The actual game difficulty is Perfect.

[KitiaraIornsight]

I genuinely think it's a difference in mindset. I do enjoy higher end content, so wiping in content isn't frustrating since I'm so used to it elsewhere. People who feel like they can be a burden in party content and try to measure themselves and their performance against savage raiders are naturally going to feel like this content is too punishing and too difficult, out of a fear of holding the party back. I don't want to make it an "us vs them" thing, but I think that if the people worried about underperforming realized that most of us literally just don't care and think these wipes are funnier than they are frustrating. Unless we're wiping like, several times on each boss, but I feel like you almost have to go out of your way to cause that.

The other two main categories are people that genuinely just do not want a challenge and only want plot, and people with disabilities that restrict their play. I think the latter is (naturally) more valid in this feeling - these mechanics *are* harder, and those with these disabilities genuinely struggle with the features many of us might take for granted. As for the former... Well, I'd say the classic "git gud" line, but I know the feeling in some other games. I think having a "helper mode" like other games have may be beneficial for them - if you're doing a dungeon with trusts and wipe at the same mechanic a few times, you get the option to have like. I dunno. Super Extra Giga Echo that makes you basically invincible or oneshot enemies or something. That way they keep the story, but don't have to worry about the difficult content. But, more than that, I think they really should just queue in with people - dungeons are still easy enough that you can hard carry almost anyone but a dead tank.



This isn't a ping issue. Most of these AOEs are telegraphed by the boss, typically an arm raised, a magic circle, a cast bar name, or something. The goal is to learn the tell so you can preposition yourself to a safe spot - you aren't supposed to move out of the AOEs when they appear, you're supposed to already be out of them when they appear.

i disagree, it has only been in the last few expansion that the instahit telegraphed aoe has become more common place. Either we look at the boss or we have aoe telegraphing orange. they need to pick one. the orange telegraph up until the last few years had always been A BIG HIT IS COMING MOVE signal in all fights. This should remain this way in dungeons. It is not fun to get in a run where you look like you're out of something but because of latency you are hit. If we are supposed to be looking only at the boss then the orange telegraph is pointless for those mechanics and there have been instances of being on MY screen on the opposite side of a telegraphed AOE and still find i was "hit"

[RezPls]

My only complaint is the aoes that as soon as its telegraphed and you are in the telegraph you are hit. They need to be better adjusted because players with any measure of latency can have major issues. A good example of this is the first boss of the MSQ 100 dungeon. No matter what I do, I have just enough latency that I'm hit by the aoes as soon as they are telegraphed and if it looks like i'm out of it, I'm still hit. That's an issue and something I think should be changed. It shouldn't be, if you see it and its orange you are insta hit, because that makes it not fun. there should be more than .01 seconds to move out of a telegraphed aoe. The majority of my experience in that boss fight with dungeon runs if we get a party of 4 with latency instead of just ONE person with latency, that boss becomes a literal road block. I had one run of it where we wiped repeatedly to it for 10 times before we all had a stable enough connection to not be hit even though we appeared out of the aoes

here's a video of someone RP walking through the impossible to dodge boss you just mentioned.

[KitiaraIornsight]

here's a video of someone RP walking through the impossible to dodge boss you just mentioned.

Good for them. they have no latency issues. Again, I'm pointing out this boss becomes a problem for players experiencing latency. I've had runs where i've gone into that fight had ZERO latency and not get hit with a single vuln stack. Then i have runs with terrible latency and its a wipe fest. I'm saying the issue MANY are facing with this particular fight is directly related to LATENCY.

[RezPls]

Good for them. they have no latency issues. Again, I'm pointing out this boss becomes a problem for players experiencing latency. I've had runs where i've gone into that fight had ZERO latency and not get hit with a single vuln stack. Then i have runs with terrible latency and its a wipe fest. I'm saying the issue MANY are facing with this particular fight is directly related to LATENCY.

They're moving slower than the normal movement speed is and still are able to make it through the aoes. Uncertain if you're just dense or is something else going on?

I play with a solid 80+ ping to the server and can also RP walk through the aoes, unscathed. If you're having that much of an issue, use sprint for the mechanic. Sprint is a free like 50%+ movement speed buff for 10s every minute and is probably the best defensive you have.

[VioletCatastrophe]

If we are supposed to be looking only at the boss then the orange telegraph is pointless for those mechanics

The telegraph shows up not for you to dodge it. It is there to explicitly show what the actual telegraph (the boss animation) hits in terms of explicit aoe areas. A left/right could be a half arena cleave, or the safe spots could be tiny little cones on the dead left and right of the boss. The orange telegraph flashes up to remove that guesswork.

