Artificial Difficulty

[Whiteroom]

I wouldn't say any of the ones you listed are Artificial Difficulty. Its more like giving something a ridiclous amount of hp, or way more damage than can possibly be handled. Also on top of the hp, giving it something like bene. HP just serves to drag the fight out, giving people more chances to mess up, it does nothing to make the fight more difficult in a meaninful way. The too much damage for any relevant gear is pretty self explainitory.

I guess the rng could be considered artificial if it is just random one shots all the time.


A prime example would be open world mobs in HW, the just gave them way more hp and damage, with no benefit to killing them, not even a hunt log.

[ShaneDawn]

:

• DPS checks aka performing perfect rotations

This is just the icing on the cake. You have to remember, that on any of the current Savage content you habe to pull both the dps and mechanics (near) perfect, or at least adequately. The DPS check is there to see if you can perform under the pressure, or if you're the type that can only dance around the mechanics. It also prevents a carry of players that always lie dead, and rolling the content over with extra healers.

This game could use more fights with reactive gameplay. I liked T10 a lot in regards of how it originally played out. I hear too many people arguing that there's no hard content when everything's a game of memorization, but I never see them doing any of the current hardest raids, at least before they'e nerfed.

[Yukiko]

(..) I hear too many people arguing that there's no hard content when everything's a game of memorization, but I never see them doing any of the current hardest raids, at least before they'e nerfed.

^
so true

(..) This game could use more fights with reactive gameplay. (..)

^
Thats dynamic programming, i like to have fights with action and reaction.
When they said they added a FFXII system for bosses i thought we will get some nice combos depending on what we do, but ... i guess they just ment the targeting line.

[Higashikata]

DPS checks aka performing perfect rotations
1) learning a half decent rotation so you can do more than 700 dps in i180 isn't hard at all.

RNG
2) RNG is a staple part of any MMO or RPG for that matter.

Twitch Mechanics
3) Ok, so you don't like twitch mechanics, you must be the kinda guy who likes to memori-

Scripted mechanics aka memorization
4) So you don't like doing and you don't like learning fights?

Team jump rope aka finding 8 people who know the fight
5) Oh my stars!!!! I have to play with people in a freaking MMO?!?!?! what was SE on when they decided to put multi-player content in an MMO?

Content gates or lockouts
6) These aren't even hard.

Sounds like OP got called a baddie and went to the forums to list off things he doesn't like for some reason.

[ElHeggunte]

The only thing I'd really consider artificially difficult would be the overworld mobs in the Heavensward areas.

[Zephyranthes]

Not putting contents in Duty Finder is Artificial Difficulty.

[Havenae]

It means implementing complexity for the sake of being complex rather than the sake of making content challenging. Complication != Heightened Difficulty

and by the way.. the original post wasn't him listing things he doesn't like. He was listing the general topics of threads he'd seen 'artificial difficulty' mentioned in.

Apparently reading comprehension isn't a strong point for many of you.

[Deathgiver]

Just to point out, I'm not the one that thinks the things in the initial list are artificial, I have just seen them mentioned. Personally, I really think that strict gear checks are the only artificial difficulty in the game.

[Bloody]

Artificial difficulty is, as several others have said, when player skill is minimalized or removed as a factor of success or failure, and is instead based heavily on gear checks (hp, dps, etc).

Memorization, adaptability, reflex, rotations are all measures of a player's skill and thus things that create the difficulty of an encounter. Having mechanics based on having X amount of HP or being able to do an amount of DPS that is unachievable without certain amounts of gearing is what adds artificial difficulty to an encounter, but this game is designed to have tiered gear and tiered raids.

[StrejdaTom]

Memorization, adaptability, reflex, rotations are all measures of a player's skill and thus things that create the difficulty of an encounter. Having mechanics based on having X amount of HP or being able to do an amount of DPS that is unachievable without certain amounts of gearing is what adds artificial difficulty to an encounter, but this game is designed to have tiered gear and tiered raids.

I agree with you.
In my opinion Artifical Difficulty related to DPS check can be only DPS check that is impossible to pass with gear that is obtainable at this moment. Currently anyone should be able to do A1-A3 savage, and if we aren't able to clear it (I am at 8th wave in A2s at this moment) it only means we aren't as good as others (or our raid mates aren't) and we should improve. Problem is, that some people like to blame nonexistent artifical difficulty for their bad performance (I do mistakes in my rotation under pressure too), instead of thinking why it is possible that some people cleared the same content with worse gear than they have. But it is like talking to a wall, you can still meet people who have ilvl180 gear and can't or won't do T9, because it is not difficult, it just stacks ridiculous amount of mechanics and it's just "artifical difficulty".