Difficulty of normal content.

[Novarius]

I do remember you making a pointless comment about you eating breakfast when someone replied to you, instead of just waiting until after you’d finish eating and replying civilly I’d consider that pretty rude and petty… it’s not like they were demanding a reply from you…

Back on topic I think the design language of these Normal Raids was very strong, some of the telegraphs/tells were even recycled from previous fights and those that were new communicated what was going to happen pretty well e.g. M1’s attack that launches a player onto another tile and those that weren’t immediately obvious became clearer after seeing the first demonstration e.g. how M1 boss doesn’t turn when teleporting to do the R/L cleave or cardinal/intercardinal cleaves

[Phlurg]

Casuals have been catered to for years with the story and now that you have to use a single braincell to play you get mad lol. It is not a bad thing to challenge players and have them actually need to learn mechanics. The game shouldnt play itself for you

[RammyGoldfinch]

A wise woman once said some really important words:
''Thou must live, die and know'' with the following meaning , if you're good at catching the meaning as you are with Aoes : ''Learn from the past''
in this context, learn from your mistakes.

[RysloSuramlo]

I don't think this raid tier is hard at all. In fact, I appreciate the normalization in this difficulty rating, which many players seem to be unaccustomed to after the last few expansions. If you’re a new player, you might not remember how the Coil of Bahamut didn't have telegraphs, or how Alexander raids were genuinely challenging even on Normal mode. These fights are quite enjoyable, and dying while learning the mechanics is part of the process. I disagree with the original post—I believe this difficulty is pretty balanced, and I had a blast with my friends, even when we were dying during the learning process.

[Deslyxic]

you didn't get the validation you were looking for

I don't get why people assume this. When I came here to post I knew I was gonna get backlash, that I was going to a lot of "git gud" messages because I know how forums are, but thought important to give such feedback because I think is wrong to increase the difficulty of the easiest content of the game and I feel that people that crave for a challenge does have enough content catered specifically for them. I also know that there are people that might be afraid of saying what I been saying because of the exact backlash I am receiving.

I do remember you making a pointless comment about you eating breakfast when someone replied to you, instead of just waiting until after you’d finish eating and replying civilly I’d consider that pretty rude and petty… it’s not like they were demanding a reply from you…

Haha, check the post, I was answering to a person that was saying "why are you posting here instead of playing the game", well, I wasn't playing the game because I was having breakfast, I swear.

[Damnhedge]

Yoshi might need a fresh perspective & hire some fresh talent for such content

Dungeons are already designed by new hires to get their feet wet, Yoshida is on record saying this. It doesn't change the fact we see these hires in 24 mans like Thaleia in particular. Look me in the eyes and tell me that Oschon spending the first 40% of his boss fight doing the same cone AoE before finally going AH NOW IT'S TWO AoEs was a "Good and engaging battle". Hooo look he turned big, now his hit box is 50 times bigger and we're still dodging the same AoEs, ooooh a knockback. Don't even get me started on the final boss, the big grandiose finisher to a 10 year long story beat. It had ONE new mechanic. A Single. New. Mechanic. Before spending the next 5 minutes throwing out the same stuff we've seen the previous 11 fights. I don't care that it's thematic, they peaked with Aglaia and you don't even get to enjoy the spectacle on that one anymore because of Ilevel creep.

I'm gonna give you a hot take here, Dawntrail's story/casual content isn't harder then Endwalker's was. The biggest difference is that instead of bosses just standing around while you whale on them for 20 seconds, they have you constantly doing something. The Final Boss of Vanaspati has the same mechanics as the final boss of The Skydeep Cenote, except Vanaspati's boss stands around doing nothing while big orange circles go off, or you have to pay attention to the background. Cenote's final boss has the same stacks, spreads and dodging AoEs while looking outside the arena, but it doesn't have as much downtime. You're always doing something, something is always going on, it's not harder, you just have to pay attention.

[RysloSuramlo]

I don't get why people assume this. When I came here to post I knew I was gonna get backlash, that I was going to a lot of "git gud" messages because I know how forums are, but thought important to give such feedback because I think is wrong to increase the difficulty of the easiest content of the game and I feel that people that crave for a challenge does have enough content catered specifically for them. I also know that there are people that might be afraid of saying what I been saying because of the exact backlash I am receiving.


Haha, check the post, I was answering to a person that was saying "why are you posting here instead of playing the game", well, I wasn't playing the game because I was having breakfast, I swear.

I think your feelings are justified, but I also think that between the ridiculous notions of Healer Strikes and people complaining about how easy things had been, Dawntrail is getting mixed reviews from those very same folks. Now that the dungeons are decently challenging and raids have a bit more of a bite, I don't think Square Enix (or any company, for that matter) can appease everyone. You are damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Personally, I like Dawntrail's difficulty. It reminds me of the days when A Realm Reborn was current content and Heavensward was released. I play games not just to 'beat' them but to experience them, and in that regard, your feelings are justified too. I won't attack you and tell you that you need to 'get good,' but if a game is too easy, people move on and play other games while waiting for 'more content.' I think that was the issue with Endwalker. A lot of people blew through the content, played other games, then came back for a few weeks after the next patch and repeated the cycle. Difficulty keeps things challenging and engaging.

[Novarius]

That’s my bad then OP if I misremembered the context that was said in… I understand that you may be concerned that the normal/casual content is becoming more difficult but honestly these Normal Raids are not more difficult than those seen in Stormblood or Shadowbringers.

Additionally, as a counter-argument I feel the devs are just course correcting back to how content difficulty used to be because they want to smooth out the difficulty curve so it’s easier for people to get into progressively more difficult content. Before DT the gap between Normal and EX content was big and probably even larger between EX and Savage and I think the devs want to change that by raising the skill floor of the entire community.

I understand that the change may feel a little jarring especially after how EW made casual content incredibly easy, but I’d encourage you to give the changes a chance, fights will obviously be more difficult Day 1 when people are blind to the mechanics and gear iLvl is at it’s lowest but this has always been the case. It’s better to evaluate the content once the strats are known and guides are out, otherwise you risk a knee jerk reaction.

I honestly think this course correction is for the best otherwise the only really interesting/engaging content is confined to the high end (EX/Criterion/Savage/Ultimate) and anyone who doesn’t compete in those arenas suffer as a result and the barrier if they want to participate in those remains high.

[Mictla]

This is a good thing. Dawntrail is not to hard. It should be more difficult to be honest. I like wipiing and learning in raids. The alliance raid better be brutal as hell as well.

[jdtuggey]

Like, op's willing to exclude the opinion of people who aren't casuals according to him because the content isn't made for them. Maybe normal raids aren't meant for him, so we can safely exclude his opinion ?
I realize this might sound mean, but it's his standards, which like... Demonstrates a bit the kind of character we're dealing with ? :P