What happened to 8-man raids? Binding Coils was so elaborate compared to now..

[DynnDiablos]

You know, recently going through Binding Coils of Bahamut and Alexander, and I have to wonder...what happened to Normal raids these last few expansions?

They used to have such intricate level designs, the story interwoven within those various raids, and they just were so much more elaborate. Now it is simply loading into a square or circle zone.

Why? I get budget constraints, but if they could do something as memorable as Binding Coils, why can't we get that back?

[TheMightyMollusk]

Stormblood turned them into trials-by-another-name and it stuck.

[DynnDiablos]

Stormblood turned them into trials-by-another-name and it stuck.

It's unfortunate. They used to be really cool. Now, you're right. They're just trials. They should be called as such.

[RicaRuin]

You know, recently going through Binding Coils of Bahamut and Alexander, and I have to wonder...what happened to Normal raids these last few expansions?

They used to have such intricate level designs, the story interwoven within those various raids, and they just were so much more elaborate. Now it is simply loading into a square or circle zone.

Why? I get budget constraints, but if they could do something as memorable as Binding Coils, why can't we get that back?

People complained about having to fight through trash for their reclears/prog and those complaints led to the development removing trash mobs after Alexander.

[WhiteArchmage]

People complained about having to fight through trash for their reclears/prog and those complaints led to the development removing trash mobs after Alexander.

It is certainly a "be careful what you wish for" situation. Even back in ARR, groups would send in a member to skip the mobs and get a shortcut directly to the boss, if they didn't just rush it altogether. They used to do that DAYS before raidtime, where there would be parties specifically for skipping the mobs and would then disband with the shortcut, so actual statics could go there later in the week. It was so complained about and skipped that for Alexander Savage the instance would just throw you right outside the boss area anyway.

Basically, yes, now the raids are basically a series of trials, and we can thank the raiders for that.

[Raven2014]

It is certainly a "be careful what you wish for" situation.

Not really, I'm one of those who wish trash being removed from raid, and I don't regret.

This is why it's probably rose-tinted glass or nostalgia effect, it feels cool because we "used to do it but not any more". Most people will spend a few weeks in normal mode, months if you don't do savage, while the people who does savage will spend months clearing the harder version. At that point not many would be glamouring for clearing meaningless/useless trash week in and week out.

[Nuki]

Basically, yes, now the raids are basically a series of trials, and we can thank the raiders for that.

You are welcome it was an awfull design choice and most ppl are happy its gone.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

People complained about having to fight through trash for their reclears/prog and those complaints led to the development removing trash mobs after Alexander.

Why not just make the mobs Normal Mode only and just skip to the boss for Savage? Aren't there some Alexander Raids that do that?

[Impulsikk]

People complained about having to fight through trash for their reclears/prog and those complaints led to the development removing trash mobs after Alexander.

The problem with trash in FF14 is that you have a time limit to finish the duty. If you are progressing on a fight for multiple hours, it will be really frustrating to have to kill the same trash every hour and a half. If FF14 got rid of the time limit in pre-made groups they could maybe bring trash back.

[technole]

Coil Turn 3 was annoying because you had to clear that mob turn every week, meanwhile you and your party want to get to Turn 5 to keep progging, and here we are spending valuable raid time on trash.

We didn't have cooldown reset on-wipe back then too, so that's a lot of lost time for progression, not to mention you needed to use some serious cooldowns during Coil turn 10 trash mobs, that stuff hurt like a truck. They didn't even nerf the trash until it was unlocked.

Several people here probably did not do Coil when it was a weekly lockout like savage, only worse. Like until Final Coil you could only clear a floor once for the week, and you could not re-enter the fight until the following week on your toon. They didn't start the idea of having 0-1 chests until Turn 10 and beyond.

The problem with trash in FF14 is that you have a time limit to finish the duty. If you are progressing on a fight for multiple hours, it will be really frustrating to have to kill the same trash every hour and a half. If FF14 got rid of the time limit in pre-made groups they could maybe bring trash back.

YoshiP mentioned he likes the clock for several reasons but one of which was so everyone could realize they probably should take a break, or disband.