Artificial Difficulty

[Allyrion]

Case in point, all of it is artificial, it's just when people say something feels artificial they really mean that it feels unfair, cheap, or only difficult in a specific way to waste time. Anything that is a heavy "damage" check can be a time waster so a lot of people put that as being artificial difficulty, for example.

For myself, things feel artificial when the mechanics are brain dead simple and the only thing the group is struggling with is running numbers. That is why I hate enrage timers, instant kill after a certain amount of time, etc. If a group takes longer to kill something they shouldn't get punished for it. The point is to learn the pattern and survive it.

I get that it's personal, but calling it artificial is acting like it's some legitimate category.
Which it isn't if it's personal and different for everyone.

DPS checks are based on mechanics though.
They're based on Job mechanics and how to synergize with your comp.
Numbers aren't just passive, at least not in this game.

Unless it's proven that it's virtually impossible for anyone to do it until passive stat upgrades, then it's artificial.
But hasn't ever been the case.

Not having enrage timers allows for teams to turtle and play it safe the whole fight.
Sometimes leading to silly things like bringing a ton of healers so that once everyone does the fight's gimmick mechanics, you can pass without any fear of dying.
Worse, it trivializes all the optimization and Job mechanics you're supposed to learn.

What's the point of all our skills if we just have to jump through some loops at the right time to win a fight?
You should be good at your Job, and DPS checks are how you test the dps.
Boss damage output is how you test the tanks and healers.

While fight mechanics are important and all, they have little to do with how good a person is at their Job.
If mastering your Job is irrelevant to clearing content, Jobs are pointless.

They have all these mechanics involved and developed to maximize dps, why shouldn't your dps matter other than making the fight shorter?
If you can do that, you're ignoring the most basic mechanics - your Job's.
Enrage timers force dps to do mechanics and master their Job's damage output at the same time.
Boss damage force tanks to do fight mechanics while master their hate and mitigation.
Damage on Tank as well as on other players (and debuffs) test the healers while they do fight mechanics.

Not having enrage timers just let dps slack off or not even needed.
Numbers - healing, mitigation, damage - are all still mostly based on mechanics more than gear.

imo, artificial difficulty is when player ability has little to no influence on the task, but it's still "difficult". In most cases, this is RNG, such as getting a Terra Branford card. It can also be something that's pointlessly grindy, like getting a fenrir mount (or mobs with too much hp). These things don't require any special player ability other than hitting your head against a wall until done. Sadly, this describes the vast majority of the non-combat parts of the game. :/

I agree.
RNG can be a pretty bad gating (like the relic quest sometimes).
It's just worse when you can be really unlucky or really lucky and get an easy run or get that item you need on the first try.

I think good RNG stays within a certain range.
Kind of like the gearing system where you can trade in items for gear.
With Ravana as an example, you're guaranteed a weapon after 10 clears.

While fight mechanic RNG can't be like that, it's okay once it doesn't make or break the fight.
(I.e. one run is cake cause the rng lines up really well while another feels impossible).

RNG needs to still stay within a range so that it's not unfair.