What's the point of the 4/8 person party buffs?

[solracht]

Why is it weird? Most MMORPGs keep a tight control over group numbers. By adding a buff like this, simply missing one person in a 8man group not only means losing the contribution of an extra member... it means losing 5% accuracy and survivality from the remaining 7 on top of it.

In the end it's about the content being designed with these systems in mind. Old NMs weren't.

It's pointless to go back and make sure all of our current content feels "right" when so many rehauls are coming. I'm willing to bet all the old content will be even easier after the battle, attribute and job system rehauls.

This is purely speculation on my part, but depending on how attributes work after the changes, the extra 5% accuracy could simply be needed in order to be able to defeat the 8man NMs (as they could be ridiculously higher level than the 4-7man NMs). A group attempting the 8man NM with less than 8 people would be lacking the stats to be able to kill it before the enrage.

Once again, it's all about how content is designed with these systems in mind.