The Dead Ends is yet another error in the push to make everything hardcore

[Imora]

1. It's the last dungeon in the MSQ. It should be more difficult than the rest.

2. The hardest part about the dungeon was the mob pulls between bosses.

3. Literally every mechanic in all three bosses was visual AOE indicators. You would have to be visually impaired to have any problem with them. Apologies if you are visually impaired.

4. No boss in The Dead Ends uses an Exaflare.

Dude, I'm legally blind and still see the markers.

[Imora]

Wanted to upvote, but the insult to people that are visually impaired could have been left out. Ableism isn't kind.

As someone who is legally blind, I did not take it as an insult.

Stop taking offense for others. THAT is insulting.

[Rinhi]

As someone who is legally blind, I did not take it as an insult.

Stop taking offense for others. THAT is insulting.

that's his whole gimmick

TitanMen has at least 9 Alt accounts.

I mean, just look at other troll threads of him, people do fully believe and agree with the crap he posts, tbh

[Krotoan]

What is funny about this, if someone looked at my posting main, they wouldn't see my other main. You wouldn't be able to tell I have 1 healer, 1 tank, Ninja, All Ranged DPS (Physical and Magical) at 90. When you see my posting main, you will realize I haven't logged into her since the expansion dropped, moistly because of queue times, but also because I am focused on getting my other main completed first.

If you've been active on the forums for a spell you'd know there's a certain circle of botted accounts that one (or possibly a few) user uses to make forum alts and posts exactly this sort of drivel on. You even seem to know their name....

Qualifications: One job at max level , usually a healer. All crafting at max, miner and botanist at max and barely anything in other jobs. Maybe 10-12 on something else (notice all their non max jobs are right at or slightly above unlock level). The other dead giveaway is the ONE person FC.

I'm not making this claim lightly or sporadically. There's a formula and this poster hits all the reqs.

I mean, just look at other troll threads of him, people do fully believe and agree with the crap he posts, tbh

That's their whole thing, they pick something controversial that a minority probably agrees with and posts the worst take, along with technically possible or plausible arguments for it presented in the most close minded and worst way possible.

[Avidria]

Wanted to upvote, but the insult to people that are visually impaired could have been left out. Ableism isn't kind.

I mean, he isn't wrong, and I don't necessarily see that comment as an insult, or at least probably (hopefully) not intended as one (against folks with vision issues anyway). I am visually impaired, and I do struggle to see certain mechanics in game. Certain fights are a nightmare because of it. The butterflies on the last boss of Dead Ends is actually one of the things I had issues with for a while, because they're all the same color and also the same color as the ground, but my friend pointed out that there are arrows on the ground under them that are a darker orange color, and now that I know they're there it's much easier for me to read the mechanic.

I've been throwing my hat in for SE to make things less flashy and visually cluttered for years, but that's an issue with the game overall and not necessarily with the difficulty of this one particular dungeon.

Edit to add that I think most of the indicators in this dungeon are actually fairly clear. The two that are less so are the butterflies, because color matching nightmare, and the wind that pushes aoe's on the first boss because it might not be clear at first what the wind is gonna push (since similar mechanics have also pushed the player in the past). The red aoes on the second boss can be tough to follow, but that's more a fault of the explosion effect blocking so much vision imo - if I was gonna want one change in this dungeon, it'd be to tone that down some, but otherwise I've been dealing with it by angling my camera down toward the ground to see the markers better. The only other changes I could even see them making that imo could make sense would be making those aoe's a little slower and a little less flashy, and possibly making it more obvious that the doom on the first boss is a doom (I'm a dps main and have a bad habit of tunneling so I actually didn't know it was a doom myself until somebody pointed it out). I don't really think it needs to change, but also wouldn't be opposed to small things like that.

[KikiTia]

There are visual indicators. Stop looking for orange aoes and start looking at what's actually happening around you. See drones lining up around the boss pointed outwards? That is probably a lot of cone/line aoes or a donut aoe. See rotating aoes around the arena? Follow behind a set and you won't get hit. See red aoes moving outwards in a line with small safe spots? Stand between the first set and then move before the second set hits. Ignore the flashy indicators and focus on what is actually happening. It is a far cry from Extreme/Savage content, I promise.

[Lemuria]

I've seen more wipes in Keeper of the Lake, no joke. Which is to say, I've seen several wipes in Keeper and zero in Dead Ends. People seemed to struggle more with tree doggo in Don Mheg than with Buff Lazer Turret in Dead Ends, at least from what I've seen so far.

Press X to doubt.

While I'm in total agreement that it's really not as difficult as the OP claims, there are several points that throw a lot of players off.

