Difficulty of normal content.

[FlorineC]

I read about half the thread, and I don't know that I necessarily have anything groundbreaking to add, but I'll tell my personal story of how I started the game.

I hit level cap back in 2.2, when Titan Hard was the hardest casual content we had in the game, and it was quite difficult. Getting hit by a couple aoes could kill you, and getting hit by a landslide would knock you off the arena, and you were unable to be raised. It wasn't super hard by today's standards, but everyone was worse at the game 10 years ago, and quite literally getting hit by one aoe could take you out of the entire fight.

I was new to the game, and no expert by any means, so I died a lot in that fight. Sometimes it was taking too many Weights, sometimes it was falling off, but if I ever got it in trial roulette, I never got through cleanly. So I decided one day that I was going to just queue for Titan Hard over and over until I got better at it. It took a good handful of tries, but eventually I could get through it without dying. A few runs later, I could do it without getting hit by anything. A bit after that, I was learning when the tummults came and when I should use Virus to mitigate them. 10 years later, I've cleared every raid since FCOB on patch and four out of five Ultimates.

Nobody starts out great at the game, and you're almost always going to die a few times in new content. That doesn't mean the content needs to be made easier, it just means you need practice. There's nothing in this game that's so hard that literally any player can't do it given sufficient practice and study. I genuinely believe that anybody can successfully clear Ultimates if they take the time to learn them and apply themselves, so normal raids should be well within anyone's grasp.

If you don't want to put the time in to practice the fights, to study your rotation, to improve at the game, that's fine. That content doesn't have to be for you. This game doesn't have to be for you. If you want to clear every fight on your first try with little to no issue, if you want a completely frictionless experience, that's what the story content is for. The raids, even on normal mode, are meant to be a step up from that for the players who do want that.

[Astronema]

I am GENUINELY curious. With the trouble you have described, how is viper an ok job for you, yet you can't move your character to do mechanics?

I have two hands one acts up worse than the other. Maybe you would like it if I cut it off at the wrist? Viper isn't something I would play more than curiosity. Not at all after it reaches 100. I understand why people like it. I normally use bard or other ranged phys.

[Urielparadox]

They will stop playing just doing the DT msq alone. Yoshi rubber stamped summertime fun with jar jar binks. The idea they know what they are doing is laughable at this point.

incorrect many players enjoyed the msq, esp once u got to the 95+ part I know reading these forums you may not believe it but other forums have plenty of people enjoy it. For those where as combat is important, the new dungeons and raids will keep them around where if they were EW again they would be gone. Your disability does not prevent you from putting a pf up that says " Hey I'm struggling with the mechanics of this boss can u please help so I can finish the msq." I see them and I join them to help people, and if they want I teach them how to solve the mechs if they want to know, otherwise I just carry there body through the fight. The first boss of that dungeon has more room for error, and more time to move than The Aetherfonts bear boss from last expansion. if you are struggling like this, it is then most likely you are not understanding how to identify and execute the mechanic? If you insist on doing it on your own, this is an mmo afterall, then take a step back, cool yourself down, watch a guide, or ask for help. Which you aren't doing, you are complaining and asking that the entire game be changed for you, instead of working with others to get through the content as the game is designed to be done, and frankly as the community would gladly help you with. If you have too much anxiety to join a df, or to throw up a party finder, you would have too much anxiety to come here and behave in the way that you do, which comes off as extremely entitled. Make a macro if you need to that says "hey I really struggle with executing some of this bosses mechanics, I apologize in advance". Ask someone to be the danger dorrito for you. There are options, that don't revolve around completely nuking a game who was originally celebrated for its combat, as well as story. As well as respecting all people. None of these dungeons are harder than arr/HW content when it was released and new, way back when. You couldn't even sprint back then as a dps class, This is not some new all time high level of difficulty. It just hasn't been there for the last expansion and half so you aren't used to it. ARR/HW would be arguably harder as those dungeons contained far less telegraphs and tells for what to do, back when u had to do mechanics, and had far less resources in the game to help you do them. Considering this boss literally plays out the mechanic for you and u just step in and out, repeating it, like a game of simon says.

[lizon132]

People think they can just instapull and bring half the party in when they're still trying to acclimate to the arena and expect it to not be a rough time.

Funny enough my runs on the first day was basically blind pulling from the queue. I think at most I had 2 wipes on a single boss. Honey B was a 1 shot, it's stupid easy. I have done M4 about a dozen times farming the cat, finally got it, and every run is basically a 1 shot. I don't understand how people can complain about this basic level of content.

[pizzapizzapizza]

Funny enough my runs on the first day was basically blind pulling from the queue. I think at most I had 2 wipes on a single boss. Honey B was a 1 shot, it's stupid easy. I have done M4 about a dozen times farming the cat, finally got it, and every run is basically a 1 shot. I don't understand how people can complain about this basic level of content.

I did my first runs of the content the morning of as well.
The difference between that and when I joined a friend for theirs later in the day was stark. And a lot of it came down to people being willing to stop, take a moment, and communicate both before the fight and during.
I don't think of myself as all that good at the game at all - I'm not. I can just press buttons and avoid 90% of the mechanics. It was the other people playing. People in the parties trusted and helped eachother.
Meanwhile when I queued with my friend that night, I had some dude tell me to go fuck myself for starting a timer and putting a >:| in chat when he decided to insta pull and gatt himself from the boss. That fight took over 10 pulls - something like almost 40 minutes. And guess which person died and complained the most.
Every fight I did in the morning while clearing and then getting my armor, with people completely fresh, took at most 2 pulls, and almost all of them were 1shots. When we did wipe it was some laughs and pointers or questions on how the mechanic worked for those who weren't sure. Just taking a moment to breathe helps so much in ways people don't realize.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

Finally I think that people that thrive with difficulty (the ones that demand harder content) already have extremes, savages, ultimate, criterion dungeons, and more (Yoshi-p is even touting of savage alliances), this people is eating really, really good. Do they need to take normal content too? Can casual players have something easy-ish to play? Please?

