Difficulty of normal content.

[Kiurt]

its like, there can be no fun / engagement, without it being hard / difficult??
... i love difficult games, but that's not the only way games can be fun / engaging.., and these bosses were too hard for casauals, so Yowgi

Your average casuals are clearing the content perfectly fine. We even have some in this thread.

The game didn't get harder. Endwalker was so low compared to previous expansions in terms of boss designs that you think it got harder. They're more dynamic. That's a fact tho.

Bullet-hell mech is another subject, with how old the netcode is, it isn't the best moment to use it.

Bosses are engaging while doing exactly the same as before :

In/out, spread, stack, half room cleave, dodge ground stuff.

There might be new markers or new things, the so called "gotcha" moments, but usually it takes you only 1-2 wipe to figures these out. Or they're called by a sentence in the middle of the screen for some of the MSQ dungeons.

Endwalker was a creat cinematic experience, but content wise, it was a failure. Like I said earlier, I'm pretty sure people got too used to EW designs and now they have to adapt. People are afraid of changes, and it's a human thing. But it'll happen. Adapting is also something human do it alright.

[Higashikata]

If it's too hard you then it's fine. It's optional content.

[PariahDoge]

I don't think it can be fixed with netcode since the logic are all in server, not on client.

I play in US data center from Asia since my friends all play in US, so you could say my latency is not great.
My tips for this kind of bullet hell is to look for the direction of the bullet, if you need to get across its path, walk behind it, not in front of it to account for latency.

Using Netcode as the layman's term for the game handles, I've gotten enough lectures from my IT friends about misusing terms.

[kelphaze]

get gud, for real though the combat content in DT has been amazing. The new extremes were great and the dungeons, trials and raids on normal arent just a snooze fest where you just cruise through it all with no problems, theyre actually fun.

[kajv95]

After having been told countless times to stop queueing for Alliance Raid Roulette because I can get the rewards elsewhere and I should just suck up the fact that I'll only ever get the same boring as shit 3 alliance raids in the game ad nauseum and all the "It's just not for you!" arguments, I can finally say:

If it's too difficult, just stop queueing for it! You can get the rewards elsewhere - maybe the normal raid/expert roulette just isn't for you!

Jokes aside, how many hours do you all have in FFXIV? Probably atleast 300. If you can't handle these right now, look inward please.

[ZarlinaCott]

The issue with mechanics and encounter difficulty in FFXIV is that, at its core, all mechanics are flawed. When I first started playing, I couldn't wrap my mind around how if you are still in the orange circle when it disappears, but before the actual damage animation happens, you are dead. To me, this was just so dumb and still is. I should not be dying to a mechanic before the animation occurs, this is the 1st giant flaw and is really at the base of everything. I don't understand why SE designed it this way or what stops them from changing it. It feels so bad since there is a massive disconnect in terms of your fate, which was already decided before the damage animation even came out. Everyone has had this happens: you are running away from the orange line, you get out and think you're safe, and then the damage animation actually comes out a second later when you are already way clear of it, but you still die... On top of that, the way the servers in FFXIV work, if you are close to the edge of a damage mechanic (orange circle, line, etc.), you never really know if you are safe or not; sometimes the server lets you live, other times you die. Second, I view all FFXIV combat encounters as a dance. It is not so much reacting to the fight and outplaying mechanics; it's just knowing what comes next and where to stand. Outside of the 1 mechanic that's reused in every fight to spread, it's all this horrible choreography of knowing where to stand to avoid the next orange line or circle that will only appear for a fraction of a second to a few seconds before you evaporate with no outplay besides knowing where to stand. I haven't ever found satisfaction in the way this all works, and it only becomes more and more frustrating when they add more of these types of mechanics on top of each other.

[SamanthaSong]

Normally I would not weigh in on a subject but felt I needed to. I have been playing this game since 1.0 and have seen my fair share of difficult mechanics and have also seen them nerfed to oblivion because the ppl cried out..."THIS IS TOO HARD!!!!". (I remember the bees in Amdapor Keep and if you don't know what I am talking about then pls consult youtube).

