The MSQ Endwalker Trial Bosses are WAY too hard for newer players to FFXIV

[Illmaeran]

I realised, earlier, that I lost my 'Sprout' - actually find that strangely daunting!

It is!!! I just hit 86 on my WAR alt and realized I'll be losing my Sprout once I complete Shadowbringers. Before her, I hardly did any tanking except during ARR, so that sprout icon's been something of a security blanket since it makes it clear she's a new tank. Conversely, on my main, there's really no way to tell he's not a max level tank with years of experience behind him right off the bat so it's easy for people to assume I've got a lot of experience tanking on him when I don't. I love that little green thing over my head

[Iscah]

Well, I have to admit that I am stuck at the MSQ duel with a certain entity of light. Just a friendly duel...ya right.
I don't whine about it, I just do other stuff. It is what it is. I don't need everything if the game demands I do things I don't enjoy.
I spoke with some "veterans" of the game and even they said it was a brutal encounter that tested their abilities to the limit. As I am a casual player it is highly unlikely I will reach that level of skill. My game now consists of hanging out with friends in town and making music. I don't feel a compulsion to finish anything if it stops being fun.

The solo battle is a test of skill, yes – but that doesn't mean only veterans stand a chance of clearing it. You do it again, and you learn what the opponent will do at certain times and how you need to respond. And of course you get to edge down to "very easy" mode if you need to.

Having full level 90 gear from the marketboard or (later in the patch cycle) Hunt vendor may also give you enough extra damage and defence stats to get through the fight.

[deadman1204]

Yea, total troll thread.

NO way they made it through everything in the msq, all those other fights without knowing which way is up.

[Claviusnex]

One thing that ESO added at player request was a mechanism to change the color of combat cues. For someone with older eyes like mine where variations of hue in the same color can be hard to differentiate it really improved my ability to play. It was something I pushed for in FFXIV after playing through the Scathach where you have a low light situation with a bluish grey floor and bluish telegraphs which for me are hard to see.

I've dabbled with the accessibility settings but they don't really help with changing a specific item like AoE telegraphs from blue in my example to let's say orange or from the more common orange to something else with more contrast to combat effects. I also have trouble with the enemy cast bar too where even though I've moved it the color can get lost in the background so I miss seeing it. The location of the cast bar can help but between instanced content something inevitably pops up to obscure it on the screen. It would be nice to have something simple like a color choice in the HUD configuration for cast bars, etc and a way to change combat cue colors from the character configuration.

[KageTokage]

Yea, total troll thread.

NO way they made it through everything in the msq, all those other fights without knowing which way is up.

Realistically, I'd think the bulk of the people struggling with the EW trials are those who skipped to 80 and thus are completely blind as far as the game's mechanic language goes...though that's honestly kind of a moot point with the first trial as the tells for most of the mechanics are unique to that fight so it's probably more of a general skill issue.

[kaynide]

Re: Stuck at solo fights (or can’t clear with trusts)

Somethings to keep in mind are:
1) There are few, if any, random behaviors. The specifics of a move (Eg Zodiark using triangles or squares) might be random, but the actual order of attacks for almost every boss/trial is in specified order, often triggering at certain percent of hp.
2) There are lots of tells. Many are visual (purple vs pink for Zodiark’s triangle/square in addition to actual symbols after). There are many audio (“Filthy Rats!”, “We go Together!/Boom!”)
3) The arena itself is often divided with lines/circles/etc. Expect this to indicate something.

In the case of a certain duel, her moves are essentially done in order- after a few tries you should see a pattern and be able to guess what her next move will be and position accordingly.

If you need to, just don’t do any damage for a bit and focus on dodging mechanics and healing. If you avoid all unnecessary damage, it will be impossible to lose. More often than not losing in these solo instances is a matter of trying to either a) trying to strong arm through it, ignoring mechanics or b) panicking and getting overwhelmed by successive hits.

[Mika_Zahard]

You think EW MSQ bosses are hard? Nabriales would like a word with you.

In 2022 he's still wiping unprepared people, and those who refuse to perform properly..

[Carin-Eri]

I still disagree with some of what is being said here - as said in my previous post, there shouldn't be some kind of 'set standard' for how good a player should be by the time they reach a certain point/level. I don't think anything in life really works like that. You may find it easy but it isn't fair to assume that everyone else should.

I'm terrible at the gameplay - I've had to play most solo MSQ's on 'Easy' or 'Very Easy' and still managed to fail them numerous times before stumbling/blundering through them via luck. I'm terrible at Duties too and generally have to be carried. And reading threads like this don't really help - granted there are some 'encouragement' posts... but generally it's "should be good by this point in the game" replies, and reading those just makes me feel humilaited that I stink so badly at the gameplay.

Anyway, my enthusiasm toward the game has dropped to 'don't want to log in anymore' levels now, as reached "A Frosty Reception", died very early on (playing as Thancred) and realised that I'm not motivated to go through the whole 'try and try again' process, and am not really enjoying the game anymore. And with that being the case, what's the point?

[kaynide]

I still disagree with some of what is being said here - as said in my previous post, there shouldn't be some kind of 'set standard' for how good a player should be by the time they reach a certain point/level. I don't think anything in life really works like that. You may find it easy but it isn't fair to assume that everyone else should.

I'm terrible at the gameplay - I've had to play most solo MSQ's on 'Easy' or 'Very Easy' and still managed to fail them numerous times before stumbling/blundering through them via luck. I'm terrible at Duties too and generally have to be carried. And reading threads like this don't really help - granted there are some 'encouragement' posts... but generally it's "should be good by this point in the game" replies, and reading those just makes me feel humilaited that I stink so badly at the gameplay.

Anyway, my enthusiasm toward the game has dropped to 'don't want to log in anymore' levels now, as reached "A Frosty Reception", died very early on (playing as Thancred) and realised that I'm not motivated to go through the whole 'try and try again' process, and am not really enjoying the game anymore. And with that being the case, what's the point?

I hope you rekindle some interest, but if it’s not fun, you really shouldn’t force yourself.

That said, I don’t think this is a you problem here- each expansion tries to do a few new things at varying degrees of success. A lot of times the things that just don’t work and are tweaked as the expansion ages.
In EW, they tried many new ways to play and a big problem I would argue is the directions were unclear or just straight bad on how to do it. While I enjoyed the espionage mission it was a bit of a disconnect to the norm, and the body-swap was god awful.

Fortunately these.. "minigames?" are far and few between, but they are draining! I distinctly remember the solo fight against Zenos in Yanxia being a burn out for me. Took way too long… I thought “oh ok, it’ll end when I get him to 90% I guess….” Nope….

Edit: clarity/less rambly

[Tabmow]

The op post is so incredibly sad to me. The recent and constant cries for major nurfs help no one imo. how dumbed down does this game need to be to be happy for dumbed down players? please stop the slow destruction of this game please.