People Enjoy hard Games

[Myrany]

Thats fine, there isn't anything wrong with this. If there are people who feel this way then feedback readers need to know it. I still feel the game is too easy for its own good but I wanted to know if we could at least find some people who felt the need to look up guides and there are.

It would've been worse if nobody came forward TBH, because then it would be extremely obvious noone feels a challenge. Personally I plan on playing this game a lot less next expansion with the hopes of one day being able to let go of my house. I no longer feel the spark or excitement I once had for running alliance raids like during SB or HW and feeling like a wipe was a real possibility. So while I like the game, I like it a lot less, despite feeling it was going to get better. Now it feels like it isn't, at least for people who enjoy risk like me.

If I know the outcome is always going to be winning then the food doesn't taste as good in my own world view. The only time Ive actually wiped at an alliance raid recently is from the Aglaia oneshot, but it doesn't bring the thrill that other raids did where wipes were due to a combination of mechanics and not a gacha insta wipe.

Preface: I am about as casual as casual comes in this game.

Even so I always look up a guide before I do anything that involves other players. My personal ethics require me to perform to the best of my ability so that I avoid harming other players experience. This is why I also don't do much harder content. ARR extremes are right on the edge of my physical ability to do and not all that much fun given the toll it takes on me physically.

[Darnath]

To be fair I'm probably in the ultra minority that looks up content before diving first into it. I actually had somebody 'confront' me in a raid once (P2N) when I admitted "First time, but looked at a guide. Hope to not be a burden" with "Pfft, real gamers dive in head first blind". I just bit my tongue and scraped him off the floor every so often. Don't mind others going blind as I said before, but me, I rather not be a burden to the other healer in the group scraping my RoeButt off the floor.

I'd just like some middle ground somehow so the story is somewhat challenging for gimps like myself but there's some higher tier content for Ath192 and others to enjoy still but it seems like there's just a unsolvable trap that trying to cater to both groups just leaves one group completely unsatisfied.

And maybe it's a Crystal thing but I've had wipes in LotA

No tank picking up the Iron Giant and it actually cleaving down all the meteors? Check. Mechanics failure of not keeping the IG away (or at least facing away) from a meteor. Also wipes because all 4 people with meteor markers stacked on each other and then the tank had the boss to close to that stack of meteors. Wipe city.
People ignoring the Allagan Napalms and causing a wipe, yup. Mechanic failure because DPS/Healers (at least my alliance was killing 'em) didn't switch to the Napalms.
And the usual greeding on the last boss.

Sorry for rambling, but I really hope the devs can figure out something to keep both parties happy but I just don't know how it can be done.

[OliverQ]

It will only be (somewhat) difficult in the first week or two. If they would reduce the ilvl cap, you would see more damage going out and more mechanics happening (see The Final Day). You can argue that Aglaia and Euphro are not hard, sure. But, anyone doing these raids today are not experiencing it the same as when they first released. Obviously, some of that is more people used to the mechanics. But a lot of it is just higher gear increasing your DPS and reducing the amount of damage you take. They don't need to make it min ilvl, just have it a tighter ilvl sync. A lot of content would be more challenging, if our gear didn't outstrip the content so much, so quickly.

That makes sense, and sounds like an easy fix. Just lower the ilevel range for these raids which should make them harder.

[VelKallor]

Just lower the ilevel range for these raids which should make them harder.

CT is story content, as it is now a mandatory part of the MSQ. Making it "harder" is at cross purposes to the intent of that instance. Dont forget its also level 50 tuned which means people dont have their full toolkit, so that has to be taken into account.

Edit because post limits

I don’t think “returning the content to the level it was actually designed at” counts as making it harder in a functional sense

Balancing it is the hard part. I agree on ilevel creep, but that has to be carefully tuned.

CT is barely even a raid, it’s a set of striking dummies because we’ve ilvl inflated it to hell and back

CT still has instakill mechanics, so disagree there.

[Supersnow845]

CT is story content, as it is now a mandatory part of the MSQ. Making it "harder" is at cross purposes to the intent of that instance. Dont forget its also level 50 tuned which means people dont have their full toolkit, so that has to be taken into account.

I don’t think “returning the content to the level it was actually designed at” counts as making it harder in a functional sense

CT is barely even a raid, it’s a set of striking dummies because we’ve ilvl inflated it to hell and back

[Tanis_Ebonhart]

I don’t think “returning the content to the level it was actually designed at” counts as making it harder in a functional sense

CT is barely even a raid, it’s a set of striking dummies because we’ve ilvl inflated it to hell and back

Because it's ARR content. ARR content shouldn't be hard, it's years and years old and is mandatory. The goal is to get players to stick around, not force them out.

The game starts picking up in difficulty in Stormblood, with Shadowbringers dungeons being much harder than what came before them while leveling. Endwalker dungeons feels like they're easier than Shadowbringers stuff as players are more skilled by then and have their kits almost or fully unlocked at that point.

We also don't need to create even more reasons to scare players away from tanking/healing as those are the roles that require the player to be proficient while DPS jobs can afford to make a lot more mistakes while leveling.

[Supersnow845]

Because it's ARR content. ARR content shouldn't be hard, it's years and years old and is mandatory. The goal is to get players to stick around, not force them out.

The game starts picking up in difficulty in Stormblood, with Shadowbringers dungeons being much harder than what came before them while leveling. Endwalker dungeons feels like they're easier than Shadowbringers stuff as players are more skilled by then and have their kits almost or fully unlocked at that point.

We also don't need to create even more reasons to scare players away from tanking/healing as those are the roles that require the player to be proficient while DPS jobs can afford to make a lot more mistakes while leveling.

The implication that CT at any level of scaling is hard is the problem

CT was never hard even when it was properly scaled in ARR, however there is a difference between “there are actually mechanics” and “12 striking dummies in a row”, nobody should be scared off by the difficulty of CT being properly scaled

And since when has healing and tanking in casual level 50 required more than 2 brain cells

[SXTC]

I agree... I spent many weeks fine tuning my rotation and I was getting good at it... And then they deleted that rotation in the next expansion... the game has gotten too easy.
And I don't mean that as in "end game, having to memorize all sequences" hard... because that is the annoying type of "hard".
I mean more in the sense that you need to know your spells & skills and learn how to combine them in the best order to get the best outcome... Your mindpower and will is what made you pro at some point... now its like you can no longer become pro... I miss that feeling of being better and the pride of having earned that feeling.

Lets be honest... Dumb people will always find the game hard even when its easy...
But they shouldn't fixate the game on dumb people, they should aim it towards adults who got money to spend and then make sure they have an easy time and a solid reason to spend money on the game. THAT is where the market is.

[VelKallor]

And since when has healing and tanking in casual level 50 required more than 2 brain cells

Veteran vs new player, Super. Big difference.

[Supersnow845]

Veteran vs new player, Super. Big difference.

As a new player on healer you couldn’t mess up an alliance raid if you tried because someone is always keeping 100% uptime on medica 2 for literally zero reason