FF14 has abandoned their mid core players and thats why its failing.

[rxantos]

After years of playing I cancel the subscription today as the game no longer cares of adding things that appeal to a player like me. The gameplay is divided between Lowcore and Highcore. With Middlecore being abandoned.

First the definitions.

Hardcore = Need preparation time. Mostly due to surprise sucker mechanics focused on killing and not maiming. Healers become USELESS due to the focus on killing and not maiming. And body checks.

Midcore = Dificult but mechanics are focused on maiming, not killing. And thus run can be saved without ever needing preparation time. Healers become essentials.

Lowcore = If You have a pulse you can pass. Healers become USELESS

FF14 now just focus on Hardcore and Lowcore. It abandoned its midcore. Which are the majority of players. There is no mastery of rotations as the focus has been in having rotations that a bot can do over and over and over. Homogenization killed that part.

So the content became TOO EASY, no challenge. Except unless you go HARD CORE. Aka you need time to prepare with other players to clear content. And once you did so, its all about learning a pre-scripted fight. With surprise sucker mechanics focused on killing. Not maiming. That makes healers USELESS. They also turned tanks into demigods, except for DRK. Tanks are not meant to be healing. Is not their purpose. They are the shield of the group. Not the medic of the group.

So why I am writing this if I just unsubbed. Becuase I use to love this game and saw how it deteriorated with homogenization. And changing the levels so that bots can run the dungeons. Removing any interesting mechanics in the process. They are levels made FOR BOTS, as well as rotation made for bots. Not people. And the hardcore. All cheat with ACT. And far worse. Is not a game but a get high by openly cheating. Is it everyone? No. But certainly the majority.

Also get rid of the 2 minute window. Kill it. Burn its body and then send the ashes to the sun. It makes fights more boring that it should.

Now you got two choices. Remove the post out of fear. Or change the game so that people that used to love it come back. Targetting the 1% of try hard and cheaters is not for business. Targetting the I always win crew, is also not good for business as once they notice that there is no danger, it becomes BORING. So who should you target. Targed the middle as the majority of players are in that area. Doesn't mean you abandon the hardcore, or the low core. Just start low, and make content harder, but without body checks and without needing to spend hours in discord to find a party to clear.

[Kazelus]

Healers are not useless in hardcore content, they are planning their heals and mits to the incoming damage. Only very skilled player can finish hardcore content with no healer and only by taking the jobs that brings healing in their kits.

Extreme are midcore by your description, there is room for mistake and a good healer will shine in saving failing people from death. They are totally doable without preparation. Same for most savages fights, it's the player who make the preparation a necessity by asking other to have watched a guide but the content is totally doable without it. Most of my midcore friend clear savages in blind. (And about the pre-scripted fight, it's true for all content in this game)

If by preparation time, you mean bringing pots and foods or you fails, there is not difficult content that can be made without those things ruining it.

[Saraide]

The root cause of this is that they made jobs too easy and fights too hard.

[Jason_Ashford]

Healers are not useless in hardcore content, they are planning their heals and mits to the incoming damage. Only very skilled player can finish hardcore content with no healer and only by taking the jobs that brings healing in their kits.

Extreme are midcore by your description, there is room for mistake and a good healer will shine in saving failing people from death. They are totally doable without preparation. Same for most savages fights, it's the player who make the preparation a necessity by asking other to have watched a guide but the content is totally doable without it. Most of my midcore friend clear savages in blind. (And about the pre-scripted fight, it's true for all content in this game)

If by preparation time, you mean bringing pots and foods or you fails, there is not difficult content that can be made without those things ruining it.

i would say in Dawntrail this is kind of untrue, at least for Sphene EX, and Zelenia EX which features a multitude of mechanics that are almost always a party wipe if failed.

[Gurgeh]

... Lowcore = If You have a pulse you can pass. Healers become USELESS ...

This is absolute rubbish.
In no way is a pulse needed. I'd be very surprised if the gil botters are bothering to give their characters pulses.

In all seriousness, I do think they are fixing this.

The problem is two things though...

1) there is a GARGANTUAN amount of midcore missing. Adding three of four trial/dungeon sized piecess of content per 3+ year expansion, isn't going to be close to "cutting it".

2) are they going to destroy the quality, by again trying to do it economically on the cheap, and limiting themselves to one content that can be tweaked for all, but which is now great for no-one. Watch this space carefully!

