Flaws of the combat system

[Vahlnir]

Opportunities for individual players to stand out are purposefully crushed at any opportunity.

Except for, you know, Savage. And Extreme. And Ultimate. I think you are overexaggerating here a bit.

[Jeeqbit]

We can't have tanks actually taking damage because that means their lives are in the hands of the healer. We can't have support DPS actually supporting because that means the encounter is harder if they just refuse to do it. We can't have Esuna have any purpose whatsoever because the existence of an Esuna-able debuff comes with the existence of a healer, somewhere, that won't dispel it.

Tanks don't take damage (in dungeons specifically) if they don't pull much. They have the choice to make themselves take damage and be more in the hands of the healer by pulling multiple packs. In other content like trials and raids it's just not true that tanks "don't take damage" because they usually won't stand much chance of soloing those.

Support classes can support, and it does prevent people dying or increase their damage if used right. If they "refuse to do it" then what happens is an unnecessary death happens or the fight takes longer.

Esuna is not necessary in almost any dungeon or normal content. In O4 people die if healers do not Esuna on Doom, but they usually just res them instead. Esuna can be important in savage when it releases, but that may not be noticed if the content is done late with better gear.

In Savage, if someone fails a mechanic, either they blow up or the entire party wipes, because recoverable mistakes create a skill gap between bad healers and good ones.

Recoverable mistakes just make it easier. That is why extreme is easier. There are more opportunities for you to recover.

So does randomized damage, which is why encounters are designed to be so scripted the healing and tanking portions can pretty much both be done completely blindfolded.

Scripted fights mean you can feel good at it. I like to be able to confidently say "I know the fight" years later. If it's random then it could be a completely different fight the next time.

[Rinhi]

People will often only look from their own perspective. Rarely do I see 'all these dungeons are so boring and easy' people acknowledge that it may not be 'boring and easy' for everyone. In fact.. it'll usually be higher end players who then also try to make the point that 'make it all at least twice as hard and punish people for failing' will supposedly make people less bad.. all the while mocking people who do find some things more challenging.

dungeons are boring and easy and should either get harder or get harder variants
sincerely, a casual, non-higher end player

[AnnRam]

Jobs aren't a problem.
Dungeons,trails,raids are extremely easy and can be done even with half the people being new. Mobs are nothing but big HP sponges.

[ReynTime]

I would argue the biggest glaring flaw of the combat in the game is how its completely reliant on boss mechanics to have any level of encounter variance at all.
Anything that isn't a boss or elite mark is excruciatingly tedious to fight because you fight them the exact same way. Only their animations differ.

[kiagenwa]

Get a party full of sprouts and you can see the struggle.

Tanks who don't know how to pull aggro
DPS who don't know rotation
Healer who don't know how to keep party alive

As MMO game it's important that content reach out to as many players as possible.
You can get challenges in non-roulette instances (savage/extreme/etc.).
You can lower your ilevel intentionally as a challenge. (never mess up your rotation, though)
Or, you can have fun on things other than combat (glamour, crafting, fishing, exploring, etc.)

But remember, you're playing with potential sprouts when you roll roulette and everyone just wants it quick.
Even sprout themselves want to abandon dungeons when it gets 'too hard'.
I agree that the game now is too easy, but I also think the devs lowered the difficulty for a reason.

The way they kind of 'force' us to do the daily may also contribute to game's success.

[Moonlite]

OP is funny some of the stuff suggested has been removed over the years. The vision of this game and what's OP vision are polar opposites.

[Leonus]

Why not impose handicaps on yourself. I do it to spice things up. There are ways to make content more challenging if you do so yourself. Many won't like the idea though.

[Boizinho]

Except for, you know, Savage. And Extreme. And Ultimate. I think you are overexaggerating here a bit.

Nope. Including those.

Even in Savage, there is no way for individual players to make any sort of awesome run-saving move that makes them really stand out as an individual. The only thing you're allowed to do, as any role, is squeeze out some more damage. Which the TOS discourages you from ever seeing. As a result, a competent player and a great player look almost identical without third party tools.

Tanks don't take damage (in dungeons specifically) if they don't pull much. They have the choice to make themselves take damage and be more in the hands of the healer by pulling multiple packs. In other content like trials and raids it's just not true that tanks "don't take damage" because they usually won't stand much chance of soloing those.

It's true that tanks take by FAR the most damage while mass pulling in dungeons, but I highly disagree with you on Savage as someone who does it as a healer. Outside of tank busters, you can basically just ignore the tanks. Boss auto-attacks are a complete joke, and tanks have enough personal mitigation and healing for healers to fall asleep until either a tankbuster or raid-wide cast bar appears; their 5-second warning that they will have to heal something soon. The most auto-attack damage tanks take in Shadowbringers outside of Ultimate is probably Diamond Weapon lol

[Garnix]

If the story-mode content was any harder, people would be complaining a lot more IMO.
The bad players would stay bad, and it would just feel worse to carry them through it, and it would make a lot of your roulettes more frustrating.
As someone stated above, the only real thing we need is a hard mode for dungeons. Trials have them, raids have them, dungeons should have them too.