Old content has become so easy that it is no longer fun

[SDaemon]

EW was the first expansion were I felt the dungeons had 0 challenge at launch. Most other expansions typically the dungeons had a bit of difficulty on release but End Walker had such a small gap in ilvl from 80-90, you can go through the entire expansion with the tomestone gear from SHB and never upgrade until you get the 89 set. End Walker was the first expansion where people started off the expansion with wall to wall pulls with 0 issues, as well. Every other expansion I have played that did not turn out well at launch. The actual bosses did not really do anything new or exciting from what I had seen. I don't know if the devs have lost inspiration but out side of savage, most of the EW content has been pretty bad IMO. I hope they can do better in the upcoming patches but after SHB I have doubts.

I think your holding older dungeons on a pedestal they don't really belong on. I can't recall any launch dungeons causing memorable difficulty. In Heavensward, unless you had an AST, you were pulling wall to wall in Neverreap and Fractal. Ala Mhigo and Kugane Castle were jokes on Stormblood launch as well.

[Ayche]

Here is the thing. This is not about "challenge" to me.
For all I care, story trial bosses could do zero damage for all I care, it is all about the pacing and shape of the old trial fights in current overgeared world. New players cannot even rock to the Leviathan second phase theme before it ends 5 seconds later.
New players don't get to see a cool trial boss spell resolve before it is over.

The gameplay sections of the story are being SKIPPED. And that is what makes it a shame. You know, this is why many other games that do "story mode difficulties" have god modes, but not instakill weapons.

[PyurBlue]

I think the unreal difficulty should be expanded to include nearly everything. Scale up old content to whatever the level cap is and let people take on that challenge for fun. Even if the difficulty of lower level content was increased, the class abilities at those levels would still be a simple, and in my opinion at least, pretty boring.

[ReynTime]

Nah, older dungeons, ARR in particular, DO DESERVE to be in a pedestal.

Why? Because at the very least the team still cared about making different dungeons stand out from each other. And they did so in different ways beyond the path layout of dungeons.
Even the most linear dungeons in ARR had at least one progression or trash gimmick to make the experience feel unique to that dungeon. I mean what even IS the point of making dungeons if the only difference between them and the overworld wilderness is that you're forced to use a party and you have boss arenas?
Good dungeon design makes more than just boss fights differentiate one from the other. Otherwise they're essentially the absolutely same hallway simulator with a different wallpaper, and everything between boss fights becomes irrelevant. With how they've been designing dungeons now you could cut everything between bosses as interactive - just have the party automatically run through a short hallway, open the chest automatically, between each boss arena - and I assure you the people who would complain would still be a minority. Because none of it adds to the experience of any dungeon. Only exception in the last two expansions have been the final base MSQ dungeons where they at least try to make trash more dangerous.

Boss fights have been consistent, but that's the only consistent pve content they put any effort into.

[Erendis]

Return Syrcus tower to it's former glory!

[negiman4]

There's lots of outright liars in this thread. When SE does balance changes, 95% of the time it's potency increases. It's pretty rare for SE to actually lower potencies of skills. And yes, while this game was always rather easy when it comes to dungeons, raids, and alliance raids, you're straight up lying if you say there's little to no difference between the levels of difficulty of content now vs when it was released, or that it doesn't matter. It was never this level of faceroll, and it absolutely does matter.

In fact, I can prove it. I run a raid group comprised of almost entirely new players that's completely dedicated to running old savage-tier raids @ MIN IL, No Echo, and completely blind (except myself). Link to a playlist of our clears so far below. Mind you, all of these clears so far are PRE-SQUISH. As you can see in our videos, we're consistently skipping phases, never once coming even close to failing a dps check or enrage. The fights are still tough, for sure. But as someone who did these raids back when they were relevant and vastly exceeding the min IL requirements at the time, these fights were still much tougher back then because you still needed exceptional dps to meet the enrage timers. Nowadays, even at MIN IL/No Echo, that's not even close to true, and it's all because of the balance changes over the years always favoring increases to potencies, not to mention the fundamental design overhauls a lot of the classes have undergone since then as well (MCH, DRK, SMN, MNK).

Actually, we're working on A8S right now. (We just beat the robot quartet today and made it to Brute Justice himself!) In the very first phase, we actually have to actively slow down our damage output because we end up pushing the phase during legislation if we don't, making the mechanic impossible to do sometimes and we end up wiping. For a fight that was "the first Ultimate fight in FFXIV", that's not a good look when you can actually just REAM Onslaughter so badly that he decides to throw an almost impossible mechanic at you.

So, if the lack of difficulty is felt in the most difficult content in their respective xpacs even with every handicap imaginable enabled, then that massive imbalance surely exists in more casual content. The most infamous example of this is Glasya Lebolas, whose mechanics haven't been seen by anyone in almost 7 years.

The funniest part about all this is, it's a really easy fix. Just give older bosses like, idk, 10%-20% more HP? The bosses and enemies still hit plenty hard. Tank busters in savage still hurt a ton, as they should. Everything just dies way too quickly, even with all the handicaps turned on. Literally all they need is some extra HP so that all their mechanics are at least seen. Nobody's asking for Syrcus Tower to require Discord to coordinate mechanics. I just want the fights to be more engaging. I don't mind doing old content as long as I'm still required to put forth at least a minimal amount of effort into clearing them. Otherwise, they're boring and I avoid them if I can. I groan every time I get Syrcus tower in roulette because it's just so... goddamn... boring... But I squeal with delight when I get Rabanastre or The Weeping City of Mhach. They're still easy, which is fine, but at least I'm required to actually do something.

MIN IL/No Echo/Blind Coils+Alex (Savage) Clear Videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...a60lXzAsMJiKDH

[LilyPendragon]

Sometimes I wonder if these threads are from people who truly don't know how to play their class or just do everything on autopilot.


Dungeons were always really easy content. Yes, even their hard mode or expert roulette. As long as you know how to actually play. That includes that you know how to recognize and do mechanics and how to execute your rotation.

OP: Game is too easy

You: Maybe you just don't know how to play

Does not compute

Because the Devs are trying to TELL a story, not trying to make you replay ARR for the 123th time.

And we're trying PLAY a game, not watch an interactive movie.

It's not much to ask to have old content have a higher requirement than 'Have a pulse, maybe.' Seriously there's nothing even at the high level of play that provides a decent challenge to average players, you either play all the easy stuff ad nauseum, or play savage. Obvious choice for me, but not everybody wants to do savage.

This game is far, far too easy for 99% of the time; players don't get challenged enough so they don't learn. Is it any surprise you have things like tales from duty finder, or people ruining pf's for groups because they have absolutely no idea what they're doing?

Not asking for everything to be savage, or even extreme, level difficulty, but it should have higher entry requirements than a body temperature slightly higher than room temperature and an IQ above zero.

[gotaname1]

TIL: Aurum Vale has become 'fun'

[Somnolence]

Yesterday I got Chaos in raid roulette. He died so quickly new players would not even got a chance to see his tornado phase.

[Jettinson]

TIL: Aurum Vale has become 'fun'

The funny thing it is not even hard, avoid bad pee and eat the funny fruit.
1st part with mobs is what scares people lol