Why does EVERYTHING have to be aggressive?

[Vhailor]

As I said, this is a small, almost negligible issue in the long run, but I do find that it impedes overall enjoyment. Does anyone else feel the same way?

Yes, I do.

I thought FFXI did this a lot better. The different types of aggressiveness (low HP, sight, sound, True Sight, True Hearing, magic, etc.) gave monsters throughout the world an extra layer of depth, especially when factoring in the independent linking behaviour. Couple that with the lower monster density and the real risk associated with drawing attention to yourself, and it felt like monsters were aggressive for a reason beyond annoying the player.

In FFXIV, there is very little reason for aggressive monsters beyond player annoyance. Aggro does not seriously threaten a player character, nor are there serious consequences if you do somehow manage to die. There's no variance in terms of how monsters detect you, nothing that helps to uniquely define certain classes of enemy. It's just an irritant.

Also, I think a lot of the reason it felt so rough in Heavensward is that monsters were damage sponges. Despite not feeling remotely dangerous, the average monster also took quite a long time to die (playing as a White Mage).

Edit: Sorry for the off-topic reply, but wanted to address something else.

I'm sorry, but this an extremely overly grossed exaggeration. I played FFXI for around 11years. From NA launch up to near the launch of SoA expansion. I can say for certain, it's the same there as it is here. The key was to make friends, find a good Linkshell, and have people at the ready in order to do stuff. You had to actually communicate and find people with similarities and such, friend them, actually do stuff more than once with them, and then you'd have a group at the ready to do content.

This is very different from FFXIV. In FFXIV, there is no need to make friends, no need to find a good Linkshell, no need to have people at the ready in order to do content (with Savage Raids being pretty much the only exception).

That's not to say people don't benefit from doing these things, but because they aren't forced into it (primarily the fault of the Duty Finder and cross-server parties), it's much more difficult.

FFXI and FFXIV differ in much the same way as in-person office work and working from home. There are benefits to both, and having co-workers or friends to chat with definitely improves one's day to day experience, but it's much less natural when working from home.