New Alliance Raid: Well done Devs

[SamuraiMiqo]

I know my thoughts on this will get me yelled at and laughed at, hell I'm already being down voted on Reddit. I feel the mechanics of this raid and the new dungeon are too much at once. For me it feels like there's too much going on, not enough room to breathe, to the point of panic. It also feels like for the last boss of the Alliance Raid, if your reaction time isn't super good, you get knocked around. I would like for things to be slowed down just a bit to make things easier to understand and not as hectic. I know people will say 'git gud' or 'Stop playing, filthy casual', but not everyone was wanting this to be frustrating.

*Sighs and holds up lunch tray to deflect thrown meatballs*

[Diclonius]

I know my thoughts on this will get me yelled at and laughed at, hell I'm already being down voted on Reddit. I feel the mechanics of this raid and the new dungeon are too much at once. For me it feels like there's too much going on, not enough room to breathe, to the point of panic. It also feels like for the last boss of the Alliance Raid, if your reaction time isn't super good, you get knocked around. I would like for things to be slowed down just a bit to make things easier to understand and not as hectic. I know people will say 'git gud' or 'Stop playing, filthy casual', but not everyone was wanting this to be frustrating.

*Sighs and holds up lunch tray to deflect thrown meatballs*

I don't think any respectable player should ridicule you for this opinion, however the relative difficulty for the new raid doesn't feel overly disproportionate compared to older tiers, like the Ivalice raids. I think the last boss of Jeuno felt in line with fights like Cidolfus or Ultima when they were current content. The amount of time given to react to mechanics like Implosion, Dark Nebula or Damning Strikes is still generous in my opinion, and Giga Slash is essentially just an easy memory game.

The readability of said mechanics isn't too visually busy for my liking either, I think the feeling of it being a bit hectic could be attributed to it being brand new, as well as the pacing between mechanics giving people very little down time to stand still and go through the motions of their rotation without interruption, which I think of as a positive.

[Alyx-Greywind]

I know my thoughts on this will get me yelled at and laughed at, hell I'm already being down voted on Reddit. I feel the mechanics of this raid and the new dungeon are too much at once. For me it feels like there's too much going on, not enough room to breathe, to the point of panic. It also feels like for the last boss of the Alliance Raid, if your reaction time isn't super good, you get knocked around. I would like for things to be slowed down just a bit to make things easier to understand and not as hectic. I know people will say 'git gud' or 'Stop playing, filthy casual', but not everyone was wanting this to be frustrating.

*Sighs and holds up lunch tray to deflect thrown meatballs*

I found it fine however I will stand by and help shield you from the abuse! I can understand it might be a bit much for a number of players too, no matter how much ridicule and abuse you get know there are those who think the combat direction isn't what the casual end needs.

[Volgia]

After the snooze fest what was last Alliance Raid this one was pretty fun. I'm glad they didn't shy from the absolute chaos that was going in blind.

I liked the difficulty, you gotta pay attention or the bosses will kick your ass, and that's all I want from END-GAME LVL100 content.

[Darnath]

I know my thoughts on this will get me yelled at and laughed at, hell I'm already being down voted on Reddit. I feel the mechanics of this raid and the new dungeon are too much at once. For me it feels like there's too much going on, not enough room to breathe, to the point of panic. It also feels like for the last boss of the Alliance Raid, if your reaction time isn't super good, you get knocked around. I would like for things to be slowed down just a bit to make things easier to understand and not as hectic. I know people will say 'git gud' or 'Stop playing, filthy casual', but not everyone was wanting this to be frustrating.

*Sighs and holds up lunch tray to deflect thrown meatballs*

I'll join you in shielding.

I haven't unlocked it yet and going by the comments here seeing the Extreme raiders and higher loving it pretty much convinced me barring it required for the relic I'll probably leave it locked until 8.0 when maybe it can be overgeared.

