The Masked Carnivale is Some of the Worst Content in FFXIV

[Myrany]

No. Masked Carnival went for "use your brain to figure out how to remove the wall". Thinking you should win by banging your head against the wall is the sure way to lose.

If you're not enjoying the Masked Carnival, skip it and do all the other things you can do with BLU.

Let me start by saying agreed. There is so much fun that can be had with Blue outside of Carnivale. No reason not to focus on that.

As a separate from the above thing. I think there are a couple of things going on here.

Many people have the attitude that absolutely everything must be completable by every player. This is patently impossible. Each player's ability and interest is far to varied for any game to achieve that goal.

I also think there is a misunderstanding of Blue. So many people tout Blue as being the completely solo content. That draws in players who might not have the skills to do harder group content. In reality there are many skills in blue you cannot really get without assistance from other players. I know, I am a solo player and am missing most of those skills because I have no group of people to help me get them. The other solo related misconceptions is that because it is solo oriented it must be easy. Some of the Carnivale fights are not easy. They take time, they take patience and they take learning from mistakes. Not all players are willing to do this.

Finally some people just have a strongly completionist nature and it grates on them to an insane level when there is something they cannot complete. Hence we hear the calls for things must be changed to fit ME.

So although I disagree with the OP. I in some way understand where they are coming from. My attitude is either adapt and learn to do it or as you said enjoy the parts you can do with Blue.

[LouieRouie]

Like what?

[Oizen]

pls dont give square enix even more of an excuse to make even less content for the game, you know they'd love that.

[Bobby66]

What makes you think I haven't done all that? When it's taking me over 100 attempts to finish something due ENTIRELY to a razor thin margin of error, the problem is the content.

Every thought the problem has less to do with the content and more so with the player doing the content?

[Rufalus]

It definitely seems more difficult at first than it really is. I've always been an idiot at understanding mechanics by myself. I waited a day or so for the first videos to hit youtube, then I was like oh duh I didn't know ultravibration worked here.

It would be easier to understand if it set your hotbar to the buttons you need for each duty automatically, like when you roleplay as alphinaud and it changes your bar to his stuff. I do also sympathize with people who can't clear and have their story progress blocked.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Whats wrong WITHIN the FF14 community? How is it you directly quote me and yet mischaracterize what I said? As I know reading comprehension is difficult as WITHIN does not imply a whole community but sure I will answer this question. There are segments WITHIN this community that will automatically pounce implicitly negative comments towards anyone who critiques SE or this game to shut them down for speaking their mind.

Oh woe is me, how dare I think "with" and "within" is the exact same thing. Aye you got me, maybe my understanding between these two words made me think they are the same thing. And even if we now speak of "segments within the community" you are still too readily defending OP for speaking their mind like they somehow make a good point how they bring their kneejerk reaction across. Maybe you are completely in tune with their post but as you may be able to tell many others are not, in fact segments within the community here couldn't disagree more and know this isn't the first time they saw OP put out a post like this.

This has nothing to do with running to SE's defence for criticism, as there are countless threads and topics about what is wrong of the game which span tens or hundreds of pages, where they get rightfully bashed. Someone else complaining about having issues to clear content based on their skill and performance rather than disabilities and similar (colour blindness, epilepsy, etc.) and claiming the game is wrong for various things ranging from being hyperbolically overblown (frequency of oneshots, bad telegraphing, etc.) to "this is to be expected" (no checkpoints between Acts) is generally to be expected to be met with disagreement and occ. followed by what options they have and even offering advice.

Are you seriously asking me how I know how many players are using illegal addons? I will not mention this illegal addon but learn to do a basic internet search will you! You can directly see total downloads of it on its web page versus going to another website to see the total number of people who have gotten savage clears via achievements. This isn't rocket science!

1.) I can't look up what illegal plugin I am supposed to have a basic internet search for if I don't know what the plugin is about or even get a hint of the plugin's name to see the supposed download statistic.
2.) Correlation is not causation. A similarity in clear numbers compared to download numbers does not differentiate between "downloaded and cleared WITH IT", "downloaded but cleared WITHOUT USING IT", "downloaded and DIDN'T CLEAR" and "cleared and DIDN'T DOWNLOAD". Unless that plugin has a built-in backdoor keeping track of their users and fill out a 3rd party statistic about clear rates using it, which would be a completely different can of worms as that would be basically containing code equal of spyware and be met with a lot MORE criticism than just "it is cheating" because at that point it is a security issue.

Congratulations on grasping the main critique from the original poster. The critique is how Blu content does not coincide with the other standards of the game as everything else does as I stated in my original post i.e. normal raids vs savage.

The whole point of BLU is being non-standard on all levels, this includes the difficulty scaling. It is side content decoupled from the standard PVE experience with its' own difficulty scaling, particularly in the Masked Carnival. I'd argue it has a better difficulty grading than the standard PVE experience, which is a flat plateau with dungeons, an occasional bump with certain trials, a slight incline with Alliance and Normal raids on patch day, a steeper one for EX and a vertical spike for Savage+.

Also, "Congratulations on grasping [...]" - that's condescending mate.

I can tell you don't like or know factual stats huh? Let me again break it down. Compare the total estimated players from either SE's own posts or the estimated players based on achievements which any person can do in less than 10 secs on another site. Then compare that to the total number of players who have gotten the Apotheosis Agria I achievement. So my perception is not skewed but generally accurate. Math is amazing!

