Difficulty of normal content.

[Blacksuit00]

Are the forums being raided? Why are there so many brand new accounts posting vitriol that violates the TOS? Just because someone has a different opinion doesn't mean you should call them "dogsh-t" and tell them to uninstall the game. What's going on?

It’s about time y’all got put in your place with this entitlement behavior about wanting the game to cater to this handholding mentality cause y’all don’t wanna learn simple mechanics or are unwilling to improve as players, dumbing down already facile mechs to be even more facile to the point where the fights just become striking dummies.

[nirvaphreak]

You can no longer ilvl cheese to fish specifically for CT. Other than that, it's a simple answer: the goal of an Alliance roulette is to gain XP and get tomes. CT takes 15 minutes and Nier3 takes ~40-45 for a similar amount of XP. Even a lalafell born yesterday can see that one is a lot more efficient per time spent than the other.

Easy, plenty of people don't unlock any of the other alliance raids, guaranteed snooze fest that continues to allow people to rot and only press 2 buttons, in fact, I once cleared it without moving during boss fights and didn't even get hit, that sure helps me learn harder contents. Also they adjusted it so getting Nier or MoTR will give pretty much near a full level of exp, so no excuses on the time spent anymore. And that also explains why so many people don't know basic mechanics and think's DT is hard, they only do short and easy raids. How will you ever improve if 90% of the time playing you only have 2-3 buttons and never seen any mechanics? If everyone in the group does just a tiny tiny tiny tiny bit more than bare minimum you can still skip mechanics in Nier raids.

I play a game for fun, I want my full or near full kit to play. What is the point of paying a monthly sub just to be in and out in 15 minutes while feeling bored, just to afk in town.

[Blacksuit00]

But if you feel that I represent such a small minority of the player base wouldn't it be healthier to just ignore me and move on?
And BTW, I wouldn't take people in this forum agreeing with you are as a solid metric, forums and other social media interactions are such a small portion of the player base in any game, this is not exception. That's why I don't let the 29 pages of comments berating me get to me because I know they don't represent the community of the game.

No. Because for some strange reason the Devs and yoshi would bypass all the huge crowds cheering them on for how great the improvements in dawntrail are and they’ll put a magnifying glass over you and the 3 other people who don’t like that the improvements subjected them to innocuous inconveniences and say “ WELP. LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE OUR VERDICT. JUDGING BY THE FRIVOLOUS COMPLAINTS FROM THE 4 PEOPLE OVER THERE WE HAVE TO CHANGE THE ENTIRE GAMES STRUCTURE TO APPEAL TO THEIR DESIRES “ It’s happened before and we damn well wanna make sure it doesn’t happen this time.

[SamLeens]

What really annoys me in this forum is the willingness to bury other players when things don't go the way you want them to.

Instead of giving some encouragement to an insecure player who is now complaining about the difficulty, they are downright ridiculed and dragged through the mud.

And on the other hand, all the players who are happy about the increased difficulty level are selfish twats who have no idea and for whom there's already enough content anyway, so they'd rather keep their mouths shut. even though among these people are the very players who would help you master the challenge of the new difficulty level..

I myself have a brain that doesn't process information as quickly as it should. That's why it takes me much longer to learn new things, but, and I say this to everyone who is against the new level of difficulty, i'm ready to learn. Are you ready to expand your horizons? Have you all sat down and tried it out for a while?

Anyway, the topic isn't really one. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Yoshida-san said in an interview 4 months ago that "So from now on, we’ll keep working to surprise players and go beyond what they imagine. But that reminds me of something I regret… as we’ve continued to operate FF14, we’ve made the game more comfortable, a game you can play without stress. But looking back on the last 10 years, I’m thinking we’ve overdone that a bit." https://www.ign.com/articles/final-f...-going-forward

I don't think they will give in immediately, and that's why i don't understand why some people here make statements like "the difficulty level is good and it must be prevented at all costs and by all means that the difficulty is lowered again!"

[FlorineC]

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.

