People that say this game is too easy

[Liam_Harper]

It's kinda hard to decipher whether the games got easier or the players got better. I know I sucked at MMOs back in 2003 when I first started playing them. They still didn't seem that bad. Wildstar's about the hardest I can recall in recent memory but that was only when you did the hard dungeons and raid.

It's not just that players got better, it's that we have vast amounts more information on literally anything accessible to us. There are guides, websites, discords, simulators, ect. We can analyse and figure out anything nowadays. WoW Classic experienced this recently, people remembered it as punishing and tough, but it was figured out in days and apparently felt quite simple.

Raid encounters have had to evolve to compensate. In 2003 you could get away with giving a boss 2-3 mechanics and it would feel difficult. You wouldn't have a well researched rotation and your gear would be random stuff you picked up along the way.
Nowadays on week 1 you have videos with every mechanic explained in detail, the optimal tricks and strats figured out. The optimal rotations are all figured out too, mathematically calculated and tested. Guides are abundant and any random person in your FC, linkshell or forum can tell you the indepth workings of your class, stats and tips.
This is why boss mechanics look like a small novel in modern MMO's, where you literally had 3 basic attacks 15 years ago. The only way they can really challenge us now is sensory overload.

[Kalise]

Honestly, the game becomes too easy with one word: overgear.

If you overgear the content, any content is easy. There is a big difference on how much mobs a tank can pull at Akadaemia Anyder with gear synched down to i470 and i410. You can safely pull wall to wall with i470 without problems. Want to do the same with i410? Good luck.

Want to do it the hard way? Do it at min ilvl.

To be honest, I pulled wall to wall at i410 (Before 5.2 when they added the i470 sync) and had no problems. Same with Grand Cosmos at 430 and Anamnesis Anyder at 440 (My gear was so bad...). Heck, I was doing these as blind runs too so I was learning the tactics on the fly.

Also, people do the hardest content in the game, week 1 (So min ilvl) to boot... (Though, that seems fairly par for the course in MMO's these days... Saying that, however, WoW's Mythic raids have taken 7-13 days for world firsts...)

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

To be honest, I pulled wall to wall at i410 (Before 5.2 when they added the i470 sync) and had no problems. Same with Grand Cosmos at 430 and Anamnesis Anyder at 440 (My gear was so bad...). Heck, I was doing these as blind runs too so I was learning the tactics on the fly.

Also, people do the hardest content in the game, week 1 (So min ilvl) to boot... (Though, that seems fairly par for the course in MMO's these days... Saying that, however, WoW's Mythic raids have taken 7-13 days for world firsts...)

Yeah, and humanity went from no spaceflight to the moon in less than a decade. That means it was super easy right?

[BluexBird]

I've played World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, SWTOR, and Blade and Soul. At least these are the only ones I'm able to draw comparisons with FFXIV.

While this game is indeed easy to the rest in a lot of aspects, there is still a certain level of challenge to it depending on how you choose to do certain content. I'll admit the combat is probably the simplest of them all, due to the high GCD giving you a lot of time to think about your next move. Plus the lack of builds makes it so that there is really only one optimal playing style for any given class, which kinda sucks unless you're a Bard.

[NessaWyvern]

To be honest, I pulled wall to wall at i410 (Before 5.2 when they added the i470 sync) and had no problems. Same with Grand Cosmos at 430 and Anamnesis Anyder at 440 (My gear was so bad...). Heck, I was doing these as blind runs too so I was learning the tactics on the fly.

Also, people do the hardest content in the game, week 1 (So min ilvl) to boot... (Though, that seems fairly par for the course in MMO's these days... Saying that, however, WoW's Mythic raids have taken 7-13 days for world firsts...)

Eh, that says more about how good your healer is, more than anything. When a tank is under-geared, it falls to the healer to pick up the slack.

[Granyala]

So, I'm just curious. Unless you've exclusively played Eastern MMOs, which do seem more challenging, what makes you think this game is too easy?

The game isn'T too easy, most of the content is.
Savage has a decent difficulty attached to it and I am sure Ultimate can see to some grey hair.

Problem is: they account for a tiny minority of the content. The rest is: are you breathin? You win.

WoW, Tera and SWToR, Aion all felt similar in that regard. Only difficult in raid content, rest easily manageable.

Eh, that says more about how good your healer is, more than anything. When a tank is under-geared, it falls to the healer to pick up the slack.

Pretty much. Though there is a limit. If chain casting with CDs is insufficient, you die. No matter how skilled your healer. Same if the mob group globals you or if the tank runs out of CDs because DPS is crap.

That being said: dungeon mobs hit like wet noodles.

[MoonPhaseAlpha]

what makes you think this game is too easy?

FFXIV is a lot of rinse and repeat. Once you memorize the mechanics, you can go into a dungeon, raid or trial blindfolded with one hand tied behind your back. This game is a choreographed dance. Learn the steps and practice. Rinse and repeat.

Now, I played XI for 9 years so I'm used to it's endgame functionality which is very different from XIV's. Each boss fight is essentially the same, but the abilities can be very random on when/if they happen. The chat log was your indicator for everything: what ability was being used by each mob/player or what defuff landed or wore on a mob/player. You have to constantly be watching the chat log for a debuff and there were no icon indicators (back in the day) as to what was inflicted on that player like silence or paralyze. It was all in the chat log. My main was WHM. Plus, XI has so many more spells at one's disposal to use. There are no such things as rotations in XI. AOE ground notifications do not exist. The chat log was your best friend. If I missed removing a debuff (which lasts much longer than in XIV), the player would have to type in the log what debuff they had on so I could remove it.

[shao32]

As a tank main i can say the game has become to easy, the skill ceiling on the role has been pulled down to much this expansion making tank mechanics and complexity literally non existent, both WAR and DRK how use to be the most complex tanks now are the most brain dead ones surpased by PLD on complexity wich idk if i should laugh or cry, agro means nothing now, defensive kits has been cloned and most of the tanks have the same mechanics rotations with little variance. tanks has become boring in so many levels, the role is basically brain dead now and i no longer use my tank outside of savage bcs of all this, it's not rewarding to play and if you want a challenge and love high/medium skill ceiling jobs you won't find it on the tank role anymore, and i don't wanna start talking about healers.

if we talk about content, considering combat conten has been reduced more and more and most of then don't ask you to have even basic knowledge about you job to complete the duty it's easy to see why some call this expansion casualbringers.

[linay]

Randomized fights as opposed to scripted battles might add difficulty but i really feel this game was masterplanned as is

I think so too and I like it as is.

Randomizing fights can be fun for the first few runs, but unless the enemies are actually reacting to you, I'd rather take a more scripted fight in the long run over simply a randomized set of mechanics. That doesn't mean there can't be randomness in the script, but order is really a good thing.

[Kewitt]

Only content that is a challenge in EX content.
All other content you don't need to care about, but the speed at which you get over-geared for content is crazy in FFXIV.