Disappointed of Dawntrail difficulty

[Tunda]

Mr. Yoshi mentioned that he will test players with this expansion..

I don't know who is he testing but the game is still as easy as before..

I would like to share my disappointment of this expansion there is nothing to be tested.. mechanics are all over youtube.. where is the preparation before encounter? where is the hardest mechanic I don't see any???

I felt that there is a small jump into difficulty in expert.. but that wasn't even hard just dodge the AoE and play hide and seek with the boss

I got EX1 withing the first hour.. and I am not that good with the game.. many times I missed my rotation even in 2min windows and still not even close to enrage.

I am not a hardcore player not even doing my weekly for best gear and item level..

this is disappointed we need more actions we need more levels of difficulty

if difficulty was 2/10 now its 3.5/10 not even 4.

We have 99 levels to learn how to avoid telegraphEd attacks fights should be challenging in 100 levels

I want to see more this is not even close to enough

[CVXIV]

I'm not sure where the mechanics being uploaded to YouTube come into play because that's always been a thing.
Not everyone is going to watch a dungeon guide or w/e before doing a duty, I typically just go in blind and have fun figuring things out on my own.

It could be due to ilvl but things have ramped up a bit which has been fun to see and I am curious where they go from here.

[TheFrogMan]

The MSQ story dungeons and trials weren't much harder, but their pacing was faster, and if you're already used to the types of mechanics then it won't seem nearly like the change you want.
MSQ should provide an okay challenge, but you need to put context to your 0-10 scale because if players only do MSQ and maybe extremes, then their 0-10 is MSQ to EX, where my 0-10 is MSQ to Current Patch Ultimate, which are two completely different scales.

Not all content needs to be ball crushingly difficult, but not all content needs to be super easy either. If you want a more intense challenge, commit to savage or ult raids that are made specifically for that reason with rewards to match it's difficulty.

[Tunda]

The MSQ story dungeons and trials weren't much harder, but their pacing was faster, and if you're already used to the types of mechanics then it won't seem nearly like the change you want.
MSQ should provide an okay challenge, but you need to put context to your 0-10 scale because if players only do MSQ and maybe extremes, then their 0-10 is MSQ to EX, where my 0-10 is MSQ to Current Patch Ultimate, which are two completely different scales.

Not all content needs to be ball crushingly difficult, but not all content needs to be super easy either. If you want a more intense challenge, commit to savage or ult raids that are made specifically for that reason with rewards to match it's difficulty.

Words to yoshi p.. don't give us promises then disappoint us with this kind of "difficulty"

when it is a "jump" it should be a jump not scratching the surface

I work 9-5 job and have a wife and family
I play 25 hours a week not even close to hardcore and game is just testing my patient nothing else

[TheFrogMan]

I work 9-5 job and have a wife and family
I play 25 hours a week not even close to hardcore and game is just testing my patient nothing else

I also work the 9-5 dream 5 days a week and spend time with family, and while I can understand that you don't have a hardcore mindset you also can't expect to swim in the kiddy pool that is MSQ difficulty and expect there to be depth akin to savage raids and expect other players with even less time to play and a less capable mindset to get through that content without flat out skipping it.

I didn't become a penta legend by dwelling on MSQ difficulty. Find a casual one or two day a week group where you play for an hour or two and try the harder content, and if life comes up where you need to take care of your family and they don't like that, find another group, or just take a break, nothing is forcing you to sacrifice your life just to play the harder content the game provides and expecting MSQ to take that spot is not a good idea.

[Lak14]

Words to yoshi p.. don't give us promises then disappoint us with this kind of "difficulty"

when it is a "jump" it should be a jump not scratching the surface

I work 9-5 job and have a wife and family
I play 25 hours a week not even close to hardcore and game is just testing my patient nothing else

wow 25 hourse a week ? You have more time to play than me and you can't even kill phoinix ?

how about stop shitposting and spend more time inside game pls ?

[Isala]

Oh, they're testing players alright. Testing our patience, and willingness to stomach the same dog water design we've had for the last 3 expansions.

[Kaurhz]

Eh,

It's relative to the target audience of that content more than anything, and I do believe that when Yoshida made comments, it was in reference to introducing more stress back into the game, not necessarily making the game itself more difficult. This stress can come in several different ways aside from difficulty.