This is the endgame content for casuals/midcore player base. It's not supposed to be on par to the dungeons and it's no where near on par to extremes/savage/ultimate. But it does fit nicely in the middle where it should be.

I have MS Multiple sclerosis and my hands tremor and shake often. Dawntrail is the first expansion that makes me want to quit. The ramped up difficulty results in me chain dying or unable to do some of the new normal content. I have been priced out of this game. I had to take an extra dose of meds trying to complete alexandria dungeon boss 1.
If housing auto demolition wasn't a thing i would unsubscribe right this minute. I don't like dawntrail for the most part it sucks the msq being the worst. picto and viper are ok.

I'm sorry but the game has never been touted as a game that is disability friendly. What you're asking for is basically a total rebuild of the game. Could they add stuff in to combat this sure, but not at the expense of people who arent living with X disability.

So a lot of the people love the content as-is, and that's great. It's designed well, so it should work well, right?

But Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. decided to make a game engine that cannot deal with fast or overlapping mechanics. What they gave us instead is "snapshotting". So even if you successfully dodge an attack, the servers (aka a thousand forum posters in a trench coat) will say that you didn't, and give you a vuln stack anyway. It's one of the iconic hallmarks of Square Enix design, and because of that, it gets a ton of praise online. And you like it too, because you just need to "get gud" and "you've been playing for 100 levels anyway". What Square Enix did to "increase the difficulty" in Dawntrail content was simply add more mechanics. Think like WoW but more cool and hip. If the game was more responsive, people wouldn't complain as much about the game being hard. But that's not a good thing, it needs to be harder for the sake of it. And Square Enix found out a very smart way to do it!

See, the unique thing about "video" games is that the video is supposed to be important. So when you press a button, it shows up on the screen. But the "new" style of video games (pioneered by Dark Souls, mastered by FFXIV) is where your actions do not correspond with the video. And the key to beating the game is to do exactly what you shouldn't do. So in these new raids, you move in the "bad" zone when it's still bad but a second before not being bad. And if you can't do it? Get gud! 100 levels! The old masters of video games (1970s-2010s) couldn't handle the sheer power of "shapshotting". Only a company as rich and prestigious--excuse me, a small indie company--can come up with this ingenious system.

Again this isn't an issue that everyone is having and all players shouldnt be punished with easier content because of it. What you should be requesting in a thread is better infrastructure for your region.

[Granis]

If you don't want to put the time in to practice the fights, to study your rotation, to improve at the game, that's fine. That content doesn't have to be for you. This game doesn't have to be for you. If you want to clear every fight on your first try with little to no issue, if you want a completely frictionless experience, that's what the story content is for. The raids, even on normal mode, are meant to be a step up from that for the players who do want that.

except Dawntrail is seemingly even using even story dungeons to filter "bad" players judging from the first boss of Origenics being so cruel to healers, and the generally higher dungeon difficulty overall, and i find it hard th believe if the story dungeons are THIS much harder, anything harder (expert dungeons, normal raids, but especially extremes/savage/ults) are going to be like impossible for most players. Why does a story dungeon have a poison dot that's comparable to the dots that p10s did?

[Volgia]

except Dawntrail is seemingly even using even story dungeons to filter "bad" players judging from the first boss of Origenics being so cruel to healers, and the generally higher dungeon difficulty overall, and i find it hard th believe if the story dungeons are THIS much harder, anything harder (expert dungeons, normal raids, but especially extremes/savage/ults) are going to be like impossible for most players. Why does a story dungeon have a poison dot that's comparable to the dots that p10s did?

How is it being "Cruel to healers"? It's asking you to use your overwhelming amount of resources to HEAL. And not only you, melees have healing resources, casters have shields, we got mitigation, we got tanks that shoulder healing without a need of an actual healer. Just step up your game at level 99, read the tool tips of your cast bar and go have fun.

[Astronema]

This is the endgame content for casuals/midcore player base. It's not supposed to be on par to the dungeons and it's no where near on par to extremes/savage/ultimate. But it does fit nicely in the middle where it should be.



I'm sorry but the game has never been touted as a game that is disability friendly. What you're asking for is basically a total rebuild of the game. Could they add stuff in to combat this sure, but not at the expense of people who arent living with X disability.



Again this isn't an issue that everyone is having and all players shouldnt be punished with easier content because of it. What you should be requesting in a thread is better infrastructure for your region.

What a pompous arrogant elitist attitude you have putting words into others mouths.. I've never had such problems with playing this game before dawntrail normals. The game is meant to be for everyone not elitist pricks that went everything set so hard it can be used to filter out players. How greedy are you when you already have savages?

[Masekase_Hurricane]

What a pompous arrogant elitist attitude you have putting words into others mouths.. I've never had such problems with playing this game before dawntrail normals. The game is meant to be for everyone not elitist pricks that went everything set so hard it can be used to filter out players. How greedy are you when you already have savages?

LOL I dont play savages and dont do extremes so nice try. The dungeons are no more harder than Aurum Vale on release or any of the other Expert dungeons (excluding Endwalker....)

P.s when you lower yourself to name calling you've lost the argument :P

how when the mechanics and this dot does literally so much damage that people will end up dead before i can actually stop moving long enough to heal them? hell, the mechanic snapshots so fast you don't even have time to instant cast unless you have like a mmo mouse and can keybind everything...

There is visual clues like the cast bar, the boss/mob models and text in the chat. If youre waiting for the move to go off then it's too late to move.