The Stormblood Capstone fight pretty much killed my enthusiasm with the game.

[Theodric]

Please. Endsinger is MUCH harder than Thordan. The planet phase has caused so many deaths.

You're looking at this from the eyes of the Hardcore. Most of the playerbase are Casual and don't play anywhere near optimally nor research fights ahead of time.

Hardcore? Nah, I'm very much a casual player in this game. The planet phase may catch some people out but then so did some of the mechanics in Thordan in the brief window of time before the fight was very quickly out geared. Some people get knocked off of the platform during the water phase during the Shinryu fight, though once they figure out the mechanic it's smooth sailing.

Endsinger's second phase really just is a prolonged flailing session which wasn't satisfying to me as a finale.

[Lauront]

Hardcore? Nah, I'm very much a casual player in this game. The planet phase may catch some people out but then so did some of the mechanics in Thordan in the brief window of time before the fight was very quickly out geared. Some people get knocked off of the platform during the water phase during the Shinryu fight, though once they figure out the mechanic it's smooth sailing.

Endsinger's second phase really just is a prolonged flailing session which wasn't satisfying to me as a finale.

As much as gameplay mechanic and lore segregation is a thing, there's a point where I find it jarring how disconnected some MSQ trials are from how potent the threat involved. I'm not too fond of the MSQ story content being sanded down because EX is an option, since that tends to be a non-canonical made up story version anyway. The MSQ will, by its nature, involve some of the most potent beings in the storyline (an elder dragon, the two most powerful primals, unsundered Ascians, various other powerful primals or similar beings, and a being that is supposed to be taken seriously as a universe-wide threat) and I do wish the trials better reflected it at times. The .3 ones tend to be a bit better at this, but I wish they'd find better ways to accommodate varying skill levels than what they currently do. I hoped they might use trusts for an easier version, to allow the DF stuff to be a bit less anaemic, but instead it looks like all that's done is the DF versions are now designed around trusts. It frankly leaves me disappointed.

[Jeeqbit]

As much as gameplay mechanic and lore segregation is a thing, there's a point where I find it jarring how disconnected some MSQ trials are from how potent the threat involved.

I've thought about this a lot over the years. What I came to think is that in SE's lore, everyone has a weakness. If you try to attack enemies far away from you, you expose the area behind or under you (donut aoe). If you try to attack enemies nearby, you don't really affect the enemies far away (run out aoe). In SE's lore, this goes for everyone - even the most powerful gods, even Ascians. And in SE's lore, those orange telegraphs either aren't really there and the Warrior of Light is just that good, or the Echo provides them foresight somehow.

I'm not too fond of the MSQ story content being sanded down because EX is an option, since that tends to be a non-canonical made up story version anyway.

I think the way they do it is clever, because they are saying that the extreme or savage version is just your exaggerated memory of the event or an exaggerated story told by someone else, but it allows you to believe it was what really happened if you want to. I choose to believe it was what really happened.

[Lauront]

I've thought about this a lot over the years. What I came to think is that in SE's lore, everyone has a weakness. If you try to attack enemies far away from you, you expose the area behind or under you (donut aoe). If you try to attack enemies nearby, you don't really affect the enemies far away (run out aoe). In SE's lore, this goes for everyone - even the most powerful gods, even Ascians. And in SE's lore, those orange telegraphs either aren't really there and the Warrior of Light is just that good, or the Echo provides them foresight somehow.

I think the way they do it is clever, because they are saying that the extreme or savage version is just your exaggerated memory of the event or an exaggerated story told by someone else, but it allows you to believe it was what really happened if you want to. I choose to believe it was what really happened.

Yeah but I don't think this really helps. For one, it's ultimately an arbitrary level of mechanical complexity that is applicable to MSQ content, rather than anything lore-based, because these considerations don't really constrain mechanical complexity in content outside the MSQ. For another, even if that were the explanation, I'd find it shoddy. But it's just a case of gameplay/story segregation that, unfortunately, does not work for me.

[Claire_Pendragon]

Thordan in the brief window of time before the fight was very quickly out geared.

back in 3.0 BEFORE tome gear (i wasnt at iLv) I soloed the fight...
it most definitely wasnt "hard". The only exception was that I think only 1 job could solo it, but im sure plenty of duo combinations could solo it. The only phase that threw me a bit, and nearly made me panic, was the DPS phase, where I thought Id not win the DPS check in the meteor phase... (I did fail it, but the resulting dmg was extremely small)
The 2nd easiest capstone fight was Ultima, where I could barely solo it, IF i was in cap iLv. There was a MASSIVE difference in difficulty between the two. worlds apart, and same can be said about endsinger vs ultima. not saying endsinger is hard, cuz its not, but theres no excuse for thoradan, below iLv cap, he is a joke, and was back then too.