You couldn't tell a lamp post from a seat apart, much less if I don't know or like/dislike factual stats, but to give you the answer - I like numbers even if they prove me wrong. What I don't like is "trust me bro just google the answers they are out there" when I asked you to provide your data, sources, you name it so I don't have to second-guess what statistics that are out there you used to base your arguments on.

Yeah sure, if we go by that achievement, your math might be on point - if we potentially ignore regional differences who obtain the achievement and throw it all in one pot. I wouldn't know, because you aren't posting the numbers and the scope of data and instead rely on the old "trust me bro, it is out there". Also I said "your perception is skewed" because you only address Savage/Ultimate as a minority having a type of content dedicated to it, disregarding the entire rest of the paragraph of how the game is a whole buffet of content dedicated to minorities of player groups, BLU being a subsection as well.

[1] Do you know what a reasonable inference is? Do you know you can make pretty accurate assumptions based on statistics again ANYONE can google if they know how to use the internet. Let me help you. Search for "FF14 total number of active players". Then compare the estimated numbers versus total who have completed Apotheosis Agria I. Not hard!

[2] As for your "burden of proof" comment, I will be as vague as possible because I will not provide voice nor mention to illegal addons from third parties on here. And you are right about one thing, I don't like addons because of its implications within the game or players who have to cheat the game while they claim to "get gud" to others. This may not be you, but this includes many I have seen firsthand in game over 10 years since Beta and when one specific illegal addon became more popular.

Splitting this one for clarity.

[1] I had to google what it means, but I knew the concept from the get go (language barrier). I won't repeat the numbers thing again, addressed it one paragraph above. As for "Let me help you" and "not hard!", as mentioned earlier - get your condescending tone out of here. I don't address you like a fossil based on your experience allowing you to use reasonable inference, so I'd like to not be addressed like a child on the internet because I asked you to provide your sources before I second-guess them.

[2] Honestly, if you are trying to be as vague as possible and treat this plugin like a "Lord Voldemort must not be named nor described", how are you expecting anyone to reason with you if you don't say what it is even about? I'm not buying a cat that is still in a bag. Yes, someone cheating and then claiming "get good" is infuriating and I can at least reason with your hatred towards plugins, but neither can I agree nor reason with a lack of numbers because you are refusing to even disclose the nature of this boogieman plugin in question.

I am genuinely sorry if this is utterly grating for you, surely you mean more well than your posts may give away at first glance and I doubt you are inherently [insert any bad word here], but I cannot in good conscience reason with the lack of sources, regardless what your reasons or fears are for posting them.

[Wissp]

Yeah, as others have said, the whole Caravale thing is a series of mini puzzles, either figuring out the best spells for 'solving' the puzzles, or just brute forcing your way through it, ah la 'Final Sting' combo.

Some are harder than others and the whole thing is rather uneven in difficulty. Luckily there are a lot of various guides to help if you need it.

Still, even WITH the quides, it is hard, with much trial and error as you learn the proper mechanics, just like with any hard content in FF14, you are going to mess up a lot until you get used to it.

This frustrates casual players who may not partake in EX's and raids, so it comes as a shock to them having to do this 'fail time and time again' until you learn it.

Should they be 'dumbed down'? Maybe as much as EX's and other hard stuff should be ' dumbed down'.

Like it of not, the Caravale is the solo version of hard stuff, just like the Criterion dungeons are the 4 man version of hard stuff.

One thing that does suck about the Carnavale though it you have to get through it to finish all the Blue quests. Also, the Raise is tied to completing the first 30 fights, and that spell is quite important in any hard content.

[Atelier-Bagur]

What makes you think I haven't done all that? When it's taking me over 100 attempts to finish something due ENTIRELY to a razor thin margin of error, the problem is the content.

Im sorry but if its taking you 100 attempts to do a single trial, then this is an obvious skill issue.

[Korbei]

I dislike Carnivale too, I have to admit. Especially anytime it requires Loom because that's just an awful spell to use. Ground target spells are far too finicky to use when playing with a controller. When you need to use Loom, there's never time for that kind of nonsense. That's not even taking into consideration the actual spell casting time. I would much prefer if that was just a basic dash forward.

I eventually beat them all and it's definitely a big relief when I finally manage them.. but there is zero chance I will ever go back and repeat them. Never.

All that said, my only real issue with Carnivale is that Angel Whisper is locked behind it, which is just bad. It's too important and it hurts everyone. Other than that, it's really just glamour weapons and that's a thing I expect there to be a certain amount of flex on. The Blue Mage story is terrible, just like the Hildibrand crap. Couldn't give half an F about it either way. The prospect of being locked out of it at some point in the future is of no concern to me.

[Myrany]

Im sorry but if its taking you 100 attempts to do a single trial, then this is an obvious skill issue.

That one that is called "Dirty Rotten (whatever his name is)" that took me at LEAST 100 tries probably more like 150. the first 50 were skill. The rest were getting my internet not to have a lag spike at a bad moment and avoiding just plain bad luck. Unfortunately not everyone is blessed with really smooth internet.

I beat it though and enjoyed the process. As it is solo content I really don't think it matters how long it takes to beat it as long as you don't give up.