Here we go again

[Ser_Arven]

Yoshi actively plays the game and, himself, verbatim, has stated "I fall asleep sometimes while I do dungeons."

Some players need to think about that.

But I'll sell the solution ahead of time: That's not good. The new dungeon requiring you to stimulate your brain just the slightest bit is healthy for the long term and should remain the standard going forward.

Hard agree

[missTori]

Am I truly so disconnected because I don’t think the dungeons are that hard … like I feel gaslighted

Maybe these people just don’t run ANY content enough? Like none of this is new mechanics. There’s a level 70 dungeon ( the burn drone 2nd boss) which has the same blue spikes coming from the side you dodge

[BlisteringFrost]

Am I truly so disconnected because I don’t think the dungeons are that hard …
Maybe these people just don’t run ANY content enough? Like none of this is new mechanics. There’s a level 70 dungeon ( forgot which one ) which has the same blue spikes coming from the side you dodge

The first boss in the new dungeon is the hardest. Because he heckles with the mechanics. But he has very little HP and they can't upfront one-shot you. You can only die if you got spanked by 2 or 3 hits at once. The second one is just a vibe check. The third one is almost exactly the same as Mt. Gulgs second boss but replace the water donut with lightning orbital line nukes.

It's really not hard at all. But it does require you to activate your brain briefly. And I appreciate this new dungeon because of this. I'm a narcoleptic so Yoshi's concern is exasperated even more keenly in my case.

[Mawlzy]

You’re being incredibly judgmental toward someone whose situation you don’t fully understand. Just because astigmatism doesn’t stop you from driving doesn’t mean it’s the same for everyone. People have different experiences, limitations, and reasons for the choices they make and it’s not okay to speak so definitively about someone else’s life from the outside.

It turns out there is a subset of posters on these boards who are convinced they have perfect information about the abilities and limitations of people they have never met. They also wish to dictate how others should feel about their experiences.

Nauseating, but not unexpected from this community.

People are saying that the devs need to draw a line and they have. It doesn't matter what challenges you have my wife has autism, ADHD and Dyslexia but raids Ultimate.

Yes, we've met her.

I have ADHD, Autism and Dyslexia and raid ultimate.

You two make an extremely effective tag team. What neither of you have explained, however, is why ultimate raiders feel so strongly about a requested casual option that will impact neither of you.

[JadeCurtiss]

Am I truly so disconnected because I don’t think the dungeons are that hard … like I feel gaslighted

Maybe these people just don’t run ANY content enough? Like none of this is new mechanics. There’s a level 70 dungeon ( the burn drone 2nd boss) which has the same blue spikes coming from the side you dodge

I am also baffled by this. The dungeons are tougher by the smallest margin imaginable. Did people say this kind of thing about Hero's Gauntlet?

[BlisteringFrost]

I am also baffled by this. The dungeons are tougher by the smallest margin imaginable. Did people say this kind of thing about Hero's Gauntlet?

Not particularly, no, but the mass disillusionment hadn't happened yet because Shadowbringers was when combat was overhauled to be simpler from Stormblood and Omega beating everybody senseless. The cracks started forming in Endwalker but heaven forfend someone thinking "oh hey, combats a little bit boring...." during then. Then the dam exploded mid-way into Dawntrail where we are at right now.

[ZediaAkula]

I'm 58. Have eye issues: so all of the bright lights they've added to everything gives me a migraine after a few minutes. San d'oria was murderous for me to get through.

Having to move constantly, not giving my hands a break means that after each DT (and the latter EW) dungeons, trials, and raids have me soaking my hands in an ice bath as I am literally sobbing from the pain.

I don't mind doing the trusts to get through the MSQ, but this last dungeon, I just kept dying over and over and over on that second fight. I finally just queued with real peeps and told them my situation. They were awesome and we got through it.