I think this is a great post though. It is exactly what i dint like about the game play. Either it is braindead, or it is just horrible boring guides and hostile expectations.

And it's nothing to do with relative subjective skill of players, that's an excuse. There is, objectively, a huge bracket of skill that is just ignored, as a result of the encounter designs.

[Kazelus]

i would say in Dawntrail this is kind of untrue, at least for Sphene EX, and Zelenia EX which features a multitude of mechanics that are almost always a party wipe if failed.

About sphene, I only remember the rocks mechanics that end up in a wipe if failed, but I haven't done it in a while, I do remember that we clutched a lot of mechs but we mostly wiped when a rocks didn't break because it was a millions damages at the end. What else was a direct wipe if failed ?

I'm currently progging Zelenia so I can't really tell what is a straight up wipe, but the add phase can snow ball quickly but you can avoid taking 2 tower and live throught it easily, the cleaves are more a trouble. EF can be lived throught from the start at 6 if both tanks are alive. Roseblood 3 can go fast on wipes, I haven't seen the tower connected enough to know if it's a straight wipe or not. 4 is salvageable share just need to sacrifice. I killed yesterday but I still don't know the fight really well.

Necron is a joke, grand cross and mass macabre are the only wiping mechs and it needs a lot of things going wrong to wipe on it... (mass macabre is a body check but yet, you can survive a tower exploding and heal LB3 after)

[Miradelle]

Sounds like you just want more extremes, then? Don't you get one every patch?

And damn, ACT is now cheating of the highest level, because you can tell your dmg numbers. Waow! Great post! Very informative.

You got any ideas for the kind of content you want, or are you just critiquing without offering any solutions? Go into depth what you want.

[0blivion]

savage is literally midcore with minor exceptions, so is chaotic, and if anything requiring nothing but a pulse is casual, then even extrials are.

[Exmo]

Aren't criterion dungeons also midcore? Had a bunch of those last expansion. I would think CC ranked is too.

[Ephremjlm]

Man Yoshi P. and FFXIV as a whole have really poisoned the well here.

Midcore is a "content type", NOT a difficulty.

Like it's frustrating because back in the day *old man voice* it was just "casuals" and "hardcore" players. Casuals made up everything from crafters only and people that barley got by in the game (aka. a filthy casual) to people who were good at the game and did all the content but at their own pace, didn't always follow the meta, and weren't in a rush to get to end game or "be the best". Hardcore players on the other hands were the sweaty types who rushed to end game, constantly did the most challenging fights, and also were responsible for finding "meta's".

That said, midcore which is that upper tier of casual players, LIKED engaging with the game. LIKED engaging with the world. LIKED preparing for fights. LIKED coordinating with people, just not in a "do or die way". Open world content was a HUUUUUUGE catalyst for this. This is why things like Eureka and Bozja are considered "Midcore". (OC is NOT midcore in that we aren't really interacting with the world past the first little bit and even then its minimal. It's just casual instanced fate farming and teleporting)

When we say FFXIV only makes content for Hardcore players and Casual Players, we are talking about content types. Talk to NPC's questing, crafting and gathering, housing, glam, hallway instanced dungeons with the exact same formula, etc. are all casual. Instanced one off fights that you have to study sometimes weeks for and create statics are hardcore. An example of midcore in this instance would be an open world zone or dungeon that maybe requires an item farmed, or some condition to pop a boss, and players would have needed to maybe do some kind of preparation for that boss to beat it. Both hardcore and midcore like interacting with the games mechanics but in midcore the difficulty is such that its possible for individuals to do the first time as long as they prep the right items, gear, and back in the day skills and spells with some kind of working strategy, rather than a team that has to figure out a very specific meta that was designed to still only be completed through perfect play and in the margins. Minus how long it took, Dynamis in FFXI was a great example of a raid style in that fashion.


Inherently they have designed the game so that midcore players have almost nothing. Admittedly midcore content requires the most effort because you have to actually dial it in, it usually requires more systems that the game has taken away, and you cant just crank the knobs to one side of the difficulty spectrum. Unfortunately in my opinion this really kills off the "adventurer" part of this MMO as well. It's why fates feel so bland.

That said, my sub ran out over the weekend. Cheers mate, and good on you for voting with your wallet, though I think the quantum system they have planned is going to solve your difficulty problem (maybe).