Please scale the difficulty of Royal Menagerie

[Chiami]

Lets face facts: Royal Menagerie, in terms of difficulty, easily is on the level of some Ex Primals.

The thing though is: Many people never do Ex Primals. They have no interest in that, they don't have the time to practice their FFXIV job endlessly, they have, you know, lives.

Yeah, I can hear already all you really expert players say "but it's not hard, leave it as it is" and "but the finale of the MSQ should be hard", just as "but once you get better gear in a patch or two everyone can faceroll it" or even the atrocious "git gud".

But no. There is a considerable part of the player base who MASSIVELY struggles with Menagerie, and that is even without disabilities or health issues or latency coming into play, that make some players UNABLE to ever beat something of that difficulty, period. And telling people to wait until they get better gear, which is difficult to get if you don't finish MSQ, also not okay.

People who play FFXIV only casually (the majority, and that.is.okay) also deserve to enjoy the MSQ instead of having this massive source of stress and frustration at the end of the story line.

Don't get me wrong here, I managed Menagerie just fine, but the amount of wipes I see in there is ridiculous. And I know people who due to health issues are all but kept from finishing MSQ thanks to this. Not.Okay.

Therefore I think it would be good to tune down Royal Menagerie for MSQ, and keep the current difficulty as a "Hard Mode" option, maybe even to chose from "normal" and "hard mode" right away as you enter it the first time to finish your MSQ. That way those who want a challenge to finish the story of SB can have that, and all the players who would struggle with hard mode (or unable to finish it at all) can enjoy the end of the MSQ without stressing out or quitting out of sheer frustration.

[kupokage]

Where does it stop. SE gives an inch, playerbase asks for a mile next time. They should never had touched Steps of Faith. Its an end boss. Its supposed to be hard. Deal with it.

[Destatiredux]

If there was so many people who haven't cleared the Royal Menagerie you'd see it prevalently in the trial roulettes, and I haven't had it pop there but maybe once since I got to 70. You don't see it in PF that often either. I think you're grossly overestimating the "considerable" number of people who don't or can't clear the fight. When I played the Royal Menagerie, I only saw as many people wiping to it as I saw with Susano and Lakshmi. Besides, at this point you're level 70. Supposing you haven't used a jump potion, you've fought innumerable runs of every other primal and trial that the MSQ has thrown at you at the very least. It's exactly the time for SE to expect some proficiency from endgame players.

[Mavrias]

I'd like to point out that you probably haven't done many EX trials if you think Royal Menagerie is on the level of one.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Difficulty on the Royal Menangerie is fine as is. If a mechanic is new to you because you pretty much skipped everything before SB and you die from it. Learn from it so it doesn't happen again. The rest is learning how to be aware of what is going on.

[MicahZerrshia]

I'd like to point out that you probably haven't done many EX trials if you think Royal Menagerie is on the level of one.

Ahhh beat me to it.

But to be fair we know its gonna get nerfed. This post is exactly why we cant have nice things. A couple ppl have problems and suddenly its a considerable problem for the community...and the casual playerbase blah blah blah. I'm casual too and beat it with nearly no effort.

And the disabled thing...I see youtube vids of people missing limbs and playing with their toes who are still passing worse trials. Stop using the disabled as an excuse so you do not have to try.

[AphraelAmarantha]

EX trials are way harder than Royal Menagerie. Tbh, I actually think its easy, cleared on first try when I got to it in the msq. No wipes, all randoms in DF. I honestly think people are way blowing this trial out of proportion.

[HyoMinPark]

Every skill used by Shinryu in Menagerie are from the HARD MODE primals (Ifrit, Titan, Garuda, Ramuh, Shiva, and Leviathan). Since all of those trials are mandatory for those who have completed the ARR MSQ (and didn't use a story-skip potion), you should be more than familiar with them and their mechanics-especially since, 9 times out of 10, Trial Roulette pops with an ARR Hard Mode primal fight (in my experience anyways). The only mechanics that aren't present in a previous MSQ trial is the Akh Morn tether, which is from T13, and the adds that cast Death Sentence, which Death Sentence was present in T5, and even those are simple enough to figure out: massive damage > tanks should stand next to each other > share tether > split damage, and for Death Sentence > kill add before cast finishes; it's fairly obvious from the "Death" in "Death Sentence" that the skill is bad news. If parties can't figure it out, a simple explanation will do.

The difficulty is fine as is. It's the final boss of an expansion, and it's already getting easier and easier for parties to power through the tougher patches because we're already out-gearing it. Please stop asking for content nerfs.

[emrys_h]

I've only been playing the game for a few months now, but the most disappointing thing I've encountered so far was Thordan NM. I'm not sure it if was nerfed post-release or something, but that fight was so insultingly easy that it left a bad taste in my mouth all the way up to Sohr Kai and Final Steps of Faith. From what I've seen of the EX (I really need to get around to doing it), it looks like one of the most badass fights in the game.

Overall, I think Royal Menagerie is a good medium between these two extremes. It has a lot of mechanics, but they're all ones that you ought to know by that point in the game. As a result, I find myself looking forward to the inevitable Shinryu EX because I'm interested in seeing how the devs expand on the existing mechanics while also adding new ones, rather than as a bandaid to fix a boring fight. Further, I'd like to add that the difficulty of Royal Menagerie ties into the story itself. Every sprout that's rushed through the MSQ up to that point should be able to feel like clearing RM was some kind of accomplishment, or a capstone their learning of the game. Lowering what difficulty IS there would ruin what is supposed to be the ending of Stormblood's MSQ.

[Frizze]

A good group can carry a dead DPS through the entire fight without trouble(not sure about a healer, tank would be tough). If you can be dead for the entire fight and still win, then no level of casual-ness, no disability and no latency issues make it impossible to clear the fight. Now i recognize that few people enjoy being carried, but nothing in this fight demands perfect rotations or knowing your class to the nth degree either. He has 15 attacks. Like 5 are just damage, so the only ones who need to worry are the healers. The rest you just need to know where to stand. It doesnt take a "really expert player" to know where to stand. Watch a video, ask your group, pay attention to what killed you, or just follow all the other people when they run to the right spot. Hell, put up a PF group and try to get a couple ringers with your bonus tomes and second chance point so you dont have to worry about a disorganized DF mess if you want.

But no. Dont nerf this fight. Anything beyond the echo(which will probly show up in 4.1) is too much.