This isn't necessarily directed only at you, because I've seen this sentiment from several people in this thread, but the fact of the matter is that that's just how the game is. It's weird and un-intuitive, but it's consistent and has been for 10+ years, and at this point you either gotta accept it or accept that this game's combat system isn't for you. Once you know how it works, which is that damage snapshots at the end of the cast/when the aoe disappears and not when the animation plays, it's really not that hard to work around. For better or worse, it's a part of the game.

[Blacksuit00]

What really annoys me in this forum is the willingness to bury other players when things don't go the way you want them to.

Instead of giving some encouragement to an insecure player who is now complaining about the difficulty, they are downright ridiculed and dragged through the mud.

And on the other hand, all the players who are happy about the increased difficulty are selfish twats who have no idea and for whom there is enough content anyway, so they'd rather keep their mouths shut.

I myself have a brain that doesn't process information as quickly as it should. That's why it takes me much longer to learn new things, but, and I say this to everyone who is against the new level of difficulty, i'm ready to learn. Are you ready to expand your horizons? Have you all sat down and tried it out for a while?

Anyway, the topic isn't really one. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Yoshida-san said in an interview 4 months ago that "So from now on, we’ll keep working to surprise players and go beyond what they imagine. But that reminds me of something I regret… as we’ve continued to operate FF14, we’ve made the game more comfortable, a game you can play without stress. But looking back on the last 10 years, I’m thinking we’ve overdone that a bit." https://www.ign.com/articles/final-f...-going-forward

I don't think they will give in immediately, and that's why i don't understand why there are statements like "the difficulty level is good and it must be prevented at all costs and by all means that the difficulty is lowered again!"

I want you to understand that we’ve been dealing with easy braindead low level content since stormblood and it got progressively worse and worse with each expansion and it climaxed in endwalker where it was so bad that even yoshi said that the shit has gotten ridiculous.

Now. What the op has said was hard is the first boss in Alexandria…..did you know that the 1st boss in Alexandria has 2 mechanics, that’s right…….2. Single. Mechanics. One that all you do is dodge stuff and the 2nd all you do is stack and stand there while the tank takes a tank buster………that’s it, that’s what op thinks is difficult.

So if op thinks that’s difficult and wants a change from this “ difficulty “ can you imagine how braindead they actually want the content to be?

[Oku-1]

Man, the more things change the more they stay the same.

The simple fact of the matter is you've had 90 levels to learn how to do mechanics and recognize the very predictable patterns in how fights progress that have maintained relatively the same for over a decade now. The game is capped at level 100 now, content is going to be designed at the difficulty of 100 levels progression and iteration, and there's really nothing you can do about it. Friction in games is good. Failing and learning from those failures is good. If you're terrified of loss-states then don't play games with them. This is a conversation that gets had in Literally Every Single Online Game That Makes Hard Content, and to be quite frank it's getting extremely exhausting.

If the content is getting too hard for you, then you have tools at your disposal: if it's MSQ content, then let your trusts literally show you where to stand and follow them around. They do mechanics FOR you. If it's stuff like Normal Raids, then you're in there with at minimum 7 other people, just say ahead of time "/p Hey I'm struggling a bit here so please be patient with me, thank you <3" and 99.99% of the time people will be completely fine with you face planting and if the group wipes, will give advice and pointers if you ask for them, especially now when everybody is still learning the encounters. In a month or so, the majority of people will have cleared and will be farming for tokens and tomestones, and then it becomes content you can just follow other players around in to clear 90% of the mechanics you'll be facing. If that's STILL too much for you, then wait until IL increases and then go back in and clear with much more forgiving stats. At that point if it's still just too much then just have the courage to tell yourself "yeah I'm at my limit haha" and do other content until the game advances and you can go back at IL cap in the future.

Friction is good. It keeps things engaging. It provides a sense of meaningful progression not just stat-wise but as a player. When something that gave you trouble no longer does, you feel that and it feels good. FF14 has been missing that friction outside of end game raiding for a long time now and to see it back finally is a joy.

I feel for people who are struggling, I really do, but your convenience should not come at the expense of the game's content and I urge you sincerely to not give up and keep trying until you get it, because when you finally do you will feel like a god.

