I think SE needs to focus on making players feel important again.

[Ath192]

I was thinking just now why Endwalker feels so awful to play and it dawned on me that it’s because the game design is so bland I don’t feel like I or anyone matters anymore. It’s completely nihilistic and stale gameplay.

I am talking about normal content. As most of the game is normal content. For example our tank disconnected in Aerherfont, an expert dungeon and I tanked it as BLM while a very poorly geared SCH kept me alive. How poorly geared? Well he hasn’t played since he finished EW and only bought enough pieces in the market board to get his ilvl high enough. Did not meld them either.

So… people don’t needs tanks, they don’t need healers, and they sure don’t need DPS, then all we have is depression as a player. You don’t make a difference. Not really. And this is sad.

I know most of these elements were implemented because people felt too much pressure as a healer or tank, or didn’t want to fail or whatever. They tried to make it so people feel safe. But safety isn’t fun. By doing this the developers also took away the chance for players to shine and pull through. For people to notice and recognize who’s good at their job. None of this exists now. Everyone is indifferent to everyone.

In a quest to avoid conflict in their game at all costs they did not create happiness or success. They created silence and indifference. Before, in dungeons like the burn sure if a player wasn’t able to clear after several wipes people would get mad, or at orbonne monastery, but they also knew joy when things were completed. This is because people recognized that things took effort and well… they made a difference. People were important.

[KageTokage]

The difficulty curve in normal modes feels almost completely static from basically level 50 to 90 and that really shouldn't be the case especially when healers/tanks keep getting expanded kits that oft end up feeling like unneeded fluff outside of extreme and higher content.

You don't even need to burn all of your CDs to do wall to wall pulls while maintaining 100% uptime on DPS nowdays.

[Ath192]

The difficulty curve in normal modes feels almost completely static from basically level 50 to 90 and that really shouldn't be the case especially when healers/tanks keep getting expanded kits that oft end up feeling like unneeded fluff outside of extreme and higher content.

You don't even need to burn all of your CDs to do wall to wall pulls while maintaining 100% uptime on DPS nowdays.

It actually feels awful to use lilybell or panhaima in a dungeon. It’s so overkill I actually feel like I wasted a hugely powerful ability…. That will never be needed for most of the game…

I know this is different in savage and ultimate, of course, but it’s getting to the point where you actually feel terrible using them elsewhere.

[Supersnow845]

The difficulty curve in normal modes feels almost completely static from basically level 50 to 90 and that really shouldn't be the case especially when healers/tanks keep getting expanded kits that oft end up feeling like unneeded fluff outside of extreme and higher content.

You don't even need to burn all of your CDs to do wall to wall pulls while maintaining 100% uptime on DPS nowdays.

If anything the difficulty curve goes down especially on the support classes when they are flooded with tools they don’t need when they hit level 90

You can’t tell me you use seraph every time she comes off CD and also don’t overcap your fey gauge and also have to use every aetherflow on CD, like why do I have even half those heals let alone the fact I can keep the tank alive spamming adlo if I really want

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

Where I feel this the most is in alliance raids, this expansion there's been pretty much no solo or party specific mechanics in any of them, it's just dodge aoes and press your buttons. Even worse, 1 or 2 weeks after release, we're already skipping mechanics (like the one time you're supposed to split into parties on Halone, and I hear you can skip the balance mechanic on Nald'thal now???).

What's the point of 24 people raids if we're all doing the same thing, and the only impact you have on the outcome of the fight is whether you've pressed your buttons fast enough or not?

What also startles me as someone who's been playing since Heavensward is that wiping on alliance raids used to be normal, and all 3 Myths of the Realm raids we didn't even wipe on the day of release...? Nier raids had a little bit more chaos going on that made them that much more fun.

People mass quitting on alliance raids after several wipes was unfortunately also a thing on Void Ark and Ivalice raids, but personally I enjoyed the sharing of knowledge between players, explaining mechanics before or during each fight, it felt like a more collaborative effort and gave people more responsibility, as in experienced players guided newcomers through the fight, and people had to pay attention to what was going on and execute their solo or party mechanics correctly to not hinder the alliance's progression.

