So... This is the "improved encounter design"?

[CaedemSanguis]

I find the encounters to be very much improved.
I have yet to do M4S but the other three are awesome.
Easy to understand, some of the mechanics require to actually pay attention, and an amount of downtime I can live with.

I was growing tired of mechanics that superficially look complex because of 4834854 debuffs being slapped on everyone, but once you get used to them it's only 2-3 easily recognizable patterns.
Honey B. is my favorite encounter design-wise. And I'm not only saying that because she forces me to.

the tier is cool, but there is nothing really innovative in it's design, except for alarm pheromones (m2s)

[Xelanar]

the tier is cool, but there is nothing really innovative in it's design, except for alarm pheromones (m2s)

exactly, right? Mechanics are mostly recycled, but fights do feel better. At least to me they do, even after clearing them multiple times on different characters. Maybe it's the tiny memory games they added, or the way you need to pay attention to things other than your debuffs. It's honestly hard for me to pinpoint exact reasons. All I know is that I'm having more fun than I had in Eden or Pandaemonium while learning or once reclear routine kicks in.

[Raikai]

the tier is cool, but there is nothing really innovative in it's design, except for alarm pheromones (m2s)

Ironically, so far from what I experienced of half of the tier, Alarm Pheromones is the most exciting mechanic they added exactly because it allows some sort of free form. I know people go for this "Mario Kart" strat for that part (th is that name...), but as a ranged unit I feel much more safe by doing the mech on my own instead of following the group.

[Jeeqbit]

This level of difficulty matches heavensward and stormblood.

I remember they mentioned pre-Stormblood as their goal for actual creativity, but with it being less annoying. Because the "different" mechanics in Heavensward were often just an annoyance. I do feel they have achieved this.

The compromise they made is they are now alright with you having to tomahawk spam if you can't be in melee range, which they were trying to avoid completely in Endwalker with the giant hitboxes.

FFXIV's long term issue's the lack of punishment

They do give vuln stacks so that subsequent mistakes can build up to being a problem. That combined with needing to watch your surroundings can make them more threatening. However, if they just kill you on the first mistake, then people say healers have no role or that there are body checks.

I do personally prefer mechanics to just kill, but that is often left to content with lots of rezzers such as hunts.

Combine that with no rng

Well there is specific RNG within the mechanics or specific patterns chosen at random, but the entire mechanic order being random from start to finish is likely something they will never do and I think if someone is expecting this they'll be disappointed. The closest I think we got to that was in SoS Extreme and ARR hunts where the entire array of casts is chosen at random.

[AvoSturmfaust]

It has actually a improved encounter design, compare it with the last expansion and you see it, one of the most complains was the hitbox which had the size as the moon, now melees have to fight a bit again for full uptime, and dont forget its the first tier and with picto and the buffs so many dds had the tier was just a bit underwhelming, square already said they know it and it wont happen with the next tier

[Tizzy_Tormentor]

Man, I wonder if the next tier will have fights that take place on a flat circular or square arena, maybe they will even feel daring and make it rectangular.

Jokes aside, I think for regular content like dungeons and story trials, the pace of the fights is drastically improved from Endwalker, where it felt like there were long periods where the boss does absolutely nothing and just waits for death until the remember "oh yeah, mechanics" and teleports to perform it. In Dawntrail, there is less time where the boss just sits there and does nothing, which is nice, the mechanics themselves also have a bit more teeth to em, often resolving much quicker and being a bit more punishing, which is a nice change from EW as a whole.

I don't Savage raid anymore, so I will refrain from making comments about that, but in general, the first tier is always the easiest, usually so new/returning players get a feel for any job changes, 2nd and 3rd tiers are usually given a bit more oomph.

[Teno]

Beyond savage, I like that valigarmanda was a comparatively more engaging fight for healers for once. At least when everyone was running around in 690 gear.

[Raikai]

Beyond savage, I like that valigarmanda was a comparatively more engaging fight for healers for once. At least when everyone was running around in 690 gear.

I agree. I'm actually perfectly fine with EX keeping the approach they have now, being more standard for a possible High End introduction to new players. Currently I personally feel they have a similar level of difficulty than of Savage, but the difference is that they have less mechanics to solve.

[Ardeth]

I felt like on normal they took so long it made me not want to do them again. Plus, the loot structure sucks. I don't want to do them multiple times and collect multiple trinkets to get the gear. I just didn't find the experience fun. The fights were fine. The mechanics made sense. It just took way too long to kill. And given the groups failed multiple times, it took even longer. It was something I wasn't going to do twice.

[Jeeqbit]

I felt like on normal they took so long it made me not want to do them again.

They get faster with gear. Plus, the people who took ages were probably still learning mechanics and will be better at them now. The timeframe now is the same as any previous raids we've had, but eventually it will be as quick as P1-P4 by the end of the expansion.