I think from my perspective, I didn't find them much more difficult mechanically, but these encounters did have more pacing over what they've had in the past, honestly. So there's a bit of an adjustment there, and though none of them are really new mechanics... How the mechanics are signaled, I do find different, however.

I think if you are a low-skilled casual, then you are more inclined to notice difficulty, but I think if you are slightly above average skill level, even at casual level, then you are more than likely to be OK with it and potentially not notice much difference.

As dismissive as this comes across, it does reign true, but if you are really looking for that difficulty, then really you should be waiting until savage and ultimate releases as opposed to the early on Ex encounters and arguably story-mode content.

[ForteNightshade]

Eh,

It's relative to the target audience of that content more than anything, and I do believe that when Yoshida made comments, it was in reference to introducing more stress back into the game, not necessarily making the game itself more difficult. This stress can come in several different ways aside from difficulty.

I think from my perspective, I didn't find them much more difficult mechanically, but these encounters did have more pacing over what they've had in the past, honestly. So there's a bit of an adjustment there, and though none of them are really new mechanics... How the mechanics are signaled, I do find different, however.

I think if you are a low-skilled casual, then you are more inclined to notice difficulty, but I think if you are slightly above average skill level, even at casual level, then you are more than likely to be OK with it and potentially not notice much difference.

As dismissive as this comes across, it does reign true, but if you are really looking for that difficulty, then really you should be waiting until savage and ultimate releases as opposed to the early on Ex encounters and arguably story-mode content.

I think this is an important distinction people may be forgetting. Take the second boss from Vanguard. While still fairly easy, asking the player to repeatedly dodge fast targeted AoEs is a form of stress, especially at the targeted audience they're aiming for with dungeon design. My only real complaint is you do eventually realize getting hit by said AoEs is very forgetting, which makes dodging less of a concern. Nonetheless, the thought is there.

If you were ever expecting dungeons to have a real upswing, I hate to break it to you but that will never happen. They want casual content to be readily accessible to most skill levels. A problem several players have is underestimating their own skill level when posting about difficult. I think we all are guilty of that to some extent. Basically, most people posting online are better than they think they are even they're still casual.

[Kaurhz]

I think this is an important distinction people may be forgetting. Take the second boss from Vanguard. While still fairly easy, asking the player to repeatedly dodge fast targeted AoEs is a form of stress, especially at the targeted audience they're aiming for with dungeon design. My only real complaint is you do eventually realize getting hit by said AoEs is very forgetting, which makes dodging less of a concern. Nonetheless, the thought is there.

If you were ever expecting dungeons to have a real upswing, I hate to break it to you but that will never happen. They want casual content to be readily accessible to most skill levels. A problem several players have is underestimating their own skill level when posting about difficult. I think we all are guilty of that to some extent. Basically, most people posting online are better than they think they are even they're still casual.

This is personally where I think their intended stress is going to be for normal content. Pacing is easily enough adaptable and can keep the fight engaging for anyone without necessarily compromising on making the content too difficult as to potentially stonewall people or change the target audience entirely. Can't speak on beyond that, isn't my place. But the original comments were about stress, and that stress takes on a variety of forms aside from "just ramp up the difficulty" - Which Yoshida commented on at the time. I think if they want to step up the difficulty of that entry content, then they really ought to be spending a lot of time nurturing the content that has had its teeth lost to time, e.g., ARR > SB content.

This final part of yours I think is spot on. This is the intended audience. Easily accessible to most skill levels, and frankly anyone that tries to pay attention, but still has the risk of wiping people. I still have healers and such getting taken down by final boss on level 95 dungeon and final boss of level 91 dungeon. Just as I have seen people get baited by the Cross AoEs and circular AoEs on the first dungeon of Alexandria. There is still some legitimate threat to a casual or lower-skilled player. Personally, I'm a casual player by nearly every stretch of the definition (outside of DoH/L), most dungeons I found easy but required some level of engagement or paying attention, e.g., the order of AoEs in Alexandria, or positioning myself to not get crushed by unfortunate positioning on the Level 91 boss (I've absolutely seen people essentially do themselves in because of their position alone). But even these things are just things that people don't pay attention to when actually doing the dungeon. Some will treat it as reactionary, and just react to the bosses, but some will treat it as more of a dance and will know the sequence, and I think something like this is a mentality thing, and when you have that mentality it's not really easier to create that desired difficulty/swing without changing the target audience for that content entirely.