So... This is the "improved encounter design"?

[Rekh]

I'm aware they were talking about making the fights more creative and exciting. What I was saying is that this did start with 7.0, because Yoshi-P said so and mentioned the expert dungeons and the raids as examples.

Whether people actually agree they are different or more exciting is up to them, but the expert dungeons do feel different than what they would have done in Endwalker with that ghost fight, the enemies that run at you constantly, the maze mechanic and there being an actual prospect of failure if you get sleepy against mechanics and don't constantly observe your surroundings.

I won't speak for savage but the normal modes seem different from what they've done for a while as well due to the smaller hitboxes and once again making it faster-paced. Could you imagine P11 or E11 having M2's heart mechanic and having to dodge all that stuff?

But for as exciting as all these are, perhaps they too become something you yawn at once you get used to them and they start to feel "easier". So I made the point for consideration that the first tier is easier in general and that they may step it up more when more "difficulty" is allowed later in the expansion.

I doubt it. This level of difficulty matches heavensward and stormblood. FFXIV's long term issue's the lack of punishment and stack of debuffs not beign steep enough. Combine that with no rng and the fights could be done just based on sound while watching youtube. Fortunately I'm seeing actual rng now with Dawntrail content. It's been a huge improvement.

[CaedemSanguis]

I doubt it. This level of difficulty matches heavensward and stormblood.

?

Gordias and Midas were waaaaay harder than you're usual 2nd/3rd tier since 4.0


Im pretty confident that m5s-m8s and m9s-m12s will have a lot more "wow style" mechanics where you have to react/watch out (m2s alarm pheromones for instance)

[Jeeqbit]

This level of difficulty matches heavensward and stormblood.

I remember they mentioned pre-Stormblood as their goal for actual creativity, but with it being less annoying. Because the "different" mechanics in Heavensward were often just an annoyance. I do feel they have achieved this.

The compromise they made is they are now alright with you having to tomahawk spam if you can't be in melee range, which they were trying to avoid completely in Endwalker with the giant hitboxes.

FFXIV's long term issue's the lack of punishment

They do give vuln stacks so that subsequent mistakes can build up to being a problem. That combined with needing to watch your surroundings can make them more threatening. However, if they just kill you on the first mistake, then people say healers have no role or that there are body checks.

I do personally prefer mechanics to just kill, but that is often left to content with lots of rezzers such as hunts.

Combine that with no rng

Well there is specific RNG within the mechanics or specific patterns chosen at random, but the entire mechanic order being random from start to finish is likely something they will never do and I think if someone is expecting this they'll be disappointed. The closest I think we got to that was in SoS Extreme and ARR hunts where the entire array of casts is chosen at random.