Can we finally get real content / gameplay?

[Jojoya]

I think the OP has overlooked the obvious. It's not that the game has gotten easier. It's that the OP has become more knowledgeable and gotten better at playing the game so it feels easier. The magic of most games is strongest when they are new to the player and everything needs to be learned.

Game developers can't keep changing things in their games to spice things up for the veteran or the new player coming late to the game gets overwhelmed by conflicting systems being introduced in relatively short periods of time (compared to the months or years it took those changes to take place for the veteran player). A game gets its reputation from delivering a certain style of content. Make drastic changes to that style and you not only drive away veteran players who had been happy with what the game used to be, you have a harder time retaining new players who aren't getting what they heard they should expect (see WoW).

Like others have said, the OP has been playing the game a long time. Anything you enjoy will get stale after too much exposure. Better to take a complete break for a few months to do other things then pick the game back up. If the game still remains stale, it's a sign you're ready to move on to new games.

[Avrintera]

I think the OP has overlooked the obvious. It's not that the game has gotten easier. It's that the OP has become more knowledgeable and gotten better at playing the game so it feels easier. The magic of most games is strongest when they are new to the player and everything needs to be learned.

Game developers can't keep changing things in their games to spice things up for the veteran or the new player coming late to the game gets overwhelmed by conflicting systems being introduced in relatively short periods of time (compared to the months or years it took those changes to take place for the veteran player). A game gets its reputation from delivering a certain style of content. Make drastic changes to that style and you not only drive away veteran players who had been happy with what the game used to be, you have a harder time retaining new players who aren't getting what they heard they should expect (see WoW).

Like others have said, the OP has been playing the game a long time. Anything you enjoy will get stale after too much exposure. Better to take a complete break for a few months to do other things then pick the game back up. If the game still remains stale, it's a sign you're ready to move on to new games.

I have played a long time my first account was on ps4 back in the day before I lost it and restarted on pc. I still love doing dungeons mixing them up and watching new players have hard times and fun times and thats all great but when I at max lvl 80 in ShB can just not even have to think during pulls unless and I mean unless I am pushing it as hard as I can and not using every tool so I can feel the dmg or my healer loves netflix and dpsing over healing.

Compared to lvl 70 dungeons and below were I need the healer to be paying attention I need the dps to be doing there jobs or it can cause a wipe and then compare that to what we have in ShB I mean i love the game but come on its not hard to go yeah they really made the Shb Dungeons and trials piss easy compared to any expansion before it. (not included Savage and Extremes those were really cool this expansion) But they also took away so much from raids as well making it glorified trials which sucks alot of the fun out of it. I also think a big problem that were having is that there was no Deep Dungeon and no Bozja does not replace the feeling that Deep Dungeon gave.

[ssunny2008]

I think the OP has overlooked the obvious. It's not that the game has gotten easier. It's that the OP has become more knowledgeable and gotten better at playing the game so it feels easier. The magic of most games is strongest when they are new to the player and everything needs to be learned.

I´m one of those guys who is getting used to everything quickly, but that doesn´t mean that everything is getting boring and stale pretty fast. FF14 has never been something "you need to learn" if you´ve played any other MMORPG before, but sadly it got easier and easier with each patch and any addon is just a repaint with a bunch of new story.


And it´s not even about the difficulty only. I´m sure i´ve written down enough which is not just "mimimi too easy". The efford of the devs to bring something new and unique drifted away to class homogenizations, predictable fights and the same stuff over and over again.

Just some numbers:

ARR:

-31 dungeons with different maps, different pathes, even hardcore dungeon variants
-12 normal and savage raids with different maps, mechanics, gimmicks
-27 trials with ponies (8 are hard versions)
-different and UNIQUE class designs. In the early days you do even needed to level more than 1 class to unlock the advanced classes.
-more use of utilities and debuffs
-If you fall off of a platform, you couldn´t get a rezz.
-Scripted but not so visible tankbusters, no long castbar for everything etc.

Heavensward:

-3 more classes, each one was unique on its own
-6 big maps and flying
-18 dungeons, some of them are hardcore variants from level 50 dungeons. They atleast tried to keep some unique features alive.
-12 normal and savage raids which lost some add pathing, but still tried to presentate unique maps / features
-treasure maps with Aquapolis-still use of utilities and debuffs
-14 trials with birds this time
-Tankbusters has become more visible or are behind castbars.
-treasure maps with Aquapolis


Stormblood:

-2 new classes and the bigger begin of class homogenization and dumbdowns
-again 6 big maps, 2-3 portpoints, dozens of quests appear once you reach them (1 will be a chainquest for sure) and flying ofc
-15 dungeons with a more static design than even HW had. Atleast some of them had some good fights, but sadly undertuned.
-12 normal and savage raids without pathing or adds and either completely squared or circled platforms.
-17 trials (2 thx to the MHW cooperation) this time with dogs
-less use of utilities and debuffs
-Tankbusters are behind castbars but appear still often
-Overall loooong castbars for nearly everything
-treasure maps just with another level and loot
-Eureka aka Fategrind


Shadowbringers:

-Class homogenization at its best. 2 new classes, 1 of them is for lefthanded players. Tanks got nuked in their existence with a braindead tankstance and 123 combo meanwhile WAR exists 2 times. All you´ve to care is to hold your burstphase on cd and thats it. Some other classes got reworked for the worse too since they didn´t got expanded of fixed, SE just got ride of a lot of stuff and called it a day. Not to mention that they got ride of ressources / have only ressources left on classes where you´ll never run out of them unless you died or have to spam rezz 3 times in a row.
-Again 6 big maps with..................................................
-ONLY 13 dungeons this time and all of them are straight lines into nowhere. Wall to wall at its best and the most of them are not even well designed. And they reduced the chests.
-12 normal and savage raids which has been the easiest of all time. The interesting point is, that E8s is the hardest and made use of everything which is left on the classes, but with E9s-E12s SE decided to say "Ok, easier content."
-15 trials with dragons...... and they got easier and easier from fight to fight
-Of course no real use of utilities or debuffs. What is cleanse for? Who knows... If something goes nuts, it´s either a "damage down" or "incoming damage increased" debuff.
-Castbars for everyone and strict aoe - mechanic - aoe - tb - aoe - mechanic pattern each fight.
-The OT has become a defensive cooldown on tankbusters in the latest tier, nothing else.
-Fategrind in form of Bozja (Eureka 2.0), Fategrind on each of the 6 maps and yes, if you want everything, you´ve to grind 1000+ Fates.
-Any new Event is nothing but a one-time fate. Or 1000 old fates for Yokais for whatever reason.
-Ishgard with heavy gatherer / crafter grind
-Treasure Maps again with new Loot...
-No more real class quests and "easy mode buttons"

Endwalker:

-Another time class homogenization especially on healers, MNK and SMN. 2 new classes.
-More of the same again, probably with less and easier content.
-Only dungeon bosses give XP anymore, everything else in the dungeon is useless.
-Don´t know about the rest, but just more of the same 100% sure.


Think whatever you want, it´s not all about difficulty. SE got lazy... we get less and less content, mostly fategrind as timesink and dumbdowns on classes, so they don´t have to care about balancing anymore. They do care about animations and bling bling, that´s all...

EDIT: Seems more like SE is trying to throw tons of glam and classes on us in an easy way, so we need to level and grind stuff all over again which lasts in long abonements. Gameplay-wise this game has become worse and worse over the time and that the devs don´t put any more depth or efford in the quest designs is obvious.