Quote Originally Posted by SieyaM View Post
And yet there is still something of a struggle for players to clear some of these things, and by increasing difficulty across the board I guess you are going to tell them sorry you can't play anymore, find something else. I don't know if what we are really looking for is something more difficult, but something more engaging. All of this content no matter how difficult it begins becomes easy once the script is learned. Even the ultimates after players have cleared and learned the dance become easy for those players. It seems to me that to really engage the player base encounter design itself is going to have to be re-invented.
That's why in addition to increasing difficulty, the game needs to do a better job at fostering skill growth within players. A huge part of the reason that people have trouble with this harder content is because you can change every solo duty to "very easy" and get carried through anything that you play with other people. The game does a bad job at growing players by teaching them their job and fight mechanisms. Players don't question how they're playing as long as they're completing content and if they're easily completing everything up until 1 particular fight, they're going to just complain that the fight is overtuned and that it's not them who is the problem. You have to have a steady ramp of difficulty combined with things that teach players who don't go out and read a guide.

The game could absolutely use:

Job quests focusing on HOW to use your abilities every X levels
Hall of the Intermediate/Advanced/Master to teach you other fight mechanisms and role based responsibilities


People are way too afraid of failing in the game, whenever failing should be looked at as an opportunity to improve, even if you played adequately. I know it's a lot to ask, but anytime a group wipes everyone should be asking themselves what they could have done better, regardless of whether or not they "caused" the wipe.