Why are Criterion dungeons so hard?

[LittleImp]

Criterion is too hard, and I say this as someone who likes it. I was hoping I wouldn't be the target audience of the normal mode, and that casual/midcore groups were going to get some introductory challenging content. Instead, I'm just watching tons of casual people get annoyed on the first boss and quit lol.

Like any new EX/Savage content, players needed to allow for a learning period instead of expecting to be able to faceroll the content as soon as they went in.

I think part of what is throwing players off is the increased personal responsibility in Criterion due to the smaller party size and the resurrection restrictions. It's usually a lot easier to recover in a party of 8 if one player goes down. It's harder when one goes down in a party of 4 and the party is taking heavy damage.

I have 25+ clears in Criterion and disagree with this assessment. Personal responsibility is actually pretty low, and you can recover insane situations that would never be resolvable in 8 man Savage. Everyone having a res, and the low incoming damage just makes it very easy to recover runs.

The problem with Criterion stems purely from the difficulty of the mechanics; Some of the mechanics in there are harder than 90% of what is present in the current savage tier.

[Vatom]

Went in blind and made it to the second boss as a tank don't think its that crazy pretty much at p5 lvl
I don't mind the challenge I do mind that if its going to be that hard with nothing to gain

[Zolvolt]

I have absolutely loved the challenge. We're currently blind progging the 3rd boss's 3 major mechanic and it has been insanely fun.

[Lustre]

Feels much closer to savage than extreme to me. Which makes the thought of grinding out 33 runs for a sub-par mount I can buy on the market board seem incredibly pointless. I dont know who this content is for exactly. Casuals cant clear the first boss, savage raiders cant be bothered because the rewards are crap. Hardly the repeatable midcore "extreme equivalent" content people were asking for

[Vidu]

Feels much closer to savage than extreme to me. Which makes the thought of grinding out 33 runs for a sub-par mount I can buy on the market board seem incredibly pointless. I dont know who this content is for exactly. Casuals cant clear the first boss, savage raiders cant be bothered because the rewards are crap. Hardly the repeatable midcore "extreme equivalent" content people were asking for

I havent tried it yet, but I'm very excited to - not because of the rewards but because of the challenge and the general fun of figuring stuff out with some friends. Not everything has to be about a reward, sometimes the reward can be spending time with like minded people solving a puzzle.

[Rufalus]

I was hoping it would be a different kind of challenge than the other high-end content in the game. It's basically pattern memorisation raid bosses again. I gave it a shot with random people on the first day but my party disbanded when they realized what kind of content it was. Now I see people's strats and diagrams on reddit and I know it's not for me.

It's hard but not impossible to come up with ideas that aren't just team jump rope bosses. The deepest floors of deep dungeon are about carefully navigating around traps and roaming enemies, and conserving limited use items/buffs. So it's possible to make content that is a bit challenging without it being basically another raid.

[dwodmots]

I like it the way it is. I was able to just go in with some friends without having to bring along that one guy (you know the one, every static has one) just to fill the eight slot.

[OlafQuintessa]

Is there anyone progging (or clearing) Criterion who doesn't already do Savage or EX? If there is and you're enjoying it, then I'd say Criterion has found its audience and that's really cool Personally, I don't know anyone sticking with it apart from my raider friends, but that's just my experience.

I think the regular Criterion should be nerfed to make it a midcore challenge - make more actions available and halve the number of mechanics so non-raiders can clear each boss with 1-2 hours of practice. Then regular players can make good progress when they have an evening free and it's a challenge they'll want to come back to. Experienced raiders will blast through it fine, then move on to the Savage version. Oh, and have some better rewards so people want to keep doing it!

[SaberEx]

I do not consider Ex to be hard. Critterion is fine imo it's a light party hard content.

[silentwindfr]

i think a big opportunity was missed with this content. some people some to have misunderstood what a lot of people did asked with harder content for light party.
first let's look at what we did get.
- we do have the "normal" variant, some people say it's harder than normal dungeon and i will say, no... it far easier actually. you have a buff of stats, 2 skill added and the boss barely have any mechanics or hit hard.

- then you have the criterion dungeon... did try it with a group of people in 610-615ish gear level... what is normally what is asked for... as paladin i was destroyed, litterally, by everything. the damage i was receiving was insane... and on the first boss any mechanic was a team killer. simply the aoe of the boss after the first broom mechanic was dealing 15k damage per tick to the team... what is really tough for a healer. but that not the point, what i means it's the difficulty is right from up to savage... except in savage difficulty you have 2 healer for compensate this sort of damage. here only one.
it ask people to be already well equiped and already really good for pass this.

- but here the twist is not the hardest difficulty... and here i'm asking a simple question, with a criterion already super hard... what the point to have something even harder behind. the"savage" criterion with what we know is something equal to unreal difficulty.

and i did seen someone say "we already have extrem as midcore content" exept from my viewpoint, since day 1 on FF14, i have said... we need a hard content that serve as introduction to extrem.... we need a content that is between normal dungeon and extrem... for allows people to meet and train with smaller group before jump from 4 player quite easy content to hard content to 8. and that the whole point that was missunderstood by a looooooot of player.

we don't need dungeon of this difficulty...where you are forced to have almost the best gear for be able to pass it. criterion was a perfect opportunity to offer a place where player can go from dungeon normal and train for enter the extrem and savage difficulty. it don't means it was not a good idea to have a savage type difficulty... But not as base difficulty.... we have a savage criterion... we don't need unreal difficulty content for 4 player, right now what we need it's a bridge for casual player to enter raid in good condition.

the order of difficulty must be this:
- variant
- normal
- criterion
- extrem
- savage = critierion savage
- unreal

for allows a smoother transition between light party to full party content.

ps: i did ask for harder 4 player content for ages... not for have something that is only for already hardcore raider... but for get a place to train people to enter raiding. for be sure they know them cycle, how to use them skill and do them part in extrem/savage content.
criterion is a big missopportunity to offer this... they have "think" that player was wanting another place as hard as savage... what is not we did asked for...