Why are Criterion dungeons so hard?

[Jojoya]

I think that part of the problems stems from the fact that it was kinda-ish advertised as normal/ex from the onset?

In the first 6.2 Live Letter, Criterion was described as EX in difficulty and Criterion Savage as Savage in difficulty. 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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.