Current State of End-Game Contents - A Blog Post from A Japanese Player

[Gardes]

Thats not really true, there is a lot of pie thrown at you in the entire game. Coils do not equal every single part of the game, lots of the game's mechanics are "You must do this, or something bad happens." I have done a lot of the extreme modes. They are really fun fights!

A lot of low level mechanics are the same.

What's your point? What's the point of adding mechanics to a tank and spank fight when you can just ignore the mechanics and isn't punished for it? What's even the point of designing a mechanic that isnt just stepping out of aoes with "you must do this, or nothing bad happens or whatever, I don't care"?

[Lemuria]

What's your point? What's the point of adding mechanics to a tank and spank fight when you can just ignore the mechanics and isn't punished for it? What's even the point of designing a mechanic that isnt just stepping out of aoes with "you must do this, or nothing bad happens or whatever, I don't care"?

I think you completely missed the point of the original post. Seriously, go back and read it. It's brilliantly written.

The point is that mechanics driven combat becomes a fly-by-numbers and ceases to be any kind of challenge to the people it actually matters to. For the rest of the players, it's an insurmountable hurdle that no bonus gear can get around. Because it really doesn't matter if you're wearing level 100 gear or level 140 gear in T5; if you screw up the mechanics, and you're oh so very dead.

Gear is almost insubstantial in this game. It exists as a barrier between you and high level content, but only as an entry level. With every fight being scripted, you're not really fighting the boss, you're fighting a series of predetermined events.

The point, dear friends, is that there exists a middle ground that everyone's seems keen to ignore. A gradual increase in difficulty for screw-ups. Not every single error needs to be punished with instant death for the party-members.

The sooner SE realize this, the sooner fights will improve not just for the 'filthy casuals' but for the mainstream and hardcore audience as well.