The only thing I miss about WoW when playing FFXIV: Scrub's rights.

[Priya]

Is this a troll thread to make WoW players look bad or something? The OP says XIV solo class quest was kind of hard, but it's not any harder than the solo class hall quests were in Legion. Then "the community" is mean for responding as such (the XIV communityis definitely mean, but not when it comes to solo content). Now people will walk away from this thread with the idea that WoW players dislike or can't do solo story quests when the class halls were arguably one of Legion's most beloved content additions... people were extremely upset blizzard didn't continue them in BfA.

[Omedon]

I’ve obviously ruffled some feathers in actually speaking out loud about some of the “social compacts” that let this game work as it does. If I’ve offended I apologize but I’m not going to hang around and be insulted.

In case it wasn’t clear: I do not seek out optional difficulty, so don’t worry about seeing me in your harder modes in the game. This is true in any game I play, not unique to FFXIV. So you can all relax. I am fairly confident that I’m up to the challenge for any base core story content that is put in my way. The only concern I have is that I cannot formulaically promise myself that that will always be the case because of the design philosophies of “you’re level X you should be this good by now.” That doesn’t ever bother any of you? I’m seriously asking here.

[Priya]

The only concern I have is that I cannot formulaically promise myself that that will always be the case because of the design philosophies of “you’re level X you should be this good by now.” That doesn’t ever bother any of you? I’m seriously asking here.

This ties somewhat into ilvl sync which does bother me, actually. SE does not like letting gear power creep naturally nerf fights for their lower skilled base like blizzard does. They put a fairly strict cap on how powerful they let you be in current level cap content which does nothing but hinder people who do actually need the power creep for whatever reason. In my example above of WoW class halls, you could wait until the end of the expansion and steamroll them with that gear. SE doesn't like this, and they ilvl sync everything. In that at least, I agree with you in that eventually your tome gear should be able to just carry you through a fight if you're doing it late into the xpack.

[Omedon]

This ties somewhat into ilvl sync which does bother me, actually. SE does not like letting gear power creep naturally nerf fights for their lower skilled base like blizzard does. They put a fairly strict cap on how powerful they let you be in current level cap content which does nothing but hinder people who do actually need the power creep for whatever reason. In my example above of WoW class halls, you could wait until the end of the expansion and steamroll them with that gear. SE doesn't like this, and they ilvl sync everything. In that at least, I agree with you in that eventually your tome gear should be able to just carry you through a fight if you're doing it late into the xpack.

This is very on the money as to what I’m getting at, yes.

Challenge my character, don’t challenge me. Why even have gear levels if they are to be nullified in an effort to check if I, as in me typing, am “good enough” to see the next chapter?

An mmo that charges for time really needs an inevitable “apply time and win” lane in the main thoroughfare of the game. I have been up to every challenge the MSQ put before me. Without gear creep I can’t guarantee that will always be the case. That makes me reluctant to invest that time if it’s not going to help my character progress.

Thank you for reminding me and illuminating a sub-topic that I probably should have included in my OP!

[Vidu]

I’ve obviously ruffled some feathers in actually speaking out loud about some of the “social compacts” that let this game work as it does. If I’ve offended I apologize but I’m not going to hang around and be insulted.

In case it wasn’t clear: I do not seek out optional difficulty, so don’t worry about seeing me in your harder modes in the game. This is true in any game I play, not unique to FFXIV. So you can all relax. I am fairly confident that I’m up to the challenge for any base core story content that is put in my way. The only concern I have is that I cannot formulaically promise myself that that will always be the case because of the design philosophies of “you’re level X you should be this good by now.” That doesn’t ever bother any of you? I’m seriously asking here.

No, it doesnt bother me (at least in this game) for a number of reasons.
First, as I mentioned before: This is something that I'm used to from games like this and something I expect - pretty much all RPGs I've played, including all FFs (most of which have a heavy story-focus) so I'm going into this game with the mindset of "Okay, this is going to be more difficult and challenging as we continue the story". Since the difficulty within the storymode is also on the easier end - compared to other content within this game at least - that seems like nothing to worry about to me.
The second reason that it doesnt bother me is that its actually something that I want: We get better gear, better skills, a better understanding of the game with time. I'd be bored out of my mind if the level of difficulty throughout the story would be stuck on the very first quest that was ever given to me!

I get the desire to just play through a story while being laid back - but if I want something like that, I pick up a game that provides that experience, aka something more like a Walking Simulator.

[MightyTachikoma]

I do think there are multiple cases in this thread where people are taking their skills and familiarity with this particular game very much for granted. Perhaps I do so with my meager WoW skills as well. That said, as a relative outsider looking in, there are some solo duty elements that are certainly gates, whether veterans wish to acknowledge that or not.

I did a very similar thing to you: I played ARR for about a month and then didn't touch it again until years later. In fact, I didn't start playing again until around September of 2018. I ran through all that old content, into the newer stuff, and got to end-game without once ever feeling like I was 'challenged' on my way to story content. So, even as someone who was similarly in your situation, unfamiliar with the game, never once did I run into anything I would consider a gate.

What people are saying here is just fact. If you're having difficulty with these story fights, there is something fundamental you're not understanding about your class and/or the game mechanics, or you're undergeared.

[XenociderOmega]

My lfr alarm just went off time to get out the flamethrower

[Asalia]

This is very on the money as to what I’m getting at, yes.

Challenge my character, don’t challenge me. Why even have gear levels if they are to be nullified in an effort to check if I, as in me typing, am “good enough” to see the next chapter?

An mmo that charges for time really needs an inevitable “apply time and win” lane in the main thoroughfare of the game. I have been up to every challenge the MSQ put before me. Without gear creep I can’t guarantee that will always be the case. That makes me reluctant to invest that time if it’s not going to help my character progress.

(...)

Yeah.... No.
The Ilvl sync is here because once again this mmo is Story driven, and they want you to feel that X fight or Y fight is a tad bit difficult to reflect the power of your adversary. If you can steamroll it with Ilvl you're never gonna learn how to play even decently, and you will never have that "Ho yeah that npc was tough in the story it make sense that the fight was hard" moment.
And once again, we're talking baby level difficulty, press 1,2,3 one or two ogcd, don't stand on aoe and you can do those quest with one hand on the mouse the other preparing a drink -_-

[Vaer]

An mmo that charges for time really needs an inevitable “apply time and win” lane in the main thoroughfare of the game. I have been up to every challenge the MSQ put before me. Without gear creep I can’t guarantee that will always be the case. That makes me reluctant to invest that time if it’s not going to help my character progress.

It does though. When a new "season" comes out they nerf the previous season. When a new expansion comes out you can remove the ilvl caps using unsync. Now it doesn't help the "solo" instances but at Very Easy they are already nerfed a significant amount. If they were to nerf it any more it might as well just be a cutscene.

[Penthea]

I know a lot of people who play this game casually and not a single one of them had issues doing the role quests. Some of them are tanks.

This isn't a scrub's rights issue. This is a gear or not playing your class correctly issue.

And at max level you have to expect some degree of challenge.