Difficulty of normal content.

[PinkGummyWorm]

In all seriousness, this game is not impossible.

FFXIV is my first and my only MMO that I play and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The person that taught me how to play the game was not the greatest. They were toxic towards me and belittled constantly. To the point it made me think I could never do any extreme content and be stuck as a casual forever. I was stuck in that mindset for a very very very long time.

But one day, my raider bestie convinced me and I took a chance and went “Y’know what? I’m gonna do this.” And so I did, and I cleared extremes and some savage in EW. Nothing current tier at the time but it was SOMETHING. After I took a chance I was able to take the next step into harder content. Now, I wanna actually do tougher things, read a guide, join a random PF, wipe a few times. It's what makes the game fun. Crazy part is I've had more toxic interactions with casual players than I've had with hardcore players.

Getting out that mentality was the best thing I ever did because the game was fun again.

Did I die? Yup. Did parties wipe. Yup. Was it tough? Yup. But it was so worth it.

If you actually put in the time and effort you and other people can enjoy this game instead of crying into the forums begging for this game to bend to your every need.

[alfarini]

I wanted to wait to see the raid tier before I say anything. There are already post about dungeon and trial difficulty, and now normal raids should be thrown into the discussion too, and I might repeat points already said but I think we should really make a point of this, we (the people not ok with this difficulty) need for the devs to hear it to hopefully make a course correction.

-the difficulty is perfect (could be tweaked a bit to be more difficult in some instances), the fact wipes happen is IMO a good thing, its not brain dead easy nor is is stupid hard. learning a fight is essential to understanding how to position yourself for the win. its simply comes down to a skill issue and peoples refusal to learn mechanics. im sorry but we are at level 100, we should expect a harder time rather than a level 50 tank and spank on a boss.

The problem with the difficulty on normal fights as I see it is:
-Use and abuse of non standard telegraphs.
-Nasty mechanic overlaps, stuff you would see on extreme and harder fights.
-Mechs resolving too quickly for the mental capacity they demand to process.
-One too many "catch this!" mech (mechs that have you running around like headless chicken evading seemingly random patterns).

-its not abuse, you need to watch the boss and learn the telegraphs. its a new fight don't expect it to hold your hand the whole time.
-nasty? you mean overlapping a few mechs like they have always done in normal 8 man, trials, EX trials, Savage, ally raids, dungeons. this is not new your just not wanting to learn new things. things get me off guard at times to and i love it, makes it more interesting.
-once again this is a you issue, look at the cast bar or the position of the boss. you can easily know what's about to happen and even preposition accordingly. if you got here to lvl 100 content then you should know the absolute basics of what's happening.
-I'll give you this one ONLY if your still trying to do your rotation while not executing the mech properly, take the time to do it right. use it to your advantage to reflect on the past mechs and what you'll need to do if/when it comes up again.

All this has been making fights in this expansion frustrating and exhausting.

and this is a good thing, for to long the games been getting easier and easier. People cried for it to be harder, Yoshi P himself said this aswell. He agreed the games been to stress free, so they team is essentially testing the waters seeing how we respond to this. i love it its great, challenging, makes me think, and pay attention. the normal mode 8 man (level 100) fight doesn't demand your full attention but it at least punishes you for not giving it the majority of your attention.

might come back with points on the last half if your post.

[Alyx-Greywind]

You need to re-read the post that you made. It doesn't sound like the same FFXIV that we had before Dawntrail. A very bad attitude has come out of the woodwork since the raid tier dropped. Unless all of this is just from the Arthars raid, it doesn't make FFXIV look too good, especially in a PvE game that's not even competitive. We have a difficult ten years ahead of us.

That's what I am thinking, I keep saying the difficulty is misplaced. We're not exactly looking like an appealing community right? I'm not even in agreement with some of the OPs statements but the outright bullying and abuse is disgusting.

[Sqwall]

That's what I am thinking, I keep saying the difficulty is misplaced. We're not exactly looking like an appealing community right? I'm not even in agreement with some of the OPs statements but the outright bullying and abuse is disgusting.

I have been a long advocate the game needs to be harder in it's casual content. Otherwise it gets boring and stale. A challenge would make things better for everyone...and give those that find normal a challenge a sense of accomplishment for the gear.

Having things handed to you isn't fun.....it's dull and simple. Normal RAID's should have a sense of difficulty that makes sense.

I feel they have hit the nail on the head this time around with difficulty of normal raids.

[zeenie]

That's what I am thinking, I keep saying the difficulty is misplaced. We're not exactly looking like an appealing community right? I'm not even in agreement with some of the OPs statements but the outright bullying and abuse is disgusting.

i dont think the difficulty misplaced tbh. both endgame dungeon are a bit more challenging but not that difficult. idk people still finding excuses and not learning and taking lazy route of complain.