[VioletCatastrophe]

What really annoys me in this forum is the willingness to bury other players when things don't go the way you want them to.

Personally, I've been extremely curt this entire time, but also always encouraged people to do their best and improve regardless of whatever barriers they may or may not have.

If having a disdain for people spending more time complaining on the forums than trying to actually learn the content is dragging people through the mud and being a selfish twat, then okay, sure I guess. I don't mind playing the role of the villain, it doesn't bother me. I just find it really tedious to see people acting like this content is unmanageable. It is not. It has been out for not even a week! We lack gear, we lack experience as a playerbase, and yes the difficulty has increased but by a reasonable amount that one would expect from rising expectations of the player base.

What I want, is for these people to calm down a little bit and work on being better. I've given plenty of bits of actionable advice during this whole disaster, and in general asking for help and support in a social game like an MMO is kind of to be expected. It just feels like these people are seeing the tiniest bit of pushback from the game and immediately instead of considering the possibility of needing to improve they instantly jump to blaming the game. It's frankly embarrassing, and entitled. I know the term entitled gets thrown around a lot, but I mean it in all sincerity and weight. They feel entitled to clear the content without any challenge whatsoever, and without any effort on their part to be good enough for the content to not be challenging.

Personally, if it were me, I think they didn't go far enough. But... I also recognize that I'm a better player than most, that my skill levels aren't representative of the majority of the casual playerbase, and that expert dungeons don't challenge me is fine and honestly expected. I'm glad they are at least non-trivial now. It feels less mind numbing to do expert roulettes for tomes than it did before. The normal raids are also well balanced. The timings are generous, the telegraphing is pretty damn clear, the tutorialization of mechanics is extremely solid. My raid group didn't wipe to the bosses when doing them, but I at least didn't feel completely safe the entire time. There is nothing that puts undue responsibility on any one player (beyond the responsibility of a role). I firmly believe an average PF group going in completely blind can clear it in one lockout - which is exactly the balance point that normal raids aim for.

Basically, I think the complaints are completely unfounded, and I think players just need to believe in themselves a little bit more and stop worrying so much about wipes. We all start somewhere. If you love this game to want it to be better, then love the game enough to be better too. I believe in you all.

[Hafu]

This isn't necessarily directed only at you, because I've seen this sentiment from several people in this thread, but the fact of the matter is that that's just how the game is. It's weird and un-intuitive, but it's consistent and has been for 10+ years, and at this point you either gotta accept it or accept that this game's combat system isn't for you. Once you know how it works, which is that damage snapshots at the end of the cast/when the aoe disappears and not when the animation plays, it's really not that hard to work around. For better or worse, it's a part of the game.

Yep.

People asking for them to get rid of snapshotting with mechanics doesn’t seem to realise the enormity of effort that would require, and just how deeply rooted into the game and general XIV encounter design it is. It's a flaw that the game works like that, sure, but they can’t really do anything about it now, when there’s 10+ years of battle content that have deliberately been designed with it being like that in mind.

[SamLeens]

I want you to understand that we’ve been dealing with easy braindead low level content since stormblood and it got progressively worse and worse with each expansion and it climaxed in endwalker where it was so bad that even yoshi said that the shit has gotten ridiculous.

Now. What the op has said was hard is the first boss in Alexandria…..did you know that the 1st boss in Alexandria has 2 mechanics, that’s right…….2. Single. Mechanics. One that all you do is dodge stuff and the 2nd all you do is stack and stand there while the tank takes a tank buster………that’s it, that’s what op thinks is difficult.

So if op thinks that’s difficult and wants a change from this “ difficulty “ can you imagine how braindead they actually want the content to be?

Antivirus X has 3 mechanics. at least in the way i count them. 1) go in the middle, or on the side of the boss for the tentacle attacks. 2) + and O. 3) Tankbust and stackmark.

The thing is,i'm not in a position (and i dare say no one is) to tell someone whether their feelings are right or wrong. I accept that it's hard for some people. I don't have to agree, but i accept it and don't question it. What i can do is encourage the person and also try to make them understand that they don't have to be put off by 10 deaths and 4 wipes. Any change takes time.