Now, understand where I am coming from, I am NOT a Savage raider and I just run normal content (msq dungeons, optional dungeons, and raid series normal mode). I am just the normal average run of the mill player that has been around a long while. Now, with that being said, I floor tanked the new series and I died in the dungeons for msq. My outfit was getting dirty because i was struck down so much. But here is the thing, I dust myself off and get a determined glint in my eye and I try again. While I was lying on the floor for comfort, I watched, I saw, I learned and I understood a little more. I was reminded that I was still weaker because my clothing and jewelry had not been upgraded to very high levels like I was used to before this "vacation" but I was determined to not let that stop me from trying again with the newly realized knowledge I had gleaned. And I was so praying that people would be kind and not yell at me for being on the floor so much. But then i looked around, outside of my fear and saw others that were providing comfort for the floor as well and then I realized they are going through this process as well and we are learning together. Next time will be better. Next time will be not be so scary. Next time might just be that time the light bulb goes on and I get it figured out!
I am not dismissing what you are saying or how you feel. I want you to understand that it's okay if we are not the best and have everything figured out on day one. It's ok to fall but you gotta dust yourself off and pick yourself up and march back in with that glint in your eye. You've got this...I believe in you and you are not alone.

PS Just remembered forum is registered under my alt account and I have not taken Sam thru msq yet as I have been busy with my main character. So pls don't discount my post because you looked at my character data.

[LilithKha]

The issue with mechanics and encounter difficulty in FFXIV is that, at its core, all mechanics are flawed. When I first started playing, I couldn't wrap my mind around how if you are still in the orange circle when it disappears, but before the actual damage animation happens, you are dead. To me, this was just so dumb and still is. I should not be dying to a mechanic before the animation occurs, this is the 1st giant flaw and is really at the base of everything. I don't understand why SE designed it this way or what stops them from changing it. It feels so bad since there is a massive disconnect in terms of your fate, which was already decided before the damage animation even came out. Everyone has had this happens: you are running away from the orange line, you get out and think you're safe, and then the damage animation actually comes out a second later when you are already way clear of it, but you still die... On top of that, the way the servers in FFXIV work, if you are close to the edge of a damage mechanic (orange circle, line, etc.), you never really know if you are safe or not; sometimes the server lets you live, other times you die. Second, I view all FFXIV combat encounters as a dance. It is not so much reacting to the fight and outplaying mechanics; it's just knowing what comes next and where to stand. Outside of the 1 mechanic that's reused in every fight to spread, it's all this horrible choreography of knowing where to stand to avoid the next orange line or circle that will only appear for a fraction of a second to a few seconds before you evaporate with no outplay besides knowing where to stand. I haven't ever found satisfaction in the way this all works, and it only becomes more and more frustrating when they add more of these types of mechanics on top of each other.

If you cannot find satisfaction in the core mechanics of combat in this game, maybe the combat content isn't for you. If you refuse to learn, there is nothing this community can do for you. You have had 100 levels to figure it out, and since you haven't, maybe it's time for you to find another game to play and leave this one to those of us that actually enjoy it.

[Aveline_V]

I came from the end of the Heavensward era into FFXIV (but been playing mmo's since the old Ultima Online and Runescape hehe). This has honestly lit a fire under my backside, when it comes to dungeons. To be honest, I was surprised FFXIV wasn't ramping up the difficulty for every expansion. Heavensward dungeons were meh, and Stormblood dungeons felt lackluster. Then came Shadowbringers and I was like, "OOOOH!! These fights are getting more hectic." It makes you FEEL like you are getting stronger when you die and have to go through it again. This is just giving me that same feeling. When you die and come back like, "Ok that was a warm up, let's do THIS!" only to get smacked down again lol. But it's learning. I find it fun when games ramp up the difficulty.
I mean, guys, we level 100 now, we NEED that kind of tough challenge. By now, several of us should know the game and be able to handle this.
Now if you just bought a job leveler and skipped everything, I don't know how to help except say a certain phrase that is spoken when someone can't do certain content. (get good)
But, joking aside. I feel that we should have expected the game to start ramping up in difficulty. It's been a long time coming. As I said earlier we are level 100 now and many MMO's rank up their difficulty insanely, well before that.
I mean the content is at least doable and not some crazy thing like a boss fight that takes 3 days to beat (ff11), or a dungeon that couldn't be cleared for several days without a serious static.
These challenges feel small (especially if you regularly run extremes and savages, these are a cakewalk) and I for one am happy for the change. Even though I will be kissing that floor more then once xD

[TDawnstar]

If you cannot find satisfaction in the core mechanics of combat in this game, maybe the combat content isn't for you. If you refuse to learn, there is nothing this community can do for you. You have had 100 levels to figure it out, and since you haven't, maybe it's time for you to find another game to play and leave this one to those of us that actually enjoy it.

It's not "core mechanics", it's called trash network code.