the normal content is too easy

[LisSquid]

Stat Templates. You shouldn't be able to solo dungeons sync'd as a SCH. Make sure the dungeon plays as intended and future proof it.


I have already said my peace but hoooboy we are not having "balance is the only good card" discourse again in 2022. I will behave. I will not recite the old texts.

(Only bad Ast thought that, and the optimization was for making sure balance was used correctly when you pulled it because it had the biggest gap between useless and god-tier in usage.)

I failed. Flog me for I deserve it.

[Jirah]

Why do you want the normal content to be harder? Just yesterday I did a Vanaspati (level 85 dungeon) run in roulette and got matched with a RPR that didn't use Enshroud once, it took us around 35 minutes to clear.
People give zero F's about doing even the bare minimum, imagine what would happen if the content was harder.
I'm all for making the normal content as braindead as possible.

They have this thought process purely because the content never challenges them! And get a grip a instance taking 5 min longer doesn’t make it “harder”

[RocciaSolida]

They have this thought process purely because the content never challenges them! And get a grip a instance taking 5 min longer doesn’t make it “harder”

It'd be very optimistic to think that raising the bar would compel people to play better. The only result you'd get would be players raging on the OF, Reddit and whatnot because the content suddenly got harder (or too hard even)

[Supersnow845]

It'd be very optimistic to think that raising the bar would compel people to play better. The only result you'd get would be players raging on the OF, Reddit and whatnot because the content suddenly got harder (or too hard even)

As opposed to the content becoming easier and people still complaining, like that person on reddit yesterday who was trying to argue square designed crystal tower to ilvl decay and it would be too hard and unfair to bring it back in line with how it played in ARR despite the fact that jobs also got easier in that time

[Themarvin]

game is not challenging much anymore.... and old areas is pretty much rendered useless as well.

[Darthgummibear]

I wish they would undo whatever they did in the past year that made all legacy content complete faceroll. They must have done some sort of stat adjustment for EW that made most content prior to the current expansion a complete joke. Dungeons for example, are like night and day compared to just last summer. Quite simply, everything does far less damage, and dies much faster. If I didn't know better I'd say they completely broke lower level scaling.

[ForteNightshade]

I wish they would undo whatever they did in the past year that made all legacy content complete faceroll. They must have done some sort of stat adjustment for EW that made most content prior to the current expansion a complete joke. Dungeons for example, are like night and day compared to just last summer. Quite simply, everything does far less damage, and dies much faster. If I didn't know better I'd say they completely broke lower level scaling.

It's a combination of job changes, the stat squish and likely some stealth nerfs that have entirely neutered content. The devs solution to catching players up to endgame seems to be making everything braindead easy until Shadowbringers. Not that it gets harder per se, just less droll on your keyboard levels. Sadly, it's made all that old content a complete slog now. It just... falls over.

[Darthgummibear]

It's a combination of job changes, the stat squish and likely some stealth nerfs that have entirely neutered content. The devs solution to catching players up to endgame seems to be making everything braindead easy until Shadowbringers. Not that it gets harder per se, just less droll on your keyboard levels. Sadly, it's made all that old content a complete slog now. It just... falls over.

It honestly worries me because it feels like they are gradually taking the game's greatest strengths and throwing them out the window.

[Payadopa]

For all we sometimes seem to want to claim job design getting more streamlined and dungeon design turning linear is the result of the devs trying to make the game easier, I don't think that's true... or at least, it's not the only factor.

As I've pointed out before, how often does anyone take alternate paths in any ARR dungeon that has side areas? How often does anyone bother with the puzzles in Qarn? Even in 1.x, there were people who posted the "optimal" path through Toto-Rak to hit all three diremites. We've demonstrated that no matter what they give us as a dungeon, we will optimize it down to the shortest path possible to get rewards, and then run that path as fast as we can, pulling everything until the dungeon forces us to stop.

And that is not on the "casuals", that is on those of us who do higher-end content. Most "casual" players I encounter would be happy to do the puzzles in Qarn or wander into side hallways, because they're not the ones trying to speed-run the dungeons. You want the devs to cater to us? They did; I would lay solid odds that's a big part of why more recent dungeons are now pre-optimized into linear hallways for us.

Similarly, look at AST. We like to complain that the card system is bland now... but if you go back on these very forums to Stormblood era threads, you can see people complaining how only the Balance is worth playing, and discussing how to optimize with that in mind. If you want a reason the devs made all the cards variations on the Balance, I think that's the smoking gun... and again, that wasn't "casuals" that caused that; folks who play more casually probably didn't care about optimizing the cards.

You can argue that the normal content is too streamlined and easy, but I don't think you can lay the blame for that solely at the feet of "casual" players; regardless of what we claim we want, the optimization habits of the more "serious" players bear some share of the blame.

Making the dungeons more solo friendly with Trusts may make the MSQ more approachable, but it also means the "casual" players are free to engage with the content in a more relaxed manner; they can wander into the side passages in ARR dungeons, they can stop and read the horrifying notes in Toto-Rak, or the hilarious books in Gubal, or the research notes in Ktisis Hyperborea.

Which, let's be honest, many people are seemingly impatient with... and the impatient folks are not usually from the "casual" side of the playerbase.

It's both. Making everything accessible at all costs and the small rest must be balanced into the ground because 'mah numberz'. For the latter look no further than the PvP complaints. lol

Anyway, I'm happy we finally get 4 man content that looks like it's an actual challenge. PotD only lasts so long (and the lower floors are still boring).