Generally I think there should be a fine cut line between solo content and group content.

- MSQ: Solo Content is what this is technically, though the Trials that we get are Group Content(unless I’m staring at Hydaelyn for special reasons). Group makes dungeons go BRRR, but I think we need to bring back more dungeon development and SE needs to hire on more people to give us 2 Dungeons/patch again to keep things shaken up.

- Raids: Group Content by default. The issue we have however is that nobody wants to go back and do old raids, and Normal Raid Roulette is the purpose for this. On some DCs however it becomes a slog to get a group(staring at you, Dynamis and Oceania). Narratively we can’t really bring in 7 other NPCs in these raids, so there’s not a whole lot one can do in that instance.

- Relic: This is the meat that we should have for the patch lull - however, as Endwalker has shown and Yoshida’s current design philosophy for it(argument being that there’s so many jobs and people are doing multiple jobs more often), we’ve run into an issue where it’s a generic Tomestone Weapon. I will rant on this one as the Relic should push you to run different types of content, as has been tradition since time immemorial(excusing Eureka, the hell hole of Relics). Solo, Group, it shouldn’t matter as long as there is a goal. The issue however is that Endwalker changed that goal drastically to Tomestones, which drew a negative response after the second time due to the fact that it had no tie-in to story, grinding, or any other content. All you had to do was grind out your secondary Tomestones and you had a brand new Relic after a 1500 Tomestone exchange. Disgusting. Bozja had it balanced correctly between both your solo content, Bozja in general, and your group content; it was in fact the best relic grind I’ve had, if I want to be honest. BRING IT BACK. Exploratory zones are what drive people during the patch in the long-term, and it’s healthy for content creators as well compared to the likes of Criterion.

The point is that we can have solo content, it’s just that patch filler content needs to be long-lasting to an extent; say, 2 months minimum for the average casual player. This gives them time to digest it before the next PLL, where they can get people hyped for new content or story.