[Connor]

i dont think the difficulty misplaced tbh. both endgame dungeon are a bit more challenging but not that difficult. idk people still finding excuses and not learning and taking lazy route of complain.

Having run through experts a bunch to gear up I’ve found that the difficulty for endgame dungeons seems to have actually already disappeared. Outside of that abomination Leonogg I barely ever see vuln stacks, much less someone taking actual damage that requires healing and not just letting Eos do it lol

[Khutulun]

Having run through experts a bunch to gear up I’ve found that the difficulty for endgame dungeons seems to have actually already disappeared. Outside of that abomination Leonogg I barely ever see vuln stacks, much less someone taking actual damage that requires healing and not just letting Eos do it lol

yeah the difficulty is already getting super out scaled. Pmuch have to chase the dopamine of the early release window for new content before you just start melting through bosses and mobs with no effort. Feels like content should sync max IL lower than it does (currently) so you can preserve the experience.

[Scarletelf]

I feel you, I see you. I understand that mechanics can be harder to learn for people! If you’re struggling, or anyone really, is struggling to go through msq with trusts, I recommend going as a tank! You can step in most aoes and so long as your spread your dmg mitigations, you will not die to your accumulating vuln stacks.

I’ve had a friend with crippling anxiety and was frustrated with how much this games expects you to be. I don’t think it’s hard at all, but there is a large population of first time mmo players and gamers enjoying this game. I don’t think it’s right asking for optional content, which is designed to weave people into the harder content to be made easier. Fundamentally I think that’ll leave a wider gap of knowledge/expectations to transition into harder stuff. There are casual friendly optional systems to engage with however, try crafting, gathering, housing (apartments because the lotto is suffering), gold saucer, exc! If it’s combat you’re craving, Fates are good, bozja/eureka can be fun as well. If you wait until 7.05-7.1, treasure maps will have their dungeons unlocked, but I am expecting the difficulty might be more reflective of current stuff.

[jdtuggey]

Look 'ma, it's the thread that's on tv!

Just want to throw my opinion here, am a casual, have been since ARR, I don't want to commit and maintain a schedule, I don't want the game to be difficult to the point of being frustrating, I also don't want to feel like I have to commit like I used to on wow. Am mostly on the game because I enjoy leveling, running dungeons and making my friends smile, yet, since shadowbringers on a lesser level and then endwalker, I've felt I've been left behind. None of the content that I reasonably want to engage in challenges me anymore. Dawntrail feels like a step in the right direction to restore what was lost to me in that transition to accomodate more players.

Like, people that are struggling with dawntrail and expressing it in this thread feel like they're missing context, that the only FFXIV they've ever known is SHB and beyond, so they feel slighted, but to a player like me, they took the bar too low for low commitment content, and they are readjusting it. They aren't making a new move out of nowhere here from my perspective, they're fixing mistakes they made in the past. There's also another dimension to understand in this, they can't cater to everyone reasonably, there's a range of players that any given game will cater to, and when they made changes to difficulty in SHB, they did not widen that range, they dragged it to another place in the spectrum, and that left a wide gap between experts/normal raids and savage. Like, to think that they could cater to every player is kinda utopian ? Holding CBU3 to that standard is pretty unreasonable to me. Alternatively, you have the ultimate choice, you can choose not to engage in content that is too hard for you up to yeah, not engaging with the game anymore.

Unexpected difficulty is always jarring at first in a video game, but as you try and try, your standards readjust, you become better, and that's a reward in and of itself. Personally, am pleased by the slight increase in difficulty and how much more dynamic fights are, keeps me attentive and on my feet. And well, I'm a parent-aged gamer well past my prime.

One last thing, let's not forget to put the "dawntrail too hard" criticisms against "endwalker braindead" criticism, just to show the reality that no matter what CBU3 will do, people will complain. It's their game, not mine, so I prefer to defer to them and when the game goes south for me, I speak with my money. I'm willing to bet that this thread made it so many people who wouldn't throw their voice in the mix do so in the end, and from what I can tell, this ultimately worked against the opinion that dawntrail is too hard, which I would describe as "counter-productive". :P

[Pepitoow]

For those who are complaining about the difficulty in an MAX LVL CURRENT CONTENT OPTIONAL RAID , just take your time to learn or like yoshi p said just take a break come back whenever you want, no one is forcing you to do or learn this OPTIONAL RAID , you can save up some sub money and come back later whenever you can unsync it solo without any "sudden non telegraphed aoe that one shots you" (oh look an activated bomb in the ground, surely its not gonna explode and dmg anyone around it right? why would i move away from it )" or try other games , i heard Hello kitty island adventure is coming up next year , you can try that one which is more in the casual and less difficult side and let us know how it goes