New Normal Trial was actually the hardest I ever played in FFXIV in MSQ.

[Troxbark]

I disagree.

It was too much going on all at once in the last part, and too brutal. Had people dropping constantly and it was too hard to tell what was going on. Good music, though, but the fight itself was overtuned by far.

I 100% agree. As a whm this trial almost made me use more than 5 abilities.

[AmiableApkallu]

I feel like one of the biggest issues with both the trial and the 24 man that are indisputable is that even when they have an interesting mechanic, it lacks punch. The indicators are obnoxious, the cast times are long, and the damage is low. I understand they're catering to people who have no patience and can't understand anything without giant throbbing arrows but idk, I don't like that.

And it isn't that a single spell should nuke you (most of the time), it's that you can make 3, or 4 mistakes in some cases and still have 30% health left. That's not fun imo. As long as healer is even slightly competent the damage stacks hardly matter. It's not enough of a consequence.

FFXIV already has Twice-come ruin and Thrice-come ruin. I don't think it'd be unreasonable for normal-mode content to be tuned as if <Four-times>-come ruin were a thing.

That said, I also think that the hallmark of normal-mode content is that it's reasonably obvious why you took damage and/or died.

[Absimiliard]

I believe all new normal endgame content should be tuned to provide the same challenge as Twintania did when she was current content. You want to finish the story? You better strap on your big boy booties and earn it.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

I found Hydaelyn to be the most difficult of the normals for this expansion.

[Turtledeluxe]

FFXIV already has Twice-come ruin and Thrice-come ruin. I don't think it'd be unreasonable for normal-mode content to be tuned as if <Four-times>-come ruin were a thing.

That said, I also think that the hallmark of normal-mode content is that it's reasonably obvious why you took damage and/or died.

I don't think any kind of debuff in this game is a threat , atl least in casual mode. With that said, you are correct in that it is a hallmark of normal content to know why you died.

That is exactly why a giant pink laser beam foretelling the Kamehameha in the trial should take like 90% of health in one shot if not kill you instantly. You're failing a super obvious mechanic. Conversely if things are going to hit like a pillow, stop telegraphing them so much moreover stop making them look so big and flashy when they aren't really threatening.

That might be a bad example though because honestly I don't remember how particularly hard hitting that attack is.

[Hyperia]

I liked the mechanics but I would prefer more random selection of the mechanics, scripting is only needed when they have NPC's help us.... oh.... yea, I forgot... there going to start adding the NPCs in 7.x series to the MSQ trials.

[AnotherPerson]

I found this trial to be really fun at the current ILVL. Lots of chaos. A slight shame you can't rescue someone from Black Hole, but that slow fade to death when you get sucked in never ceases to amuse me. Had many parties with a good laugh at the boss when it just did the big succ. There's a good amount of damage to heal and a good number of mechanics that want you to move. There's a good number of cleansable debuffs and uncleansable debuffs that you would have to heal through if you got hit by a debuff. The addition of Doom and dropping our HP not being the only mechanic that takes ages to resolve makes it feel good to heal as well. I'll be rerunning it again for the 5th time today and I'm enjoying every single run so far. Hopefully the difficulty doesn't deviate much from what it is at the moment.

[Larirawiel]

Barbariccia was more dynamic than the new fights. I still love her. <3




Cheers

[Syln]

I think I only got hit by one thing. It was extremely intuitive and definitely not the hardest normal mode I've done.

Completely agree, that being said difficulty should never rely on lack of readability or non intuitive mechanic, this kind of design choices are cheap and lazy.

As far as i'am concerned, this kind of difficulty should be the baseline for "normal" content (meaning some dungeons/trials should be more intense), mechanics are easy to read, give you a fair amount of time to react to it yet can catch you off guard if your brain lag.

I would add that they should alternate between dance (mechanic happening in a set order) and intense chaotic randomness when it come to boss fight just to make things more exciting when you do the same content over and over and over.

[Carin-Eri]

I believe all new normal endgame content should be tuned to provide the same challenge as Twintania did when she was current content. You want to finish the story? You better strap on your big boy booties and earn it.

I'm not sure it works like that for anyone who finds the content difficult. Which I realise doesn't include pretty much anyone on the forums, but anyway....

I mean, I nearly threw in the towel several times during my journey through the MSQ - there was plenty I struggled with, in particular content involving playing as an NPC. I persisted, but how many players don't? How many stall at a particular point and just quit out of frustration? I mean, despite my persistence I'm still pretty awful at the game - just too stupid to stop trying.

I'll leave it there, as I'm aware this won't be a popular opinion considering the persistent theme of "this game is too easy" here on the forum. But wanted to express my opinion nonetheless.