The difficulty of Normal Content in this game needs to increase.

[Caitlinzulu]

Most players that are bad, are bad because they choose to be bad of their own volition, and this is something that I would argue is largely independent of the content they're doing - In these cases the only thing you'll accomplish is making those in the group pick up the slack even more. You're better off just leaving the standard content as it is, and then having better middle-ground content which is mandatory to do extreme and savage.

For some maybe, for others they perform not like the top 5% (which is impossible statisticly since by definition half your playerbase will be allways in the bottom 50% no matter what you do) simply because their skill level isnt any higher either they simply dont have the reaction speed or the perfect memory to keep a long complicated rotation up without hesitation while watching all around the arena for mechanics that can come at any moment.

To recap, for some people its not a choice but just their ability at max.

[Amenara]

That's not what (Hard) Dungeons are.
They're not an increase in difficulty, they're simply revisits to previous dungeons with a new theme.

And some of the hard dungeons let the devs do some different things with design that we just don't get anymore.

[Caitlinzulu]

Why do people assume that people will quit the game after 1 try?
People have all the time in the world to complete it

And some people dont enjoy butting their head against a brick wall for hours just to finish story. Harder stuff sure but as side content not main story.

[Jeeqbit]

Why do people assume that people will quit the game after 1 try?
People have all the time in the world to complete it

If it takes hours to defeat really hard bosses all the way from ARR to EW, it would make it even more daunting to go through the MSQ than it already is. Add queue times to that as well. The quicker SE gets people through old fights the better it is for feeling like getting through the MSQ is actually possible.

The truth is that people like to win. By making it easy to win, SE makes the maximum amount of people win that they can, which is good for them because people who win feel happy. There have always been a lot of sprouts that are really happy to have beaten a trial or story duty, even though many of us on the forums find them ridiculously easy, sprouts haven't played the game for years, they aren't used to it in the same way, haven't optimized it and probably lack gear and food and other benefits we know that we can take into them.

[Kaurhz]

For some maybe, for others they perform not like the top 5% (which is impossible statisticly since by definition half your playerbase will be allways in the bottom 50% no matter what you do) simply because their skill level isnt any higher either they simply dont have the reaction speed or the perfect memory to keep a long complicated rotation up without hesitation while watching all around the arena for mechanics that can come at any moment.

To recap, for some people its not a choice but just their ability at max.

Oh absolutely, for the part emboldened, this much I wouldn't dispute, a lot of people will definitely reach their maximum capacity, and potentially long before they manage to get to those higher difficulties. This is another reason why I think touching the normal content is a bad idea. Story-related content is streamlined, but it's streamlined to allow practically anyone to get through regardless of ability or potentially underlying impediments which make it difficult.

This is why an extra tier of content, not tied/attached to story is the best approach to take.

I should probably have clarified or worded in a less abrasive way, but your point does fall under the umbrella of the message I was trying to convey. Thanks!

[Eraden]

For some maybe, for others they perform not like the top 5% (which is impossible statisticly since by definition half your playerbase will be allways in the bottom 50% no matter what you do) simply because their skill level isnt any higher either they simply dont have the reaction speed or the perfect memory to keep a long complicated rotation up without hesitation while watching all around the arena for mechanics that can come at any moment.

To recap, for some people its not a choice but just their ability at max.

I would be one of those individuals. I am an elderly person afflicted with "Resting Tremor Syndrome" a condition similar to "Parkinson's Disease". I CAN'T get any better than I am now and most solo MSQ duties have to be done on very easy mode for me to accomplish them. If any of the activities that are part of the MSQ were to be made more difficult, I would no longer be able to play the game and I would probably abandon it.

[CStrife912]

I mean you can up difficulty in very simple ways without re-inventing the wheel for this game. I believe dungeon wise they should keep the ilvl tight to the gear it is made for at the time. So say the lvl 50 gear is ilvl 50 the final dungeon can be ilvl 48 or something to that metric as a comparison. When I am sitting in 610-620 gear and the dungeon was ilvl 590....nah make it 600 or 605. Also with older dungeons takes off the 2 levels above then sync...just sync to the core dungeon level. If it is a 65 dungeon I should be sync at 65 not 67. Those 2 levels with gear really make a difference. This alone would make it slightly harder without pushing out the boat. Then you could look into like one shot when you have 2-3 invul stacks or tank busters actually hitting hard. But yeah a rework of how it syncs levels and attributes would go a long way.

[ForteNightshade]

If it takes hours to defeat really hard bosses all the way from ARR to EW, it would make it even more daunting to go through the MSQ than it already is. Add queue times to that as well. The quicker SE gets people through old fights the better it is for feeling like getting through the MSQ is actually possible.

The truth is that people like to win. By making it easy to win, SE makes the maximum amount of people win that they can, which is good for them because people who win feel happy. There have always been a lot of sprouts that are really happy to have beaten a trial or story duty, even though many of us on the forums find them ridiculously easy, sprouts haven't played the game for years, they aren't used to it in the same way, haven't optimized it and probably lack gear and food and other benefits we know that we can take into them.

To be fair, I doubt most people are asking for normal content to be anywhere close to that difficult. What some want is a small upswing to where the bosses can kill or even wipe you should you disrespect enough of their mechanics in lieu of what we have now which are just target dummies. Take Euphrosyne as an example. Bumping that up to Weeping City, Dun Scaith or even Orbonne levels doesn't make it some crazy hard wall considering people were clearing all three of those raids back when the general playerbase was even worse. What it does is make the Euphrosyne bosses not fall over to a stiff breeze. Menphina is often dead before you even see LB3, which is downright ridiculous. None of them have any noteworthy mechanics. They're pretty, but incredibly easy.

Dungeon bosses nowadays are so comically neutered I don't even bother dodging aoes if it means disengaging. Why should I? That vuln stack won't even faze a healer. And if I'm on tank then I could collect seven of them before any of their tank buster's might actually hurt.

[Kemeko]

This makes me wish there was an ilvl sync (specific ilvl) option. There's only the natural ilvl sync for duty finder and min ilvl with restrictions. There's no ilvl choice in between outside of wearing a specific ilvl set of gear before entering.

[Seraphor]

I do kinda think that the current expansion's MSQ duties should be a tad more difficult. This could be done via ilvl scaling so that once you outgear it it's not as difficult, and that would open up the avenue to overlevel/overgear it a bit if you do happen to find it too challenging.
Basically, tune up the baseline/min ilvl stats for the dungeons and trials, but raise the upper ilvl sync limit.
Then once the next expansion rolls around, squish those values closer together so it becomes easier/more consistent for levelling content.

This would create a wider disparity between min and max ilvl runs, make those first time's a little harder with bosses hitting a bit harder and having a tad more HP, and it would make gearing up feel more impactful, along with giving those who struggle a solution to work with "just grind out some better gear".