Artificial Difficulty

[Colt47]

Performing up to a standard isn't that artificial unless it's just a hard gear check gating.
Faust, for example, is similar but people cleared him before getting any ESO gear.

If the difficulty goes beyond doing the fight mechanics correctly and pushing the Job mechanics to their limit, then it's artificial.
Though there's usually some great players that show the limit is past where you might think it is.

The only other difficulty in the list I would agree with is RNG.
But then with mostly scripted mechanics, that doesn't happen that much here.

But basically -


All of it is artificial. OP sounds like they're just listing types of difficulties they don't like.

Case in point, all of it is artificial, it's just when people say something feels artificial they really mean that it feels unfair, cheap, or only difficult in a specific way to waste time. Anything that is a heavy "damage" check can be a time waster so a lot of people put that as being artificial difficulty, for example.

For myself, things feel artificial when the mechanics are brain dead simple and the only thing the group is struggling with is running numbers. That is why I hate enrage timers, instant kill after a certain amount of time, etc. If a group takes longer to kill something they shouldn't get punished for it. The point is to learn the pattern and survive it.