Can we close the gap between Ranged/Melee and Casters before criterion dungeons?

[Kalaam]

That we cannot know, all we know is that they made it harder than normal version, have more rules/restrictions, no raise, ennemy respawn on wipe and enemies getting stronger if you are too slow to progress.
And it has to be called "savage" for a reason, while not as tight as a late raid fight in savage, I expect it to be similar in difficulty. That's the informations we were given, so the expectations are set and reasonable.

[HermitUK]

For those who missed the last live letter, there will be two difficulties of the Criterion dungeon, normal and Savage.

This is the info they gave for Savage:


Note in particular there are time limits to kill things, meaning DPS will matter a great deal for smooth clears

This is from Balance, it's live translations of Yoshida's comments:


I reckon his comment that normal mode will be Savage difficulty might be hyperbole, but the Savage mode is certainly not going to be easy. Also, he mentions that gear from the raids will be important to clear, so it doesn't have its own progression system like PotD / HoH. So the balance we see in Savage will absolutely matter here.

If AoE opportunities are good then casters may get a look in, otherwise Melee/Melee or Melee/DNC are likely to be meta comps.

[Liam_Harper]

SMN is decent on aoe and will be worth the 1% buff, but there will be no reason to bring phys ranged and AST is a liability.

https://www.fflogs.com/zone/statisti...t=75&class=Any

[Ransu]

For those who missed the last live letter, there will be two difficulties of the Criterion dungeon, normal and Savage.

This is the info they gave for Savage:


Note in particular there are time limits to kill things, meaning DPS will matter a great deal for smooth clears

This is from Balance, it's live translations of Yoshida's comments:


I reckon his comment that normal mode will be Savage difficulty might be hyperbole, but the Savage mode is certainly not going to be easy. Also, he mentions that gear from the raids will be important to clear, so it doesn't have its own progression system like PotD / HoH. So the balance we see in Savage will absolutely matter here.

If AoE opportunities are good then casters may get a look in, otherwise Melee/Melee or Melee/DNC are likely to be meta comps.

I'm still curious what kind of rewards will be in them. Its gotta be something unique if there's no progression otherwise people wont run them.

[CKNovel]

I'm still curious what kind of rewards will be in them. Its gotta be something unique if there's no progression otherwise people wont run them.

A bit off topic but we know a mount will be tied to this content.
I think it would be cool if we coul get ilvl630 gear.
At least accessories, they're a pain to get and the ring is sometimes so trash you'd rather have a crafted pentameld ring.

[Keichi]

Normal is on savage lvl?
Mäh, sound like to hard or not worth the time for me (how should this be even possible, with no need of specific roles?).

At last isnt savage something for me.

[Keichi]

Back in ShB we also were in the "wait and see" mindset.
Guess where we are now.

Where are we?

[Supersnow845]

SMN is decent on aoe and will be worth the 1% buff, but there will be no reason to bring phys ranged and AST is a liability.

https://www.fflogs.com/zone/statisti...t=75&class=Any

DNC will also be worth the AOE especially if you dancer partner something like a SMN or SAM if there is an AOE component

Tech step has lower scaling with 4 mans but DNC still exceeds a good chunk of the DPS

[Ransu]

Normal is on savage lvl?
Mäh, sound like to hard or not worth the time for me (how should this be even possible, with no need of specific roles?).

At last isnt savage something for me.

Yoshi-P also said the most recent alliance raid and EX4 would be more difficult than usual and that turned out to be false so I highly doubt normal mode will be savage level of difficulty. I love Yoshi-P, but he does tend to exaggerate sometimes lol.

[Satarn]

Normal is on savage lvl?
Mäh, sound like to hard or not worth the time for me (how should this be even possible, with no need of specific roles?).

It's about the normal mode Criterion dungeon, which is going to be role-restricted and meant to be difficult - although it's still probably some exaggeration, as Yoshi P has oversold the difficulty or just about every content he's bragged about since 5.0. I wouldn't be surprised if the dps checks and mechanics were actually no different between normal and savage Criterion, with the latter just getting its extra difficulty from the timer and removal of variant-rez and AoE indicators. Would explain why they recommend it to people who've cleared the savage tier, as you're basically meant to "speedrun" it due to the timer-based buffs - which I imagine is indeed going to be a shiteshow with current DPS balance.

What you're thinking of is the Variant dungeon, which allows for any roles and gives you variant-actions that compensate for any holes in your party comp. Variant is the casual one with multiple routes and story, while Criterion is a sort of "challenge mode" in both versions.