New Sword shown..

[Nalien]

At their peak Relics in XI required a few difficult fights and even DD (DPS) checks for certain NM fights, e.g the Ram, Yin/Yang (and by extension, Dynamis Lord) and your respective Animated Weapon/Shield fight.

I don't really remember them being any more difficult than S Ranks. It was just a case of "We're doing Dynamis - Beaucedine tonight and I'm throwing you all under the truck to get my Attestation". Yin/Yang was probably the only thing with any real mechanics (had to kill them around the same time, no?), and that's a bleedin' Guildhest in this game, with 5 mobs instead of 2, though I guess they don't hit like a truck.

Much of the "difficulty" I remember in Dynamis was killing things in an order, with the actual "bosses" being trivial if you gave yourself plenty of time after currency farming. I guess if I count idiots in Dynamis - Windurst (for example) as difficulty then that would make Dynamis harder, and I guess I should since idiots are the only reason Titan was ever hard... Still, fights with groups in XI were just a matter of auto-attacking and hitting a macro when you got TP, or /healing when you ran out of MP (oh god I'd forgotten about that until now...), really cannot find it in myself to call it harder when I specifically remember doing Dynamises at 2am, dozing off several times, and still clearing it. I simply cannot do that in XIV...

Welcome to FFXIV's end-game structure - It's easy to try to downplay FFXI when XIV isn't any better.

Main difference being, XIV only does it with Coil (and that's something they even want to rectify). Loot lockouts in Crystal Tower I guess, but you can still do the event. By the time ToAU came around XI had enough content for it not to matter as much, but I still remember spending a lot of time not really doing anything in the game because I couldn't (because of lockouts). Really isn't the same case with XIV.

the most you could 'solo/lowman' was Salvage, and that was if you were at the top of your game.

Are you talking about Relics/Mythics specifically, or the game in general? Because a lot of content could be lowmaned, or even soloed, other than Salvage before Abyssea came in and ruined the game. I mean, RDM/NIN was a thing.

Arch Dynamis Lord was no easy feat.

Arch Dynamis Lord was after Embrava was introduced, no? Everything was an easy feat after that.

[ReplicaX]

Arch Dynamis Lord was after Embrava was introduced, no? Everything was an easy feat after that.

Look up the fight mechanic. At a certain % of HP he will split into 2 clones one false one real with no way to tell which is which. A 50/50 shot, if you kill the true, the fight is over. False, more clones. Most LSes wiped after killing a false if they even made it that far. Clone stage is basically a DPS check or its a wipe.

Embrava didn't matter.

[Nalien]

Embrava didn't matter.

With Embrava, Arch Dynamis Lord was easy though. If you got the right clone, it was laughable. If you didn't, the game basically said "F*ck you" and kicked you in the crotch. Nobody wiped to Arch Dynamis Lord because he was hard or a challenge, they wiped because the RNG decided to bend them over and go in raw. Everything in the game was trivial after that spell was introduced, the only reason Arch Dynamis Lord had such a mechanic was because the developers knew Embrava rendered all his other mechanics completely moot. Embrava is probably 90% of why I quit that game, it destroyed balance and turned endgame into an exercise in coin flipping, rather than something challenging.

[ReplicaX]

With Embrava, Arch Dynamis Lord was easy though. If you got the right clone, it was laughable. If you didn't, the game basically said "F*ck you" and kicked you in the crotch. Embrava is probably 90% of why I quit that game, it destroyed balance and turned endgame into an exercise in coin flipping, rather than something challenging.

Why I said it was no easy task for an avg XI LS between the 50/50 fight mechanic and DPS check and just organizing it with "specific" jobs to counter DL. Most Relic owners joined separate LSes just for Arch. Embrava was nerfed partially due to Arch DL and Nyzul. Perfect Defense Arch Odin/DL and a few other fights.

I'm not gonna argue about Embrava, I feel the same way as you. The 50/50 mechanic was the no easy task being random, the fight wasn't a 100% win and why most avg LSes wiped. No where did I mention a challenge.