MSQ Difficulty and Exclusion

[Deveryn]

I'm not 100% sure I agree with this. While I agree the Titania trial is not actually possessed of any really remotely difficult mechanics, I don't think it introduces nothing the game hasn't thrown at someone prior. At least, if the person in question has only really done MSQ content.

Because while none of those mechanics are new, I think some of them are ones that hadn't been used in normal content prior to Titania... or if they had been used, they weren't used often.

For instance, the 'starburst' telegraph that shows where her thorns will go; I can't offhand think of anywhere prior to Titania that those get used in normal content. (I may be forgetting one, though, I grant.) Similarly, things like sealing the puddles and then stacking in one of those puddles for the fire punch... while it's not unheard-of for normal content to have follow-on mechanics like that, I would say it is uncommon.

The Mist Dragon in The Burn uses the starburst telegraph. You get one first then 2 later on.

As for elemental damage, that's been used enough and the story certainly talks enough about how the elements oppose each other. When you face Shinryu, you have puddles that give you +fire resist and -lightning.

The bridge between MSQ content and extreme / savage is in doing the regular content and playing through everything more than once and properly learning what does what. To make this all easier, they're going back and making sure all markers are consistent. In the meantime, the information is out there for all the fights.

[Packetdancer]

The Mist Dragon in The Burn uses the starburst telegraph. You get one first then 2 later on.

Ah! Thank you; I suspected I might be forgetting one.

(It's been a long day. I've had a lot of meetings. Please kill me.)

As for elemental damage, that's been used enough and the story certainly talks enough about how the elements oppose each other. When you face Shinryu, you have puddles that give you +fire resist and -lightning.

While I agree, I will point out that Shinryu is a duty that also has a (not terribly deserved) reputation for being difficult, and where I've seen people just flail around and die during that specific part before. So I'm not entirely convinced it's a duty that is conducive to really learning that for the average player, much less remembering it later in the heat of the moment when they're in an unfamiliar duty.

The bridge between MSQ content and extreme / savage is in doing the regular content and playing through everything more than once and properly learning what does what. To make this all easier, they're going back and making sure all markers are consistent. In the meantime, the information is out there for all the fights.

While -- again -- I agree almost entirely with this, I will say that I think where the step-up from normal content to higher-end is difficult for some is that almost nothing in normal content requires you to pay close attention to the environment, as opposed to just watching telegraphs/symbols. And that's the part I don't think is entirely well-covered by existing content -- or rather, where it is covered by content with an intermediate difficulty, it's in content that ends up being rather niche and having something of a shelf-life. (Bozjan critical engagements et al.)