Shadowbringers - How can we fix this?

[Varushkin]

Some times you need to get your teeth kicked in... How else would we know that we need to improve on anything in life?

[Conando]

Let’s be real. People are wiping to even the bosses in the first ShB dungeon. Mechanically it still expects people to not be screw ups.

[ElciaDeiLinus]

Some times you need to get your teeth kicked in... How else would we know that we need to improve on anything in life?

Not going to lie- I think most players from other mmos will find this game too difficult. Every other mmo on the market doesn't have mechanics in content outside of raids- on occasion there might be a boss with one mechanic, or a very easy to avoid pool of fire or AOE- while this game throws back to back AoEs and adds at you all the time. And after 15 years of WoW, even having a boss with a single 'firepool' mechanic is too difficult to handle, even after people have seen the fight twenty times. This game? I get the 'new player, bonus tomes' message every time and people still figure out mechanics midfight, it's great.

Don't get me wrong, I love that. I'm just on Heavensward content right now, but so far I'm very pleased that dungeons are mechanically given the same treatment that every other MMO saves solely for raids.

Still, having mechanics be prevalent in the game early on is a better thing, it teaches people what to expect and to learn to avoid damage or do certain things. If the game was simply based on 'do x dps, do x hps, maybe step out of the fire' like 99% of dungeon content in WoW, what do you learn? A rotation? Admittedly, this game actually has interesting rotations that require more than 3 buttons to hit upper tier dps- but even so, this game having so much more early focus on learning mechanics rather than just getting better gear for more number output has made this the best leveling experience I've ever had in an mmo.

And I definitely sympathize if classes are being reduced in complexity, the class design in this game is amazing compared to what I've seen elsewhere. I also, as someone who loved disc priest in WoW and really am enjoying healing and dpsing in this game, hope they reconsider making healers here just healbots.

But, most players from other games are going to have enough trouble with this game as is- there's already your savages and extremes and raids and all those side hardcore zones. Why would you want to put a wall up to new players, and players that just want to enjoy the game for things like story or community? If this content's too easy for you, fine, you only have to do MSQ once, and so far it seems like most of the great fights have a harder difficulty anyway.

[Xieldras]

New players and difficult game

But that's the thing about games: you learn and get better.
Did I fail hard when I started playing FF14? Of course I did. But I learned, actually read my tooltips and job quests, watched videos of rotations, asked questions to other players and got a better understanding of what to do. I came from another MMO called Eden Eternal and, while it's true that FF14 has more stuff going on, I ultimately adjusted.

While I commend the way harder fights are designed (Normal mode teaching you the basic mechanics of the EX fight and additional mechanics throughout the fight itself), the way the game teaches you falls apart when it comes to basic mechanics you see throughout the game and how to play a class or role. It doesn't help either that people can use Jump Potions to skip to current content without learning anything.
I still see people fail stack markers or stack when they should spread at current level and that is not good in any multiplayer game where people have to work together to clear content.

I think that when it comes to difficulty in the game, people are not asking for Ultimate or Savage level of MSQ. Usually they're asking for a reasonable level of difficulty where you have to actually use your head to clear the content and not clear while watching Netflix on the side (or you know, having a real hard time to clear while watching Netflix).

Another thing of worthy mention is the attitude of the community. The community is cool (mostly), but there is a prevalent problem of "You don't pay my sub so you can't tell me what to do" going around. People play for themselves while ignoring the way their performance affects the group: no job crystal, gear too low to clear, bad rotations where the healer or tank does more damage than you, placing mechanics in a way that hurts or wipes the team, etc. You only have to read the venting thread in General Discussion to see what I mean.
Now, if they are new I easily forgive and move on but if they do not ask for help or tips on how to do things then I have less patience. What I have no tolerance for is players expecting a carry or being dead weight for laziness' sake.
And players trying to help those people can get snapped at or reported for Harassment (and play style differences count as Harassment now if I remember). Even kicking a bad player carries a risk now.

Rewarding the lowest effort possible is bad MMO design in my opinion because it causes a too great disparity between low and higher skilled players. And those play style differences cause problems when going into more mid-core and harder difficulties, which is usually end-game-till-new-patch content.

*Edit : NPCs in dungeons now do mechanics as well so that is a nice touch from S-E's part.