Here we go again

[Shistar]

[...] but when I get home from work I'm teabagin that boss when I'm done with it.

That's the spirit!

[humbibi]

Simplified? Since when? Dawntrail has been a non-stop hardcore player's paradise up to and including even taking away "normal" content to ramp everything up in difficulty, including mandatory MSQ dungeons/trials.

Before you say anything about jobs, I remind you that they keep getting homogenized due to HARDCORE content forcing them to adapt to the constant DDR, not because of casual content.

And rest assured, Square-Enix doesn't care about the complaints of casual players, in fact, they seem pretty committed to driving as many of them out of the game as possible, to an effective degree no less if the current player count is anything to go by.

Not being able to do a mechanic correctly on your first few tries isn't Dawntrail catering to hardcore players, it's you trying the mechanic for the first time. If you don't run the content often, you won't learn. And to be honest, at LEVEL 100 you should've seen most of these mechanics a hundred times before facing it again in new content. If you run the content often and still can't do it, it's just a skill issue. Dungeons and trials that introduce never seen before mechanics are very very rare.

Dawntrail does not cater to hardcore players, it sets the difficulty at a level that is to be expected when you are LEVEL 100 (one hundred) playing a class with a full kit for rotation, mitigation or healing. Is the alliance raid slightly more challenging than say, NieR raids for example? Maybe. But there's nothing that makes it unclearable in PUG unless you are actively trying to grief the alliance. (Aglaia's last boss for instance). If the game's difficulty did not increase as you get more powerful, it would be bad game design. I'm sorry that you still need to have your hand held in a four-man dungeon at the height of 7.3, but it'll get easier as people buy Phoenix Downs, or get better gear. I think we often forget a huge part of what is difficult about the game is that new content is scaled slightly higher than the casual playerbase's stats. The newest alliance raid hits like a truck, is a pain to heal through especially when people die left and right, but in two months time it'll be a walk in the park.

The dungeons in Dawntrail are not much harder than Endwalker's, they are just a bit more fast paced, which can be an issue for some people, I can hear that. The game is terribly lacking in terms of accessbility, some mechanics are very hard to see (7.2 trial is a disaster both in Normal and EX mode), but it's hardly an issue in Normal content because at worst you wipe in a dungeon, at best there's either a class that can rez you or a healer LB3 when it gets tough. The game is not as punishing as some people are trying to make it seem.

[Supersnow845]

Simplified? Since when? Dawntrail has been a non-stop hardcore player's paradise up to and including even taking away "normal" content to ramp everything up in difficulty, including mandatory MSQ dungeons/trials.

Before you say anything about jobs, I remind you that they keep getting homogenized due to HARDCORE content forcing them to adapt to the constant DDR, not because of casual content.

And rest assured, Square-Enix doesn't care about the complaints of casual players, in fact, they seem pretty committed to driving as many of them out of the game as possible, to an effective degree no less if the current player count is anything to go by.

There being an over abundance of high end content like forked and CODCAR has absolutely zero relation to their decision to ramp up casual content slightly which is about the only thing I’ll credit them for listening to from EW because that was EW’s most common battle content complaint; that it was way way too easy. EW was the “raider expansion”, DT is at least trying (though failing pretty badly) to provide content to every level of play though I’d still say forked is their only real misstep here and forked is still good content, it’s just horribly built around OC

If you stayed in EW as a casual but left in DT you didn’t leave for a lack of content directed at you because EW was insultingly bad for anything besides high end content

Jobs are being eaten away at both ends. Dungeon experience especially with the supports is being entirely driven by ultra casuals. The high end raiders don’t care if bloodwhetting hits once per enemy or per GCD, that’s being driven by the casual “being immortal is my job fantasy” and the “if I have to press a healing button I have a mental breakdown”. High end is mostly responsible for caster casting destruction and pursuit of balance over flavour, neither is victimless here

[Xieldras]

I just want to say you're not alone in this. I struggled like hell with it - fortunately had a really patient Scholar, and a RDM, who were both willing to rez me when the mechanics got the better of my inability to react as quickly as required.

I haven't even been able to face the new Alliance Raid yet and, to be honest, I'm not certain I will engage in it. A pity to feel the need to skip over new content, but from what friends who've already played it (and are far better at the game than I am) have said it's challenging and absolutely full of DDR mechanics. In which case if I were to engage in it I'd be A: a burden, B: very much dead the majority of the time and C: miserable. And what's the point in that?

Sadly, as much as I love the game I'm starting to think it isn't for someone like me anymore - particularly considering how I'm finding I actively avoid the newer content.

Truthfully I'm kind of relieved to hear that someone else struggled, as I too had a bad time last night with the new dungeon (poor healer had to scrape my DPS butt off the floor multiple times). How do you want me to react to the second boss' spiked balls dropping from the ceiling when I have no way of reliably knowing the AoE range of those the first time, and get punished as a result in a "Gotcha!" moment? Then there's the small safe zones that only seem to shrink every new content, and the game adding more moving bits and pieces to new fight. And the VFX. Always more, more.

I'm as casual as can be, but I'm bored and frustrated with this new style of battle content. With the Phoenix Down changes and their cheap prices, it's clear they're given the green light to make regular content harder since we "have no excuses". And with the new dungeon/trial, I dread getting into Roulettes at all as they left such a sour first impression.

With this patch, I'm starting to believe also that this game simply isn't for me anymore.