However, with being limited to running trusts due to my various issues, I have no way to farm tomes to get the latest gear. I haven't been able to do endgame stuff since the end of Stormblood. So tome gear is it…but not anymore because I can't justify the pain levels and migraines to do a single dungeon, trial, or alliance raid.

It's like they cater so much to hardcore players, they've forgotten about those of us who've been playing since the original FF game came out. There are peeps I've played with since 2002 in XI that I hang out with in XIV. But they're younger and can still do endgame etc. But I don't see me playing after my yearly sub runs out.

I pushed myself through the horror of the DT story. But now, it's just no longer worth it for me. Bad writing, can't do any of the casual content. Heck, after who knows how many years, I was finally able to get a medium house (upgraded from a small). I've been playing New World for six or seven months and have three houses. I mean, come on...Chat bubbles, casting bars for the bosses (which there was already an alternative for)…but:
I can't see in a dungeon because of the blinding lights,
I can't get a bigger house,
I can't let my alts share the house,
I can't do daily roulettes to farm tomestones for gear because I might end up in a dungeon, raid, or trial that is literally painful for me to run, and if I do run it and die, well then, there's the harassment and the "git gud" comments,
I can't even craft because the items come from FATES only, not overworld monsters, and FATES hurt to do for hours on end to get a few items to craft.

I can't see myself resubbing when my year is up. This is just unplayable for me at this point.

[Supersnow845]

In the nicest way possible if keyboard requirements of doing normal content is leaving you soaking your hands in an ice bath sobbing in pain then I honestly think that this game is just untenable at this point

Like I don’t know what to say at this point other than if you are at that point then you are barely even playing the game

[Mawlzy]

Am I truly so disconnected because I don’t think the dungeons are that hard … like I feel gaslighted

Maybe these people just don’t run ANY content enough? Like none of this is new mechanics. There’s a level 70 dungeon ( the burn drone 2nd boss) which has the same blue spikes coming from the side you dodge

You seem genuinely interested, so I'll gladly offer some speculations from my own experience.

When 7.3 dropped, the peak player count increased by a factor of 3. What were those 2/3rds of the players doing since 7.2? Possibly playing other games. They almost certainly weren't running FFXIV dungeons. Why would they?

I don't recall how many required dungeons there are in 7.0-7.2, but multiply that by two (I ran an alt through to the end of 7.2) and that is close to the number of dungeons I have run in the period from June 28 2024 to today. I spent 99% of my time in PvP and a bunch of other activities.

You mention a level 70 dungeon. I have no recollection of that dungeon, no idea what a burn drone is, and never recall seeing blue spikes. I imagine that is true of many players.

So I think you're onto something. A significant fraction of the player base only runs dungeons when they are compelled to do so. This is probably because they don't much enjoy running dungeons, and spend their time engaged with all the other activities FF14 offers. The mostly likely reason someone doesn't like something in a game is because they are bad at it to begin with.

Thus when confronted with the latest one, which they are required to clear so they can find out what happens in the story, they are primed to be pissed off, completely out of practice, and have no long-term knowledge of mechanics because they simply haven't run many dungeons over the last few years. And in some cases it's doubtless true that if such players just practiced more and ran lots of dungeons, they'd find the latest one easier. But many players do not, because to them dungeons are an irritant that only serve to gate progress.

The consensus in this thread appears to be that such players are not playing the game properly and should just leave. I'm personally fine with that for myself, but it does have consequences.

The first boss in the new dungeon is the hardest. Because he heckles with the mechanics. But he has very little HP and they can't upfront one-shot you. You can only die if you got spanked by 2 or 3 hits at once. The second one is just a vibe check. The third one is almost exactly the same as Mt. Gulgs second boss but replace the water donut with lightning orbital line nukes.

I found the first boss trivial and the second boss impossible. People have different skills.

[BlisteringFrost]

I found the first boss trivial and the second boss impossible. People have different skills.

Do those skills include looking down at the floor?