Quote Originally Posted by Ronduwil View Post
I get it now, and I agree with you. That having been said, I think SE was just going with the flow on this one. Players prefer streamlined dungeons. That's why the meta is to pull wall to wall. While I prefer exploratory instances, no one runs them that way. When was the last time you saw a tank clearing all the rooms in Satasha? I honestly queued unsynced for that dungeon just so I could see what it had to offer besides the straight path that everyone takes. While I don't like the current dungeon design, I understand it. Players want wall to wall pulls, and SE delivered with halls and walls. At this rate, they'll eventually do away with dungeons and turn everything into a trial because that's effectively how players want to run dungeons now: Pull all the packs to the wall and take them down in seconds before unlocking the boss fight, where all the time is being spent.


Yeah, I think that's a completely separate issue from the streamlining that you pointed out. Streamlining didn't lower the challenge; it just made it easier for players to do wall to wall pulling, which seems to be what the overwhelming majority of high level players prefer. One thing I like about the leveling roulette is that I periodically queue into low level instances where the tanks have not yet been trained to run through the dungeon at breakneck speed without ever stopping unless they're forced to do so. I don't think those runs are any more challenging than the later streamlined instances.
The streamlining is all about time spent doing each piece of content. I come from the days when raiding meant spending hours on trash to maybe get to fight a boss, so when my friends who went through the same experience told me about XIV and how it had improved, I was very happy. We still catch glimpses of those days in places like Bozja and Eureka, but overall it's very satisfying to go through more segmented content than try to burn through it all in a day. The game feels less like a job, which is great when you have a real one. I disagree with the idea that the game is getting too easy. I think some just miss those bigger time investments.