What is it like to be unable to clear all of the content?

[Firetta]

What content has gated you, and for how long?
I haven't even tried Thornmarch, the EX primals, and I've only fought Cadaceus twice (then the group fell apart). I just got my relic three weeks ago, so not too long. Titan HM locked me up for two weeks.

Why are you stuck here?
I cleared Titan HM on my BLM mostly legit (I survived until ~10%), but struggled with my Scholar. I'm going for all nine relics, but the blowback I've gotten while trying to learn SCH has really demotivated me. I want to clear Titan HM all the way down to 0%, but I can't bring myself to join groups because I feel like I'm holding them back just to learn the fight. This feeling has crossed over into every other type of end-game content (except CT).

Are you upset about this? (if so - why? and how can content be added for more hardcore players such as myself without upsetting you.)
Yeah, I'm frustrated. Every time I join a group all I can think about is how I'm going to be blacklisted on my server. But this isn't something Square Enix can fix (unless they provided some sort of "practice mode" for an instance). It's just the bad end-game atmosphere.

And I understand why people are frustrated, I really do. When I go into a Titan HM Duty Finder and see half the DPS under 3000hp and some of them with a <lvl50 weapon, I know we're not going to clear it. When other people die before the heart because they can't dodge, I get frustrated. But I don't take it out on them, and I try to remember that I wasn't that great at whatever the content was the first time I tried it.

[ApolloGenX]

What content is gated? -None.. I can get to any of it... I just don't.

How do I feel about it? - I don't care... that's why I haven't bothered doing it. Rehashed primals hold zero interest to me. Turn 5 holds zero interest to me at this point. I don't care about more allagan, I think it's ugly. I don't care about Ex-Primal modes to get gear to farm ex-primals... it's the same cycle as farming HM primals... why bother doing it again in Ex Mode?

Did other encounters... aside from King Mog, none of them are interesting enough to care to repeat. CT is fun once a week for the strange people you encounter.

I guess I don't consider myself unable, just apathetic. I was a high end raider in EQ... it's not challenge that keeps me from spending time on this junk... it's that it's just not interesting enough.

For me, the biggest challenge in this game has been getting around the question "Why bother?" (-Except for King Moggle Mog Squishy Mog)

[Sphinxy]

This is simple. The content is boring. The boss mechanics are boring. The entire pace of battle is boring. The reward for beating your head against the wall is only self gratification, loot rewards are boring. Skills are boring. Classes are boring and no single patch is going to solve this. At SE's pace, the game may be fixed in 2020. Until then, I am moving on to something with more depth, better gameplay, and less annoyances.

In closing, this game is boring.

[Lafiele]

What content has gated you, and for how long?
Content doesn't gate me. I gate content.

Why are you stuck here?
Answered above

Are you upset about this? (if so - why? and how can content be added for more hardcore players such as myself without upsetting you.)
Self explanatory

Should any changes be made to the content to accomodate you and players like yourself?
Self explanatory

What kind of content would you like to see added in future patches for you to enjoy?
Harder content that is worthy of me to ungate previously gated content by me

Epeen reduction imminent! Read at your own risk!

Just to elaborate on a few things, the reason why I gate content is, I do it, I realise I can complete it but I just need a solid team to do it, then I leave it be. I don't need the immediate accomplishment in order to satisfy myself. I can afford to wait for some of my fellow FC pepz who are still on holiday or they need more practice in order to get the mechanics solids but don't have as much time as a hardcore player to sink in. Content in any game is all about time. For example, assuming lag isn't an issue here, anyone can clear t5 if they put some time into it. The real difference is how fast a player climbs up that learning curve. Some people took weeks of full time mmo playing to master it. Some people took merely hours.

So a good example is, a hardcore player plays the game for 8 hrs a day 7 days a week. He does coil t5 for 4 hrs a day for about 5 days a week and it took him 1 month to clear. This totals up to about 80 hrs in order to clear this dungeon. A casual player spends 1 hr a week on t5. It takes him 2-3 months to clear t5 but his total hours spent on the content is only 8-12 hrs.

So I just want to say, being hardcore doesn't mean you're an elite, and doesn't mean you're a pro. It just means you sink more time in the game in order to clear content that is perceived to be faster by you but really, a casual player who only put 1 hrs time a week but cleared it in 2 months obviously had a much better potential as a player than the hardcore player did. It's a learning curve, some people learn faster, some people learn slower. If you're a slow learner (the hardcore player in this case) then you have to put more time/effort in it. Obviously, you can be a casual player and a slow learner then that's double the slowness. But ye, hardcore really only means you have more time to spare on this game. Casual means you have less time to spare on this game. Neither of these are at all an accurate gauge of skill. So no, the harder content and probably all future harder contents is not designed for "hardcores". They are designed for EVERYONE but people complete it at different paces due to real life factors.

