Quote Originally Posted by Eclipse12187 View Post
I realize now that you say this, but ifrit HM and Titan HM (as well as Garuda hm) are optional
Was this changed at some point? Or was it just a thing of "required to unlock them, not to clear them"? Cuz they're definitely some degree of required by 2.5.
Quote Originally Posted by Iscah View Post
There is no "normal Coil". It has one unlabelled difficulty, which equates to Savage.
In fairness, second coil does have a savage mode.

OP, at this point, I'd just as soon advise stop fretting over skill or difficulty or anything and just roll. If you find HW dungeons/trials too difficult when you get to them, you can either keep practicing on them when you get there, to learn the mechanics of the fight you're struggling with, or you can roll back to earlier fights to see if you've improved at all.

I kinda get it. If you feel you're struggling in HM fights, you at least want to feel like it's not going to be a struggle the whole way through. Gear ought to help with that. Maybe you'll improve some while practicing. But it can also be said that just progressing and leveling will also provide more skills you may need to practice with to learn where they fit in rotation, or just skills that improve your survivability outright.

Synced EX/Coils is content designed for players trying to approach optimized. Which isn't to say it's a bad goal. Just, walk before you run. And recognize that it's bonus difficulty, beyond comparable story content.

If you're looking for a gauge of next expansion difficulty, you truly need look no further than the required quests and trials leading up to it. As EX/Coils are not required, they're not a good gauge. The HM fights, maybe. You've got a few more trials and a couple dungeons before you even make it to expansion (and the first 3.0 dungeon is optional besides). That's plenty of time to get a feel for where your skill level is at before you hit the next milestone. Trying to tune yourself to EX difficulty is just above and beyond.

Still, if you can get a group together for it, could at least be some fun. Quick way to discover if there's anywhere you can improve your healing/rotation.