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[megumeat]

Floor simulator - the game

So, in my opinion, this game is floor simulator. I'm not necessarily new to this game, but in dungeons/raids/trials I am effectively a newbie because I have absolutely no idea what's going on. I play World of Darkness from a roulette, and I die to Doom. There were white cones and red cones, and inside the white cone was a white circle. From my understanding of this game, orange and red are bad. So, I stood inside the white cone, inside the white circle. I received a debuff that told me I'd receive more damage from the next instance. So, because I stood inside of a white circle inside of a white cone and took damage, I immediately learned not to stand on white. That's basic video game language. Yet, later on in the fight, for some reason I instantly die. When I'm told why I died, and how to get rid of Doom, I'm told to stand inside the white circle at the beginning of the fight that did damage to me. So, you're telling me that I need to stand inside the white circle that damaged me at the beginning of the fight? That is 100% counter-intuitive.

Let me also add that dying does not make the game fun. That is, specifically, dying while being absolutely clueless. Let's say I played World of Darkness and no one told me how I died, or what I have to do to live. Let's say that I didn't ask a friend on what the eff is going on. Let's say that I didn't watch a YouTube video on World of Darkness (both because I cannot do that in the middle of a random roulette and because I have no clue what dungeon/raid/trial I'm going to get from a random roulette). To this exact day and time, I would still be lost on how I died. The game did not explain to me how I died, it is up to the community to teach players. What is fun about that?

My complaint is not research. My complaint is not dying. My complaint is that the game does not give you the basic tools to understand what is happening. In World of Warcraft, there is an adventurer's journal you can read before a fight. After you read that journal, it's still possible to die because the game has real difficulty. However, what FFXIV has created, is artificial difficulty. See, now that I know what Doom is, and now that someone told me it was just a coincidence that the white cone and the white circle were in the same spot at the same time, I will never die to Doom again. After my one run of World of Darkness, I have learned the basic mechanic and no longer will encounter any difficulty in that fight with the Doom-caster.

(part 1/2, part 2/2 will be the first reply)

[megumeat]

What can be done? Well, honestly, the game can just be created difficult while still being understandable, just like World of Warcraft. Just like some of FFXIV's own trials and raids. I can't recall the names right now, but some Shadowbringers trials were absolutely fantastical fun because while I didn't know what was going on, the mechanics were not complex - they were basic telegraph mechanics that demanded you dodge. But, it was organized in a way that it was difficult and the possibility of dying was very real. Those trials were tons of fun. To date, they might be my favorite trials, and I'm annoyed that I don't remember the names right now, but I know very well how to describe my experience. Because I knew what was going on, and still died anyway, I didn't get annoyed, bothered, or bored with the game. Whereas in World of Darkness, I had no clue why I died, so I got annoyed, bothered, and bored with the game - and shortly after closed the game and contemplated unsubscribing.

An Adventurer's Journal - or, a basic manual that gives the short details of a fight - is the bare minimum for any MMORPG. Difficulty should not be artificial and based on learning a gimmick one-time, but instead should be real and long-lasting and lead to a possibility of you dying even as a veteran of this game. I know the developers of this game are capable of that, because I've encountered trials to that effect.

[Enkidoh]

Doom is like that - it's always connected to having to satisfy another requirement to remove, such as healing yourself to full or yes, standing in a certain spot to remove the effect before the timer runs out and you die (Doom never kills you immediately, it's always on a short countdown - usually around ten seconds). As each raid/dungeon/trial that uses it has different requirements for it's removal or avoiding, knowing exactly what to do comes with experience. This is also unfortunately why that sort of thing is not taught in the Beginner's Hall - you're meant to actually learn it on 'the job' by doing the content, failing, and learning from your mistake.

Because the Crystal Tower raids are so old though and due to level creep players consider it something that should be rushed through which doesn't help new people just joining (and made worse by Crystal Tower now being mandated for continuing in Shadowbringers' main scenario.).

Ironically for the longest time I never understood what a lot of the AoE symbols and effects in raids actually meant - it was only through playing through SHB's dungeons with Trusts/Duty Support that I was able to play at my own pace and began to understand what each meant, and yes, that includes Doom.

SE sadly like to conceal a lot of the game from direct explanation and believe the 'fun' is learning and experincing things yourself without holding your hand all the time, and raids being more higher-end content, is meant to be when the 'training wheels' come off and you're on your own. Hence they've never done a guide for raid mechanics. There are player ones online like on Youtube, which are helpful, but a lot are guesswork, so there is no easy fix to this sadly.

[PorxiesRCute]

The Doom-dispelling white circles don't do damage.

On the attack where half the floor is white and half is red, it doesn't matter which side you stand in; the only thing is, the next time that mechanic happens, you have to stand in the other color.

The small circles around the arena are completely separate.

Also, you can just avoid getting Doom entirely by looking away from the boss when the eyeball mechanic happens.