Do you know why the average pf player is so bad?

[Nadda]

I do agree that FF14 has a teaching problem...

I sometimes watch some of my less-skilled friends play, and often when mechanics appear they can either be soaked or the rest of the group is competent enough that the death of one unskilled player doesn't cause a wipe. So the content gets passed, but the mechanic doesn't get learned.

And over time, there's this cumulative effect where more mechanics are added, and the player still doesn't know the old ones, so there are more opportunities to die. And if you die and it doesn't wipe the party, you stay unskilled, and you know you're unskilled, and that's a crappy place to be.

When was the last time you saw a legitimate DPS check in a dungeon?

When was the last time you saw a dungeon boss that could genuinely snowball a fight into a full team wipe if someone was caught napping?

When was the last time a healer (Or even DPS) was genuinely at risk of running out of MP/Resources/Cooldowns in a dungeon which would invariably lead to a wipe?

When was the last time you actually had to watch your positioning for fear of aggroing more trash mobs than the group had any chance of handling?

It's a problem of accommodation. We FF14 players are known for being kind and supportive in the face of failure. The game however in its majority share has been made so that newer players never face failure.
It's all giggling and laughing because tanks are so strong in most content they can solo bosses by themselves but that is just far too accommodating to these people we've atrophied the minds of players, so they go into EXs which aren't that much more difficult than normal content but it asks just a pinch more from you, they fail. Well, these players haven't faced failure before so what happens to the pf group? They get frustrated and they quit. Now the player who was ready to face the challenge is left with a worst experience of not being able to complete that EX without a dedicated friend group. Well really it's Savage which is where you should start having the dedicated groups. EX is the tone setter, Savage is the amplifier ya dig?

Nobody wants the game to be super sweaty and difficult. As Yoshi-P said in a recent interview we need more stress. More pits in the sidescroller to fall into. Our issue is the normal game, has no pits, it shouldn't be difficult, it should prepare you with skills so by max level you are prepared to enter the higher ends of content. EX and Unreals should be the entry level to Savage which should be our median level to Ultimates. Normal then should be tutorial that sets people on the path necessary to tackle end game challenges and not be faced with a massive skill wall. The gap between normal and EX isn't as big as we think. We do not need to construct a bridge between the two with midcore content. Normal at max level should be midcore.