Can we get challenging 4-man content?

[Raikai]

They don't even have to create new instance for 4man. Just look no further than Guildhest. Copy, paste, adjust some values, add a little spice of life and congrats: you now have Guildhest Expert, your daily 4man challenge.

Hm! It would be nice if Guildhests got "revitalized" as a concept for 4-man challenging content. Though, I think just a copy paste would be a really low quality job. For that to be on par with their EX content, they would have to add new mechanics and whatnot... So why not to use the resources to just make brand new fights?

[Jeeqbit]

You can try those dungeons minimum item level, which can make them a lot harder. You will probably beat them but they will sometimes make you think and involve deaths because the enemy damage is higher.

You can try doing 8-person extreme trials as an undersized party of 4. Some of them can still be challenging with only 4 people, so it can still be something that you overcome together.

You can also try POTD from floor 101, HoH and Rathalos as others pointed out.

[Raikai]

You can try those dungeons minimum item level, which can make them a lot harder. You will probably beat them but they will sometimes make you think and involve deaths because the enemy damage is higher.

You can try doing 8-person extreme trials as an undersized party of 4. Some of them can still be challenging with only 4 people, so it can still be something that you overcome together.

You can also try POTD from floor 101, HoH and Rathalos as others pointed out.

Those dungeons are still pretty easy, unless the party constantly fails in avoiding the AoEs.

The second suggestion... This one is pretty good, and might do as well to keep some busy time, but still it would be nice to have current content with proper rewards for the challenge.

This is for me personally, so won't really apply to everyone out there, but I've had my fair share of PotD and HoH runs already - because it was my go-to challenging 4-man conten... I can't really get myself to go through those floors again. Not that I find the challenge boring, but seeing the same thing over and over again gets old. Plus, not really a breaking point, but it adds: I really hate some pre-ShB job kits <cough> BLM <cough>.

[MPK]

I wish. Too bad the casuals in this community will not let it happen

[Jojoya]

It's easy to say "I want more hard content to do" but few players participate solely because they enjoy the content. Long term participation tends to be motivated by rewards.

Would you maintain interest in the harder content if all you were earning was a handful of tomestones a week?

[Awha]

It's easy to say "I want more hard content to do" but few players participate solely because they enjoy the content. Long term participation tends to be motivated by rewards.

Would you maintain interest in the harder content if all you were earning was a handful of tomestones a week?

Yeah especially if it had a timer tied to it, I would play the crap out of that with friends to try and optimize the run.

[ItMe]

It's easy to say "I want more hard content to do" but few players participate solely because they enjoy the content. Long term participation tends to be motivated by rewards.

Would you maintain interest in the harder content if all you were earning was a handful of tomestones a week?

Admittedly, no.
I would enjoy the content and run it occasionally for enjoyment, but like any dungeon or raid after a few runs I'd mainly be doing it for the reward, and the game already showers us with tomestones.

Heck, I thoroughly enjoy the Unreal fights and I only get about 6 clears in on each.

[Nafreyu]

I do feel like harder content should be available for people that want it though, and that harder Dungeons are a good way to create accessibility to do it.

I would only do it if the loot was pretty enough, or worth my time. But lots would still do it.

[Allegor]

Semi related, but unskippable cutscenes aside, I did like the "8-man dungeon" concept the MSQ tried doing and wish there were more dungeons like that, though it's highly unlikely at this point.

Now on topic, I'm up for hard mode dungeons, since we can all agree that aside from story purposes, they're really just there for glamour farming. That said, I'm vehemently against timers like WoW's M+, that's just inviting toxicity.

[Jonnycbad]

Without adding something like Pomanders/Mega-Potions or other gimmicks, any "extreme" or "savage" 4 man content just puts added difficulty on specifically the healer. Because if they die, in which case, RDM becomes a popular DPS choice because of Verraise. There's also a hard limit on how difficult or complex mechanics can be with only 2 dps 1 healer and 1 tank. Stack/spread/look away/move/don't move. Like what else can you really do? Since you only have 1 healer, unless you add temporary items or special actions, it puts extra stress on the healer more than the dps and tank.