Stop dumbing down FF14

[HardcoreRaider]

To acquiesce with the inane demands of casuals, everything in this game is being dumbed down to a level where a four year old can complete without difficulty. The only thing that requires any brain cell to do is now Ultimate.

Remember when Savage raids actually took more than a day to clear? Remember when crafting isn't just one-button macro that you copy and pasted from The Balance?

Job difficulty is gutted across the floor. Healers are now a two button job, one 30s DoT, one glare/malefic/broil spam with the occasional healing/utility ogcd weaved in. In Heavensward, healers needed to juggle Cleric Stance, and almost half a dozen DoTs in their DPS rotation. Today's Lv 80 healer is easier to play than Heavensward's Lv 60 healer. Tanks had to care about aggro, and jobs such as ninja had to actively help with aggro management. This resulted in creative applications of aggro management such as getting a healer to take one of the earth shakers in O4S with the combination of good tanking and good ninja play. Aggro management is now a one button afterthought.

Crafting and gathering are dumbed down to the extent that while Ironworks Cap of Crafting could fetch a hefty 2M on the market board in Heavensward, an Aesthete Cap of Crafting could barely fetch 90k gil. Because anyone and everyone can craft, including bots. They removed half of the crafting skills, and so-called Expert recipes are easier than the shortcuts you could take with Whistle While You Work all the way back in HW and SB.

Dungeons are nerfed over and over again. How many times have Steps of Faith been nerfed? Compare Pharos Sirius, an ARR Lv 50 dungeon to The Heroes' Gauntlet. Even after the nerf, you see more wipes in Pharos Sirius, something everyone easily out-item-levels by an expansion's worth, especially on the first boss, than in The Heroes' Gauntlet. Dungeons have gotten progressively easier and easier. There are more mechanics in Pharos Sirius's Siren boss than the entirety of The Heroes' Gauntlet.

Even Savage is dumbed down. There are now only 2 hardcore raids per expansion, compared to what is supposed to be 12 per expansion.

Stop dumbing down the game, you're making this game unfun and everything in this game other than Ultimate is now a snoozefest that people can sleepwalk through.

[Cyreil]

I'm impressed at how many accounts you seem to be paying a subscription for. I can see why you aren't banned now.

Nonetheless, you're the minority and you have a clear obsession.

[Raikai]

Ironically the game seems to be doing pretty well...

[ADVSS]

OP just wait until they do pve combos like they are in pvp. You think snoozin through dungeons is boring now, wait till all the jobs just hit the same button to do their combos

[Packetdancer]

OP just wait until they do pve combos like they are in pvp. You think snoozin through dungeons is boring now, wait till all the jobs just hit the same button to do their combos

I recognize this comment is almost certainly hyperbole at best, and possibly outright trolling. But you know what? In all seriousness, I'd actually prefer that to the current behavior where existing skills are removed and rotations gutted to make room for new ones in a given expansion.

Yes, I recognize that if no skills ever went away or were collapsed down, hotbars would be unmanageable. But I think jobs suffer greatly at lower levels as a result of skill condensation; if you were to try to clear the Coils of Bahamut synced down fully now on scholar (i.e., synced both on level and synced to minimum ilevel), I suspect it would be a great deal harder than when it was current, if only because scholar has fewer things they can do at level 50 now.

Sure, I don't entirely like the idea of making one button that cycles through Keen Edge, Brutal Shell, and Solid Barrel on GNB, or that toggles between Demon Slice and Demon Slaughter for the AoE rotation. I.e., instead of 1, 2, 3 for single target or whatever you just press 1, 1, 1. Anything else aside, that's just not as satisfying a rotation; I mean, the reason GNB has become my favorite tank to play lately (sorry, DRK, you'll always be my first tanking love) is that Gnashing Fang -> weave Continuation -> Savage Claw -> weave Continuation -> Wicked Talon -> weave Continuation just feels good as an action flow.

But if it's a choice between collapsing existing rotations down to one button so they cycle through the steps as you unlock them, versus stripping skills out entirely to make room for new ones? Then yeah, I think I might actually prefer condensing some of the core rotations down to one button there.

