Has it always been like this or...?

[Gyson]

So my question is... has the end game always been this way? Is there no one left who wants to play through the dungeon at a reasonable pace so I can appreciate the content I worked for? Is there nothing that can be done to prevent this sort of content and player abuse? Why does Square reward such toxic behavior? I was practically in tears when I left FFXIV last night and for the first time I actually wanted to cancel my subscription and uninstall. If this is the sort of treatment I have to look forward to, I shudder to think what people will say if I ever play with less that optimal gear or I don't perform perfectly as a tank >_>;

Threads like this make me quite sad, and also make it difficult to recommend this game (which I otherwise like very much) to any of my friends who currently aren't playing it.

Poor attitudes of players aside, in my opinion the practice of scaling down the ilevel of gear in lower level dungeons should be present in every dungeon. I'm not sure why the developers are only interested in maintaining the integrity of the intended challenge only in pre-50 dungeons. I think players would lose a lot of their willingness to charge ahead without everyone else if they didn't outlevel the content by so much.

I also think nobody in the party should be able to prematurely end a cutscene if there's a first-timer on the run. That removes both the stress and burden off the new person and allows the content to be experienced as intended by the designers. Unfortunately, few would probably agree to these things because everyone wants their shinies yesterday (so they can then come here and complain about a lack of things to do).

While it's probably not feasible for everyone, I tackled this problem by scheduling a run for these two dungeons with my guild. Like you, I explained this was the big finale to the story I had waded through for 50 levels, and that I wanted to at least try to experience it properly - not only by watching the cutscenes, but by tackling the run with everyone at an average item level of ~50. My guild was cool enough to help me with this; everyone interested dusted off their artifact gear and through a group effort we got the 8-man party outfitted with crafted gear around ilevel 50 for the remaining slots. I got to experience the end of the story in a very authentic and enjoyable way, and I think it was definitely worth the effort of arranging. It is probably my fondest memory in the game right now.