Difficulty of normal content.

[talloran]

If you think the current side content is too hard, maybe just stick to "gposing" and leveling dungeons, these are your casual content. You will be doing everyone a favor. Don't come anywhere near normal raids (these aren't even hard to be honest), or savage raids, or extreme trials, or anything involving 8 players again. Please.

[SoftCarryBoy]

I'm a savage raider and I took about 3 days to clear the 4th fight. Partly because my parties kept wiping too much and partly because I didn't have much time.

And I couldn't be happier.

I can FINALLY do content in the game I pay a monthly subscription for without falling asleep at my desk out of boredom. And here you coddled, entitled people are yelling about the fact that it's too hard. It's a VIDEO GAME, it's MEANT to provide a level of challenge that you're meant to overcome. I'm not sure what sort of brainrot has set into this community that they think they deserve to breeze through everything.

[S__th_rn_fl_am_]

There's no way to tune difficulty for everyone since it is subjective, but this is a certified git gud moment. Portraying the battle events and mechanics as unfair or random is dishonest. Not only do most bosses in dungeons, trials, raids so far show you what can happen with a simple version of a mechanic before showing you something that can kill you; but everything is far more intuitive for first timers. Everything uses simple shape and color queues, and the rhythm is easy to pick up so you know when a time to cast a raise in a lull. This is the most satisfying that normal/casual content has ever been.

[Alyx-Greywind]

This is were I think ppl gets confused, cuz actually EW had tons of new Content but it's wasn't engaging or replayable, we had Variant that it actually had some spice to it at least compared with the very low difficulty standars of EW but you also had Variant Habilities that could easily carry you through mistakes, criterion was actually fun but the difficulty bump is way to absurd and savage shouldn't even exists was awful.

Eureka Orthos was also intruduced but is just like a CoD game is just a re-skin of something that already exist it wasn't really engaging.

EW alliances and some of the dungeons were just a walking simulator that only got worst after you were geared up (rip to those players that doesn't know that nald thald have a cinematic mid fight)

Island Sanctuary that was just a straight failure for the devs and ppl call it the sheet sim.

Some of the trials were decent but got easy in patches and we actually had more trials this time but were irrelevant.

If anything EW was only engaging for hardcore players that had 2 Ultimates, Criterion and Criterion Savage, and the Pandemonium Savages that some of those were really fun as well but even those felt boring aftef repeatedly clearing them.

That's exactly what I mean, I'm feel like the content that should have been aimed at all these players just wasnt delivered on. I was seeing the Savage Tiers go down day 1 with nothing really standing out? It's curious because if you go back to Shadowbringers? Eden Shiva was pretty difficult for what it was but it was absolutely engaging.

Endwalker only had a few good fights that were truly engaging, Eureka Orthos was fine but it was also gimicky which you expect from a Deep Dungeon but it was still easy to cheese. The Savage Raid Tiers were ok but even then a lot of the mechanics were diluted down. Criterion Savage didn't really deliver both in difficulty and rewards leading to a lackluster experience.

I really do not mind the Roulette Content being chill romps through but there is push back because now the content on the casual end is getting a bit more of a difficulty spike, it's fun for a lot of us but I can't deny that I can see genuine casuals struggling. I would rather wait for Savage Floors, Extremes, Criterion and the Field Zones ((Going to dub it Bozja II lol)) and see if the difficulty rises there than bring the average skill ceiling up.

I know it's going to be an unpopular opinion given we've had very little challenge for a long while but I want the difficulty to be placed appropriate... especially for the 7.1 to 7.5 Dungeon MSQs that will end up in Expert Roulette... at that point we circle round to what is acceptable for Story while it mixes in with the Expert Dungeons we have now.

[MakariaZofura]

That's exactly what I mean, I'm feel like the content that should have been aimed at all these players just wasnt delivered on. I was seeing the Savage Tiers go down day 1 with nothing really standing out? It's curious because if you go back to Shadowbringers? Eden Shiva was pretty difficult for what it was but it was absolutely engaging.

I did e8s in Party Finder. It took me 503 wipes to clear (yes i was counting). It was excruciating and painful.

Yet it is still my absolute favorite fight. The mechanics were great. Punishing but not overly slow. Couple with the AMAZING music, the variety of things that happen, the dance of in and out and read... it was amazing.

The one problem i had was snapshotting the look away and breaking my uptime. That bothers me a ton.

