Quote Originally Posted by Gemina View Post
I've only just entered HW, but have been around since patch 3.1. From what I have noticed, anytime something new is tried i.g. Steps of Faith; people hate it due to incompetency from other players. With that kind of feedback, and said content getting nerfed because it is too hard, why would devs deviate from the norm when releasing patches?
While not the most polished encounter to have been made, Steps of Faith itself is probably less to blame for its poor reception than the lack of almost any challenge, altered priorities, or necessary adaptation leading up to endgame. It's precisely because they set the bar low throughout that they'd flattened their future design prospects.

Sadly, the only way out of that is to introduce said challenge, bit by bit, chancing the occasional shock value in order to try to mitigate entitlement and stimulate enjoyment of skillful play. They need to try to merge demographics to some extent, but this needs to always be in a upward direction. Make more casual players take on some of the habits of more skilled players, whether by need (content) or outside training (a novice hall that actually teaches something worth a damn). The top-lying metas already reach downward, whether in practice or merely in reputation—often to universal irritation. Why then should mechanical planning and awareness, often the only core (albeit slight) selling point of XIV combat from fight to fight for who doesn't get the expected kick out of memorized openers, still be limited to the mid and upper players, especially when there's no controversy or conflict involved therein (aside from perhaps the "player preference" of "I'd rather not pay attention to anything")?
Proximal challenge over complacency, ambition over entitlement.