Quote Originally Posted by dspimoni View Post
I found this raid to be immensely frustrating. It seemed like I was dying every 2 seconds. The aoes seemed to be poorly telegraphed, and the consequences unforgiving. I found the story to it confusing, as if I was expected to know everything about N:A going in (I tried the game a while ago but I bounced off of it because it was too difficult to me). Don't think I'll be queuing for this one any time soon.
I don't feel like it's any harder/harsher than previous 24 man raids. Most of the aoes telegraph and handle like typical FFXIV aoes. The exception in this new 24 man is the staggered divebomb/line aoes that 9S does when he flies off in his suit, since that damage/effect is tied to the animation instead of the typical position snapshot. And in terms of overall mechanics and movement, it's actually less punishing than many of the older 24 man encounters. For example, there are a lot less one-shot mechanics (as in mechanics where you just die if you mess up even once, which were pretty common in HW and SB 24 mans).

I've only been through it twice, (first time was in progress, joining halfway through) and most of the mechanics were fairly intuitive and avoidable (with just some quick 1-2 sentence explanations in alliance chat for the last two bosses). A lot of people I saw dying frequently looked like they were essentially ignoring the mechanics, so I'd wager it's likely they were simply paying attention to the wrong thing at the wrong time (and that's normal in a new fight!). Most of it just comes down to situational awareness, and getting more familiar with the fights/mechanics should help greatly with that. I'm sure it will feel better after you try it a few more times and/or get used to things a bit more!