Job Quest woes from a noob

[casker]

*Editing this since people rarely read past the first post, and the flow of the topic has changed*

So, I'm a semi-new player trying to progress through the game normally as if this were the launch of FFXIV. Mostly going solo for story stuff, though grouping here and there for leves and where necessary for dungeons, ifrit, NMs for the ifrit fight, etc. So far I've been having quite a bit of fun.

So I got to level 30 pugilist, then grinded up lancer alone to 15 (bit of a chore tbh) so that I could start the monk quest. I was excited because I saw the quest also offers a new skill! Shoulder tackle! So yeah, I ran off to do the quest asap.

I got absolutely DEMOLISHED.

To be fair, the quest does recommend I bring up to 3 other people. But a lot of other quests have also had such requirements and weren't as difficult. So either way, this is still a difficulty spike, which takes a bunch of grinding to even reach, so I still have a bone to pick with how this is designed.

First off, the imps you have to kill aren't even level 30, they're level 35. Secondly, it seems more tuned to group content, which it says-- but not level 30 group content, level 35 group content. I tried it again, leveled up to level 35, upped my defense as much as possible, learned protect which I had been putting off, used fists of earth to up my defense further, got a new weapon upgrade, still got demolished. This was solo though. However, Wicka has posted also vouching that with a group full of level 30's, the difficulty was ridiculous barely killed just one imp for 5 wipes.

This.

I actually really like party play. So my buddy and I were pretty excited about the light-party recommendation in the quest info. We got a couple of other people and asked them to run as level 30ish classes so the challenge would still be present. We went to do my buddies quest for pally first, and we had him as gladiator, me as pugilist, a conjurer, and a lancer. We wiped about 5 times before the CNJ and LNC went to lvl 50 jobs, and the wipes weren't even close. We had absolutely no chance; couldn't cure fast enough, even our tank's DEF was negligible (to say nothing for my own), and the lancer and my own damage output was laughable. Out of 5 wipes, we killed ONE baddie, and that was after tank died, lancer died, I died, and tank was raised to land a killing blow only to die again.

I love a challenge. In fact sometimes I play games wrong because of added difficulty. I always choose gear that looks cool over gear with better stats (though at the time, the cool gear happened to be the good gear). But the difficulty of the job quests, at least the 2 that I have participated in, seems just ridiculous. If a party that fills most standard party conventions (tank, DD, healer), and is at the recommended level can't even pretend to have a chance, I think it stops being a challenge and just becomes stupid hard.

But I have Monk now, which is awesome. But I dread future Monk quests, and as bad as I want Bard, I am in no hurry.

Just thinking this is kind of strange, and wondering if anyone wants to discuss this, because I can see this being one of those road blocks which cause people to quit, because personally, this feels kinda stupid hard. Why would you possibly recommend a group of 4 for a level 30 quest, if they have no chance at completing it? Are Wicka and co, and I, just crap players? Even though we've gone through the game fine so far?

I know that SE mentioned they want this content to just help progression continue from 30 to 50, which I agree with on paper, but it doesn't feel like this is what they went for. Maybe if this were for 35-50. It feels like they designed this for rank50 people thirsty for group content.

I realize this is an important quest with important rewards, so it shouldn't be too easy either... but it feels like a road block, and this is what I mean:

• I got to level 30, can't do the quest, okay, not a big deal.
• Now I have to grind another class to 15. Not that big of a deal.
• Meet quest requirements, Try the fight, get clobbered. Okay. Not a big deal.
• Grind to level 35, try again, still get clobbered. Starting to get annoyed.
• Now I either have to level up more or find people who earn NOTHING from helping me, to help me do the quest. Add it all up and it just feels like massive pain in the ass.
• For Wicka, assembling a group of 30's was not enough, and eventually resorted to running through it with a 50

Here is a pic. I've got about 1100 max hp and I'm getting hit for 150-220 per hit from each of these dudes.


I know what's probably going to end up happening is a level 50 will run me through it, which isn't exactly rewarding either. *edit, it did happen*