So why is brayflox "hard" actually easier than normal?

[Moirear]

Brayflox original story mode is by no means hard. People only remember it that way if there are people in the group making it hard. For instance, what can make it extremely hard is if you have one or more people in the party who aren't on their jobs yet, I've encountered this multiple times and it makes progression through the dungeon very slow and difficult. Or if people do not understand how to play their job, or IMHO, even worse, do not remember how to properly play a job at a lower level after being at 50 for a while.

But out of the dozens over dozens of times I've run and re-run this dungeon on all 9 jobs with FC members and skilled random people, I've never gotten the impression that it was hard. It may not be fast to complete, but it's actually super-easy, and given a decent group you should absolutely have a cakewalk.

1st boss has adds, that's IT. 2nd boss has one single add. 3rd boss has the bubbles to trap a player (but they can still self-heal in them, they aren't completely inert) amd the equivalent of an enmity reset for the last fifth. 4th boss simply uses poison pools to regenerate.

The original Brayflox is the first challenging dungeon in the game, it's the first dungeon to truly test a party's teamwork and every player's comprehension of their roles. However, in terms of how challenging all later dungeons are, it's the easiest.

A decently-geared tank who understands how to grab and maintain enmity, and dodge AoEs directed at them, or how to pull mobs around, will have no trouble. A healer who knows when and what to heal (lots of poison effects, SCH does not have the option but has higher power healing with Eos and is like an extra dps instead) and when to dps will speed it up considerably. DPS need to quickly take down adds or marked targets. All this dungeon does is test your fundamental understanding of the game. With people in your party lacking these basics, it will be a difficult dungeon. But literally every dungeon after it is harder and involves more complex mechanics; Qarn, Cutter's Cry, Stone Vigil, Dzemael, Aurum Vale, etc.

Imagine Brayflox HM with half your party consisting of fresh level 50s or people on their classes instead of their jobs. It would be an even bigger nightmare.