ELI5: How are the current dungeons hard?

[Jinglypockets]

Having spent 14 years in WoW (and like 13 of them as holy pally), I agree completely.

Case in point: I have never been able to get (modern) Holy Paladin to work for me. Something about it just doesn't mesh at all with the way my brain works. I can time +26s as a Resto Shaman, but I just curl up into a ball and let everyone die when I play Holy Pally. The classes are so wildly different that I (an objectively accomplished healer) can't even compute how anyone keeps people alive with a Holy Pally.

And 5) in FFXIV the raid can simply bunch up in one clump and be healed by something like Cure III (except the times when mechanics need to be resolved, of course). In WoW, there are fights where you need to be spread out most of the time (at least you used to have, no idea about now).

Still true in WoW. It depends a lot on the individual fight, of course, but there are still lots of fights where it makes strategic sense to spread out.

And 6) (or should I say 0): the ratio of healer to DPS in WoW allows the encounter to be tuned for a very limited healer DPS, unlike FFXIV where everyone is basically a DPS, otherwise it doesn't compute.

The ratios aren't really much different, but I agree that it feels different. Healer DPS in FFXIV feels like it's just the thing I do because it's the most efficient way for me to spend my globals. Healer DPS in WoW feels like I'm doing something extra special to help us time this key.

The biggest difference is that you just have less time to DPS in WoW because you have to heal more and every heal costs a global, but each individual DPS global contributes more damage.

WoW = More time healing, less time DPSing, more DPS per global
FFXIV = Less time healing, more time DPSing, less DPS per global

It balances out to feel like a pretty comparable level of contribution.

And 7) Mana is basically inexistent for all classes in FFXIV, including healers.

This is very class and era-dependent in WoW. The last time I played, Holy Paladin literally could not spend all their mana if they tried, but Mistweaver could dump all their mana at once for massive throughput.

And yes, I think the point 2 is the most important one, but I don't know why it's so hard to throw more damage at the expense of running to resolve mechs.

The importance that big numbers have on difficulty is bizarrely underrated. I've had more than one person tell me infinitely scaling of health/damage numbers in dungeons (ie: keys) wouldn't impact difficulty at all, which, uh, try a +2 and a +25 and get back to me.

Yes, same here

I love FFXIV and hate WoW, but WoW still has a lot of redeeming qualities that I wish could be pulled into this game.

[TDawnstar]

Case in point: I have never been able to get (modern) Holy Paladin to work for me. Something about it just doesn't mesh at all with the way my brain works. I can time +26s as a Resto Shaman, but I just curl up into a ball and let everyone die when I play Holy Pally. The classes are so wildly different that I (an objectively accomplished healer) can't even compute how anyone keeps people alive with a Holy Pally.

Well, at least you are offered some choice of your healing style. I'm not surprised if SE knew that they have pushed themselves into a corner with the lack of job identities, but I am afraid that by 8.0, it will already be too late.

The importance that big numbers have on difficulty is bizarrely underrated. I've had more than one person tell me infinitely scaling of health/damage numbers in dungeons (ie: keys) wouldn't impact difficulty at all, which, uh, try a +2 and a +25 and get back to me.

Well, I obviously don't know what is the reasoning behind these, but if I had to guess, it's because of how powerful mitigation and healing is in FFXIV right now. Maybe they think that even bumping the damage a bit would still allow them to do wall to wall with little to no issues?

I love FFXIV and hate WoW, but WoW still has a lot of redeeming qualities that I wish could be pulled into this game.

Pretty much the same. I wish they got a better lead with a better vision for WoW.