[Kiurt]

It's true that there were a lot of people that would have preferred a Bozja type content instead of a deep dungeon, and there was a lot of people that wished there was a relic grind like the past. Can you tell how the difficulty of content enter in this equation? In fact I can tell that the reason not many people vibe with deep dungeons is because they get very hard after the early floors.

Deep dungeons aren't popular for 2 reasons : They're all the same with a different skins and they're very repetitive. Once you've done one, you're not going to see anything really new in the others. "Copy-pasting" content isn't going to make it engaging for the playerbase. PoD and HoH were pretty good for leveling, but now they aren't used that much.

I thought people were leaving because of the lack of content, not the difficulty? Imagine for a moment we keep Normal Raids, Alliance Raids, Experts and MSQ at Endwalker levels but now we add in a Eureka/Bozja type content and say three Criterion that are all of the same difficulty as Dawntrail Experts.

Would that not balance things out? The problem is we have a lack of content because the expansion is new and so there is a jump of difficulty but it's all for content that previously for two expansions worth has been pretty chill. Shadowbringers atleast had Bozja and it's Relic Weapons wasn't just a Tome Grind.

I honestly say put the bridge to Extremes in the Eureka/Bozja and Criterion content and leave other content as chill. Endwalker simply had a lack of content and the optional experimental content we did have was easy, target that content and surely everyone would be happy?

Actually, we had new content in EW. But Criterion was a failure, difficult content ? Yes. Engaging and interesting ? No. Rewards were lame, fights in themselves weren't interesting. You clear them to get the mount, and pretty never much want to see them again. They admitted themselves that the content wasn't good enough in what it tried to achieve.

Alliance raids design was also a failure (Halone was fine tho). When you enter an Alliance raids, you're expecting mechanics around team A, B and C. That was not the case in EW.

Also, half room AoE designs got boring really quickly.

Island sanctuary depends on personal preference so it's w/e.

[Sylvain]

So... I understand we're not all good at the game, I may be able to clear Ultimate but place me in a shooting game and I can miss a static target.

However there's something I do not understand. Do you dislike the difficulty because you want to engage with said content, on a daily/weekly basis, and thus are unable because it is, to you, too hard.
Or you just want to see the story and do things once.

If you just want to see the story, I hardly see how the difficulty can be a problem. You still managed to do it, (even if you were tanking the floor), so what's the problem?
If the problem is you not enjoying it because it's too hard, then how is that more valid than me falling asleep on old raid because it's too easy. (True story I actually really fell alseep while doing the weekly farm).
If this is the case, then I'm sorry but I do believe that it's better to make the content more enjoyable for those who'll do it weekly and not just once to see the story.

If on the other hand you want to do it weekly, then I can understand the frustration but now I wonder... Why do you do you engage with "raiding" on a weekly basis if you dislike difficulty and challenge. And I'm genuine I do not understand... Why bother with raiding if you dislike challenges... I dislike the island thingy because I find it utterly boring, and no matter how good it can be for materia generation and such, I just didn't do it. It's not for me. I dislike content in which I can't engage. Some people love it because they can just do it while chilling and talking with their friends on discords. In the same way I wouldn't see the point of adding challenging encounter in the harvest-moon lite minigame we got, I don't see the point of raiding with something that's just not challenging you in any way shape or form.
Why would you do it ? The gear? (beside glamour). Why would you care about the gear if you'll never engage with anything requiring said gear.

Would you find it funnier to have the difficulty so low that you don't need to engage with the content? Because that's what EW was... You could be hit by absolutely everything in most dungeon and normal raid, pile up 5 vuln and still be fine. I tried, just went as a healer and spammd 1 without moving ever (except for when the ground would instant kill me). I pretty much made it through most fight. You can be entitled to enjoy such gameplay and well... good for you I suppose, but I do not believe that most people enjoying combat content would enjoy something which litterally they can't fail. You know a bit like playing chess against an AI that will just alwyas loose to you, or Mario Kart but you can't go off the road, enemies will alwyas fuck up and manage to be behind you.

There are some content which require no skill in the game and are meant to be relaxing. However at its core, it is an rpg and combat based game. I think the dev did an amazing job at future proofing and making the story the most accessible as possible for least skilled players. I just have to look at my bf currently progressing through HW, he died something like 5 times during the fight before thordan and it's really just going in and out of red circles on the ground.