This entire time, boss animations have been used to telegraph things. You simply chose to ignore that information in favor of the way too generous indicators that are supposed to just be concrete feedback. They tightened this timing to force players to use the boss animations and cast bars, which presumably you should have had plenty of time to get used to. Don't blame the game for you taking shortcuts that no longer work. The game is telling you that your shortcut no longer works. Don't beg for it to come back in. Learn how to actually use the visual tells instead of zoning out and moving out of the yellow circles on the ground - that's the difficulty of the first dungeons in the game, not content 5 expansions into the game!

[KitiaraIornsight]

The telegraph shows up not for you to dodge it. It is there to explicitly show what the actual telegraph (the boss animation) hits in terms of explicit aoe areas. A left/right could be a half arena cleave, or the safe spots could be tiny little cones on the dead left and right of the boss. The orange telegraph flashes up to remove that guesswork.

This entire time, boss animations have been used to telegraph things. You simply chose to ignore that information in favor of the way too generous indicators that are supposed to just be concrete feedback. They tightened this timing to force players to use the boss animations and cast bars, which presumably you should have had plenty of time to get used to. Don't blame the game for you taking shortcuts that no longer work. The game is telling you that your shortcut no longer works. Don't beg for it to come back in. Learn how to actually use the visual tells instead of zoning out and moving out of the yellow circles on the ground - that's the difficulty of the first dungeons in the game, not content 5 expansions into the game!

Telegraphed orange aoes up recently had been to show you TO DODGE. And in the vast majority of fights this is still the case. They either need to telegraph an AOE to be a warning "you will get hit" or remove it for mechanics where if you are in the orange you are hit the second it appears. They can't be flipping the script where 90% of the time it means move and the other 10% means "you screwed up and get damage"

[EiraWoqiso]

i disagree, it has only been in the last few expansion that the instahit telegraphed aoe has become more common place. Either we look at the boss or we have aoe telegraphing orange. they need to pick one. the orange telegraph up until the last few years had always been A BIG HIT IS COMING MOVE signal in all fights. This should remain this way in dungeons. It is not fun to get in a run where you look like you're out of something but because of latency you are hit. If we are supposed to be looking only at the boss then the orange telegraph is pointless for those mechanics and there have been instances of being on MY screen on the opposite side of a telegraphed AOE and still find i was "hit"

I mean, disagree if you want, but you're factually wrong that this is only in the past few years. The game has had these alternate tells since at least ARR (Swinge in Stone Vigil, the Chimera AOEs). You aren't supposed to be looking *only* at the boss, you should also be looking at their cast bar, and the arena, and buffs/debuffs. There's a lot of information to absorb, but sometimes you have to be looking at multiple things - or shift your focus to something else - to resolve a mechanic. The game is intentionally designed this way since the beginning, and probably won't be changing any time soon.

To be fair, though, sometimes these CAN be affected by shitty ping. I've had my fair share of times where I moved out of the danger zone and was halfway through a cast when the AOE goes off and I still eat dirt. That's a struggle of this being an online game, though, and mostly just random ping spikes on my side. It happens, it's not that big of a deal in content lower than EX and in EX it's still just a minor setback.

[VioletCatastrophe]

Telegraphed orange aoes up recently had been to show you TO DODGE. And in the vast majority of fights this is still the case. They either need to telegraph an AOE to be a warning "you will get hit" or remove it for mechanics where if you are in the orange you are hit the second it appears. They can't be flipping the script where 90% of the time it means move and the other 10% means "you screwed up and get damage"

We went from only orange markers, to animations and markers, to animations and a mixture of fast and slow markers, to animations with only fast markers.

You only have yourself to blame for not keeping up. Either that or I'm a super human who is just so amazing and incredible and better than everyone else. I'm saying this is a you problem not to be superior. It's because you and I are both humans, capable of learning and overcoming challenges. So do it.

[Jinglypockets]

Telegraphed orange aoes up recently had been to show you TO DODGE. And in the vast majority of fights this is still the case. They either need to telegraph an AOE to be a warning "you will get hit" or remove it for mechanics where if you are in the orange you are hit the second it appears. They can't be flipping the script where 90% of the time it means move and the other 10% means "you screwed up and get damage"

They've been using the orange telegraphs this way for a really long time. If an orange telegraph appears and disappears almost immediately, that's the game telling you there's another cue to look at to avoid it.