(Spoilers) Ghimlyt difficulty was a step down from the Burn...and that needs to stop

[KaivaC]

At the end of the day, casuals pay the bills. And when it comes to mandatory content, don't forget that Titan Hard mode must be done twice in the story. It's a reasonable difficultly IMO for the most part.

If you want more challenging content, I'll repeat what others have said and say that Extreme Trials, Savage Raids, and maybe even Ultimate is right up your alley.

The thing is, the game shouldn't be split between the mostly easy dungeons (save for a few exceptions) and the endgame raids. There is a rather big jump between the two with absolutely nothing in the middle. I feel like the devs should not be afraid in making some actual, true midcore dungeons. They've already stated that as far as MSQ goes, Shinryu is going to be the absolute hardest that they were going to make a story trial. Which is fine and all, but that leaves the rest of the dungeons that are fairly easy to do, unless the players in the party are woefully unprepared, or are not able to handle it.

There is room for a middle ground between the two (and that doesn't mean giving more trash mobs - actually, we'd need less trash mobs and more rewarding experiences).

[RokkuEkkusu]

The thing is, the game shouldn't be split between the mostly easy dungeons (save for a few exceptions) and the endgame raids. There is a rather big jump between the two with absolutely nothing in the middle. I feel like the devs should not be afraid in making some actual, true midcore dungeons. They've already stated that as far as MSQ goes, Shinryu is going to be the absolute hardest that they were going to make a story trial. Which is fine and all, but that leaves the rest of the dungeons that are fairly easy to do, unless the players in the party are woefully unprepared, or are not able to handle it.

There is room for a middle ground between the two (and that doesn't mean giving more trash mobs - actually, we'd need less trash mobs and more rewarding experiences).

I remember the time back in 2.1 when Pharos Sirius was the hardest of the level 50 dungeons. Because people we're so bad at it, they ended up doing Wanderer's Palace and Haukke Manor (Hard) more often because they were easier to complete for similar rewards. One's mileage may vary for Copperbell Mines (Hard) and Amdapor Keep pre-nerf.

In the end, the reward has to match the effort the players put in. If there are easier alternatives, expect the players to take those routes and ignore the harder ones.

[KaivaC]

I remember the time back in 2.1 when Pharos Sirius was the hardest of the level 50 dungeons. Because people we're so bad at it, they ended up doing Wanderer's Palace and Haukke Manor (Hard) more often because they were easier to complete for similar rewards. One's mileage may vary for Copperbell Mines (Hard) and Amdapor Keep pre-nerf.

In the end, the reward has to match the effort the players put in. If there are easier alternatives, expect the players to take those routes and ignore the harder ones.

Exactly - that's why I'm saying that the dungeons have to be rewarding experiences. We wouldn't know midcore content because the devs have not approached it since, honestly, the Vault. An argument could be made in Stormblood for Bardam's, but really, the main difficulty came in the form of the trash mobs in combination with the ilvl gear up until the second boss. Making harder hitting trash does not equate to a proper difficulty curve, because it's still the exact same thing - gather trash, AoE them down. There are plenty of hard-to-get rewards now that could be offered up in future content to match the difficulty.

[linay]

The thing is, the game shouldn't be split between the mostly easy dungeons (save for a few exceptions) and the endgame raids. There is a rather big jump between the two with absolutely nothing in the middle. I feel like the devs should not be afraid in making some actual, true midcore dungeons. They've already stated that as far as MSQ goes, Shinryu is going to be the absolute hardest that they were going to make a story trial. Which is fine and all, but that leaves the rest of the dungeons that are fairly easy to do, unless the players in the party are woefully unprepared, or are not able to handle it.

There is room for a middle ground between the two (and that doesn't mean giving more trash mobs - actually, we'd need less trash mobs and more rewarding experiences).

Trials and alliance raids exist in between expert dungeons and normal raids.

[Hestzhyen]

Trials and alliance raids exist in between expert dungeons and normal raids.

A lot of the trials are closer to easy than challenging. Just looking at the SB Trials, the only ones that required me to think and react well were Shinryu and Tsukuyomi. Susano'o and Lakshimi were leveling trials, and while actually more difficult than their EX versions due to forced sync, they're definitely no Titan HM. The rest of them I walked in blind to and didn't even die, didn't wipe, just saw the "don't stand here you dummy" mechanics and did the needful. Vast majority of dungeons were like that too. Mind you I main healer, so when a piece of content actually forces me to participate as a healer, it's always a welcome surprise. It's usually the midcore content that does that best- I need to heal, I need to be situationally aware, but I don't have to stress so much about optimization like Savage/EX demands.

Alliance raids are the only content that really hit the sweet spot IMO. Ever since VA there is at least one boss that will punish inattentiveness and lack of skill without making a comeback hopeless. I wish there was more content on that level of difficulty.