New Alliance Raid is severely undertuned.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

My understanding is that (Hard) on a dungeon is not actually meant to say it's objectively a difficult version, but rather to differentiate between a dungeon and a later (higher-level) incarnation of it when we go back to the same spot; the "Hard" is a completely different dungeon which just happens to be set in the same spot as an earlier, lower-level one was. We go to the Wanderer's Palace twice, so there's "The Wanderer's Palace" and "The Wanderer's Palace (Hard)". We go to the Fractal Continuum twice, so we get "The Fractal Continuum" and "The Fractal Continuum (Hard)". Same for the arboretum, etc.

You could just as easily label them "II", like a sequel. "The Wanderer's Palace" and "The Wanderer's Palace II: the Mamool Ja Menace". "The Fractal Continuum" and "The Fractal Continuum II: Mandelbrot Threat". Whatever.

None of which is directly relevant to the alliance raid tuning, admittedly.

(...though, I actually kind of like "Mandelbrot Threat", and now I need to find somewhere to use that.)

I meant that they were marginally harder than the previous dungeons that ended the expansion (regardless if they had the hard tag or not) i.e the likes of copperbell, sastasha and Pharos.

[DiaDeem]

Alliance raids have never been intended to be hard though...

Even then, second and third tiers have always ramped up difficulty. It's so strange to me when people act as if Void Ark, Rabanastre and Copied Factory were ever like "Very Hard" or something cause they never were. Unless you're new to the game, but yeah: all of this is how it's always been.

[StriderShinryu]

This is an odd one for me as I definitely did notice a severe difference in my own performance from the first week to the second, but I think it's less about the mechanics being unusually easy and more about them being very readable once you know what to look out for. A lot of the difficulty in previous 24mans for me was from the mechanics not always being clear.

I don't really have much issue with the bosses dying quickly as I find "bloated HP sacks" to be just about the worst possible way to make something difficult. Not to mention that it doesn't really make anything more difficult, just more tedious. If I've avoided MechanicX 3 times, I can avoid it a 4th time or 5th time or whatever.

One thing I did notice is that there really aren't very many fast paced mechanics in this 24 man. The mechanics themselves were pretty solid but there were large enough gaps between the major ones in most cases such that it never felt like we were too pressured. I wouldn't be overly bothered if they tightened the mechanics up a bit in timing, either by having them closer together or having their cast bars be shorted or even just throwing in extra room wides in between the "big ones."

[SieyaM]

I have only done it a handful of times and haven't had a run yet where I haven't died, but that is just me becoming accustomed to the mechanics. I did find it fun and look forward to the rest of the series. They could be planning a rise in difficulty, most of the raids people are mentioning in comparison are not the first tier of their series. Personally Orbonne was my favorite before the adjustments and still is even though people like to avoid it. That is part of the argument against a higher difficulty for these raids too, savage focused players avoid it at all costs because as part of the roulette they only want the much easier and faster options, and the most casual players can have difficulty passing it and will avoid it as well. Orbonne has been a test of how much difficulty the players are wanting for a 24 man and it did not pass very well.

[Akibaws]

Isn't this the case for the first tier of alliance raids every time?

[Wrytched]

I remember a time when MMOs were much more difficult. Players were forced to compete for contested spawns to get special items and gear. Strong guilds would dominate servers and lock others out of content with respawn timers of a week. People would obsessively play for hours on end and get themselves sick...

Expansions would be released, and the vicious cycle would start again...

Then players cried and threatened to quit claiming it wasn't fair that they were paying for content then couldn't get to do... along came instanced dungeons and raids.

Soon, the game became trivial because everyone could get everything. There were no more bragging rights.

The only bragging I see in FFXIV is the Epic weapons which aren't difficult or challenging, they're just mindlessly time consuming and take the effort of a good group.

FFXIV is a terrific game that mixes the story telling that Final Fantasy has always been know for with just enough action and glitter to make it enjoyable. The players are what really make the game unique. Most of the people aren't the hardcore raid obsessed elitists. People THANK one another and Welcome one another.

I know people want more challenges and more exciting content. I just say, please be careful, not to ruin what makes this game special by having things others can't enjoy also. Should the absolute best items in the game be something any pickup group can obtain on their first try? probably not... but it also should not be something only highly coordinated guilds can do.

[Velnora]

Fixed that for you .

All joking aside, Elden Ring and Souls games in general are only as difficult as you make it. Nothing stops you from cheesing the absolute hell out of the game with every tactic in the book, from peppering enemies with poison arrows or bullying them with Scarlet Rot, to skipping past fog gates and wailing on a defenseless boss until they die.

Even disregarding cheese, you can always just summon your spirits or other players to help take the edge off. God knows the Mimic Tear spirit puts in work when you need it.

True. They are only as hard as you make them. I just find it funny when people say it isn't hard, after using a broken method.

[deadman1204]

Meh, its the first raid of the series. It was always gonna be the easiest one.

[NanaWiloh]

A partial list of all 24 mechanics groups or people fail on currently.
- ozma laser
-meteors
- ancient flare
-curtain call
- earth quake
- mega death
- death gaze

List goes on and on..all have one thing in common easy to deal with but people are lazy, clueless, or just not willing. Nothing more irking then wiping on a easy 24 man boss cause people cant learn one stupid brain dead instant kill mechanic..

[Brill_]

Once you learn the fight, things get easier, thats kind of how it works.