Difficulty of normal content.

[SeaJae]

VERY funny how so many people treat the OFFICIAL FORUMS as their little safe space for fringe opinions and the moment any thread gets more traction than a car on ice, they cry brigading of toxic elitists.

News flash: the official forums is not what most people visit on the daily to discuss issues, and when bad opinions are said in a place where the devs look, you deserve ridicule and thank god people post to other places where more people can get eyes on such a bad opinion.

[Echidna-Lefex]

I've literally never stepped foot into a savage or ex until I can unsync solo it. I say that to show that I'm extremely casual, I get on level my jobs, do my roulettes, hang out with friends and that's about it. This normal raid tier is 100% perfectly fine. It wasn't difficult at all, mechanics made sense and were easy to follow. I healed all 4 and the biggest problem was just learning the fight. The dots aren't overly punishing they can be healed through with a medica 3 easily enough. Every week this will get easier because people will know the fights and be able to do the mechanics appropriately. This is not difficult content by any stretch of the imagination.

[ElliCat]

If I may, for future reference...

You absolutely may, and it's greatly appreciated! Thanks! I'll have to remember that next time I'm in there.

I've literally never stepped foot into a savage or ex until I can unsync solo it. I say that to show that I'm extremely casual...

Same boat here. I've done a bit of Coils and a bit of Alexander Savage Solo. Only started a couple of years ago during Endwalker. So far, Arcadion's been the most fun I've had in this game.

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I have to disagree with others that have stated that the game doesn't teach you mechanics well. Hell, the bosses all do weaker forms of their later attacks for you to observe and learn, so that you can use your magical human brain computers later to analyze and deal with combinations and harder versions of said attacks. And again, most of these attacks are no different than attacks that have shown up dozens of times in earlier instances. (Honey B. completely stealing a couple of Barbariccia's attacks... and you HAD TO get past her to even get into Dawntrail in the first place!)

[Squade]

For those who enjoy challenges, its nice to see some mechanics that have some bite and keep me on my toes.
Square has done and amazing job with how they've keep innovating new ways to use their systems, the encoutners are the strongest part of this expansion by malms.
What you're experiencing is what Savage raiders feel whenever they walk into a new boss fight, and then they practice and try and fail for months and months and months until it becomes second nature, like any coreographed routine.
Welcome to having to work for the clear :-).
Keep at it an you will come to find hard work and dedication is a completely different kind of rewarding.

[SprinkleTwinkle]

SE, if you nerf normal content even for a little bit, I'll make an angry post saying that you should turn it back at it was in DT. So don't.

[badtiming220]

Is it time? Can we finally say git gud in FF14 normal raids?

[Fullmetalnyuu]

I have never progged savage/extreme content once in all my time playing the game, but I found myself honestly being a bit disappointed with Pandaemonium after Eden. Like many people have said, normal raids are bridging the gap between normal and savage content, which means it naturally should be more demanding than any other normal content/trial.

If anything, those overlapping mechanics are meant to give you a taste for what savages are like while still being manageable for the AVERAGE player. I'd argue that a truly casual player is not necessarily an average player. When I think casual, I think of someone who hops back into the game for MSQ, maybe dabbles with crafting or other minor side content and either gposes/rps or waits for more msq to drop. I'd argue that if you can't handle the raids and you consider yourself a casual player, that's by design, and it's okay. You don't have to do them, they aren't vital to understanding the MSQ, they're purely extra content. I'm very pleasantly surprised that this normal raid tier has been asking more from me as a player, to pay attention and understand what happened to me when a mechanic hit me so that I can overcome it. I died several times (playing off tank), and my duty finder parties wiped a couple of times, but that's okay. Dying and wiping a couple times isn't the end of the world, especially if you take it as a learning experience. If you refuse to engage with those very understandable mechanics, I fear that it's just not for you and you should just accept it rather than try to lessen the experience for those that want harder side content that's a few steps below savage.

[jdtuggey]

Cleared arcadion for the first time tonight, we had two wipes in four bosses, me and 3 of my friends went in completely blind.
This was the most fun I've had in ffxiv in content that isn't story in a very long time, if not forever.
We're also pretty casual, I play a lot but am mostly a crafting/leveling/dungeon person, and my friends have lives and responsibilities, so they have about 4h/day. ;o;
Such high quality fights! And I could deduce most of the mechanics on first try. Like, it's okay if it's too hard for you, but it's perfect for me and my friends.
I'm sorry you few feel excluded by this, but if they cater to you, it won't be as good for me and my friends and I'm not naive enough to think there's a perfect compromise. :P