Analysis on dungeon difficulty increase

[Katachthon]

The dungeon and trial difficulty has been increased in Dawntrail. Here is my analysis on the techniques and the consequences of it, as a veteran MMORPG player.

In most boss fights of older expansions, most mechanics either have very obvious visual effects or a cast bar with the name of the boss skill, so one can use these as a clue to react. In this expansion, they added some skills that have no cast bar, name or obvious visual effects. This has turned verbal and quantifiable information into nonverbal and unquantifiable information. That is one technique to make it harder.

The second technique, is to increase the amount of one-shot kill skills for boss encounters. Surely, for those who value competition over collaboration, this brings them the adrenaline rush, and it serves them very well.

However, it is the same old path Blade and Soul Online once walked. The major consequence is the drastic reduction of the error tolerance, and thus the surge in stress levels in the player base. In turn, it fosters perfectionism and a false sense of superiority, causing schism and alienation among us players. As a consequence, expect way more toxicity in the player community. This is not our fault, but the unintended consequence of SE's game design.

It is SE's game, it is their call. I, for one, can handle the mechanics, but if the toxicity reaches the BnS level, sorry then♥

[Mikitan]

I know at least for me this game has gone from casual fun to just abandoning duty 90% of the time for these new dungeons after I've been raised the 5th time in the 1st boss fight. I am trying to enjoy learning pictomancer but I am spending more time running than casting. I don't begrudge people having harder modes to play, but it is just straight up embarrassing for me now to a point I am having anxiety pushing through the MSQ. I feel like I am a burden, a waste of time, and the people on the forums seems to agree with that assessment... if you have a problem with this insane difficulty... unsub and leave, they got what they want and anyone below them has no place here. What happened to this community?

[LalafellDown]

I haven’t notice any difficulty increase. I notice they decrease the difficulty in older trials and dungeons which I’m not happy with.

[EponaTBHSMH]

I know at least for me this game has gone from casual fun to just abandoning duty 90% of the time for these new dungeons after I've been raised the 5th time in the 1st boss fight. I am trying to enjoy learning pictomancer but I am spending more time running than casting. I don't begrudge people having harder modes to play, but it is just straight up embarrassing for me now to a point I am having anxiety pushing through the MSQ. I feel like I am a burden, a waste of time, and the people on the forums seems to agree with that assessment... if you have a problem with this insane difficulty... unsub and leave, they got what they want and anyone below them has no place here. What happened to this community?

The increase of difficulty or rather awareness in these dungeon isnt a problem for me, however I do wish people like you are able to grit their teeth through it and overcome it. I want to tell you that it's okay to be bad and a burden for content that came out not even a month ago. As a healer I absolutely do not mind raising you 10 times because guess what? you are learning and I was in that situation too the first time i ran that dungeon, so just consider this content to have a longer learning curve than other expacs, it's fine.

You will get there eventually

[Volgia]

I know at least for me this game has gone from casual fun to just abandoning duty 90% of the time for these new dungeons after I've been raised the 5th time in the 1st boss fight. I am trying to enjoy learning pictomancer but I am spending more time running than casting. I don't begrudge people having harder modes to play, but it is just straight up embarrassing for me now to a point I am having anxiety pushing through the MSQ. I feel like I am a burden, a waste of time, and the people on the forums seems to agree with that assessment... if you have a problem with this insane difficulty... unsub and leave, they got what they want and anyone below them has no place here. What happened to this community?

But the point of learning how to play picto and do a lot of damage, is to know how to perform your rotation and buffs while mechanics are happening, otherwise you'd be off better learning hitting a striking dummy...

[Davixxa]

I know at least for me this game has gone from casual fun to just abandoning duty 90% of the time for these new dungeons after I've been raised the 5th time in the 1st boss fight. I am trying to enjoy learning pictomancer but I am spending more time running than casting. I don't begrudge people having harder modes to play, but it is just straight up embarrassing for me now to a point I am having anxiety pushing through the MSQ. I feel like I am a burden, a waste of time, and the people on the forums seems to agree with that assessment... if you have a problem with this insane difficulty... unsub and leave, they got what they want and anyone below them has no place here. What happened to this community?

