the normal content is too easy

[WildTamarind]

Ive had friends quit because the game is mind numbing easy.

And this is not by design. They didnt do this to cater to everyone. It was unintentional side effect on changing dps of healers and tanks for shadowbringers. Whats making the game too easy is that tanks and healers do good damage now when in the past it was more traditional. I definitely welcome this change but its made playing the game too boring. When I first showed a friend the game when we got to ifrit normal he was like "man ive never fought a boss like that in an mmo. Felt more like a real boss from another game. I wamt to queue up again." Now recently I showed another friend and at the end of the ifrit fight he was like "thats it? That sucked."

I understand having story mode to be easy difficulty but what we got now isnt easy, its stupid.

[Lunalepsy]

(reposted from feedback forums on suggestion from other posters, i dont know how to move the entire thread so i copy/pasted my post w/replies, original thread with some helpful input at https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...nt-is-too-easy )

Why is the game so easy a person who is half asleep could play it with no problem? You wonder why no one knows how to play well, yet make all of the content ridiculously easy. I'm no pro, but its kinda silly how all of the content save extremes and savage is so easy to learn and play with no difficulty whatsoever. People play games to enjoy mental stimulation, and when every single mechanic is telegraphed, repetitive, and predictable, the content becomes very linear and boring. What ever happened to the final fantasy of old, where people had to actually practice and grind fights to clear them? You wonder why there's level 90 white mages casting cure 1 and dragoons single target attacking on dungeon pulls, when the normal game content is so easy it allows players to coast through without actually learning how to play. Just food for thought. Don't forget players who actually play games to enjoy a challenge. Don't leave them out to dry because many other people cry when something isn't spoon-fed to them. Make final fantasy great again! Encourage people to learn and get better, not rot and wither away in normal dungeons which poses about as much difficulty as connect four for a toddler.

R1:There is a difference between being "casual friendly" and downright childs play. The game has become the latter. It's gotten to the point that you don't even need to follow mechanics to clear the material. The game becomes essentially effortless to play since every single "mechanic" is so heavily telegraphed and announced that it becomes a matter of just responding to the same visual cues over and over again, in different settings. I'm not arguing that everything should be savage difficulty. But the normal material (dungeons, trials, most normal raids) is simply boring by how little effort it requires to complete it. It feels like busywork more than an enjoyable interactive game. I don't think every single AOE needs to telegraphed. Not every tank buster and stack needs a huge marker with a 5 or more second warning. Let people enjoy the game by learning the fight, even if it takes a few or more tries. ff14 will never be a great game if it just stays a mindless exercise. People who actually enjoy video games want more, they want to be challenged, they want to be frustrated, they want the opportunity to figure out something which is difficult. The entire game minus the hard content doesnt need to, and shouldnt be, a politically correct easymode that anyone with even a low level of consciousness can breeze through.

What do you expect? The game is for "casuals."

[Wyakin]

What do you expect? The game is for "casuals."

It is perfectly possible to play casually and still retain the ability to press a button every 2.5s with the odd OGCD. Being bad at the game is a choice, not something that’s forced on you or genetic.

Imagine a racing game where all you needed to do was hold the accelerator to win. That’s not fun.
A fighting game where the enemy didn’t fight back.
That isn’t fun either. So why is it fun to be able to win in an mmo with zero effort also?

[Curisu]

The game is not easy, every long time player just became a bit better.

There is also the usual scaling problem in Low Level content due to power creep, but that's still the same since I started in SB.
Yes, you can queue in for leveling roulett without a healer and clear ist, but that was already possible in SHB and SB.

The best example that the game is not becoming easier is the alliance raid. Just compare a CT one with the HW.
Both are "old" content but the difference in difficulty is huge.

But still, you hear horror story's about the CT.

[EgilTheStressedMage]

It is perfectly possible to play casually and still retain the ability to press a button every 2.5s with the odd OGCD. Being bad at the game is a choice, not something that’s forced on you or genetic.

Imagine a racing game where all you needed to do was hold the accelerator to win. That’s not fun.
A fighting game where the enemy didn’t fight back.
That isn’t fun either. So why is it fun to be able to win in an mmo with zero effort also?

Let me know when that happens. Because I’m still positioning, dodging aoes, cleansing debuffs, keeping the tank alive, saving the run as PLD, and so much more after three and a half years and almost 5800 hours.

[Illmaeran]

The game is not easy, every long time player just became a bit better.

There is also the usual scaling problem in Low Level content due to power creep, but that's still the same since I started in SB.
Yes, you can queue in for leveling roulett without a healer and clear ist, but that was already possible in SHB and SB.

The best example that the game is not becoming easier is the alliance raid. Just compare a CT one with the HW.
Both are "old" content but the difference in difficulty is huge.

But still, you hear horror story's about the CT.

You're 100% on point. My FC had difficulty with CT raids back when they were current content. It was the same for all raids and even many dungeons (looking at you HW) when they were current. These days, going back I've found them to be a lot easier and realized I'd simply improved over time. Having to deal with multiple mechanics coming in quick succession in EW content especially has made me more aware of things and helped me deal with mechanics that would have blitzed me back in the day.

Power creep and scaling mechanics make it a lot more forgiving, but we still need to pay attention to mechanics, avoidance, and healing/damage to get through them smoothly.

