Is it even possible to make an even harder raid?

[Danbo05]

Contrary to belief that final coil was ezpz, I believe it's more so that the hardcore playerbase has just gotten that good. And with savage final coil coming out, they're likely just going to get much better. So is it even possible to make the next raid in 3.0 even more difficult? Without throwing in broken mechanics like prenerfed twisters?

[Snugglebutt]

Of course it's possible, they could make an encounter have a hundred phases of which each phase lasts 5 minutes then randomly switching to another from that 100 phase list, could take 10 hours to complete due to insane high boss health plus making every hit or skill a one hit kill on the players...but I hope they do not and any hardcore who hopes they do will never complete it without hacks or cheats.

[Staris]

Easily. In fact it can be done many different ways.

DPS/Healing/Tank checks that are more tightly tuned with max available gear rather then min available gear. If they were tight enough they would never be beaten until people fully farmed poetic/earlier turn drops for each step. Though this would alienate a huge % of people who could never perform well enough to maximize effectiveness.

Longer fights / & / or more late phases. Fight length increases the time it takes to learn each phase of an encounter. For example If it takes 20 minutes to get to the last phase... rather then 5... it will take exponentially longer for any group to learn each later phase (especially pre guide). It will also increase the opportunities for people to make mistakes each pull. Long fights with late phases really tend to kill player interest when in sub par progressing groups with low amounts of progression time, and long enough and you would kill all but the most dedicated of players motivation.

Larger party size. If you keep the same tightness of dps/healing/tank checks but increase the party size, the potential for mistakes increases for every single pull. It also becomes harder to recruit the number of people, harder to organize mechanics and resources, harder to get everyone's internet to not randomly lag, ect ect. Normally devs just make content easier for larger parties and the logistics make them seem harder.

Faster reaction time checks. Matched with poor netcode would alienate slow minded / laggy / bad computer / ps3 players. Even if netcode is improved... many people think they are far faster then they really are.

More "random" scripts. An increased in the randomness of an encounter would increase difficulty for groups that rely on guides, memorization to overcome an encounter. But contrary to many peoples beliefs (see lag/slow minded peoples posts on titan) it is possible to beat many encounters without knowing what will come next. It would just require faster thinking and adapting players, and far more time spent, than is the current standard for this game. Remember random scripts can also be easier... when things line up right...

Novel mechanics. Mechanics outside the norm can also increase relative difficulty. For example if a fight reversed mechanics of the game and our dps spells healed fellow players and our healing spells hurt the boss.... peoples highly practiced norms and rotations would be thrown out the window and require a whole new subset of skills to learn. Which while interesting would hurt the casual player far more then anyone with time to relearn things.

In the end I think the current setup is very well done. Although being so close to the line means sometimes fights will be too easy.. and sometimes too hard.. to any group below or above the norm.

[stoxastic]

You can always make the fight harder in many ways. Boss does more damage, has more life, faster enrage timer... There could also be very difficult mechanics they could possible introduce that require faster reaction time and adaptability.

They shouldn't though, because then the encounters would be much too difficult for players outside the .1%. If they tuned T13 to required perfect dps @i130, the fight would be impossible to beat by anyone outside of the very best raiders. That's not good for the game at all.

[Vladislav]

just take 1 to 4 or even more "new players" with you and even t1 will be hard .

[Delorean]

we need moar chainsaws to juggle on slippery ice with our laser jump rope pls

[Nicobo]

Simply jusy apply iLV sync on these contents or for example make the enter requirement as AF1. ^^;

[Trixxy]

Now matter how good someone is at the game, learning and memorizing unique mechanics will always offer a challenge. The only subject in which you could easily plow through on your first try, if you were a skilled player, would be DPS checks.

[Garlyle]

Could raids be harder? Yes. Of course they can. They always can. Whether that actually constitutes a good experience or not though is another question entirely.

[Yumi_umi]

Just add in rng. Like pure rng and not stuff like if u do this then the boss will only aim at a random dps.
Also make a fight include that ppl who are marked with this debuff has to die or they will explode and wipe the raid within 1 minute lol.
So the stacks of weakness/ brink of death will start making the fight harder as the fight progresses.