#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[Erzaa]

I don’t know that you can make that argument. Grates in anamnesis was a literal sastasha mechanic, most mechs have a training attempt where you might get hit but the stakes are low, incoming damage seems less significant- compare pre squish bardam to any endwalker dungeon. I also think you would struggle to make the argument that the ai-compatible dungeons are harder than they were, quite the reverse.

True, there's only so many variations of mechanics they can add obviously. And yes, they do sort of "teach" you the mechanics before adding them all together, but the speed at which some of those mechanics happen, and I get hit by things I didn't see coming all the time, the first few times.

The game is filled with obscure mechanics and misdirection. It only becomes easy because we end up repeating the duties so many times.

[Erzaa]

Mechs like that make healers only heal bare minimum of what is needed because failures kill/wipe anyway.

And I would not consider scrapping people from the floor as primary healer gameplay loop.

If that were true, Raise wouldn't exist in the game.

[Erzaa]

Normal content got easier. Dungeons are easier both by virtue of not having enemies that can crit and sustain ramping up drastically across all roles. Endwalker dungeons are even easier than Shadowbringers by completely removing instant cast tankbusters. These qualities are also true for normal raids and alliance raids. On the topic of alliance raids, Nier was considerably easier than Ivalice and Void Ark, and Myths is the definition of Sleepwalker. Like 70% of all Myths mechanics are just a glorified hokey pokey. Extremes and up got more technical and more rigid with mechanics. Everything is more punishing with body checks around the corner, though whether we want to define "difficult" and "punishing" as more similar or different is an interesting discussion. Though you also have certain aspects that were made easier, like hitboxes and support action AOE ranges being as large as Rhode Island.

I don't know where you get that from. I've died far more to mechanics in Normal content from SB onward, that I ever did in ARR or HW. The numbers aren't even close. ARR and HW mechanics are telegraphed on the floor, giving you upward of 10 seconds to get out. From then on, yes you get repeated stuff like eye mechanics and such, but you also get obscure mechanics that alter the formula, like eye mechanic with lines over it etc., and you now need to figure out what that does.

[Flay_wind]

FFXIV Sleepwalker

Yawntrail is just over the horizon too.

I’ll give you the trials, EW’s trials have been very good from a difficulty standpoint but dungeons…….not so much

I can’t think of a single mechanic across any EW dungeon that we haven’t seen 100 times before and only dead ends actually punishes you for messing up a mechanic

Or guess your can argue that objectively aetherfont is more mechanically complex than say keeper of the lake but the game should also expect more as you level up and the speed of the increase of the expectations relative to the level increase has been going backwards since like bardems mettle

Well, it's hard to make a trully innovative boss, but some EW bosses do pretty nice things overall. Like all 3 Zot bosess have nice and pretty fun gimmicks, Anima in Babil is decent, Dead Ends bosses are pretty fun. Post patch dungeons and bosses are more hit and miss. Like Mr Face from Smileton is alright, Troia is very meh, Lapis Manalis is also mostly boring, but Cagnazzo is an okay boss, Bear from Aetherfont is decent, while overall the fight is simple, overall dance of the fight is enjoyable. Durante is also pretty fun for a dungeon boss.

[Supersnow845]

I'm not arguing otherwise. I agree. But the difficulty is amped up regardless. Things happen faster, in quicker succession, with less safe spots, all the time. And a player trying to focus on one thing their first time, is not going to pay attention to another.

It's all well and good to throw out stuff like "always be casting", "don't drop your rotation", but going into a duty my first time, I'm going to completely ignore all that, because I'm focused on what's happening around me, not if I dropped my 123, or overcapped my resources, especially when I've got to monitor 3+ other people at the same time.

I guess that’s just a difference in terminology.

If from 1-30 the game expects you to be 10% “better” (arbitrarily) every level, then from 30-50 it expects you to be 12% better then from 50-60 it expects you to be 15% better each level, then by 90 it’s only expecting you to be 2% better each level then im going to say it’s becoming easier when objectively it’s actually becoming harder because the rate of the increase in expectations is slowing which feels like content becoming easier the further you progress

[HighlanderClone]

I don't know where you get that from. I've died far more to mechanics in Normal content from SB onward, that I ever did in ARR or HW. The numbers aren't even close. ARR and HW mechanics are telegraphed on the floor, giving you upward of 10 seconds to get out. From then on, yes you get repeated stuff like eye mechanics and such, but you also get obscure mechanics that alter the formula, like eye mechanic with lines over it etc., and you now need to figure out what that does.

Did you do those content during their respective expansions? Many of them have been directly and indirectly nerfed, a lot.

[Ayche]

ok lmao levels don't mean anything
they are just an abstraction of story/game progress, not an actual skill certificate
that is not a branch to reach for

[Absurdity]

Did you do those content during their respective expansions? Many of them have been directly and indirectly nerfed, a lot.

This. Even the Ivalice raids are a clown fiesta nowadays.

[Allegor]

Ironically, ARR and HW are "the hardest" dungeons because not only do we rely more on gcd heals, but tanks also only have Rampart, their job mit, and invuln to work with and literally can't survive more than a few gcds without a healer. SB dungeons are a mixed bag since some bosses do hit like a truck (looking at you, Mist Dragon), but whoever says ShB and onward dungeons are remotely hard by comparison is either delulu or disingenuous (the latter, more likely than not /tea)

[Erzaa]

Did you do those content during their respective expansions? Many of them have been directly and indirectly nerfed, a lot.

I joined about 4,5 years ago, during ShB, spent alot of time as a sprout, leveling every job to it's respective expansion cap and doing all the normal side content of said expansion. I only finished Endwalker content 2, maybe 3, months ago?

Regardless, as a newer player, I can tell you without a doubt, the jump in difficulty from HW to SB was large, ShB and EW even more so that SB. In SB, I can only recall Shinryu and Tenzen series having any really obscure mechanics I had to learn.

But in ShB, they were almost everywhere, and suddenly, the entire floors were being covered with no visible safe spots too.

Case in point, the Berserker. On the face of it, it looks like a stack mechanic, but it's not, failed on the rocks first time. Then, the holes in the ground, I stand in them when I see the boss is charging, get a debuff, I think, that's not it, get hit by the charge. Then I need to realise that I need to time when I stand in the holes to avoid the charge but not keep the debuff on me long.

Those are all really obscure mechanics. A new player can't avoid failing them, unless someone tells them in advance.

The game doesn't do mechanics that are easy to understand for first times, it's not like an action game, where you see a boss raise their fist and then you just know you need to be fast enough to get out of the way. Even when a boss does raise their fist, you don't know if it's going to hit the left side, or middle, or how big the slam is, until you see it.