But i don't believe Trials and raid should catter to players who can't, after hundreds of hours, dodge a red marker on the ground within 5s. Those content can still be done with you being afk in them. Whenever I did them there would usually only be 1 player really struggling, I don't see why the 7 others should fall into a snooze fest just so that one player struggles less. However I admit it wouldn't hurt if they would make a "story" version of the raid with AI, even more simple but without loot. So people who really only want to see the story could do so wihtout the frustration of being dead 90% of the time. I believe this could be a good addition.

Beside, tbh if anything I'm a bit jealous. If dungeons and normal raid are a challenge to you it means you can be challenged by litterally everything in the game. Litterally everything in the game is going to keep you on your toes. EW was such a boredome to me, I literrally stoped playing beside Ultimate and Savage because the rest was just pure boredom. I even went as far as making some dps macro for the 24 man that would do 1 action every 3s while watching netflix or reading a book because those fight were so boring after the first 2 weeks.

If anything, be happy that everything entertains you.

[Infindox]

Actually, we had new content in EW, besides the old Eureka/Bozja grind. But Criterion was a failure, difficult content ? Yes. Engaging and interesting ? No. Rewards were lame, fights in themselves weren't interesting. You clear them to get the mount, and pretty never much want to see them again. They admitted themselves that the content wasn't good enough in what it tried to achieve.

Alliance raids design was also a failure (Halone was fine tho). When you enter an Alliance raids, you're expecting mechanics around team A, B and C. That was not the case in EW.

Also, half room AoE designs got boring really quickly.

Island sanctuary depends on personal preference so it's w/e.

Criterion failed for me because after I did the normal mode, there wasn't much reason to even try or do the harder modes because I could just buy the mount on the MB and the weapon skins were not that great. The "hard" mode was doable by most but the Savage version was sometimes even harder then some actual Savage fights, so most people won't bother.
Also yeah, the EW alliance raids were a bit of a face roll. I *don't* want the DT raids to be like Puppet's Bunker (too much downtime with the NPCs talking and the raid takes forever) but I would like to see some more mechanics with the ability to screw over teams if they don't do it right.

[Martto]

Lots of people are okay with this increase of difficulty, including myself.

- What abuse are you talking about? It is a GOOD thing that they're developing mechanics, if all you expect is a stack marker, one tankbuster per fight and one orange circle this is very stale and boring.
I saw plenty of people play the normal content while watching youtube. Is this really where we want our game to go? To become an afk simulator?
- Judging from your post, you've never touched Extremes or Savages and trust me both harder content types are a step up from normal fights. If they make the fights easier yet again, all you will do is hinder players who want to reach higher.
Why should Extreme fights be infinitely harder, just because you want a fight with ARR type of mechanics?!
- The only mechanic I saw too be resolvign very fast SPOILERS! is the mechanic at the 4th boss where she charges the cannon and you have to memorise where to go. But the pattern is really not difficult.
Second point! It is FINE to WIPE! Wiping is GOOD! You learn what happened wrong, you ASK what happened, nobody will be upset for failing the mechanics.
- The only bad side to such mechs is that snapshots can be dependant on server, but sometimes you have to respect the content and don't have to "Always Be Casting" every moment of the fight.

Thinking not wanting to be on duty might be your anxiety speaking up and not necessarily fault of the content.
You will die doing new content especially if it's not braindead easy like previous expansions have been. That is okay. Think what happened then, look what the boss does and next time you won't die.
If you really can't learn the mechanics, try playing a tank. Tanks are extremely resilient and can take mechanics even with multiple stacks of vulnerability.

Why are you gonna skip the raids? Why do you want the raids to be easy? Trials != Raids.
If you don't want to learn the fight, why do you want to ruin the experience for people who like a challenge, we're not talking about extreme levels of fights.
If you're afraid of trials, you can try doing them with trusts, from what I know all trials in this expansion are trust supported.

Duty Finder content doesn't mean it's that easy that I can watch youtube videos on the side. If you don't put any effort in the game, why should game reward that?
You're level ONE HUNDRED - 100.
All you're doing with your complaining is increasing the gap between casual and midcore players and that is a BAD thing.

So what would a midcore player like me have? Savages require quite a commitment, Ultimates even more. Extremes are a nice mix, but I'm not playing extremes every day.
You have to step out of your closet and make an effort. Normal raids are still much easier than extremes, extremely easier and non-comitting (aka casual like) than Savages not to mention Ultimates.

"Can casual players have something easy-ish to play?"
No. It's called normal content.