What happened to 8-man raids? Binding Coils was so elaborate compared to now..

[DynnDiablos]

You know, recently going through Binding Coils of Bahamut and Alexander, and I have to wonder...what happened to Normal raids these last few expansions?

They used to have such intricate level designs, the story interwoven within those various raids, and they just were so much more elaborate. Now it is simply loading into a square or circle zone.

Why? I get budget constraints, but if they could do something as memorable as Binding Coils, why can't we get that back?

[TheMightyMollusk]

Stormblood turned them into trials-by-another-name and it stuck.

[DynnDiablos]

Stormblood turned them into trials-by-another-name and it stuck.

It's unfortunate. They used to be really cool. Now, you're right. They're just trials. They should be called as such.

[RicaRuin]

You know, recently going through Binding Coils of Bahamut and Alexander, and I have to wonder...what happened to Normal raids these last few expansions?

They used to have such intricate level designs, the story interwoven within those various raids, and they just were so much more elaborate. Now it is simply loading into a square or circle zone.

Why? I get budget constraints, but if they could do something as memorable as Binding Coils, why can't we get that back?

People complained about having to fight through trash for their reclears/prog and those complaints led to the development removing trash mobs after Alexander.

[WhiteArchmage]

People complained about having to fight through trash for their reclears/prog and those complaints led to the development removing trash mobs after Alexander.

It is certainly a "be careful what you wish for" situation. Even back in ARR, groups would send in a member to skip the mobs and get a shortcut directly to the boss, if they didn't just rush it altogether. They used to do that DAYS before raidtime, where there would be parties specifically for skipping the mobs and would then disband with the shortcut, so actual statics could go there later in the week. It was so complained about and skipped that for Alexander Savage the instance would just throw you right outside the boss area anyway.

Basically, yes, now the raids are basically a series of trials, and we can thank the raiders for that.

[Azuri]

They have simply chosen to play to their strengths. It is obvious game's combat system shines in single target boss fights. Or more like targeting system is so awful that any involved add packs become a bother.

[Raven2014]

It is certainly a "be careful what you wish for" situation.

Not really, I'm one of those who wish trash being removed from raid, and I don't regret.

This is why it's probably rose-tinted glass or nostalgia effect, it feels cool because we "used to do it but not any more". Most people will spend a few weeks in normal mode, months if you don't do savage, while the people who does savage will spend months clearing the harder version. At that point not many would be glamouring for clearing meaningless/useless trash week in and week out.

[Absimiliard]

Definitely a case of burning down the entire forest to save a few trees.

[Iscah]

You still do the traversal aspect in Omega, but it's packaged into one-time-only story events rather than having to repeat it every time you run the raids.

[ReynTime]

Because boss fights are the only kind of pve content the current team cares about. Just look at the current dungeon design if you still don't get it.