Variant & Criterion Dungeons

[caffe_macchiato]

From my experience, criterion (normal) seems to be in between a savage and an ultimate. Is this correct? You have savage-level difficulty with the bosses, but with multiple in succession and you can't take a break like a raid tier. Savage is similar to normal but with no resurrection.

While it's admirable that Square Enix is putting in more hard content, it seems like this will divide the player base further between raiders and non-raiders. There's already a steep learning curve between normal and endgame content. The difference between variant and criterion dungeons are extremely steep. Many people will like this, and that's fine, but I don't see this content retaining popularity since there's not a lot of reward for clearing. At least Square Enix gave it a shot, and that's something. There's not much else they can do before 6.3.

[Iscah]

I had a thought on what glamour they could have included, which is in the game but not accessible. Have you noticed that there are a few different variations of the Oasis/Riviera/Glade sets? I think there's at least two other versions of each gendered Oasis top – from memory, a fancy red version of each, a sleeveless version of the men's top and yellow-sash version of the women's top, and I've seen that last one on a male NPC so they went to the effort of adjusting those versions when they got gender-unlocked. So it seems likely that they're also adjusted for all races as well, or they can draw on the models of the accessible versions.

The Glade gear goes even beyond this and there seem to be entire designs we don't have access to – I suspect that peasant dress we see on a number of NPCs is meant to be the female counterpart to the Glade Tunic that we get, and there are multiple versions of the tunic, including a shirt version that cuts off at waist length, and two versions of boots: the mender at the Gridania inn is wearing knee-length boots, and characters wearing the peasant dress have a thigh-length version. (I accidentally got the camera wedged inside the skirt of an NPC when attempting to look at her shoes...)

I also thought of a missed opportunity on the Noir set, because it would have been a good chance to give us "rolled-up sleeves", built as elbow-length gloves with mostly bare arms and just the cuff around the upper edge of the piece.

[OgruMogru]

I had a thought on what glamour they could have included, which is in the game but not accessible. Have you noticed that there are a few different variations of the Oasis/Riviera/Glade sets? I think there's at least two other versions of each gendered Oasis top – from memory, a fancy red version of each, a sleeveless version of the men's top and yellow-sash version of the women's top, and I've seen that last one on a male NPC so they went to the effort of adjusting those versions when they got gender-unlocked. So it seems likely that they're also adjusted for all races as well, or they can draw on the models of the accessible versions.

The Glade gear goes even beyond this and there seem to be entire designs we don't have access to – I suspect that peasant dress we see on a number of NPCs is meant to be the female counterpart to the Glade Tunic that we get, and there are multiple versions of the tunic, including a shirt version that cuts off at waist length, and two versions of boots: the mender at the Gridania inn is wearing knee-length boots, and characters wearing the peasant dress have a thigh-length version. (I accidentally got the camera wedged inside the skirt of an NPC when attempting to look at her shoes...)

I also thought of a missed opportunity on the Noir set, because it would have been a good chance to give us "rolled-up sleeves", built as elbow-length gloves with mostly bare arms and just the cuff around the upper edge of the piece.

Oh my god I would have loved this! I glam both the oasis tops quite often and would loooove more variations!

[Iskander]

anyone figure out the Malachite Portico puzzle?

[Skivvy]

anyone figure out the Malachite Portico puzzle?

This is the guide that I used for my run-through: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...iant_dungeons/

For the sack part specifically (these are the 4 variants):

#1 Room with Green + Yellow Sacks, take the GREEN SACK in the NE corner on top of the rubble, and the YELLOW SACK in the SE corner on the very small hill of dirt, after clearing the enemies after teleporting, there is a door to the west behind the rubble that you can open before moving ahead. This door won't have a name or be interactable until Nanamo walks up to the gate to leave, do not walk up to Nanamo immediately if you want to open this door first.

#2 Same as #1, but do not open the door

#3 Primary Path, use two of the wrong sacks (don't activate the teleporter) and trigger the puff circles after the door opens

#4 Primary Path, use two of the wrong sacks (don't activate the teleporter) and don't trigger the puff circles after the door opens

[Knot_D]

I really enjoyed the Variant Dungeon, each route has one different mechanic for the final boss, and it's so comfy to go alone. Only 4 routes left and got my beloved Sewer Skink



As for Criterion Dungeon, oh my god it's so hard, like savage tier hard. My friend who is a tank tried to pull the 2 of the big trash mob and it hits so hard that they had to use invuln early :O

And the 1st boss mechanic is also really hard to do... Had to give up early because need to go bed...

[KageTokage]

I like the challenge and lore in the dungeons, but I think I'd only want them to remain a persistent content type if it's not coming at expense of a larger-scale form of content like Eureka/Bozja.

[Sorimachi87]

I know i am probably the only one requesting this but.. can we have these flowers as a garden item which do this massive screen effect on our housing area, please? ^_^

[Nihility]

variant dungeon makes sense to me.
It's not really my thing but can tell it's really well done and works as intended with appropriate rewards

criterion on the other hand just left me wondering "who is this even for?"
to me personally it almost feels like every aspect of it is out of balance