Whats going on over there?

[XiRon]

So no Female Hrothgar until next xpac although we were told otherwise at the beginning of this cycle.

Tbf I recall them saying "later", no set date but considering they released fviera and mhrothgar at the same time the decision to leave fhroth in the planning stages really sticks in my eye.
Like...we've heard not seen a thing about them but mviera got a damn trailer the second they were announced.

[Raim]

Nobody promised you Female Hrothgar this expansion cycle or a specific date. The relic step story is questionable, but it will flesh out a lot of the game's side content like it did with HW/ARR with fates and dungeons again. The Criterion dungeons are not like M+ at all. It scales to 1-4 players. It doesn't require fixed comps (at least in normal). It has two modes. You don't lose all progress when you wipe. And the combat in XIV doesn't allow for that level of complexity since we have very little crowd control and kiting in this game. Its just going to be like HoH tier difficulty.

[Xaruko_Nexume]

Weren't people crying up in arms about content similar to WoW Mythic+ though..?

I think it's too soon to say what the relic questline will and will not entail.

If by "people" you mean the few dozens of them world wide on these forums.

[Issaella]

Just because criterion dungeons are competitive high-end dungeons doesn't mean they're copy & paste from WoW's mythic + dungeons based on what they told us today.
In fact, even if it turned out to be copy & paste mythic+, you'd have to realize it's one of few contents (The others raiding and PvP) that has and is carrying WoW right now through the mess of expansions which speaks a lot about the feature itself

It's not. Blizz going all in on M+ was the reason I quit WoW and came here 3+ years ago. They have gone even further "all in" on M+ as the main progression route since then and driven off most of their playerbase as a result. M+ in WoW is the most miserable experience imaginable to a lot of people - gatekeeping entry by gear/io score, repeat the same 5 dungeons over and over and over and over, torturous and unfun modifiers regularly, poor rewards, massive toxicity due to the gatekeeping and poor rewards...

It. Is. Awful.

I really hope that the new Criterion dungeons will do things differently, because if it turns into the FF14 version of M+ I'm goings to be unbelievably disappointed.

EDIT - Take the misery/despair that is doing current tier Sav in FF14 exclusively through the PF and increase it by an order of magnitude to get an idea of the horror that is M+ in WoW. I am not exaggerating about this. At all.

[Kaurhz]

If by "people" you mean the few dozens of them world wide on these forums.

.
No people have longed for more challenging 4-man content, this is not just present on these forums. Dating back as far as SB with these requests, even as far as on Reddit. I would stand to argue that if I tried hard enough I could probably find it present on Q/A. Just as people wanted harder large-scale raids and their response was DRS.

They've apparently had enough feedback and demand on it to consider incorporating it into the game over whatever piece of content they elected to subtract/discontinue.

[Vrankyl]

Nobody promised you Female Hrothgar this expansion cycle or a specific date. The relic step story is questionable, but it will flesh out a lot of the game's side content like it did with HW/ARR with fates and dungeons again. The Criterion dungeons are not like M+ at all. It scales to 1-4 players. It doesn't require fixed comps (at least in normal). It has two modes. You don't lose all progress when you wipe. And the combat in XIV doesn't allow for that level of complexity since we have very little crowd control and kiting in this game. Its just going to be like HoH tier difficulty.

Actually there are three modes.

Variant dungeons vary between 1-4 players, have alternating paths, and a NPC helper with no assigned roles and the ability to swap classes while in the dungeon.

Criterion Dungeons are 4 players only with matchmaking. 1 tank, 2 dps, and 1 healer. Visually similar to variant route but the route is predetermined, enemy strength is different, and no assisting NPC. Normal methods of resurrections are prohibited but each player has limited number of revival actions.

Criterion Dungeons Savage are premade 4 player groups with no resurrection at all, defeated enemies reviving after a party KO, and enemies becoming stronger if not defeated within the time limit.

Honestly I am super hyped for this.