Alexander Normal difficulty...

[Priwia]

Guys, there will be stuff to do for every kind of player in the new raid.

Q：You've mentioned that Alexander Normal is for people to relax and enjoy the story, does that mean they'll be cleared within a day or two?
Y: /em nods.
Q. Was Hard mode made with WoW's Mythic raids in mind?
Y: We're actually calling them Heroic internally.
Q.Does that mean there'll be something even harder?
Y: Depends on the players' clear rates and requests.
Q. So Alexander was made with player clear rates in mind?
Y: Yup. Looking at the number of player clears, we also have something called Content Costs where we basically want our content to be enjoyable by more people.
Q. How many levels?
Y: 4.
Q. Will there be higher IL requirements and more gimmicks as we go up?
Y: Yes. We designed it with what players considered fun between all 3 coils.

So, based on the Q&A, we will have a "Normal/Story" mode really easy (just for the story), and a Hard Mode for the raiders.
If the Hard Mode is too easy, they will add another mode, for the hardcore raiders.

I think its good enough.

[Viridiana]

Who said NM would be faceroll? Majority of players still can't clear or consistently farm FCoB in pugs and even more can't do it without being in full i130 on top of echo. If we're talking about FCoB + Echo levels of difficulty and not LotA/ST/WoD, then it will be geared towards the middle group.

A disconcerting number of people still can't do steps of faith or WoD in pugs, despite both encounters being ridiculously easy. Whether or not this game's pugs can clear something is no indication of actual difficulty. >_>

[KarstenS]

Today he expanded on this and yes, hard more is the equivalent of SCoB savage:

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...d_other_stuff/

The text on reddit is

Q. How hard is Alexander Hard?
Y: About as hard as FCOB Savage ← ?!?!?!

and leaves much room for interpretation.

And in earlier questions he confirmed again what I wrote in other threads

Q.Does that mean there'll be something even harder?
Y: Depends on the players' clear rates and requests.
Q. So Alexander was made with player clear rates in mind?
Y: Yup. Looking at the number of player clears, we also have something called Content Costs where we basically want our content to be enjoyable by more people.

I think the clearing rates they have in mind are similar to actual FCoB.

[gorezilla1]

Am I to understand that they're eradicating the midcore from raids now too?

Alexander Normal IS mid-level raiding.

[Felis]

Today he expanded on this and yes, hard more is the equivalent of SCoB savage:

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...d_other_stuff/

Q. How hard is Alexander Hard?

Y: About as hard as FCOB Savage ← ?!?!?!

FCoB Savage =/= SCoB Savage
And only the devs know how hard FCoB Savage is before they tuned it down for our FCoB normal mode.

[Jarinolde]

Alexander Normal IS mid-level raiding.

Alexander Normal is EASIER than current Coil, and current Coil IS medium core raiding. Therefore there is technically NO medium core raiding in the expansion, only casual and hardcore.

[Gardes]

Alexander Normal is EASIER than current Coil, and current Coil IS medium core raiding. Therefore there is technically NO medium core raiding in the expansion, only casual and hardcore.

Personally I thought hardcore would be clearing coil within 3 months of coil intro while midcore clears within 6 months while casual clears during echo. Though apparently my estimation seems to be two grades too high for most people. Would people still attempting t9 right now consider themselves to be midcore? Really?

[Chibilidawg]

Alexander Normal IS mid-level raiding.

No, from the sounds of it ("cleared in a day or two" & "to relax and enjoy the story), it's straight up easy-mode.

And Alexander Hard will be overly difficult for a mid-core player (equivalent to "FCoB Savage").

Point is, the game desperately needs 3 difficulty tiers (for raiding, at least).

Dungeons have their easy, leveling counterparts & the tuned-for-level-50 alternatives which are quickly out-geared (turning them easy very fast, because a lot of them are mechanically light).

24-Man's just have their one easy difficulty (same as dungeons, quickly outgeared & becoming "zerg tower" in no time).

Primals are just perfect I think... except I think this game needs to implement a much harsher ilvl sync on its hardest difficulty settings (e.g. EX Primals).

I would say pre-nerfed, non-echo SCOB was perfect raider midcore.

Now, it's important to note that "raider midcore" & plain midcore are very different.

When I say raider midcore, I'm emphasizing some sort of effort put into accomplishing the raids, gearing for it, & forming up.

Midcore in general tries to keep their gear in check I would say, caps their Poetics for the week at least, but doesn't necessarily min-max to the extreme or contemplate the meta or strategies in their sleep. This' partly why I wouldn't consider the 50 Dungeons or the 24-Man's midcore due to them turning into zerg-fests pretty quickly as a result of their mechanical lightness. Maybe pre-nerf Pharos could count but that's about it for 4/24 Content.

I typed this in a major sleep stupor just as I awoke so I'm probably not giving the best or clearest picture, but this gives you an idea.

Implementing EX Dungeons, a third Raid Difficulty, & Savage 24-Mans would be PERFECT.

[Teuciont]

Implementing EX Dungeons.

This would be an absolutely fantastic feature.

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

While i do agree with you, i don't necessarily think they should just add more difficulty levels to alex. I feel they need to add more things like the Ultima HM and Odin (Urths Fount), kind of fights for a more medium level of difficulty. Maybe have 1-2 mechanics that will kill people instead of 8+ like in coil.

Let's hope in future content patches we get more stuff like that. Unfortunately in 3.0 endgame is gonna be slim pickings.