Now I barely see people explaining mechanics ever because there's... no need. The only community-driven, collaborative effort you can find now is in Baldesion Arsenal and Delubrum Reginae Savage, and maybe CLL and Dalriada, and that is extremely niche content compared to alliance raids.

Bring back Ozma and Thunder God [shakes fist]

[Jeeqbit]

I am talking about normal content. As most of the game is normal content. For example our tank disconnected in Aerherfont, an expert dungeon and I tanked it as BLM while a very poorly geared SCH kept me alive.

I joined a few dungeons where that had happened recently. I'm also confident I could do it myself on SCH as well.

I truly believe dungeons are more fun if either the tank or the healer is missing. Because one of them has to work a lot harder when using their kit, to the point that it's actually fun and matters. With both of them there, it's overkill and extremely easy for the both of them.

I know most of these elements were implemented because people felt too much pressure as a healer or tank, or didn’t want to fail or whatever.

The truth is, it has always been like this. They just double-downed on it. For example, it was a lot more challenging to solo things on tanks in Heavensward because autos hit really hard and our mit was less (or had longer cooldowns), but it wasn't neccessarily impossible. PLD's had Clemency, Stoneskin and Cure, WAR's had Thrill, Equilibrium, Storm's Path and Bloodbath, and Dark Knights had things like buffed Souleaters and Abyssal Drains.

Healers could always get a DPS and just shield them and say they're the tank now, but things hit a lot harder, died a lot slower and the shield disappeared faster. Not to mention they couldn't necessarily just Arm's Length to slow them down. But if the healer worked hard enough they could at least just about make it to the first boss, at least.

They tried to make it so people feel safe. But safety isn’t fun. By doing this the developers also took away the chance for players to shine and pull through. For people to notice and recognize who’s good at their job. None of this exists now. Everyone is indifferent to everyone.

I agree that your ability to shine is less. I do not agree that it "doesn't exist now". It's pretty fun to solo a boss on a tank. I've done it several times recently.

[Volgia]

They need to make dungeons more threatening again, I've discussed this endlessly in other topics and have gotten the "You have just played too long and have become too good for the game" argument. But nah, that's not true, even if I play badly or disassociate in the middle of an expert no one wipes to anything.

[Jeeqbit]

They need to make dungeons more threatening again, I've discussed this endlessly in other topics and have gotten the "You have just played too long and have become too good for the game" argument. But nah, that's not true, even if I play badly or disassociate in the middle of an expert no one wipes to anything.

Well, I definitely see people die in The Lunar Subterrane regularly. Usually it is to the spider boss or the last boss. I often try to save or protect them with flash if they get a vuln since other mechanics are coming up.

[Atelier-Bagur]

They should take cues from WoW wrath of the lich king classic and add special affixes in dungeons where each dungeon has a gimmick with mobs that make the experience harder.

Such as having to deal with mirror duplicates that you have to hit manually (cant aoe) before they overwhelm you or have a player get debuffed with ice that drops on the floor slowing them down and dealong major damage if they dont keep moving or a player randomly gets stunned and you have to break them out.

Basically make the dungeons hard and annoying making people want to not run them anymore with pugs and rage and quit and call yo mama, telling you have no life, uninstall FFXIV because youre trash and basically make roulettes a hell because people bail so fast due to the affixes and ok I think my rant is done now

[KageTokage]

Heaven forbid people have to actually think a little outside of boss fights in normal dungeons by giving things mechanics other then basic telegraphed AoEs.

I don't think it would kill anybody for criterion-style trash pulls to be the norm if the damage tuning is kept reasonably low.

Even the simple hazards like the falling boulders at the start of Xelphatol/the Empty that threaten both player and enemies alike help to break monotony of trash pulls but those are lamentably rare.