Does 14 Promote a Culture of Mediocrity?

[Caurcas]

As the title ask, does 14 create and promote a culture of mediocrity within it? I say it has been sliding that way since ShB. The healing and tanking roles have been reduced to dull, hollow shells of what they were in HW and SB. The skill celling and floor no longer exist for these roles. DPS roles are heading in this direction as well with all the flavor and mechanical complexity being slowly striped away. See the removal of synergy and reduction of positionals, and reduction of punishment for rotational screw ups. These issues, however, are nothing compared to how the community and general attitude have shifted toward shielding the bad from valid criticism, and a general apathy towards self improvement. Even the devs have admitted to designing content in this manner. It's all quite disheartening, given 14 was at in time one of the most mechanically engaging MMOs.

[Denji]

besides some absurd self-healing buffs that should probably be nerfed, war feels mostly the same. in fact i'd argue i have to think a little more as a war now because i can't just 'fell cleave/decimate goes brr' while squeezing in non-gcd attacks. it's less frantic keysmashing. it used to be vengeance, maybe (the old) nascent flash and inner release (not in that order) followed by 5 fell cleaves/decimate while squeezing onslaughts and upheavals between them. it was not good for one's fingers lmao but if you got off only 4 fell cleaves you'd always feel like a failure.

and then once it was all done you would be forced to cone of shame the rest (overpower) and maybe try to get surging tempest back if stuff still has enough health. repeat 10-15 times per dungeon.

i make fun of overpower although i do find that it's why i like warrior so much. it forced me to learn how to gather enemies close enough together so that they can all be hit at once AND to consider how to allow DPS with positionals the freedom to move around and maximize their damage.

[Hysorn]

I don't know, but I went from playing DRK, to PLD and now to BLM(Which I am still leveling, in fact) and I gotta say, BLM feels like playing a whole new game, when I was running EX1 and EX2 in the beginning at the xpac as tank and off-tank in EX2, I would almost fall asleep in the middle of the fights, I was pretty much on auto-pilot. BLM has a lot more going on and I can't just turn off my brain, which makes it 2x as enjoyable to me. It makes me almost sad how simple tanks are, and from what I hear, back in Heavensward, DRKs were actually really complex.

[Wolwosh]

I hear, back in Heavensward, DRKs were actually really complex.

It was def more complex, but Tanks in general had to think more about keeping hate, which made Tanking in general a bit harder. If you f'ed up your MP management as a DRK and lost hate you couldn't Unleash and everything turned into chaos A good DRK and a bad one were very easy to tell apart xD

[Sacred-Oblivion]

These issues, however, are nothing compared to how the community and general attitude have shifted toward shielding the bad from valid criticism, and a general apathy towards self improvement.

Your attitude is what needs adjustment. The game has, and will always have, a diverse playerbase with a wide variety of skill levels. Deal with it. Usually I get DF groups where I can pull wall-to-wall, but sometimes I get groups that can only handle single pulls which is totally fine. The latter group has a lower skill level but that does not make them "bad", especially if they're sprouts or returners. If you can't adapt to the vibe of your group or things going wrong in a run, and you're not a sprout or returner, then that makes you bad.

That said, I would totally support changes that make tanking and healing more challenging, like the reintroduction of aggro management. Yes you'll occasionally get tanks who can't hold aggro very well, but if you can't adapt yourself to the challenge then that's your failing.

[FoxyAreku]

The latter group has a lower skill level but that does not make them "bad"

Oxymoron.

Agree with OP. Game's too easy now, enemies in 99% of content hit like wet noodles, and classes are so braindead a monkey could play most of them.

It's a shame but what can you do?

[AbysmalDuck]

Oxymoron.

Agree with OP. Game's too easy now, enemies in 99% of content hit like wet noodles, and classes are so braindead a monkey could play most of them.

It's a shame but what can you do?

People complain about how easy this game is, but I'd love to see the statistics on how many of these people either copied a rotation from someone else that more than likely used a program to "optimize" or sat down and nailed down a rotation without using any analyzing software/parser.

What I'm saying is, if you find the game too easy, you kind of invited that upon yourself by using tools to do all the thinking for you.

[Alzinor]

Not a toxic being but just stating fact,

It is always a joke to see some people complaining about the game difficulty when they only play 30% of the endgame content or worse, kill week 40 with echo.

It is like me complaining about how crafter rotation is too easy when i barely reached lvl 40 with my highest lvled crafting job.

improve your ingame experience before claiming something is easy, otherwise, you just look like pathetic troll.

[Ivtrix]

Not a toxic being but just stating fact,

It is always a joke to see some people complaining about the game difficulty when they only play 30% of the endgame content or worse, kill week 40 with echo.

It is like me complaining about how crafter rotation is too easy when i barely reached lvl 40 with my highest lvled crafting job.

improve your ingame experience before claiming something is easy, otherwise, you just look like pathetic troll.

this homie clears

[LittleImp]

Not a toxic being but just stating fact,

It is always a joke to see some people complaining about the game difficulty when they only play 30% of the endgame content or worse, kill week 40 with echo.

It is like me complaining about how crafter rotation is too easy when i barely reached lvl 40 with my highest lvled crafting job.

improve your in-game experience before claiming something is easy, otherwise, you just look like pathetic troll.

It's funny, isn't it. You'll always find it's mostly middling players who become really fixated on hierarchy. It's like when someone who just made a bit of money desperately tries to emulate what they think a 'rich person' is.