Raid Dificulty levles - request to SE

[SpookyGhost]

Personally, I think it speaks volumes that people like Normal Mode, but probably not in the way you're thinking. I don't honestly expect everyone to git gud and be able to challenge Savage - I think those that are happy with the existence of NM are well within their right due to the current state of the game. However, what speaks volumes is that there needs to be a NM because everyone needs to know the story of the current raid. What people understand subconsciously but not consciously is that they wouldn't need NM if end game actually had any sort of battle content that lasted more than a month that wasn't the raid. Once you've completed the story and the EX Primal what else is there to do, battle-wise? The same 2 dungeons over and over and over? The same 24 man that takes one lockout to learn entirely?

Realistically, the model they had before in 2.0 worked perfectly fine in a bubble. They nerfed the raid tiers every 2 patches, removed the lockout, and let people enjoy their free loot. If, for 6 months, there was worthwhile content outside of raiding then this would be a fine system. You'd do your stuff for 6 months, have fun, maybe get a few pieces of raid-tier gear from that battle content, and then you could challenge the old raid with your friends, have a good time, etc. But there isn't - there's nothing to do. I've been raiding Savage for about 2 months now, and I log on just to raid - I have Lore pieces missing but I honestly do not have the mental energy to continue running Antitower however many more times. I get that people enjoy the game for other reasons (like crafting and, for some reason, Golden Saucer) but there are a lot of us out there that just care about the battle content and currently there is practically nothing to do outside of raid.

Honestly, if it were up to me, I'd get rid of Savage and NM entirely and devote those resources to smaller, more varied end game battle activities that actually kept people active and didn't force them into a do or die static. It's not like Savage has even a moderate percentage of players tackling it - it's too challenging for the average player of XIV as nothing in the game has conditioned them to think at all. Most content all the way to 60 you can do with your brain shut off, and in anything requiring any effort you can easily get carried through. Then Savage shows up and it's like "hey. time to learn your min/max rotation and execute precise mechanics that could easily kill yourself or everyone if you mess up one of them". There's no curve, it's just a spike, and it doesn't fit with the flow of the game at all. If they want to rebalance everything so that they actually teach the player to not just smash their face on their keyboard, cool, but if not Savage shouldn't exist at all and we should have more forgiving, varied stuff to do at end game.

Maybe I'm asking for too much here, I'm sure there's a "they're just a small dev team" excuse waiting for me at the end of this, but I mean c'mon you're a customer paying monthly for this service - surely they should provide you with something worth paying for, yeah? If you feel like you get your money's worth from XIV, I'm happy for you and I wouldn't wish for that happiness be taken away, but it would be cool if those of us who just want to fight FF baddies with our buddies and get sweet loot also got to have our money's worth.

e: Just want to quickly note that I do feel like they're at least attempting to do this, slowly, with stuff like Diadem and Deep Dungeon. As questionable as Diadem was implemented, it was a fantastic idea conceptually and would've made for another route of gear progression in odd patches as well as battle content to do that wasn't 4mans, EX primal, or 24m raid. I really hope Deep Dungeon is cool and fun, because I'm a fan of smaller size group content (just not the faceroll dungeons). I'm sure it probably won't be too challenging or anything, but it's nice that they're at least trying now. Most of this post is in reference to the current state of the game, and how things have been. I hope in the future we'll see more routes to take for battle content.