Would you like an in-game parser?

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Right now it goes something like this: leveling content and roulettes, Shinryu nm, Omega nm, Rabanastre, Susano+Lakshmi ex, Omega 1+2 savage, Shinryu ex, Omega 3+4 savage, Coil ultimate. Do you feel like there are steps missing on the difficulty ladder or do you think the ratio of easy and hard content is not properly balanced when progressing through the (end) game?

If I were to split each into categories, which I'll preface now by saying is entirely subjective...

- Leveling content; roulettes are complete jokes that barely require a pulse
- Shinryu Normal was a decent incline
- Omega normal is, once again, a complete joke
- Rabanastre is... sadly, very easy. I'll give credit to Hashmal, and Mateus has some potential but otherwise it's slightly above Void Ark
- Susano/Lakshmi EX were laughable
- Alte Roite has no business being labelled Savage; Catastrophe isn't much better but would have been an okay entry fight
- Halicarnassus and ExNeo are fine
- Shinryu EX is fine
- Ultimate is so far above everything else, it shouldn't be compared. Even Gordias and Midas veteran will struggle

The issue stems from the amount of easily tuned content verse what comes after. Imagine if Omega normal were reasonably challenging—perhaps to Susano EX levels. Yes, the reward structure needs to change but it allows the more casual playerbase to experience a "harder" fight that will actually prepare them for Savage if they so choose. The gap between Catastrophe and Halicarnassus is enormous. Not just in DPS requirements but mechanical awareness. It's even worse with Shinryu EX as that fight demands competency from everyone. Illustrating how easy Alte Roite was, people in full ilvl 290 gear melded Vit into their accessories and beat him before enrage. He was tuned 30 ilvls below the lowest raid relevant gear. What a lot of raiders found irksome about this is how it crept into our content but I digress. What often happens with fights is these huge jumps in difficulty. Ultimate suffers similarly. Clearing Neo means very little when the tier above it demands 90-95% perfection over almost twenty minutes.

It's those large gaps they need to start closing. Going from V2S to V3S or Shinryu should feel like a gradual incline not a punch in the face. On a lesser example. Should I be capable of clearing dungeon bosses with the healer dead? Because I have. Hell, a few very good players and I managed to mitigate our way through multiple screw ups on Hashmal. Almost the whole three Alliances were dead and we still pushed him. I appreciate the game needs some easy content, and I don't wish to deny it such. Just the amount creates the aforementioned gaps.

Edit: I only just thought of this comparison but look at Titan Hard mode. He actually hurt when relevant yet remained entirely reasonable. Why couldn't Susano normal be similar? Even if they wanted to keep harder content separate from story, then scale V1N with Titan in mind.

Another aspect I didn't touch upon is job rotation. Players are never taught how basic openers work. Hence why you see so many Monks using Tornado Kick on CD. Without a parse, they likely have no idea it's actually hurting their damage.