Are the devs playtesting their own game?

[Zarkovitch]

Criterion as bad reward for raider so here your response for this question. the reponse they dont know to shake stuff up.

[Immut]

I've long since suspected that the only people on the dev team that actually care and are having fun with their jobs are the art and music teams.

[0blivion]

- Locking character creator options behind hard content, this is 2 hairstyles now locked behind hardcore content.

1. Cloud of Darkness (Chaotic) is not hardcore content, calling it that when it's barely a beefed-up Extreme trial is disingenuous.
2. Again, the beefed-up Variant Dungeon is also not hardcore content.

It's fine. It's genuinely fine.

[Turtledeluxe]

Judging from the latest round of the threads it appears the answer is no and has been since around Shadowbringers depending on who you ask. It seems more every day the non writers of the game got very comfortable riding the coattails of the critically acclaimed storytelling..it's really just raiders who ever thought the game was great I think. The rest of us were just in a state of tolerance that was dispelled once DT hit.

[0blivion]

Judging from the latest round of the threads it appears the answer is no and has been since around Shadowbringers depending on who you ask. It seems more every day the non writers of the game got very comfortable riding the coattails of the critically acclaimed storytelling..it's really just raiders who ever thought the game was great I think. The rest of us were just in a state of tolerance that was dispelled once DT hit.

Speak for yourself, I haven't cleared a full tier on content since E8S, doing the free fights (usually the first two) at best or even doing the tier right before it unlocks, lol. The game has many faults (housing, glamour plates, garbage blocking/muting controls, item shop), but the new variant dungeon is not one of them.

[Pricia]

1. Cloud of Darkness (Chaotic) is not hardcore content, calling it that when it's barely a beefed-up Extreme trial is disingenuous.
2. Again, the beefed-up Variant Dungeon is also not hardcore content.

It's fine. It's genuinely fine.

The point is that it's not casual friendly. If you need a PF for something and to read a guide, it's not casual friendly. Whether you call it hardcore or not is not relevant.

[Turtledeluxe]

Speak for yourself, I haven't cleared a full tier on content since E8S, doing the free fights (usually the first two) at best or even doing the tier right before it unlocks, lol. The game has many faults (housing, glamour plates, garbage blocking/muting controls, item shop), but the new variant dungeon is not one of them.

Two things can be true at one time. SE can take two steps forward with fight design then three steps back with reward structure. Ultimately it's not about how successful any given thing is at this point, it's about being exhausted that there is always a catch, missed thing, unintended consequence, or even seemingly intentional annoyance with each release. I don't need to speak for myself, because plenty of people are talking about it in different threads, and my privileges end soon. It's not like this the only thing they have fumbled, and it won't be the last.

[0blivion]

The point is that it's not casual friendly. If you need a PF for something and to read a guide, it's not casual friendly. Whether you call it hardcore or not is not relevant.

So is the Masked Carnivale not casual friendly either, then? Because you gotta read a guide for some of the less obvious ones? lmao

[Jeeqbit]

So is the Masked Carnivale not casual friendly either, then? Because you gotta read a guide for some of the less obvious ones? lmao

Funny thing is I cleared one of the hardest Masked Carnivale fights blind. I realized I needed a physical attack and only had Flying Sardine and Phantom Flurry. So I defeated the boss with Flying Sardine, a 10 potency attack.

To add to all this, something having a guide on YouTube does not mean that a guide is actually necessary. Dungeon guides used to be super common and frequently watched - it's the reason MTQ became one of only a few popular YouTubers in the first 2 expansions of the game (before the FFXIV YouTuber base exploded and grew). At least 50% or more players watched her videos in an effort to avoid dungeon anxiety. Yet, when I did them blind, I found the anxiety to be way less - because dungeons are just easy and guides overcomplicate them.

Point is, people will make a guide for anything. These guides are only necessary if you do not have confidence in your own ability to figure out the mechanics in a way that sufficiently respects either your own time, or other people's time.

[Pricia]

So is the Masked Carnivale not casual friendly either, then? Because you gotta read a guide for some of the less obvious ones? lmao

You might want to re-read the definition of "and."