Difficulty of normal content.

[CinaedhVik]

I'm on page 1, you can see my thoughts there. I'd like to add that if you are okay remaining dead the whole raid then you are a griefer and I hope your party (OP) reported you for not taking the raise if you sat there and didn't.

No one said you had to execute flawlessly, but you do have to try. If you don't want to try, you can just not queue for this optional content. It's week 1 of normal raid, and OP expects to be able to queue in blind and clear without getting a vuln stack? This is the stress Yoshi P was talking about: content should be challenging. Not impossible, but challenging, even in casual settings. Fewer punishments, fewer gear and skill requirements, but a challenge nonetheless. Removing this doesn't make content accessible, it makes it banal. If you want that kind of content go play another game. It's really too bad that SE let people like this become emboldened by how easy and antisocial Endwalker was.

[Pharys]

You are speaking for people and not yourself. Focus on yourself.

This game is not difficult. You are declaring that it is and sitting on this hill until people believe you. When you first learned how to walk, you fell down multiple times. When the Weeping City of Mhach released it was hard for players. Now it is easy because players are used to it. Perhaps, maybe, just maybe, the developers want to give us a light challenge in our battle content.

If you think running around an arena dodging pink aoes and pink hearts is difficult, you should not be playing video games at all. Because any game you declare you love the most will have stuff on that difficulty level. Yes no one likes the first boss in the whimsical dungeon but little by little you will learn to get better at it. Hone your focus and defeat the 3 to 6 minute long boss.

Try. That is what you should do. What you should not do, is call out the developers for *catering to other parts of the community and not to you*. First off, Raiders get content like......once every 8 months. This is the content that raiders like to do, so of course Arcadion is tuned to them. You don't see raiders complaining about map dungeons, or levelling dungeons being too easy, or even guildhests.

Please, find the content in the game you like. If you want to raid, become a raider. If you want to be casual about it, then dont go for "harder" content that amounts to running around in a mario kart fashion.

Come on...be serious.

[Revani]

They are entitled, because the content even in DT *is easy*. Nearly everyone who's complaining still cleared all 4 raid fights in under 24 hours. This isn't hard by any stretch. OP and others don't want it to be easy. They want it to be mindless and dull.

But "easy" is always mindless and dull. When has default content not been mindless and dull? These things conflict. If it's easy you're not getting a sense of accomplishment anyway so it shouldn't matter.

And "git gud" is what you say to people who buy a game with the "prepare to die" tagline and then complain that they keep dying. Nobody bought DT expecting it to be a frustrating experience so it's much easier to sympathize with people are frustrated by it.

[alfarini]

Come on...be serious.

We already tried telling OP how to improve and give advice on what they might be doing wrong. Hell, one person very kindly said they'd be willing to play with them and help out with tips and tricks. But it's not what OP wants they dont want help they just want to complainon on an issue that only affects such a small minority of players. They just want SE to listen to change it just for them.....out of some odd 30 million players. Op will sit on this hill till the end of time.

[Volfe]

But "easy" is always mindless and dull. When has default content not been mindless and dull? These things conflict. If it's easy you're not getting a sense of accomplishment anyway so it shouldn't matter.

And "git gud" is what you say to people who buy a game with the "prepare to die" tagline and then complain that they keep dying. Nobody bought DT expecting it to be a frustrating experience so it's much easier to sympathize with people are frustrated by it.

Nobody is having a frustrating experience besides like 5 people on the forums making a massive deal out of it

[Priddy]

You expect me to believe that you and others here bullying someone for thinking normal is hard have no plans progressing past normal difficulty? Ya'll are transparent and it's embarrassing that you think you're fooling anyone.

I think everyone has a right to their opinion, but yes, I think that finding the current level of difficulty of normal content unbearably difficult is absurd, and I have never done a single current-expansion Extreme trial in my 5000 hours of gametime.

I limped through P1S twice with my FC like two patches after it came out. That is the extent of my non-normal content experience.

The current normal content difficulty is good, and frankly, could afford to even go a little bit further to make things like off-tanks less inconsequential.

[Slab_Rockjaw]

But "easy" is always mindless and dull. When has default content not been mindless and dull? These things conflict. If it's easy you're not getting a sense of accomplishment anyway so it shouldn't matter.

And "git gud" is what you say to people who buy a game with the "prepare to die" tagline and then complain that they keep dying. Nobody bought DT expecting it to be a frustrating experience so it's much easier to sympathize with people are frustrated by it.

Wrong, right now the content is easy but it's also fun because it requires you to engage with it and play your class. The proof is this thread, where a very small group of people who no longer have mindless dull content are upset because they have to actually engage with the mechanics and want to return to a mindless dull EW experience. (and they don't really, as stated above they can spend the entire fight dead and still clear it.. but those of us who like being alive in content do get to have fun playing our classes while staying alive).

[MissingNovice]

I disagree with both the take that "The content is too hard and unfun" and "The content isn't hard at all, actually."

Personally I feel like the content this expansion IS hard, but thats WHY its fun. The only time I've ever touched a Savage or Extreme has been with overleveled party members to help me farm mounts, never to actually DO them. I haven't wanted to stress about having the absolute perfect gear, and needing to watch several guides to know the fight ahead of time or risk feeling like I'm personally dragging the party down. The normal content hits that perfect sweet spot. The game respects that I've been playing it for 100 levels and is challenging me to put those skills to use. Its difficult, but not so difficult that I can't do it with a group of randos - and I don't feel bad when I fail, because it feels fair. The chance of failure is what makes them engaging too. Theres a sense of accomplishment when you WIN. I had one run where the entire party went down save for a single healer, who was just a few ticks away from having LB3. That kind of anticipation is GREAT. Its so rare that moments like that happen in pre-dawntrail content, and it feels bad when they do since the game is so forgiving you really shouldn't be doing that badly in the first place.

I understand how having anxiety might make what I find to be a thrill unbearable to someone else, but while I do think more inclucivity in videogames is always a good thing, there's a limit to how much flexibility in difficulty an MMO can have. This isn't like Elden Ring where you take your first steps into the game and it immediately curbstomps you - we're 100 levels in, and the game is expecting us to act like it. Like many people in this thread have said, its okay to fail. It can even be FUN to fail. If you can't reframe your thinking to view the challenge as something exciting to be overcome, rather than the game punishing you, I'd understand why you'd be turned off, but I assure you many players do in fact enjoy this new difficulty.

[JadeCurtiss]

Nobody bought DT expecting it to be a frustrating experience so it's much easier to sympathize with people are frustrated by it.

You can blame Endwalker for coddling people too much. Sorry to people who thought Endwalker was indicative of the baseline, but they have to adapt to what the game is usually like.

[AgathaAllalong]

The normal difficulty content is finally somewhat fun again for the first time in a very long time. It's literally the best thing about this expansion so far. I really hope they don't revert to the mindless "gameplay" from normal difficulty content in Endwalker ever again. It was so boring and mind numbing.