Prog skipping/lying is going wild this tier.

[Taranok]

Not sure I agree with that. Savage should not be an insurmountable wall to climb, but it should still be difficult with tons of personal responsibility. It should feel satisfying to clear and be able to execute the fight. You shouldn't just be carried or expected to be carried.

As for netcode discussion, I feel it's already pointless to beat a dead horse. They had 11 years to get a better engine/code or just adopt/convert to an already available one.

Honestly, if you played or remember stormblood fight design, it's the perfect mix of stress-ish free raiding while still being challenging. As a bonus, you can have absolutely wild recoveries that feel absolutely amazing to pull off in that style of raid design. And you can still do it while having hello world, a mechanic substantially harder than TOP's hello world, and feels much more satisfying even on casters.

[Kohashi]

Honestly, if you played or remember stormblood fight design, it's the perfect mix of stress-ish free raiding while still being challenging. As a bonus, you can have absolutely wild recoveries that feel absolutely amazing to pull off in that style of raid design. And you can still do it while having hello world, a mechanic substantially harder than TOP's hello world, and feels much more satisfying even on casters.

While I did catch the original Ivalice, I was not raiding back then, at least not in FF14. I was an end-game raider in TERA and BnS..lol. I did do, however, some MINE fights, but it's not the exact Vanilla experience from back then.

Difficulty-wise, so far, I think this tier is nice. Kind of MID, not too easy, not too difficult, not a lot of body checks. I don't think m5s or m6s had any hardcore body checks.

[Daralii]

While I did catch the original Ivalice, I was not raiding back then, at least not in FF14. I was an end-game raider in TERA and BnS..lol. I did do, however, some MINE fights, but it's not the exact Vanilla experience from back then.

Difficulty-wise, so far, I think this tier is nice. Kind of MID, not too easy, not too difficult, not a lot of body checks. I don't think m5s or m6s had any hardcore body checks.

6 is the insurmountable wall for a lot of people because it requires skills they probably haven't used in savage since HW or SB, namely add management and bursting down priority targets that aren't the boss.

[Taranok]

6 is the insurmountable wall for a lot of people because it requires skills they probably haven't used in savage since HW or SB, namely add management and bursting down priority targets that aren't the boss.

It's also, unironically, overtuned. It feels like a gear check and ties into a phrase I've used off and on over the years. "The devs habitually overestimate the playerbase's average competency." Mind you, I'm a well above average player on most jobs, and finding the right group is a nightmare because things as basic as tab targeting the right enemy is a nightmare in this game, and the right enemy is mandatory to clear it.

I'm pretty sure adds phase from a design perspective is harder than any ult I've done, which includes UCOB through DSR + up to phase 5 in TOP. I really shouldn't be comparing savage design to ultimates and say savage is harder, but dawntrail has had a lot of garbage fight design where everything is 1 or 2 difficulty steps above where it was in prior expansions. Which includes ultimate design showing up even in EX4 fights, players just don't recognize it as ultimate design because there's a cheese mixed with boiling frog syndrome. Yes, I'm referring to bloom 6. If holy one-shot the player, bloom 6 would be right at home in DSR, if not harder than most DSR mechanics.

I remember adds phases from HW and SB, and none of them are remotely as bad as the trash design that is M6S.