the normal content is too easy

[ForteNightshade]

Players on here deal only in extremes. When players ask for something more engaging then faceroll, the first answer is "do savage", why cant there be anything between faceroll and savage/extremes. If a tank can solo a dungeon or raid, maybe consider addressing this. We don't ask for a tank nerf we ask for something more engaging.

This right here.

As a Savage and Ultimate raider, I don't want the normal modes or dungeons to be blisteringly hard but simply more engaging. Weeping City and Dun Scaith on release were some of the most fun I've had and either were some immense challenge. In fact, Weeping City was my very first 24 man. Final Steps of Faith is another stand out as is Alexander. Unfortunately, all of them are a shell of themselves nowadays due to job changes and no consideration whatsoever for balance below 80. Weeping City completely melts now. Even fights not that old like E3 and E4 fall over before any of their major mechanics happen. Speaking of, a good number of these encounters don't have fundamentals they really should. Why even bother introducing a tank swap debuff in E4N when it's so pathetically weak tanks won't swap? Why have stack markers that two people can survive with barely a scratch?

Expert dungeons are probably the stand out example of simply poor design. We've reached a point where healers literally aren't required. Naturally, this is partly because tank sustain is enormous this expansion but it's still ridiculous that dungeons are such a joke an entire role can be omitted without a second thought.

When people ask for the game to be harder, they aren't wanting Savage or even Extreme difficulty. They're wanting to feel engaged. Going into a dungeon or trial you know you'll utterly obliterate isn't all that fun for a lot of people. It also leads to poor habits being formed. Why dodge an AoE and lose uptime as a melee DPS when you know it'll do next to nothing damage wise? We see all these arguments about YPYT without discussing the actual reason people do it. They can. A healer isn't threatened by three mobs with the ferocity of a six month old kitten.

All in all, making the game easy and approachable is perfectly fine. There is, however, a middle ground between easy mode and "so incredibly safe a toddler could clear."

As far as normal content goes, this has been the case since (and inclusive of) Heavensward, excluding the major story trial. E.g. Shinryu, Hades, Endsinger on launch. I don't really see why they should maintain or gravitate towards incremental difficulty curves for normal mode content. From experience, at any point we've had 'difficult' normal content, people have only ever generally avoided it at all costs. See the number of people trying to avoid anything beyond Weeping City by shafting their own item level. Also referring to Shinryu here where people would go as far as either AFK on entry, or duty leave for a 30-minute penalty on release. Granted, the community has come a long way, but personally, I don't really see many people standing by this directive beyond just platitudes.

ilvl cheesing has nothing to do with difficulty but efficiency. Tower of Paradigm Breach gives the exact same rewards as Syrcus Tower. One takes upwards of 40+ minutes while the other takes 10-15 tops with zero chance of wiping. If all you care about is EXP, which most people ilvl cheesing do, then why would you want to double your time required for the same reward?

Since someone brought it up, Steps of Faith also suffered from a similar problem: the rewards simply didn't outweigh the time investment. Prior to being nerfed into the ground, it could take upwards of 15+ minutes, and unlike every other fight in the game, had no wipe condition. Which meant if you failed the Dragon Slayer mechanic, you had to wait until Vishap reached the end and gave you a Duty Failed before trying again. Adding insult to injury, the DPS check was incredibly high. You either needed two Slayers to hit or absolutely insane DPS to clear. All of this meant taking the 30 minute penalty was often better as you may actually be waiting less than if you stayed. We've seen this exact scenario play out with MSQ Roulette. People constantly leave Castrum because Praetorium gives double the EXP for only 15 minutes more "effort".

If they nerfed Crystal Tower's EXP; forced us to be synced properly so the raids aren't laughably easy or buffed the EXP in the higher level raids, you'd see far less people cheesing their ilvl because it wouldn't matter anymore.