1. There is literally a doom mechanic on the first boss which isn't obvious unless you mouseover the ailment (needs to be Esuna'd). I've seen healers focus entirely on curing the damage from the puddles and not realise impending death was coming up.

2. Second boss scatters a ton of AoE all over the place. This includes those diagonal lasers while still trying to dodge circular AoE around the edges. No Future also dumps a ton of overlapping AoE markers which almost inevitably catches out at least one player and deals a fair amount of damage. The lasers also have a much bigger hitbox than you would anticipate from the size of the glowing orbs. Melee get caught out by this a lot.

3. Another doom mechanic (this one requiring you to restore HP to full) in the final boss as well as high raid-wide damage (Warm Glow).

I've run this dungeon a fair number of times on different jobs, so I've seen it from all three angles. Tank, DPS and heal. It is, in my opinion, the dungeon which catches out the most players on their first playthrough - especially if going in blind. I agree it's far from extreme trial fights, but I do feel it's a bit disingenuous to completely disregard their arguments. Personally, I enjoyed the greater challenge. No worse than the final dungeon of Shadowbringers MSQ overall (can't count how many kept falling off the arena on final boss there!), but I can at least understand their points.

[Xtro99]

I mean, I'm also visually impaired and i have no trouble running dead ends. People get mad because most of the bosses have instant death mechanics that will most likely catch you off guard the first time you walk in. My best friend is a Perfect Legend healer, and he seemed dead in the water the first time we ran the place, we wiped like 5 times total by the time we had figured out every mechanic in the dungeon.

The only mechanic I legitimately have trouble seeing on the floor is prance. So I have to improvise and hope to only get hit once, save a heal to survive the subsequent AoE and hope for the best.

[Avidria]

Press X to doubt.

While I'm in total agreement that it's really not as difficult as the OP claims, there are several points that throw a lot of players off.

1. There is literally a doom mechanic on the first boss which isn't obvious unless you mouseover the ailment (needs to be Esuna'd). I've seen healers focus entirely on curing the damage from the puddles and not realise impending death was coming up.

2. Second boss scatters a ton of AoE all over the place. This includes those diagonal lasers while still trying to dodge circular AoE around the edges. No Future also dumps a ton of overlapping AoE markers which almost inevitably catches out at least one player and deals a fair amount of damage. The lasers also have a much bigger hitbox than you would anticipate from the size of the glowing orbs. Melee get caught out by this a lot.

3. Another doom mechanic (this one requiring you to restore HP to full) in the final boss as well as high raid-wide damage (Warm Glow).

I've run this dungeon a fair number of times on different jobs, so I've seen it from all three angles. Tank, DPS and heal. It is, in my opinion, the dungeon which catches out the most players on their first playthrough - especially if going in blind. I agree it's far from extreme trial fights, but I do feel it's a bit disingenuous to completely disregard their arguments. Personally, I enjoyed the greater challenge. No worse than the final dungeon of Shadowbringers MSQ overall (can't count how many kept falling off the arena on final boss there!), but I can at least understand their points.

I mean by all means doubt me, but I really was just sharing my (of course anecdotal) experience. I've seen groups wipe to trash in Keeper and Don Mheg, I've seen groups wipe multiple times in a row to the first and last boss in Keeper, I've seen groups fail to deal with the tethers on Tree Dog in Don Mheg and wipe more than once because of it (despite me explaining what to do), etc. etc. I mean I've also run both of those dungeons more than this one, maybe I've just been lucky so far, but I've seen and had less problems with Dead Ends than I have with other dungeons in the past.

While I'm, again, 99% sure the OP is trolling, just based on their other posts on page 1, I also have acknowledged the dungeon has some tricky mechanics. I just also think saying it's egregiously more difficult than any other dungeon in the game just isn't true, and to say it's indicative of a trend toward making story content "hardcore" is disingenuous at best and absurd at worst. (Edit to clarify I'm not saying that's your claim or anything, just... in general. To the thread and the sentiment of it)

[Warlyx]

For players who just want to do the story, there should not be mechanics that you only see in Extreme or Savage. What is Square Enix thinking putting all these ridiculously difficult mechanics in a dungeon boss like Exaflares or the second boss's ridiculous amount of AoEs? The issue is there is no obvious tells for what the solution to the mechanics are and they are totally new so unless you look up a MrHappy or MTQ guide there's no way to know how those mechanics work. After so many people complained about Mist Dragon and The Heroes' Gauntlet how come Square Enix still insists on making dungeons harder and harder? Please stop lol

dungeons are there to teach u raid mechanics too u know