Absolutely, the HW were a big step up in difficulty and the SB and ShB alliance raids were an even bigger step up. Given the number of people I see die in them, it's clear they're all still challenging for people who haven't run them tens or hundreds of times. Anything will get easier, perhaps even boring, once you've done it a lot. That's the textbook definition of having a raid on Farm; the group has it down so well that it takes little to no effort to clear.

Let me know when that happens. Because I’m still positioning, dodging aoes, cleansing debuffs, keeping the tank alive, saving the run as PLD, and so much more after three and a half years and almost 5800 hours.

Indeed!

[ForteNightshade]

snip

First and foremost, why in the world are you correlating the hardest Savage fight in the game's history, which was horribly imbalanced, with ilvl cheesing Alliance Roulette? Those two things are on different planets. We're not talking about going into old Savage fights with hilariously better gear and rolf-stomping them, we're talking about Alliance raids and you citing that people cheese the ilvl out of fear Dun Scaith or Orbonne are too difficult. That simply isn't the case. And I've explained why. There is zero incentive to do those raids when they give the same rewards if your only goal is EXP. All in takes is one person taking off their gear to trap 23 players. They aren't doing it because Tower or Copy Factory are hard, they're doing it because both those raids take 30 minutes while LotA takes 15. Bringing up A4S, Shinryu or anything else is just one massive Strawman that comically misses the point being made.

Moving on from that, the onus on how to balance this is on the dev team to make reward structures better to at least equalize participation. A good chunk of people dislike Bozja or simply like Ivalice or Nier. If the EXP or tome rewards are disproportionally one-sided, then they should be adjusted. The problem is, they never do this. Hence why older content ends up rotting.

My main question for you really, is you mention it not being blisteringly difficult, which I think is a given. But what is your difficulty?

While my personal preference would see the Normal mode raids a step down from current Extremes; with both Zodiark and Hydaelyn being higher considering both are so undertuned you don't even need a healer, I'd settle for a proper level sync where we're roughly equivalent to the ilvl we were when the content was relevant. For example sake, at the time of Weeping City's release, the highest ilvl obtainable was 240. Therefore, it should sync us to 240. Perhaps even 230 if they don't want to adjust job balance at this level range. Admittedly, I'd prefer if the devs actually cared about some job balance when synced but either scenario works.

My overall take is current expansion content should have some modicum of challenge. Take the tank swap debuff in E4N I mentioned. While this shouldn't kill the tank outright, it should deal enough damage they'll take quite a beating if they don't swap. In this way, it's actually teaching players a mechanic instead of it being utterly pointless.

If you want the content to be more challenging, try running it at min ilvl. It's funny how people will complain about the ease of the game, yet they will always make sure they and everyone around them run the absolute best gear. Join the sprouts on their level for a bit and play around in sets of gear that don't let you go wall to wall.

Aside from that, the game is actually not "easy". If it truly were and people were able to play half asleep, we wouldn't have megathreads about PF and roulettes, going over all the silliness that happens.

In just this expansion alone, I have done every dungeon, on every role, at min ilvl. I've solo'd Hermes in full i530 gear on both WAR and GNB. I've done all the Normal modes at min ilvl. In fact, I did them with a hodgepodge of 560 gear. Needless to say, they're all a complete joke. So yes, the game is incredibly easy. We have those threads because people are inexperienced or downright lazy not due to the game being hard. Having no idea how to play Black Mage doesn't suddenly make P1N any more of a faceroll that Warrior can solo. That's simply making excuses for people who didn't bother to learn how to play Black Mage.

[WildTamarind]

The player base getting better at mechanics isnt even a factor or at least not as much of an effect as the power creep.

Again I have new players quit on me because the game is stupid easy. Im not asking for super high increase in difficulty but only to address the fact that bosses die to fast and mechanics can be outright ignored except for one shot kills. LoTA is a great exanple. On release it was easy enough but challenging. Now its a joke. Thats a lvl 50 example. It ruins the story beats also when ifrit a literal demi god gets destroyed and humiliated.

What i wish is to keep the shadowbringers dps but have original ARR difficulty back. It was easy but still enjoyable.

[Rulakir]

Honestly, I think the trials already ask a lot of the average player. When I did Zodiark I was grouped with several other first timers and after multiple wipes we never got him below 40%. I have similar tales for just about every trial I've queued for in the MSQ where the groups are predominantly people new to the encounter. Dungeons generally haven't been bad except for The Burn (only the tank was experienced with it), which after numerous wipes I thought I was going to have to re-queue for but we finally managed it.

Were it not for the fact that the content is mandatory for progressing through the MSQ I'd say go nuts with the difficulty. However, since it is, as far as I'm concerned some of it could stand to be toned down some. Now that they're adding trusts for (eventually) everything hopefully there can be more of a MSQ-mode for people like myself who just wanted to experience the story. Makes me wish I'd waited a year to start playing because trusts have been the best thing ever for my enjoyment of the game.

[Novae]

The problem isn't the difficulty. It's the core game itself, pushing us, overgeared lvl 90 players, in every way possible into old content, with old rotations, old mechanics, old everything.
There is no midcore content, and in fact, no content really at 90. And it's even less for people who don't enjoy savage.
So we're stuck in this hamster wheel, doing always the same thing, without effort, fun. At this point, I just open my roulette menu, feel sick, and log out. I haven't touched alliance roulette in months. I barely do leveling, or expert. I don't play healers anymore, and I'm a healer main.
It's depressing.