The older (pre ShB) content feels WAY too easy.

[kpxmanifesto]

This is not a "game too easy, make harder" thread. I've been leveling a lot lately and i've noticed a pretty big issue. A lot of pre shadowbringers dungeons, trials and raids feel really off, numbers wise. Case in point: Singularity Reactor. I did that on gunbreaker earlier today and there were at least three new players in that group. In that instance, I had 16k HP. Thordan's autoattacks were hitting me for less than a thousand. Every raidwide was dealing less than a tenth of each party member's HP, no shields, no mitigation. We finished the instance in less than four minutes. I cannot imagine how anticlimactic that must have been for the sprouts. This is an issue in almost all older content I've done lately post ARR. Outside of some very specific dungeon pulls like the first pull of Bardam's Mettle, nothing deals any damage and can be killed effortlessly. I haven't gotten below half HP in I don't know how long. This issue seems to go away once you get to content in Shadowbringers.

Yep, Thordan is a very noticeable one like you mentioned. You could get hit by almost every mechanic and not die.

[Kolsykol]

I found it’s because of gear. Even when I do sync to a FATE in the 20s, my 66 WAR dodges every hit or hit for zero

It's also because of potencies.
Some potencies have basically doubled since ARR, so even if we disregard gear people are basically dealing double the damage lol.

I really think the devs should go back and just do a huge rework of the way the content is scaled.

[Jin-]

Sadly it's a lost cause. ShB and EW spilled the milk. There's no fixing that. Hence they've been focusing on Facebook and mobile crowd for a good long time already. FFXIV is a joke combat difficulty and design wise, truly a shame.

[Tlamila]

It's truly hard to make old content challenging, not only cause of gear and potencies but also cause we don't have anymore the same skillsets those fight were designed for. And even if you do MINE, you can never say do HW fights with HW skills etc.

[UkcsAlias]

Sadly it's a lost cause. ShB and EW spilled the milk. There's no fixing that.

You would be surprised how much is still fixable.

Note they already did a number crush earlier to reduce late game potency values, the same can also be done in the early game. Then also note that they changed the MSQ roulette dungeons in such way that those fights became more interesting and better balanced. And while the content is still too easy. It was a deliberate choise (you dont want to be stuck in the MSQ).

Now we can also do dungeons with bots, we can even use this for balance. Lets say that for dungeons, we can get the same normal/easy selection like we have for other fights (if we choose bots). Easy will prevent the special drops for the duty from dropping, but makes it equaly easy as it is now. Yet the normal difficulty in this case can actualy be scaled up properly (and when going with players, this is the standard!)

So its not a lost cause, just a lot of work that needs a lot of planning ahead.

In the end however, 1 thing wont realy change here, and that is that certain dungeon mechanics simply cant realy be made harder. Because in the end there is a learning process that is still relevant. You cant expect ARR players to face EW style mechanics and be able to counter those. But this is where ilvl limits do a lot. Most ARR dungeons were designed with ilvls of like 50,70 etc and not 130, just force the ilvl of its creation time and it does a lot here. I realy dont care that it makes your upgraded gear not as effective as it could be, tomestone gear made that progression system obsolete anyway.

[Glandire]

I think another good example of this issue is Haukke Manor (Hard) where you can wipe just because people do too much dps on the last boss and are left with zero time to kill the add. It for sure could use some rebalancing.

[ThaCa]

Potency and ilvl creep are the main culprits, combined with the insanely lenient ilvl syncing.

In my opinion the older fights should be scaled to the point where you can't skip mechanics even with good dps, maybe the final one with nearly perfect dps. Mechanics don't need to instant kill aside from the few meant for it, but they should be dangerous enough that people actually want to resolve them instead of straight up ignoring.

Things are so ridiculous that the CT platform boss can be done the same way as it is done now in roulette even in min ilvl parties, you can just straight up skip the mechanic even when you are handicapped to the maximum and that should be pretty clear tell at how badly undertuned the old things are.

[Kolsykol]

It's sad because I still remember doing Sastasha for the first time and it was way different.
Actually felt like an actual dungeon in ARR.

It wasn't super hard or anything but at least we got to see the mechanics lol.
Especially the last boss he just dies now before he has a chance to even summon any of the adds.
But yeah...
My impression of FFXIV the first time I did it was probably way better than the first impression of people who do it today.

[Rilifane]

This is a very good point, and I would also like to add that many of the sprouts the OP feels so sorry for do not yet realize that they can use their tomestones to buy the best gear for a given expansion every ten levels. At least, that was the case for me when I hit level 60 and started receiving massive beat downs from overworld mobs when attempting Heavensward content in my item level 55 gear. That's why there's a "minimum item level/no echo" option for players who want to tackle challenges in premade groups.

That just isn't a valid option for new players that still go through the story. Setting up a PF for a MINE run of story Thordan just so they can have a better experience than an anticlimatic pushover boss. It's not about the challenge but rather keeping old content from being a pushover in the sense that you don't even notice what is evening happening and just blindly running through another hallway/ facerolling another boss whose only difference from one another is the name.
It makes old content flavourless, repetetive even when doing it for the first time and bland because there is simply nothing about it that makes it memorable or fits with the impact this battle should have in the story.
Thordan is by far the absolute worst in that regard and I've seen plenty of disappointed new players in there when I got in roulette and they asked "wait, that was it?". Yes, that was it. But some other duties suffer from the same problem.

With the insane potency changes since ARR (some potencies basically doubled) we're already much stronger than we were and a few adjustments to at least enable players to see the fight properly without making it difficult or "challenging" (because it's not about a challenge) would go a long way. They did a good job on the 3 MSQ duties. I'm sure they're able to make adjustments to other duties as well. Even something as lowering ilvl sync a bit would help immensely.
It's also better for creating a smooth difficulty curve instead of having these odd spikes and back to faceroll.

It's sad because I still remember doing Sastasha for the first time and it was way different.
Actually felt like an actual dungeon in ARR.

It wasn't super hard or anything but at least we got to see the mechanics lol.
Especially the last boss he just dies now before he has a chance to even summon any of the adds.
But yeah...
My impression of FFXIV the first time I did it was probably way better than the first impression of people who do it today.

I remember that clicking the bubbles was standard in most parties and occasionally someone would say "I think we can skip this, dps seems good enough".
It was nothing huge, the dungeon wasn't difficult. But it wasn't the same faceless pushover that all just blend together after a while.

[Kolsykol]

I remember that clicking the bubbles was standard in most parties and occasionally someone would say "I think we can skip this, dps seems good enough".
It was nothing huge, the dungeon wasn't difficult. But it wasn't the same faceless pushover that all just blend together after a while.

Yeah I actually have strong memories of it, even tho it wasn't hard it still felt like a dungeon and like it had a certain danger to it.
In the end of the day it's also just the '' new MMO '' thing, but I still think new players nowadays have a very different experience in a more negative way.
Nowadays it's like a speedrun and people sometimes end up with the impression that mechanics don't even exist because bosses die so fast they don't even happen lol.

Thordan who gets brought up really is a good example of this problem too, he's hyped up like crazy and is a really really cool fight but he just dies instantly.
It's crazy the devs haven't solved this yet I really think it's a pretty big problem.
It should've been fixed when the big increase in players happened especially imo, I think it actually does give a negative impression.