-65 team is just as easy as in i90+. The only change is the loss of SR possibility, and the hardest boss is sadly enough the 2nd one.

inb4 : "but the last bomb is..." nope. LB it, and bye-bye dungeon done. with iL60 you have LB2 since a long time when you come to it

[Garlyle]

meh. The only dungeon with some sense of "difficult" dps check is Haukke HM. Brayflox in i60-65 team is just as easy as in i90+. The only change is the loss of SR possibility, and the hardest boss is sadly enough the 2nd one.

inb4 : "but the last bomb is..." nope. LB it, and bye-bye dungeon done. with iL60 you have LB2 since a long time when you come to it

Haukke HM has a difficult DPS check, yes, but DPS checks aren't even what I was referring to.

When you have the HP to not be killed by Ceruleum explosions, and a healer can just safely healtank adds during 1st and 2nd bosses, because the battle ends in 2 minutes, then it doesn't matter anymore. When you can kill the adds spawned during the third boss so fast that they don't overlap with the bombs, then it gets way easier, because there's no panic moment of trying to clear bombs while being in danger of getting killed by the adds. There's a tipping point where the mechanical details of the battles simply become "eh, whatever," and then it's little different from the stuff you face just wandering Eorzea.

And again, it's fine that this exists, but if that was everything, the game would quickly lose any sense of challenge and just become faceroll - so it can't remain this way for all content.

To me, an ideal is both column A and B, which is what we already have. Several mechanics of Twintania remain deadly. Others, the more gear/echo you have going on, they're 'eased up'. You likely can't straight up ignore them, but you have more room for error. The OP mentioned Ultima HM, and that's a good example - how 'on the ball' everyone needs to be with the balls changes as you continue gearing up/gaining echo, but you still can't just ignore them.