the normal content is too easy

[Ath192]

Also if you don't have every single skill on your hotbar, you're playing your Job wrong. Everything has a use, this is what separates the good players from the bad.

No it doesn't. A good player wouldn't be using Ice 2 on BLM as early as shadowbringers or healing with a summoner as of right now.

But I understand the general sentiment people should use their resources.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Normal mode fights could use enrage timers. Not just DPS checks, an actual "you took too long, here's an ultimate, better luck next time" fight-enders. A handful of fights have some kind of timer (whether a simple time limit or a "soft" enrage, like Shinryu breaking the platform), but in most fights you can just tickle the boss to death forever.

[nick124]

Easy for me is not easy for someone else. Difficult for you is not difficult for someone else. The normal content is balanced around the average skill of the majority of the playerbase and whether or not that's undertuned will depend on individual perspectives and frankly that's all there is to it. We have people who used to call Extremes difficult and now say they're easy based on any number of variables while that easy content stomps others who may not be as skilled.

You don't have to agree with it and you're very welcome to rail against it but that's the path the devs have chosen for the content that the majority of players will interact with. Personally I'd like to see lower iLvl caps on older content so they regain/retain some of their teeth but that's just my singular want in a sea of others, and I'm okay with that in the end. If I wasn't I'd probably find another game to meet that personal demand (no this isn't a "leave then" statement).

Also amazingly spicy topic to post from a sockpuppet alt.

I call bs. The game is balanced to the skill level of someone who doesn't know how to play. You can literally clear anything with very little effort or practice.

[Ath192]

If Elden Ring has proven anything is that you don’t need snooze fest difficulty levels to be a successful and popular game. People enjoy and will rise up to challenge.

For the people that dodge or cheese to get easier dungeons what is needed is more aggressive consequences to their actions not the dumbing down of content for everyone.

[Serious-Cat]

If Normal is too easy there's always Hard, Extreme, Savage and Ultimate tho?

[nick124]

My counterargument to the above is this: making the game infantile to play will lead to more people quitting than those who would quit due to inability to clear a slightly more difficult dungeon or trial. People should not be babied for fear of losing playerbase. SE should cater to the vast majority on the game who do believe it is too easy to clear most content, not to the loud minority who are afraid of a challenge beyond "dodge that giant telegraph thats in place for 10 seconds." The extreme and savage content is too small and far between (~15 or so fights per expansion) to justify making 95% of content a complete cakewalk. For people who game passionately and seek the thrill , who make up more of the population than SE would like to admit, the current normal content just ain't cutting it.

[nick124]

They haven't. There are Extremes, Savage, and Ultimate. You realize that group of people have entire levels of content only they will ever experience, right? The normal content isn't going to challenge them. It's not made for them. This is a game that accommodates a wide variety of experience and ability levels. It has something for people who just want to enjoy a fun game to those who strive for the hardest challenges. We all have the do the normal content, so it's going to be designed to be accessible to that entire spectrum of players and it's not going to challenge all of them. And that's okay. There is challenge for those who want to look for it.

Again, its a poor argument. The game requires all players to spend an exhorbitant amount of time on normal content (getting tomes, progging through msq, roulettes, etc). When all of the normal content is boring and chorelike, it will push players away. We all have to get tomes each week, play daily roulettes, and spend a decent amount of time on normal content. It makes the game unenjoyable when such a large amount of time is spent on monotonous, unstimulating, uninteresting content. Again, they will lose more players by making the game childish for the loud few, than the players they would lose by making the game more challenging and interesting for the rest of us.

[SnowVix]

Even endwalker. the level 90 tank quest for example just tells you to interupt an ability. so i and apparantly quite a few other players were getting frustrated because stuns are interupts and they weren't working.... and the solution to the quest was use a role skill thats basically been obselete since second coil. (minus maybe a handfull of very rare situationally niche uses) and as a result is a skill that 99% (exagerated) of tanks never even have on there hotbars...

so you're why i keep getting paralyzed in Puppets' Bunker.

[Serious-Cat]

My counterargument to the above is this: making the game infantile to play will lead to more people quitting than those who would quit due to inability to clear a slightly more difficult dungeon or trial. People should not be babied for fear of losing playerbase. SE should cater to the vast majority on the game who do believe it is too easy to clear most content, not to the loud minority who are afraid of a challenge beyond "dodge that giant telegraph thats in place for 10 seconds." The extreme and savage content is too small and far between (~15 or so fights per expansion) to justify making 95% of content a complete cakewalk. For people who game passionately and seek the thrill , who make up more of the population than SE would like to admit, the current normal content just ain't cutting it.

I'm not really concern about people quitting or not because today, most people play multiple games within their possible play time. A person playing an hour of ff14 for some roulettes or an ultimate player progging/erping 12 hours a day is still a player in ff14. Since its impossible to determine easy or difficult to the total amount of players participating in a co op matchmaking system, its just impossible to impose a blanket setting or change.

However as most players will know how they are feeling, needs and wants etc, challenges can be setup for a good time such as -1 player count, lower ilvl gear, unoptimized gearset, playing with a pizza controller etc. Default settings should always be welcoming and inclusive. Nobody is expected to learn calculus on the 1st grade and the school wouldn't know if this one kid already done with calculus before the first grade unless specifically notified to which a jump in grade can occur, thus normalizing or even increasing the difficulty for the kid that don't need basic arithmetic like other 1st graders.

[Krotoan]

I call bs. The game is balanced to the skill level of someone who doesn't know how to play. You can literally clear anything with very little effort or practice.

You can't just say others experiences aren't. Other people have different skill levels than you in many things. I'm gonna bet that you are absolutely horrible at a bunch of things others find laughably easy, just like everyone in the world is.