Ngl I'd struggle to call this insane difficulty. It's not all that difficult. Yes, it absolutely is a step up from before, but it's not to the point where you'd be expected to see a guide beforehand - it just requires you to learn the fights a little bit. Which yeah, is gonna suck the first few times running it. For the most part, things have been decently intuitive.

I personally struggled seeing the telegraph for the first boss in Tender Valley, but after asking in a dungeon and having it explained to me, it makes sense.

[Mooserocka33]

I know at least for me this game has gone from casual fun to just abandoning duty 90% of the time for these new dungeons after I've been raised the 5th time in the 1st boss fight. I am trying to enjoy learning pictomancer but I am spending more time running than casting. I don't begrudge people having harder modes to play, but it is just straight up embarrassing for me now to a point I am having anxiety pushing through the MSQ. I feel like I am a burden, a waste of time, and the people on the forums seems to agree with that assessment... if you have a problem with this insane difficulty... unsub and leave, they got what they want and anyone below them has no place here. What happened to this community?

I don’t think you understand what casual fun is. Casual fun is doing fates and treasure maps. Dungeons have to be harder than pressing one button and never moving. This is great and it’s still a step down from what the game used to be . Thank god they made it a lil more fun if you don’t want to learn do maps.

[MementoKoishi]

I know at least for me this game has gone from casual fun to just abandoning duty 90% of the time for these new dungeons after I've been raised the 5th time in the 1st boss fight. I am trying to enjoy learning pictomancer but I am spending more time running than casting. I don't begrudge people having harder modes to play, but it is just straight up embarrassing for me now to a point I am having anxiety pushing through the MSQ. I feel like I am a burden, a waste of time, and the people on the forums seems to agree with that assessment... if you have a problem with this insane difficulty... unsub and leave, they got what they want and anyone below them has no place here. What happened to this community?

At the start of the fight you can do your whole burst without a single mechanic happening, you have a 2nd hammer that you can cast without casting time 3 times to move around. Your 1-1-1 gives you holy that doesn't have cast time, and you can save them, you have a swiftcast that is now buffed. If you can't slide-cast, you can just save up holy and use them when you want to move. People are seriously exaggerating.

You blame the community when this community has done everything to help you out. There are videos, guides, posts, people explaining to you how to do the mechanics and even Duty Support where you can literally follow the npc's around, and you still can't do a basic task. No my friend it's not the community who is bad, it's you who despite all this help won't help yourself. You can't expect everyone to keep holding your hand and ride a bike with training wheels. You are level 100, not level 20 in Sastasha. If despite playing for so long you still can't improve go check it out with a doctor. Or if you're just lazy and can't focus and learn, just realise this game isn't for you, and you should play singleplayer games without battle content or city builder's etc.

[JadeCurtiss]

but it is just straight up embarrassing for me now to a point I am having anxiety pushing through the MSQ. I feel like I am a burden, a waste of time, and the people on the forums seems to agree with that assessment... if you have a problem with this insane difficulty... unsub and leave, they got what they want and anyone below them has no place here. What happened to this community?

Why do people have this mentality that dying in a duty is the worst cardinal sin imaginable? It's a videogame. It is not a big deal and rarely do I see people get called out for it. And using the descriptor "insane difficulty" when compared to previous content is grossly hyperbolic and borders on disingenuous.

[Canadane]

Why do people have this mentality that dying in a duty is the worst cardinal sin imaginable? It's a videogame. It is not a big deal and rarely do I see people get called out for it. And using the descriptor "insane difficulty" when compared to previous content is grossly hyperbolic and borders on disingenuous.

The strangest part is that the game been “learn by dying from something” since 1.0.
You die to a mechanic, sometimes leading to a raid wipe. You pick yourselves back up and do your best not to repeat that.

Dying is a required mechanism in the game design. It always has been.
Maybe it’s people who never do anything more difficult than story content, but they gotta realize that death in the game is okay!