8 man endgame content should go back to the 2.x method (no baby mode) Hear me out...

[Novae]

Yea OP, sure, of course. But only with PF. You want to suffer, you'll suffer with everyone else, far from the comfort and security of your static.

[Duskane]

I agree. The average/casual player will not bother with hard content. 3 months ago I really wanted the dyeable lvl 80 Dancer gloves. I unlocked Memoria Miseria Extreme, watched 2 different guides, made my own sticky notes to help with the mechanics, then started a learning party on PF. After 2 hours, it finally filled up. But we didn't even get past the 1st phase. 2 days later I tried it again, same result. It doesn't help that most people don't even speak English well on my EU datacenter. I wasted 5 hours of my life and didn't get the gloves. I gave up because I got tired of trying my best and still failing. I will not quit XIV but not even glamour can motivate me to waste more hours on this thing. Maybe I'll try it unsynced in 2025, lol.

I think PF is your problem more than fight itself which is an entirely different hurdle to get over
but i can understand since i use to be on Chaos aswell

[DrWho2010]

remember they tried to up difficulty. Shinryuu story mode on launch, very difficult, the instant cries for nerf were bad. Castrum Fluminis normal on launch? the lamentations. The Burn on launch? so much more so. the majority of the playerbase cannot handle such things well.

[Anhra]

Casual Players will always find something to complain about, especially if they have to put actual effort into things and stuff. Constantly pandering to them never is a good long-term solution to any game that is worth its salt.

[Rymi64]

Casual Players will always find something to complain about, especially if they have to put actual effort into things and stuff. Constantly pandering to them never is a good long-term solution to any game that is worth its salt.

Considering that they have to pander to the casual playerbase since they also pay money for the game and probably will pay more money long term because of that casual nature a game dev would be smarter to pander to them whether the midcore-hardcore likes it. It is a game thats supposed to make money after all

[Goji1639]

Casual Players will always find something to complain about, especially if they have to put actual effort into things and stuff. Constantly pandering to them never is a good long-term solution to any game that is worth its salt.

There are WAY more casual players than hardcore, and they pay the same money but they're not on the servers 10 hours a day eating up bandwidth. I think Hardcore players get the wrong idea about how much SE wants them around; SE prefers casual players and will always cater to them, as will every other successful MMO.

[ForteNightshade]

Casual Players will always find something to complain about, especially if they have to put actual effort into things and stuff. Constantly pandering to them never is a good long-term solution to any game that is worth its salt.

The overwhelm majority of gamers as a whole are typically casual. Which is why companies cater more towards that demographic. There's a reason harder difficulties are added an an option and games like Dark Souls are singled out for being uniquely and unrelentingly challenging. That being said, you aren't wrong. The trick is finding an equal balance. If everything is too easy, you'll not only drive away people who want a challenge but inevitably find those same casual players complaining how bored they are since they completed everything so quickly. I'd go so far as to argue FFXIV struggles in this regard, hence why you often hear complaints from all crowds of having nothing to do. Or rather, nothing they enjoy doing.

Content like Shrinyu and Tsukiyomi are decent but still a little too easy, in my opinion. Although, I more find fault with the lackluster healer and tank gameplay—which isn't unique to any one fight. Speaking of that, where they fail completely on the difficulty curve is how they continuously water down Savage when that content is significantly designed to be hard.

[Juzjuzz]

Here's the thing. I have been asking some people I used to play with during the coil days and the big difference between modern raiding and 2.x... And besides the baby mode versions of the encounters, a big part of the motivation to do savage was taken away. In 2.x there was two motivations to improve and do coil.
1. Gear/looking cool.
2. The lore.

I'd love to have more story locked into harder content than normal (a REAL brutal lvl ?). Something not as hard as extreme but still less boring than normal. It doesnt have to be extremely hard lol. And it shouldnt take story away from other ppl, just add something more that is optional.
The coil didnt take away story from anyone, you could just avoid it, i never did it and i'm fine lol (i wasnt here in ARR aniway).
It's sad that ppl just reject this idea, without proposing any other options, just because they want it all. I'm sure some player who can't handle savage and want a easier entry intro harder content might like a brutal difficulty. Something that require some coordination but nothing crazy. As long as it is optional and it won't take away story from normal content it's okay imo.

But we didn't even get past the 1st phase. 2 days later I tried it again, same result. It doesn't help that most people don't even speak English well on my EU datacenter.

Yeah pf require a lot of patience, i think trying a static might help or finding players you trust but that require time too. It gets worse when you wait a lot of time because a lot of ppl on chaos just don't even want to try *e9s LR trap party flashbacks*. This makes me want to change data center but idk how it is on light.

Casual Players will always find something to complain about, especially if they have to put actual effort into things and stuff. Constantly pandering to them never is a good long-term solution to any game that is worth its salt.

Tbh because of unsynch, getting a mount or a glam in savage/extreme just looses it's flavor when the next expantion is there. There's just no point in trying to play in the real difficulty anymore. I'd like to see a difference between synched/unsynched loot. You want it easy ? you get the budget mount/glam. You want to have the real difficulty ? You get the best mount/glam.

[Fawkes]

Locking glamour behind content is a great way to encourage engagement.

If that were true then Coil gear would have incentivized more people to do it and we would've never had normal modes added in the first place. Glamour only increases participation if the content can be completed casually. There's very few people that would engage in content above their skill level just for glamour.

[Dogempire]

If that were true then Coil gear would have incentivized more people to do it and we would've never had normal modes added in the first place. Glamour only increases participation if the content can be completed casually. There's very few people that would engage in content above their skill level just for glamour.

It isn't even about individual skill level a lot of the time, a group is only as good as its average skill level, and you only factor into 1/8 of that.

Extreme content harder than something like Ruby/Emerald weapon is a pain to clear, and that's pretty much because of the RNG nature of PF groups