[Seddrinth]

If it weren't for OP and his 10 accounts posting entertaining threads every day in the forums, I would never even check this place.

[Vyrerus]

I recognize this comment is almost certainly hyperbole at best, and possibly outright trolling. But you know what? In all seriousness, I'd actually prefer that to the current behavior where existing skills are removed and rotations gutted to make room for new ones in a given expansion.

Yes, I recognize that if no skills ever went away or were collapsed down, hotbars would be unmanageable. But I think jobs suffer greatly at lower levels as a result of skill condensation; if you were to try to clear the Coils of Bahamut synced down fully now on scholar (i.e., synced both on level and synced to minimum ilevel), I suspect it would be a great deal harder than when it was current, if only because scholar has fewer things they can do at level 50 now.

Sure, I don't entirely like the idea of making one button that cycles through Keen Edge, Brutal Shell, and Solid Barrel on GNB, or that toggles between Demon Slice and Demon Slaughter for the AoE rotation. I.e., instead of 1, 2, 3 for single target or whatever you just press 1, 1, 1. Anything else aside, that's just not as satisfying a rotation; I mean, the reason GNB has become my favorite tank to play lately (sorry, DRK, you'll always be my first tanking love) is that Gnashing Fang -> weave Continuation -> Savage Claw -> weave Continuation -> Wicked Talon -> weave Continuation just feels good as an action flow.

But if it's a choice between collapsing existing rotations down to one button so they cycle through the steps as you unlock them, versus stripping skills out entirely to make room for new ones? Then yeah, I think I might actually prefer condensing some of the core rotations down to one button there.

Even if you silenced echo and synced down, Binding Coil would be hella easy these days due to the increased potencies across all jobs an the fact that every tank has mitigation out the booty hole. Granted, level 50 rotations are only slightly more boring than they were back then, and I don't like the skill pruning either, but old content only gets easier.

The one exception to this was the first tank nerf in HW. Tanks lost 218 ATP and gained a ton of HP they didn't need. Made groups still working on the tight Gordias DPS checks unable to clear suddenly. Good times.

[ADVSS]

Even if you silenced echo and synced down, Binding Coil would be hella easy these days due to the increased potencies across all jobs an the fact that every tank has mitigation out the booty hole. Granted, level 50 rotations are only slightly more boring than they were back then, and I don't like the skill pruning either, but old content only gets easier.

The one exception to this was the first tank nerf in HW. Tanks lost 218 ATP and gained a ton of HP they didn't need. Made groups still working on the tight Gordias DPS checks unable to clear suddenly. Good times.

man i remember those days, i used to go on tirades about no longer being able to str tank. But the hp jump was kind of funny

I recognize this comment is almost certainly hyperbole at best, and possibly outright trolling. But you know what? In all seriousness, I'd actually prefer that to the current behavior where existing skills are removed and rotations gutted to make room for new ones in a given expansion.

The funny thing is that at one time i actually wanted this to happen, but after they pruned down several jobs(mainly the tanks)I feel like it would make the jobs even less insteresting to play than they already are. Might not be so bad for some DPS, though SMN maybe DRG. if its optional i like what they did for RDM by just combining skills like verthunder/aero to just become verflare/holy when the combo req is met.

[Vyrerus]

man i remember those days, i used to go on tirades about no longer being able to str tank. But the hp jump was kind of funny


The funny thing is that at one time i actually wanted this to happen, but after they pruned down several jobs(mainly the tanks)I feel like it would make the jobs even less insteresting to play than they already are. Might not be so bad for some DPS, though SMN maybe DRG. if its optional i like what they did for RDM by just combining skills like verthunder/aero to just become verflare/holy when the combo req is met.

That's what I want, more skills that morph. They've shown they can implement it with stances, level, and combo reqs now, so it's totally doable!

[ADVSS]

That's what I want, more skills that morph. They've shown they can implement it with stances, level, and combo reqs now, so it's totally doable!

yeah i do like that just as long as they dont go pverboard with it. then it would be nice to a degree.