I really DO hope Alexander's story steps up, but I don't think it can top Coil's.

[Nalien]

I am not talking only about getting trash mobs again, that is just one lazy part of raid, I would rather love to see some more interaction with raid zone (avoiding mobs and sneaking behind them like in FCOB), maybe some randomly created puzzle (so it would be different every week) etc.

I'd love to see that, I kind of foolishly went into Alexander thinking there might be puzzles, given the first quest had the NPC crowd trying to figure out a code to enter... Instead we just got something worse than dungeons...

What I'd really like to see is a Raid with puzzles like Final Fantasy XI had... The doors in Eldieme Necropolis (essentially involved splitting up to get through), or pretty much anything involving getting around Ru'Aun Gardens... Then there was smaller cases, like the pressure plates in places like Garlaige Citadel, Quicksand Caves, or Horutoto Ruins (which was Job based, rather than pressure IIRC), heck wasn't there a maze somewhere which changed its layout depending on the day of the week? The whole Raid doesn't have to be figuring out the boss mechanics, figuring out a fairly significant puzzle would be a nice change of pace before a boss... I think that's why I'm fairly fond of T2 and T3, certainly not the most amazing of encounters, but sadly perhaps the best Final Fantasy XIV has to offer... If Allagan Rot wasn't brushed under the rug, and they played up the different routes a bit more, T2 might actually have been my favorite encounter, and I practically had a nerdgasm when I got to T9...

People are welcome to say "Stop wanting Final Fantasy XI! This is a different game!", but that isn't what I'm asking for, those are just examples from XI. I'm sure other games have plenty of examples as well, but Final Fantasy XIV on the other hand, has none, and I think that's a problem... I mean the best we have it what? The Sunken Temple of Qarn? It really is quite annoying how, come Raids, quality takes such a hit. Some dungeons have a better build up to their bosses (where as Alexanders are just like, "Oh hey, it's a boss", Coil at least got this right, though not until Second Coil, come to think of it). Stuff like Praetorium and The Aetherochemical Research Facility (plus the Singularity Reactor tagged on the end) would make for better Raids than the Raids we got, Coil include, so would Crystal Tower and Void Ark, if only because they're one continual thing, rather than "First boss down, time to reenter!".

Map design is perhaps the weakest aspect of this game, come to think of it... Oh they look amazing, but in terms of what they do? Next to nothing. Pretty much the same problem Final Fantasy XIII suffered from, now that I mention it... Alexander (or any instant, really) might as well be cut content from that game... Just one nice corridor to run down before a boss... Such a shame that, as time has gone one, the developers show less interest in producing quality maps... T2 and Qarn weren't amazing, but the developers have opted for linearity, rather than improving upon those two examples...