Why is all new content such a cakewalk?

[R041]

have you considered that your own skill has improved? i know both can be true but people improve over time

Both can be true. My FC and and I went back to try some ARR Hard dungeons (Because you never get them in roulette), and it was absolute chaos. It was so fun.

Part of it could be the 4+ years you've spent playing the game already. Or, perhaps, your general familiarity with MMORPGs if you're a veteran of the genre. Gear level also plays a part in the ease of completion.

I'm happy you can breeze through the instances with little or no challenge. (I infer you deliberately ignored the new Criterion dungeon ... you failed to mention it at all).

For many, the game is at about the right level of difficulty. The MSQ has to be completed in order to move on to the next patch, so if an instance were more "midcore" (as you put it) there would definitely be a drop in the number of people subscribing.

Even story mode raids are meant to be completed by the majority of non-midcore players.

I want to assure you that if a blind and drunk moogle could actually get a subscription and a PC/console, they'd breeze through the game as well ... they do not need game controllers.

Go do min-ilvl Ivalice. Shit hits different. lol