[Personal Opinion] FFXIV is too casual friendly

[Brannigan]

1-59 I can understand the "training wheels", but once you hit 60 expectations should be a bit higher.

What's great is that in the 1-49 dungeons they slowly ramp the difficulty up an add more mechanics for you to learn but then they throw that all away for max level content. Compare any "expert" dungeon released nowadays to Aurum Vale or Dzemael Darkhold or the (pre-nerf) Vault.

This is a game and the goal is to win, but winning only feels good if it's actually possible to fail. No one likes it when your opponent lets you win at chess or whatever, so why is it different when it's a computer taking it super easy on you?

[Lambdafish]

What's great is that in the 1-49 dungeons they slowly ramp the difficulty up an add more mechanics for you to learn but then they throw that all away for max level content. Compare any "expert" dungeon released nowadays to Aurum Vale or Dzemael Darkhold or the (pre-nerf) Vault.

This is my thinking too. It's not that the game is "too easy", if the entire game set a precedent of being easy then I would respect it for what it is. The issue is that the levelling process conditions us to expect more. Levelling is exciting and getting through these dungeons takes actual thought and on the first time through it feels like endgame. The postgame dungeons however go completely against this, and in many cases are far easier than the levelling dungeons that are trying to teach the player on how to play endgame. What was the point of making levelling dungeons difficult if it is going to be scrapped once you reach 60?

I feel like the devs should follow this guide when designing content difficulty:

- Casual: Mechanic moderate-intensive for individual players, failure is felt by individuals (wipes are rare, but deaths can happen easily)
- Midcore: Mechanic intensive for the entire team, forgiving in the event of deaths
- Hardcore (raid): Mechanic intensive for the entire team, deaths are not recommended

Naturally this is a loose formula but it eliminates what makes current casual content so poor which is this philosophy:

- Casual: Mechanic light-moderate, failure is not felt and mechanics can be messed up/skipped easily.


Gear scaling also needs to be fixed, dungeons should be difficult on patch day and only become mild in difficult once players have a few pieces of gear.

[Naunet]

The issue is that the levelling process conditions us to expect more. Levelling is exciting and getting through these dungeons takes actual thought and on the first time through it feels like endgame.

... Are we playing the same game?

[Frowny]

... Are we playing the same game?

Dzameal and Aurum are probably the 2 where you need to actually be competent pre-50. 51-59 probably Sohm Al up to Gubal requires some competence. He's not exactly wrong, but these dungeons (bar Vault) also don't ask a whole lot of you. Vault is the obvious odd-ball as I'll have people amazed a healer can keep everyone from dying at all... Low expectations.

[Lambdafish]

... Are we playing the same game?

Yes? Did you not find Darkhold, Aurum Vale, Sohm Al, and the Vault a reasonable challenge (not hard, but requires a pulse in order to complete) when you went through them the first time? (not talking about farm, I'm talking about first time, todays dungeons feel like farm even on the first run through)

[Naunet]

Yes? Did you not find Darkhold, Aurum Vale, Sohm Al, and the Vault a reasonable challenge (not hard, but requires a pulse in order to complete) when you went through them the first time? (not talking about farm, I'm talking about first time, todays dungeons feel like farm even on the first run through)

Not sure what the Vault is, so I probably haven't done it yet. But no, I didn't particularly find any of the others challenging, even my first time through. The mechanics are all very self-explanatory.

I'm not sure I'd use "requires a pulse" as a standard of any difficulty. I do not consider content challenging unless I actually feel challenged.

[Lambdafish]

Not sure what the Vault is

I understand now, you have only seen XIV up to level 55, so in a way, yeah we are playing a different game. Without spoiling too much, Heavensward dungeons ramp up in difficulty (the Vault is a level 57 dungeon, and a very popular dungeon amoungst players) from where you are now, but at level 60 suddenly become painfully easy (a SCH pet could comfortably solo heal some of them)

[Naunet]

I understand now, you have only seen XIV up to level 55, so in a way, yeah we are playing a different game. Without spoiling too much, Heavensward dungeons ramp up in difficulty (the Vault is a level 57 dungeon, and a very popular dungeon amoungst players) from where you are now, but at level 60 suddenly become painfully easy (a SCH pet could comfortably solo heal some of them)

That doesn't negate the fact that NONE of the dungeons so far have been challenging at all and certainly don't equate to the claim made by the post I quoted regarding leveling being "exciting" and building up an expectation for very challenging content.

[Kaurie]

... Are we playing the same game?

I agree with Lambdafish. The dungeons in leveling demanded more than current dungeons. I'd place the difficulty of current ones slightly below that of Haukke Manor.

[RyuSaarva]

... Are we playing the same game?

yeah, levelling roulette dungeons are harder than many extreme primals now.