The Enormous Gap Between Casual and Hardcore Content

[Elkanah]

I'll do you one better...why is pvp?

I understood that reference.

[Khryseis_Astra]

I'm not sure if I'd count Ex as midcore.

The ShB ones I would say were mid… a few of the current ones though seem a little more difficult, but I haven’t gotten around to trying them all yet. I usually save my farming for when I have nothing left to do before the next expac because the drop rates are better! lol I have attempted Endsinger when it was fresh, and the party I had couldn’t clear it. And I’ve heard some people say Rubicante was tough. But I’ll get there eventually. I’m the kinda player who takes a good bit of repetition before I really learn an Ex fight, but once I know it, I know it.

[Rithy255]

I dont count EXT as midcore, it's more soft hardcore.
P1S feels more easier then a lot of EXT's I've done, but meh.

I just want midcore content that is a massive step above casual content but easier then EXT (where most people will look at guides), I'm not personally a massive fan of how hardcore content feels

[CrazyDude]

The ShB ones I would say were mid… a few of the current ones though seem a little more difficult, but I haven’t gotten around to trying them all yet. I usually save my farming for when I have nothing left to do before the next expac because the drop rates are better! lol I have attempted Endsinger when it was fresh, and the party I had couldn’t clear it. And I’ve heard some people say Rubicante was tough. But I’ll get there eventually. I’m the kinda player who takes a good bit of repetition before I really learn an Ex fight, but once I know it, I know it.

There were some problematic ShB Extremes. Especially Cinder Drift and Castrum Marinum. Those are extremely difficult to clear synced these days, because everyone is basically having to prog 2 pretty much completely different fights in one 60 minute lockout. Sure there's a checkpoint between them, but that doesn't mean anything when the group falls apart shortly after reaching phase 2. Maybe it was different when they were current. But they certainly struggle to fit into midcore now. Hades as well if you do it with gear synced.

[CrazyDude]

I dont count EXT as midcore, it's more soft hardcore.
P1S feels more easier then a lot of EXT's I've done, but meh.

I just want midcore content that is a massive step above casual content but easier then EXT (where most people will look at guides), I'm not personally a massive fan of how hardcore content feels

I feel the same. It's very odd to me that this game doesn't have a Heroic dungeon equivalent or something like that.

[Khryseis_Astra]

There were some problematic ShB Extremes. Especially Cinder Drift and Castrum Marinum. Those are extremely difficult to clear synced these days, because everyone is basically having to prog 2 pretty much completely different fights in one 60 minute lockout. Sure there's a checkpoint between them, but that doesn't mean anything when the group falls apart shortly after reaching phase 2. Maybe it was different when they were current. But they certainly struggle to fit into midcore now. Hades as well if you do it with gear synced.

Ruby and Diamond were the ones I had the hardest time with… got lucky and got a Ruby mount early on, so I didn’t really learn that one as well. Emerald I was pretty good on normal and Ex right away for some reason. I’m weird like that. lol I thoroughly expect to have an easy time with Rubicante and Barbariccia and struggle on Golbez. Zeromus normal feels easy to me but not sure what the Ex will be like. Of course waiting til the end helps a little with ilvl on the early ones too!

[Rithy255]

I feel the same. It's very odd to me that this game doesn't have a Heroic dungeon equivalent or something like that.

Would be nice just in general to have more challenge then what you get in dungeons, Not to say I don't enjoy hardcore content fully, just more this expansion i feel zero motivation anymore, I just enjoy it playing chill content with friends rn, so something midcore with a lil bit of challenge would be nice for me.

It feels like the step from casual content to EXT feels massive, likely why it's very intimidating at first. But I think the jump from EXT to Savage is way way way less (in some cases EXT fights are even harder then savage lol).

[Kyrj]

You know what's annoying about that Casual list? That SE is so fuckin scared to do anything new and engaging in terms of "casual content" FATEs could be erased from the game and no one would know, Eureka Orthos? TF is that? Idk because no one ever queues for it. Dungeons? Look if I wanted to handle packs of monsters and then hit a wall that demands 10 minutes of my time just so I can go to a new area with more packs of monsters and another wall I'd just go to the airport. The Gold Saucer is the equivalent of being told the new arcade in town has this awesome new experience and you get there only to find out that it's just a Mrs. Pacman game right next to the Pacman game.

I honestly don't know how "casual" only players handle such little content. Maybe it's all the night club RPs that keep spamming in chat?

[LittleImp]

I am of the opinion that many skilled players on 14 have kind of lost perspective of what 'difficulty' is. I was one of those people for a time, but interacting and playing with a lot of casual folks has helped bring me back down to earth.

Progressing and clearing fights in this game can take an extreme amount of time, especially if you are a less experienced player. Consider something like Melania from Elden Ring, which is popularly regarded as a very difficult boss; Spending something like 12 hours attempting to beat her is considered pretty extreme, but this kind of time commitment is actually not at all uncommon for individual encounters in FFXIV, on top of the added logistical challenge of doing it as a coordinated team.

Needing to grind for hours and hours on end to beat what is considered 'entry-level' hard content is whack, and alienates a lot more players than people realize. EX's vary a lot in difficulty (EX7 is basically Zodiark pt.2), but I would NEVER consider them 'entry level' difficult content unless you're doing them well after they are relevant. To reduce the amount of hours people spend in this content without nerfing it, it's necessary to build up their skills before throwing them into the deep-end, which is something the game does a VERY poor job of doing.

[Boblawblah]

Casual content

• Gold Saucer

Meanwhile Majong players: