A little scared of the future

[Vahlnir]

It takes me maybe a week to level a class to 70, but I need 1 - 3 months until I can play it on a decent level.

You level so fast and because the gameplay is not complete for many classes before you reach 70, and the whole mass pull and aoe it down is more or less a new thing at level cap wich was not that present during the level process, you will not be able to learn how to play before hitting level cap.

I would in all honesty just smack a training dummy around for a bit at lvl 70, so that even your AoE rotations become muscle memory. That alone helps. But looking up a guide outside of the game goes a long way too. Once you know the inner workings of your class things become much easier. As far as dealing with mechanics? Yeah, not really any other way to learn than to be baptized by fire. That comes back to knowing your class as well, so you know what you can do, when you can do it and how often.

[Lumadurin]

There's no reason a dungeon should give useless gear that's 40 points BELOW what we are currently wearing if you even casually play this game.

I'm just gonna chime in and say this is usually done in consideration for new players who are currently leveling so that they can progress in ilvl slightly. Or people who have been unsubbed for extended periods of time.
At 50/60, and eventually 70 in 5.0, players will likely be equiping some of this gear as they go along unless they have a friend who can sugar-daddy them with HQ crafted equipment. Because it's unlikely they'll have a backlog of 2k+ Poetics to get a full set of enhanced Ironworks/Shire/soon-to-be-Rakshasa gear. They also won't have access to anything better (short of buying HQ [X]4 or higher off the marketboard) until they reach the next expansion pack and start getting gear from vendors/the MSQ.
Dungeon gear has never been for people who were BiS/tome-geared in the recent raid tier if I recall correctly.

That aside, itemization and power progression in XIV is objectively bad, yes.

[Bright-Flower]

Dungeon gear could stand to be a little better I guess, but I see its main use as to help bump people up to the ilvl threshold of the new normal mode raids and trials, rather than competing with them. So the current ilvl doesn't really bother me.

[KaivaC]

I wanted to give this particular dungeon a try as a healer before actually commenting in this thread, since I didn't understand why there were so many complaints against the Mist Dragon in general. So I did, as an AST with my gear level sitting at 346 when I queued into it. Personally, I think this is where difficulty should have been started, beginning with Kugane/Temple of the Fist. My personal run through the DF (and I will note, my other three party members were random) wasn't too bad: it required a tad bit more healing than what I was used to in dungeons, but nothing that screams at me approaching 'hard' difficulty. So my thoughts that I made in my other thread still stand - the Burn is honestly not that difficult, even as a healer as long you know how to decently play your job well enough.

Even in events where two party members die (which happened to me) due to the double 8-directional AOEs, and then eating a Rime Wealth after, I feel that at this point, all three healer roles have enough tools to still keep the last remaining member alive (like a BLM in my situation) while slowly raising the other two party members. Though I am happy to hear that OP has given it another run and found it a bit better than their original post suggested, I feel like there are still too many players who are trying to fight this level of "difficulty", when this is generally where it should've been immediately after fighting Shinryu.

[Kirsten_Rev]

I wanted to give this particular dungeon a try as a healer before actually commenting in this thread, since I didn't understand why there were so many complaints against the Mist Dragon in general. So I did, as an AST with my gear level sitting at 346 when I queued into it. Personally, I think this is where difficulty should have been started, beginning with Kugane/Temple of the Fist.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Also, it's worth pointing out that MMOs have not traditionally permitted people to simply prance through the storyline immediately upon release. There's nothing wrong with difficulty that forces people to gear up for a little while before attempting brand new content. For me personally, there wasn't any need to gear up at all - like you, and others, I didn't find The Burn (or MAH) to be all that difficult - but for people who do get overwhelmed by the mechanics, just hit the pause button for a month. Go accumulate Genesis Tomestones with easier Roulettes and Beast Tribe quests. Then come back with significantly better gear, and try it again.

[ko_]

I'm just gonna chime in and say this is usually done in consideration for new players who are currently leveling so that they can progress in ilvl slightly. Or people who have been unsubbed for extended periods of time.
At 50/60, and eventually 70 in 5.0, players will likely be equiping some of this gear as they go along unless they have a friend who can sugar-daddy them with HQ crafted equipment. Because it's unlikely they'll have a backlog of 2k+ Poetics to get a full set of enhanced Ironworks/Shire/soon-to-be-Rakshasa gear. They also won't have access to anything better (short of buying HQ [X]4 or higher off the marketboard) until they reach the next expansion pack and start getting gear from vendors/the MSQ.
Dungeon gear has never been for people who were BiS/tome-geared in the recent raid tier if I recall correctly.

That aside, itemization and power progression in XIV is objectively bad, yes.

That's the problem right there. Stop catering to people who leave your game.. yes I said it. DON'T DO IT.. cause it literally gives us the worst power creep in the game. We'll barely get content with teeth if they keep doing this.

[Sylvina]

If theres not a decent way to catch up in item level you end up with a mass exodus and no new players.

[van_arn]

If theres not a decent way to catch up in item level you end up with a mass exodus and no new players.

The MSQ itself is the problem for new players at this point. You need to clear 400+ boring-ass fetch quests to begin to matter, and that's going to cause the exodus.

Not difficulty.

[Sylvina]

The MSQ itself is the problem for new players at this point. You need to clear 400+ boring-ass fetch quests to begin to matter, and that's going to cause the exodus.

Not difficulty.

The only boring part of the MSQ is the part between ARR and HW.

[HyoMinPark]

The only boring part of the MSQ is the part between ARR and HW.

Beginning of ARR is really slow, too. ARR itself doesn’t really pick up until near Garuda. Ifrit’s storyline is kind of okay, but the Company of Heroes quest chain is literally nothing but filler and fetching.