Quote Originally Posted by TirionCrey View Post
If a group of 6-7 playere are able to finish it(even with more difficulty) the whole purpose of balancing it around 8 players is stupid. Endgame in XIV is gonna be tuned for 8man PTs. You knew that since the Letter from the Producer from the beginning of the year...if you're now getting "angry" about that, go figure...I'm not against being able to ENTER the dungeon with less than 8 people, cause that requirement seems kinda strange...but in all honestly...they shouldn't be able to beat it with less than 8ppl...maybe get some stuff done in the dungeon, but if they are able to comlpetely beat with less than 8, the whole "difficulty and challenge" debate would go out of hand. Its tuned for 8 and its gonna be difficult for 8, making it possible to beat with less than 8, makes the whole reason of it being tuned for 8 obsolete.
I don't think people are upset that the dungeon is "tuned" for 8 people - it's that you can't enter otherwise. I think people are drastically overlooking the disparity in player skill in FFXIV (and really any MMO). The reality is, good players can accomplish tasks with much less players than mediocre/bad players. See: any FFXI endgame activity. So if the content is tuned for 8 average players, 8 good players are going to steamroll it. And I really mean that. I can't think of many FFXI events that top tier linkshells couldn't do with half the maximum available players (or even less). Now, I admittedly don't know how this will translate to FFXIV. Obviously since the maximum number is only 8, it may not mean 4 good players can clear the content early on (but who knows).

So, simply saying "if it's designed for 8 means it shouldn't be able to be cleared by 7" is much harder to implement than many people think. With the exception of using silly tricks like 8 pressure plates to unlock a door. But that won't change the difficulty of the actual encounters.