Yes, I know my rotation as MCH

1-2-3 until heat. Use Wildfire then the Heatblast spam with Double Check/Checkmate.
Use the Crit guaranteed when available for Air Anchor, Drill, or Chainsaw

But if the mechanics are as chaotic as people are saying here, meh. Keep that stuff to Extreme / Savage / Ultimates.

[Buktagwa]

I really enjoyed this Alliance Raid, and I'll definitely look forward to doing them weekly for this raid and the next two installments if they have a similar difficulty. So long as the mechanics difficulty stays around Stormblood and Shadowbringers Alliance Raid difficulty, I'm happy. This felt like it was on par with The Ridorana Lighthouse and The Orbonne Monastery, which happen to be my two of my most favorite Alliance Raids to take part of during release.

The Endwalker raid series were far too easy to read, and too formulaic with their long cast times and static timelines. IMO, the difficulty is perfect when a blind run has several near wipes, and a wipe or two on each boss. Gear and knowledge will make these wipes almost non-existent within half a year, but the raid itself will still be engaging and fun with the current difficulty level.

[Emitans]

This is the most fun I've had with an alliance raid since Stormblood. I think the final boss's sword telegraphs are too hard to read, but other than that its basically perfect.

[SeriousPan]

This is the most fun I've had with an alliance raid since Stormblood. I think the final boss's sword telegraphs are too hard to read, but other than that its basically perfect.

I learned that just looking at where the final sword ends and standing slightly next to that is all you need to look for. The rest is just there to disorient you.

[TaleraRistain]

I know my thoughts on this will get me yelled at and laughed at, hell I'm already being down voted on Reddit. I feel the mechanics of this raid and the new dungeon are too much at once. For me it feels like there's too much going on, not enough room to breathe, to the point of panic. It also feels like for the last boss of the Alliance Raid, if your reaction time isn't super good, you get knocked around. I would like for things to be slowed down just a bit to make things easier to understand and not as hectic. I know people will say 'git gud' or 'Stop playing, filthy casual', but not everyone was wanting this to be frustrating.

*Sighs and holds up lunch tray to deflect thrown meatballs*

I'm going to help people shield you as well. I raid Savage. Savage has tricky and sometimes difficult to implement mechanics with tells that are easier to read than some of the things in this raid. There is a lot going on and the one saving grace is that some of those things don't hit very hard. But I will agree that the readability of some mechanics in the raid is trying to create artificial difficulty. The challenge should be in the mechanics, not trying to parse out the tell in the visual mess on the screen.

[Ath192]

I'm going to help people shield you as well. I raid Savage. Savage has tricky and sometimes difficult to implement mechanics with tells that are easier to read than some of the things in this raid. There is a lot going on and the one saving grace is that some of those things don't hit very hard. But I will agree that the readability of some mechanics in the raid is trying to create artificial difficulty. The challenge should be in the mechanics, not trying to parse out the tell in the visual mess on the screen.

I can't agree. For too long the game has been too stale and too boring to play. The alliance raid is not hard, and dying and failing while you get used to the mechanics is not something to be ashamed of but to be expected. A raid shouldn't be easily clearable in one go blind without dying.

That is the situation that has gone too long in this game. If you can easily pass and master the raid in one single go, then how boring and obsolete is the raid by the end of the week? 2 weeks? 4 months??? - the supposed lifespan of the patch. I for one celebrate that playing this raid I know I'm going to be stimulated by the mechanics more than I have been in the past, I can't be on my phone anymore, its no longer a mindless chore to extract a piece of gear from, it's a dangerous fight where I need to pay attention and it challenges me.

This is what end game raids should strive for in an MMO, and it is not hardcore, it is barely midcore content (I would argue its definitely casual). With time, it will become a snoozefest like all the other raids due to ilvl creep and sync, so people who want to sleep while farming gear can have their day.

But to suggest raids need to be easy or slow so they do not kill or challenge the player is unacceptable, and categorically unfun. They are raids... not walk-throughs.