Risk Factor. Can I have it?

[Geesus]

Totally Agreed, Avraym.

Case in point: as a lvl 5 Pugilist I can aggroe 4 lvl 5 Chigoes at once and take them out unscathed in my reindeer outfit.

FFXI: an "Even Prey" mandragora in windhurst could kill you if you weren't being careful, no links fully geared for that matter.

Lack of difficulty and challenging content has been brought up time and time again, and, essentially ties into the sense of accomplishment. There is no sense of accomplishment when a friend can power level all your battleclasses to 40 in one week, and then you go and kill Ifrit 100 times to obtain 7/7 ifrit weapons. It just feels tedious and repetitive.

Leveling in Natalan against wolves 45-50 is a case in point. With a Full Party of 8 those wolves go down so quickly yielding 700-1200 exp per kill, the levels just fly by so quickly there is hardly any sense of accomplishment or dedication involved. People don't really feel like they have "mastered" anything much less have any "skills" seeing as a player can literally afk to go cook dinner and come back 30 mins later having gained a level. This scenario would have been unthinkable in the first few years of FFXI.

This is not a post asking for FFXIV to resemble FFXI any more than it already does, but rather a simple comparison and analysis of the basic differences involved in leveling and experience points gain. And yet, the same can be said in regards the main quests, and missions.

I would prefer content that is 10x more difficult to accomplish with 1/10th the repetition involved.

And what does making the content "harder" do for your sense of accomplishment? Do you think those people, like myself who have done Ifrit idk... like the 50 times this weekend and haven't gotten drops makes it feel like I accomplished something? Sure wolves are cake so what? At least I'm actually playing the jobs unlike others who get PL'd all the way there and have no idea how to play their jobs. Same issue with Mana burns and such in XI. Making it more difficult to kill something doesn't induce a feeling of accomplishment personally but having it easy doesn't either.

As for your example of your PUG ... dare you to ask a new player with no idea how 14 works if THEY think doing that is easy or hard. lol For you and I with jobs leveled such as Con for Cure or other jobs we can drop abilities into, sure we can run it naked and survive but that doesn't mean it's not challenging. Freaking Swarms are STILL a PITA compared to other mobs especially 1 or 2 lvls above you. But Marmots, may not be.

So I'm curious why for you Matsume, why does making something incredibly hard make you feel like you "did" something?