This game prepares no one for raid/hard content

[Crasherino]

I've been playing the game for a good few months now, I've got through most raids and did the new nier raid last week which is all fine and dandy, but then I got to thinking again about leveling up dungeons, end game dungeons, and then comparing them to raids and ext trials etc.

Leveling up, the game holds your hand in such a way in that you're not even slightly prepared for end game content, mechanics used in raids and ext trials are changed in such a way in that the player has absolutally no clue what's happening to the degree where they can't go "ohhhh right, I should of done this or that", you spend your dungeon/journey to 80 staring at orange markers on the floor or seeing a boss doing a very telegraphed mechanic, whereas you can go into a raid like Dun Scaith and not have the slightest clue what's happening regardless of how many times you do the mechanic "wrong".

I think what baffles me the most is why there isn't an easy mode of some of these raids before throwing people into what is basically the hard version, in which the telegraph for a big damage mechanic ends up being a "look at the small boss spread its wings in a certain direction and avoid being in line with it", it's fine having a gigantic boss move it's massive arm back before swinging down 1 half of the arena as it's "obvious" enough to learn from it once its happened, but even then, I go back to the whole "you spend your dungeon/journey to 80 staring at orange markers on the floor" to suddenly just dying out of nowhere and wondering why.

Don't get me wrong, I'm fine learning dungeons, and I've done most the content fine, I'm simply making a post on my confusion about the inconsistency with this game and the random sporadic difficulty in dungeons, raids and trials, such as why is the nier raid actually quite easy compared to some of the previous raids? after 2 nier runs I thought "ok I've learnt all the mechs with relative ease", yet I can go back to older raids that I wasn't about during their release and still have trouble with some of them.

[Canadane]

But most endgame fights do have an easier mode.
And while I agree some mechanics aren’t taught beforehand, that’s part of each fights learning experience.

[NekoNova]

The "easier" mode you're looking for is either part of the MSQ, making it really easy, or is done at release of those raids through dutyfinder.


The extreme and savage content is optional, which is why it's way harder than the normal versions.
They're mean for the people focused on clearing this content, but is not mandatory for anyone just willing to play the game and see the story.

[TheMightyMollusk]

The game does have a difficulty curve. Compare the ARR Hard primal fights to the Heavensward trials (aside from Thordan), then compare those to Tsukuyomi. It IS gradually training you to take on harder content.

[StriderShinryu]

I think Trusts are actually a pretty decent way for the game to teach some of the more complicated mechanics in a safe environment but it is true that there are some pretty weird ones in the most difficult fights that you just have to sort of figure out on your own. Then again, that need to just figure it out is part of what the top tiers of players enjoy so if the game did explain everything it would actually likely diminish their enjoyment.

[EnigmaticDodo]

Uhh the game does attempt train you for this, its just up to you to receive the training and learn from it. If you do the normal versions of things and then go into EX or Savage, there are some new mechanics, yes, but a lot of them are just attacks without the massive tells. The animations remain the same, you just have to look at it and decide from there. I feel like you're complaining about titania here. On her normal, the 'stay close' one has her staff spinning over head and the one near her has her wings extended. This animation is EXACTLY the same in EX. Try looking for more than just massive orange bits on the ground.

[Crasherino]

I feel like you're complaining about titania here. On her normal, the 'stay close' one has her staff spinning over head and the one near her has her wings extended.

Not complaining about Titania at all, I feel both her fights are easy enough to learn with a youtube guide and a few attempts at best.

My "gripe" is simply how the game throws things at you in some situations which ends up feeling like a confusing mess and it's not easy to tell what exactly it was you did wrong, I used Dun Scaith as an example as that's one of the more harder ones for random instance match groups to do, at least that's what I feel like anyway what with my rare encounters with it and how there was a lot of damage takings and deaths happening.

[Gemina]

If you're comparing savage content to dungeons, then no. The scale in difficulty is far too vast. You probably want to spend some time in some EX trials before that. And before that, it's probably a good idea to get the NM encounters and alliance raid mechanics down. See where I'm getting at here?

Savage/EX content in all honesty should have very few mechanics from the NM encounters because they are scripted, and players want a new fight to learn. They do introduce new mechanics and phases, and old mechanics are made more difficult by taking away telegraphs, making them more punishing, and overlap. I actually think the way difficulty scaling is handled in this game is done quite well, but it has been a lot of trial and error for the dev team to get to this point, but the playerbase is also very diverse, so I don't put the blame entirely on them.

Dungeons are basically our sparring partners. Nothing too serious, but can sometimes take you by surprise and hit you hard unexpectedly if you let your guard down.

[Exiled_Tonberry]

The game does teach you, very well in fact. It's hard to properly see this until around HW, but each fight from there on has a normal and harder savage difficulty.
If you pay attention, a lot of mechanics in these savage versions are actually modified from the normal difficulty, they'd hit the same but have no aoe indicator, or have an added mechanic/debuff on the attack.

And then, a lot of it is just you learning the fight. That's completely up to you to do that on your own.

[linay]

So, maybe this is unusual, but sometimes, I simply ask the group what I did wrong if I can't understand a mechanic. Going with your example of Dun Scaith, I could not figure out the AOE pattern of the second boss as I usually focus on myself (as a caster main) until someone point out to me about matching the colors.

With alliance raids, the arena are big enough that you may not notice everything, and that's when communication can help. In fact, communication can solve a lot of problem in many group content, from guildhest to ultimate. It's a multiplayer game, so take advantage of other people as you don't have to try to figure out everything by yourself.