Analysis on dungeon difficulty increase

[Mooserocka33]

Honestly the difficulty has not been raised at all, if you are talking about the ex dungeons how about just do mechanics over dps. They are not hard and even the dungeons have guides online. They are so easy I a, old now and still can do it fine. My reaction time sucks and this is great. If you can’t p,ya do trusts. They do mechanics and all you have to do is stand and follow the,.

[Shikiseki]

Ironically, they added a massive hint right in your face for mechanics that used to be identified by looking at the attack name (Ghost/Fleshbuster) or boss stance (tri-birb and its beak) so you can't really say that has been more difficult.
The amount of one-shot mechanics hasn't noticably increased either - remember Titan (a story trial mind you) you could actually fall permanently!

So the real problem is that people got too comfortable not being able to fail to the point they aren't even trying. They aren't used to see a game-over screen anymore or stumble or heck even die at least once lol and not they call it "casual game". It really is a visual novel with auto clicker "fights" where you go in/out, left/right, spread/stack.

The only interesting bits this time around that made it "harder" is the encounter started to experiment with new stuff again (something YoshiP and his team stopped doing because of players) so it's nice to see some mini games like the labyrinth sprinkled into your striking dummy fight for once

[Mooserocka33]

God I hate how much this game has gotten easier from casuals. I remember when titan story mode had us knocked off the edge looking up at players as the beat it. Or when leveling dungeons got you ready for end game content that’s what leveling dungeons are supposed to do. Now they even went in and made level 32 dungeons easier and brain dead. People that are complaining have ruined this game and either need to only do msq, hunts, etc or need to find something else. I quit because how brain dead it became and finally it’s getting good again. Stop ruining the game for people that like to do anything other then press o)e button and clear everything on first try.

[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.

[Caitamm]

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.

This is all well and good to say, but do you have any evidence to back this up? What specific attacks are you referring to that do not have clear tells or some sort of hint? How many oneshot kills are there in DT leveling dungeons and how does that compare to leveling dungeons in previous expansions?

I ask this because I did not notice either of these two points myself.

[ForsakenRoe]

I feel like a lot of the complaints that 'this is way too hard suddenly' stem from players who are playing with trusts, and hoping to watch what they do to see where is safe to stand. Obviously, the issue with this is that they're super slow to get there, make it by the skin of their teeth, and in some cases, 'should have been hit' but dodge the attack because they've got trust privilege. So, rather than watch the trusts dodge right on the 99 dungeon elevator boss, get hit, wonder 'why didn't the trusts move sooner', instead it's on the player to look at the boss, the castbar, and try to discern 'why did the trusts go to the right?' (eg on that boss it's because it raised the fist on your left, so the left is not safe)

I worry that some players can't (or don't want to) associate boss' movements and their 'tells' with how the mechanics work, and would rather be told 'stand here' in a game of monkey see monkey do

Also, to be 'that guy', I don't recall us having complaints about dungeons having 'insane difficulty' when SCH had 3 DOTs and AST had the SB card system. It's almost like, if you take complexity out of the job's kits and move it to encounter design, this is the end result: encounters that are super unforgiving, full of oneshots (and if you die in a trust run, it's an instant reset even if you're not the healer), and exclude casuals because 'too hard'. Meanwhile, if a casual didn't juggle Bio/Bio2/Miasma's timers correctly in HW/SB, you'd... clear the dungeon 3 minutes slower. I know which design I'd rather have

[Canadane]

Once I realized their fight design is based on more physically watched the bosses than awaiting ground AOE markings, things became a lot easier. I do t really think it’s any more difficult than previous expansions, it’s just different.

Personally I welcome the change.

[Post]

Remember when they tried to have leveling dungeons the required you to watch something other than ground AoEs to avoid attacks?

Cutter's Cry Chimera? Coincounter in Aurum Vale?

Maybe people wrote to the forums that those bosses were too hard back then, too, but I'd wager most new players simply accepted that that's the game they were playing and learned to deal with them. That's the struggle with reversing course on design; doesn't matter how gradually it's done, it's gonna be painful to some.

Maybe if they didn't wantonly change some of those old bosses and tried to keep the power creep in older content more tame, it'd help more players keep broader expectations.

[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.