[Braj]

This is simple. The content is boring. The boss mechanics are boring. The entire pace of battle is boring. The reward for beating your head against the wall is only self gratification, loot rewards are boring. Skills are boring. Classes are boring and no single patch is going to solve this. At SE's pace, the game may be fixed in 2020. Until then, I am moving on to something with more depth, better gameplay, and less annoyances.

In closing, this game is boring.

You have 9 level 50 jobs, several 30-40+, and no job less than level 19. And also af2 and allagan gear.


It took all that and how ever much you paid in monthly fees to finally realize that you don't like the game?

[Maye]

Thanks everyone. I realize I definitely made some mistakes in the OP but I got a lot of good answers regardless. For the record, I was definitely stuck on HM Titan for upwards of 5+ hours a day for almost two weeks. This is before I met my FC and the large group of talented players I'm lucky enough to play with now.

It seems like:
A lot of players can't find a group for completing content that meshes with their schedule/playstyle, and duty finder/party finder are incredibly frustrating/stressful when you have something you want cleared, because it's difficult to put together a group of PUGs "on the same level."

For players seeking progress, they don't want to be matches with newer players who are learning because there's no incentive to teach them the fight. Especially in duty finder your chances of meeting a player 2-3 hours later once they've learned the fight is incredibly low. It's a waste of your 60 minutes to wipe repeatedly because the other players have less experience than you.

For players seeking to learn, they don't want to hold back the players ready to progress. They don't want to deal with belligerent attitudes about how they "should have watched a video" or "what do you mean you don't know the fight?" This is completely understandable, dealing with mechanics can be stressful enough even without dealing with the players.

Plenty of players are playing at their own pace and simply haven't come to the "endgame contents" but are easing into them, but are wary of running into people who expect you to have already cleared the content.

A few people have really sad stories about their statics, and I feel for them. Most of the higher level content is tuned for a group to complete together, rather than a number of individuals.

It feels like, to me, that a lot of players would be happy with a sort of "CT level difficulty" version of coil, that offered lesser rewards, but roughly the same type of story and battle experience.

I guess a sort of "stress free" group approach introducing the fresher players to new content is definitely the way to go, more or less confirming what I thought. Let's go in for an hour, wipe a bunch, laugh about it, and come back another day/when you feel comfortable. If we knock it out, great! If not, no big deal. At that point you at least have the minimum about of understanding to want to join a party finder/duty finder group.

[TrystWildkey]

Thanks everyone.

Thank you for reading all of our feedback! It's very encouraging that you reached out to the community for feedback on different play styles

[Maye]

Thank you for reading all of our feedback! It's very encouraging that you reached out to the community for feedback on different play styles

I actually wrote up two different responses specifically to your post, before accidentally deleting one, and accidentally closing my browser on another one! I felt a little bad that you might think your post was abandoned for being long etc, but I got caught up with things and didn't leave another reply. I liked that you mentioned being upset with coil, because it confused me to see so many posts about Titan Extreme(specifically "extreme content"/gating players on weapon sidegrades/vanity) vs Coil, which MAJORLY gates the story, especially for 1.0 players (I'm guessing you've spoiled it yourself by this point, but I'll refrain from spoiling anyways)

I'm glad you replied seriously, because maybe my wording was not the greatest, but I just wanted to start serious discussion.

[Gardes]

Might as well chime in.

What content has gated you, and for how long?
T5 but my group has barely started on it. Titan EX, have not tried it more than a couple times.

Why are you stuck here?
I absolutely cannot dodge weights on reaction due to my latency, even with vpn on. On titan HM alone I have to memorize all the patterns and then run far far ahead of the plumes alone as a dps. Titan EX looks to be even worse and the go to strategy seems to be stacking for plumes, which i might not be able to deal with (I need to run free for this). I've been avoiding the fight because I dont need any accessories from titan and ifrit ex and the weapons would just be for my alts. It's an incredibly unfun fight for me compared to just about every other fight in the game.

Are you upset about this? (if so - why? and how can content be added for more hardcore players such as myself without upsetting you.)
Dejected, more like. I can clear titan hm with much more ease now, due to being overpowered for the content and can focus on just not dying from dodge mechanics but it looks like I'm gonna experience those days again.

Should any changes be made to the content to accomodate you and players like yourself?
Uhhh.. reduction in weight plume size by 10-15%?

What kind of content would you like to see added in future patches for you to enjoy?
Less titan-likes. Coil mechanics on t1-t4 isnt so focused and punishing on latencies so I'm fine with that. CT's difficulty is a bit too easy for 4-8 man. But for some reason the dodge timings in CT is perfect for me though. I can dodge the last boss's aoe attacks as melee or ranged by reaction just fine.

[Pikachew]

You have 9 level 50 jobs, several 30-40+, and no job less than level 19. And also af2 and allagan gear.


It took all that and how ever much you paid in monthly fees to finally realize that you don't like the game?

Perhaps he leveled all of them looking for that 1 job that would make the game fun.