[Sekundessounet]

Being an older gamer, been playing since ff14 came out, Meso Terminal is unplayable for me on the 4 bosses that chain to you encounter due to the dodge mechanics firing to quickly.It would be nice to have a easier mode choice when doing it with the npc's to "progress thru the story" as I feel it's better to npc it first so people aren't upset if i die as a healer. I am not asking for an easier mode for que'ing just for doing it with npc's heck i don't need any loot in an easy mode option either but i do feel that we all should have content we can get thru if its mandatory for the story.

I don't think an easy mode is the solution you seek. What they should do is what they do in the Duty Support trials : have that stacked buff that lets you survive death twice before actually wiping. In dungeon with players difficulty is okay because even if you die, you can get a rez and things move forward. In Duty Support, the fight just wipes and it feels kinda bad and punishing for nothing.

As for mechanics there are 3-4 patterns to recognize where the safe spots are well telegraphed, so after a few trial and error even as an older gamer you should be able to go through it no problems ! But if anything, don't hesitate to make a PF and ask for help, usually people are receptive to that. Hopefully you can clear it, the trial is quite amazing.

[Sekundessounet]

Truthfully I'm kind of relieved to hear that someone else struggled, as I too had a bad time last night with the new dungeon (poor healer had to scrape my DPS butt off the floor multiple times). How do you want me to react to the second boss' spiked balls dropping from the ceiling when I have no way of reliably knowing the AoE range of those the first time, and get punished as a result in a "Gotcha!" moment? Then there's the small safe zones that only seem to shrink every new content, and the game adding more moving bits and pieces to new fight. And the VFX. Always more, more.

I'm as casual as can be, but I'm bored and frustrated with this new style of battle content. With the Phoenix Down changes and their cheap prices, it's clear they're given the green light to make regular content harder since we "have no excuses". And with the new dungeon/trial, I dread getting into Roulettes at all as they left such a sour first impression.

With this patch, I'm starting to believe also that this game simply isn't for me anymore.

If you want to deal with these mechanics, the solution is to always play it safe and assume the worst : for these spiked balls, yes you don't see the AoEs at first, but you can guess that it's going to be a round shape. So the reflex to have is to go next to the wall, away in between two of them, and then you'll see the actual AoE and learn where to position for the next one.

I know the philosophy of the game is ABC : Always Be Casting, but really if this type of mechanic makes you struggle (which is fair, not pointing fingers), disengaging and focusing on your movement is a good way to solve them without dying too much.

[Supersnow845]

Truthfully I'm kind of relieved to hear that someone else struggled, as I too had a bad time last night with the new dungeon (poor healer had to scrape my DPS butt off the floor multiple times). How do you want me to react to the second boss' spiked balls dropping from the ceiling when I have no way of reliably knowing the AoE range of those the first time, and get punished as a result in a "Gotcha!" moment? Then there's the small safe zones that only seem to shrink every new content, and the game adding more moving bits and pieces to new fight. And the VFX. Always more, more.

I'm as casual as can be, but I'm bored and frustrated with this new style of battle content. With the Phoenix Down changes and their cheap prices, it's clear they're given the green light to make regular content harder since we "have no excuses". And with the new dungeon/trial, I dread getting into Roulettes at all as they left such a sour first impression.

With this patch, I'm starting to believe also that this game simply isn't for me anymore.

The wall isn’t a death wall. Why are you testing the range of the spiked balls dropping when you can simply just go to the furthest point away in a circular arena. If you are unsure of if it’s say a chariot or a dynamo then think to yourself “why would a falling ball be a dynamo”, in casual content the simplest visual read of a mechanic is overwhelmingly the correct one

Like “3 circles drop into a circular arena making the 3 triangular regions furthest away from the centre of the circles the safe spot” is a mechanic we’ve seen hundreds of times

[Lollerblades]

Story content shouldn't be overtuned an difficult.
All people are different and have differing accessibility levels. I have a friend who plays for the story, but dungeon difficulty is going to chase them away, and at this point I can see why.

[Carin-Eri]

Truthfully I'm kind of relieved to hear that someone else struggled, as I too had a bad time last night with the new dungeon (poor healer had to scrape my DPS butt off the floor multiple times). How do you want me to react to the second boss' spiked balls dropping from the ceiling when I have no way of reliably knowing the AoE range of those the first time, and get punished as a result in a "Gotcha!" moment? Then there's the small safe zones that only seem to shrink every new content, and the game adding more moving bits and pieces to new fight. And the VFX. Always more, more.

I'm as casual as can be, but I'm bored and frustrated with this new style of battle content. With the Phoenix Down changes and their cheap prices, it's clear they're given the green light to make regular content harder since we "have no excuses". And with the new dungeon/trial, I dread getting into Roulettes at all as they left such a sour first impression.

With this patch, I'm starting to believe also that this game simply isn't for me anymore.

Good point with the Phoenix Down! I mean, I was carrying a few but since I was the one dying all the time I never got to actually use any!

[Ath192]

Thats for the support all, i took your advice and went back to my old legacy data center and asked for help with it went as summoner tho,dying as dps is better then as heals,and altho i died thru that whole 4 boss fight they were nice and just kept rezzing and assisting.Figured i would give an update.

Would you look at that? Basically what I'm hearing is that slightly more engaging content you were struggling with made you seek out the community and good adventurers bonded together to help you get through the game? Isn't that what MMOs are supposed to be about? Working together to solve through it.

All content should be like this in MMOs. Ironically people are complaining about the genre of game they are playing.

This is a prime example of how constant calls for nerfing the game ruined it. People's first solution is to always complain and hope the developers lobotomize the game instead of socializing and working together.

Developers, please read this thread and take it as evidence for why not to nerf this game further