Difficulty of normal content.

[Banggugyangu]

Okay so here's my take. For starters, I'm 45 and I was born with epilepsy (not photosensitive), but I have loved games since my mom brought home an Atari console when I was a kid. Fast forward and I have now had brain surgery and suffered a stroke, but I still love playing games. I have worked hard to not let my disability get in the way of my love for games and my love for FFXIV. However, the increase in difficulty for DT has made the side effects of my disability clear. I have maxed every job in every new content release for FFXIV and mastered their rotations but no matter how good I am at the jobs I play my ability to react to certain mechanics before taking a hit or remember the order in which certain boss skills will activate has been greatly diminished with DT. I've made mistakes and I've taking plenty of debuffs from not reacting fast enough in the past. I'm not a perfect player but it's disheartening that the difficulty increase in DT has pushed me to a level of difficulty I fear I may not be able to surpass. I know with every new expansion there comes new challenges and eventually you learn what you need to do, and it becomes to new norm. I really want to continue enjoying FFXIV but I feel like those of us with disabilities are not even a consideration when developing new content. I don't even participate in extremes, savages, or ultimates because I know my limits and that I will never be able to do anything beyond casual content. I worry now that even casual content will be beyond my ability to play and the thought of it makes me feel despair because FFXIV has helped me so much with my depression and now I feel like I'm falling back into that pit.

First off, my condolences for your condition. One thing I've learned from watching many people with various disabilities is that they're true testaments to the human ability to adapt and overcome. None of the mechanics in the new content have a timeline of telegraph to action that is faster than previous expansions. I would argue that the biggest hang-up most people are seeing is that the new telegraphs require a much more focused observation of the boss and/or the arena to properly discern the mechanic. This is why I suggested in prior responses to stop worrying about rotations and dealing damage, and instead focus on the boss and arenas during certain mechanics. If you were able to overcome mechanics in previous expansions despite your disability, then you can still in these new fights. Yes, the difficulty is ramped up a bit, but it's not so much that it becomes impossible. Remember, all of these fights in normal have no enrage mechanics, and it's ok to stop doing damage and focus on learning/surviving. The fights are also not random. Learning the mechanics leads to easier pattern recognition, which leads to faster/more natural response to those patterns.