Game difficulty, syncing, minimum ilvl and new players

[TaleraRistain]

If Square can't make a run through Sastasha engaging, then retire Sastasha. Remove it from roulette and skip the requirement in the MSQ. Requiring content to be engaging really shouldn't be negotiable; content that isn't engaging has lost its raison d'etre.

People rush and speedrun every dungeon, though. I PuG exclusively and even Day 1 the tank is taking off and the DPS are just zerg rushing everything. We'd be getting rid of pretty much every dungeon.

[KageTokage]

I feel like they should always have a ilvl sync in place for all normal difficulty content (Just to whatever the ilvl cap at the time of the content's release was) but make the roulette rewards and first clear rewards higher to compensate.

It doesn't make sense that they only have it in place for dungeons presently, as it means those and the pre-level cap trials tend to be harder then the actual endboss of the expansion.

[LisSquid]

I can see new players being intimidated by the length of the MSQ, but that's kind of the core of the game. I don't believe in skips as this is a mmorpg that's heavy on the rpg. That being said, it's a huge turn off to be stuck in content for so long where you're being dragged along by sync'd lvl 80s shredding everything in front of you.

It makes me sad that you don't see half the mechanics in alliance raids anymore. I had to beg and plead with people to just stick it out after they saw the state of the Crystal Tower raids. I don't know what could be done to old content to make them just a little bit like how they used to be, while not making people trying to do their dailies crazy, but I think it needs to be addressed as the game ages.

Satasha and the like get a pass for being braindead. They're noobies first instances. Running on an alt with a friend through the msq for the first time it felt like noobies first instance all the way up until the late SB dungeons.. Really hit them over the head with a rock when they had to actually press buttons in Holminster Switch!

There really needs to be a gradual ramp up to smooth over the transition from legacy content to current.

[Mahoukenshi]

I can see new players being intimidated by the length of the MSQ, but that's kind of the core of the game. I don't believe in skips as this is a mmorpg that's heavy on the rpg. That being said, it's a huge turn off to be stuck in content for so long where you're being dragged along by sync'd lvl 80s shredding everything in front of you.

It makes me sad that you don't see half the mechanics in alliance raids anymore. I had to beg and plead with people to just stick it out after they saw the state of the Crystal Tower raids. I don't know what could be done to old content to make them just a little bit like how they used to be, while not making people trying to do their dailies crazy, but I think it needs to be addressed as the game ages.

Satasha and the like get a pass for being braindead. They're noobies first instances. Running on an alt with a friend through the msq for the first time it felt like noobies first instance all the way up until the late SB dungeons.. Really hit them over the head with a rock when they had to actually press buttons in Holminster Switch!

There really needs to be a gradual ramp up to smooth over the transition from legacy content to current.

Lucky you. I constantly struggled with avoiding certain mechanics starting HW. Not in every dungeon/trial but famous contenders being Vaults last boss, Gubal's first boss when the ground's frozen and you need to slide past it (it worked once according to an advice on a wiki but weirdly not more after that), Bardam's Mettle second boss and so on XD. At least with Shadowbringers, I had Trusts to follow for mechanics (even though I had "aha!" moments here and there). Not asking for nerfs or so.

[LisSquid]

Vaults is a pleasant exception. I do have an anecdote of having a fresh, brand new sprout tank in Antitower recently who begged me to forgive them for their bad tanking. I told them honestly that I didn't cast a single heal the entire dungeon.

[Takamorisan]

The dungeons after 50 is very fun to engage with. Every game that has some sort of challenge are bound to have a "fail state" , wipe and so on and its not a bad thing to have, unless your public don't want to engage with the gameplay presented at all, but that means there is a whole issue behind the game.
Ah other feedback from my friends that are just my little army of sprouts.The amount of skills are so low for early levels to engage with, feedback to fix this would be presenting the entire basic combo already in the first 10 levels, that would make players adapting to their classes rotation much easier.

So for example, marauder should get storm path and storm eye combo and overpower in early levels, that would make the leveling experience much more fun to engage with. As for the story they don't mind the story itself but the fact the game shove so many unnecessary cutscenes. If they were to prune stuff they would cut all the voiceless cutscenes in the MSQ and would be happy to watch the ones with VA that have more impact on the presentation.

As for pruning the MSQ being a slippery slope for people to complain about the budget investment in the story, I personally disagree. They can keep doing the story even if a new batch of players don't like the story as much as the core public, and the punishment for skipping the story, well you are missing content and not understanding what is happening around you. But at the same time you are building a bridge to facilitate people to get together with their friends in easier fashion engage with the core content. As an old player I didn't mind doing all the MSQ but I can see how the current game structure limits growth of the population, 700 quests and most of then have some sort of cutscene will make people wary to start playing the game.