Why encounters with a difficulty slope are bad

[Sepix]

Let me elaborate on this a little bit. I don't particularly find all the mechanics in the fights bad at all i just hate that we get it fed spoon full all the time. Why is the 2nd add phase always harder than the first? What for? Can't they make the first one as hard as the second one and just keep the second one the same so people actually have a chance to train harder parts of the fight without having to play the majority of the time to get there first? Take Ifrit Ex as an example. Why can't all Nail Phases be like the last one? Why make people go through 2 easy iterations before giving them the one that actually matters? The first Nail Phases do not prepare you for the third at all. It is basically wasted time every single time. What is worse is that this tactic is used to lengthen content because of missing difficulty. Increasing damage and quantity of mechanics isn't the same as creating an interesting fight. Neither is putting 4 different fights into one just because you can. While we are at it, lets be honest ... Adds are starting to get boring by now as well because they are used for EVERYTHING!. I personally think they wasted some of the best mechanics in the Crystal Tower raids and put whats left over into coil.

I just wish there were more encounters with things to do beside having to focus on your main party role. Healers heal and nothing else, DPS do DPS and nothing else and tanks are useless 50% of the time because most fights don't even need 2 beside the odd provoke in between to share some damage.

Here is an example fight of what it COULD be instead of adds, more adds, oh look i am different now! What you beat that? Take more adds and i now do more damage too!

Main Boss
- Cannot be moved
- Deals slight damage to the tank.
- Is tanked in a magic field that nullifies all healing under normal circumstances.
- People inside the field are trapped and cannot leave after the fight has been started
- The magic field deals damage over time to anyone inside of it.

A small pet
- Deals moderate damage
- Cannot be killed and just needs to be held throughout the fight.
- Will place 2 debuffs on the off-tank
* One of them is permanent and gives a healer a non-curable 10 second silence if Esuna is cast on Offtank and has no Effect.
* The second one is removeable by Esuna and gives a healer a buff that enables him to heal the main tank and the melee through the magic field at the main boss.

Small Bomb Clusters
- Spawn throughout the fight
- Cannot be killed and doesn't move
- Will cast an explosion that Wipes the party after 15 seconds
- Needs to be slept, stunned or silenced to despawn.

Add some fancy spell names that deal damage to party members and some AoE circles to run out of + a tight enrage timer and you are golden. Now everyone actually has something to do beside their main role and you don't need to just throw more at the party to make it interesting. If I can come up with this in less than 10 minutes in a forum post they shouldn't have any trouble with their endless meetings and multiple people.

[Ashkendor]

I just wish there were more encounters with things to do beside having to focus on your main party role. Healers heal and nothing else, DPS do DPS and nothing else and tanks are useless 50% of the time because most fights don't even need 2 beside the odd provoke in between to share some damage.

Uh. What? My static's healers DPS whenever they can. So do the tanks. In T10, depending on the tank swaps (or lack thereof, sometimes he never even touches the OT with heat lightning) one of our tanks may spend as much as 80% of the fight out of their tanking stance. Hell, that's half the reason I swapped to melded accessories, is to help push more damage when I'm not the target of the boss' affections. Our DPS are tasked with things like debuffing the mobs or buffing the tanks (our black mage throws Apocatastasis on me during T11 adds and helps Virus bennus in T12, for example). If everyone just puts in the minimum effort by sticking to their assigned role and nothing more, you're going to have an awfully hard time raiding. :|

T5 and T9 are pretty good fights with a good group. T5 in particular gets easier as the fight goes on. I see far fewer wipes in the last phase than I do to divebombs and snakes. If you make it past twisters/DK, you've got it unless someone really screws things up. I'd farm T9 all damn day because it feels like an epic fight to me. I actually enjoy the meteor/golem mechanics because they require a lot of situational awareness, something that a lot of players seem to lack. After Heavensfall, though... Nael is one vicious bitch. She looks freakin scary when she's hammering my face in with Bahamut's Claw, seriously. xD

[Nominous]

Let me elaborate on this a little bit. I don't particularly find all the mechanics in the fights bad at all i just hate that we get it fed spoon full all the time. Why is the 2nd add phase always harder than the first? What for? Can't they make the first one as hard as the second one and just keep the second one the same so people actually have a chance to train harder parts of the fight without having to play the majority of the time to get there first?

It wouldn't make much sense in terms of game design. Why does any RPG have Final Bosses that are harder than the bosses that were before it? It's more exciting, and feels more rewarding. Also, I think they're going a great direction with mechanics and fight balance the farther they progress.