FF 14 has the worst dungeons

[Mawlzy]

i highly doubt that the "majority" of players even uses this system, does anyone have actual numbers?
There is no benefit in running with NPC's over players, usually a dungeon with NPC's takes twice as long to finish, the only reason i see to use this if you are playing late at night and can't find a party for anything.

Other than dps queue times, there are two massive advantages. Lower-skilled players use them to avoid wasting the precious time of higher-skilled players, most of whom just want to get the dungeon done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Complementary to that, lower-skilled players can enjoy the dungeons at their own pace.

Thus lower-skilled players can safely run dungeons knowing they are not going to get laughed at on these forums by gaming gods, who seem to think anyone who isn't as good as them lack reading and observational skills, while the high-skilled players can min-max the snot out of the "braindead" dungeons.

But as I've noted elsewhere, if higher-skilled players want more difficult dungeons, the only solution is dual- or tri-mode dungeon difficulty. Because SQEX isn't about to gate the people they seduced with a once-compelling story via harder dungeons.

All that said, I don't think FF14 dungeons are boring because they're easy. They're boring because they are formulaic and rely almost exclusively for their challenge on DDR slop.

[Mawlzy]

The design is like this so it could work for trusts. And soon, old trials will be changed so you can queue with trusts. The designs were bad even before trusts but trusts are the reason they'll never be creative again.

Then improve the trusts. I know SQEX likes to excuse a lack of features by claiming insurmountable coding problems, but there's no need for us to accept such gaslighting.

[JohnLakeside]

All for the sake of accessibility because NA's "modern audience" wouldn't stfu.

[Gurgeh]

The OP deserves more than a like so:
Me too.

And the mentor roulette is a travesty in how it seems to be a 1st class ticket to getting priority queuing into more interesting, more recent content, leaving other rouls with the leftovers. I almost never get anything in mentor that I couldn't get in any of the other rouls, but at the same time it is consistently way more interesting than the other rouls. I dont run most of the other rouls either. Especially with tome cap still being 450. Most of my other jobs, aren't lv100 or aren't ivl700, because I just can't be bothered. In fact... I haven't even finished leveling PCT, or bothered unlocking viper, because the only thing I can do with them is mostly play dungeons I just don't want to play, where there is no point in even playing any job properly because it's not necessary, and so I can't be bothered to learn how for a new job.
My god! Actually I hadn't realised it was that bad until just now! I haven't even bothered with the new jobs because that's how I think of all jobs, boring, and combined with the same old dungeons, even now boring. A new job now becomes nothing more than an irritation. I'd rather stick with my comfy mains, so I can fully go to sleep and just get the instances over with.
God that's actually really bad. I hadn't looked into why I hadn't bothered with the new jobs. But that's definitely it. I an just so bored with the casual content, and there is no way I'm using those for Extremes, or even bothering to suffer leveling for extremes.
The new normals had better not be easier than the last normals. The last normals were peak perfection, but with how bad the rest of the casual game is there is no room for them to slip. Same for the new field operations, they'd better have some good challenges that don't need to scheduling in a sodding discord.

[Jeeqbit]

I don't see the need for them to have moved away from the sort of mechanics we got in ARR and HW dungeons that involved things like luring a monkey to a banana tree, traps, mimics (fake treasure coffers), vents that increase damage if adds are on them, adds that spawn babies, etc.

But I do understand the fixed number of trash pulls. That was problematic before we had walls because tanks feel pressured to pull everything. So they pull everything, wipe, then everyone gets frustrated and potentially the tank or the healer feels like they messed up (when it was actually just too big a pull for what they could reasonably handle with that gear/comp/experience).

[Voryn]

IBut I do understand the fixed number of trash pulls. That was problematic before we had walls because tanks feel pressured to pull everything. So they pull everything, wipe, then everyone gets frustrated and potentially the tank or the healer feels like they messed up (when it was actually just too big a pull for what they could reasonably handle with that gear/comp/experience).

The linear dungeon design also means people don’t get upset at each other if one person wants to actually explore a dungeon and another just wants to finish their levelling roulette quickly. There’s less decisions to be made.

So many design choices in this game just seem like they’re made for removing the possibility of arguments between players.

I’m glad that at the bosses are more enjoyable in Dawntrail now (at least to me) but it would be nice if the mobs had more variety too. Like there’s the mobs in Vangaurd that have their donut/dynamo AOEs, and the big turtles in the lv 99 dungeon, but situations like these still feel rare.

[Connor]

Wouldn't say it's a Duty Support issue, at least not strictly. Modern design is mostly in response to how players themselves actually run dungeons -- always choosing the most efficient way, ignoring all other paths, even when incentivized by loot (granted, loot has diminishing returns the older the content is).

Now, the devs didn't have to cave to that mentality, granted, but here we are.

Probably being overly cynical but I’d argue the devs willingly caved to that mindset purely because it’s makes development easier (maybe more cost effective?).
Like they have made absolutely no attempt to strike any sort of ‘balance’ between ‘hallway sim with some enemies and the same boss in a different form’ and ‘actually interesting and engaging dungeons’.

[Turnintino]

Probably being overly cynical but I’d argue the devs willingly caved to that mindset purely because it’s makes development easier (maybe more cost effective?).
Like they have made absolutely no attempt to strike any sort of ‘balance’ between ‘hallway sim with some enemies and the same boss in a different form’ and ‘actually interesting and engaging dungeons’.

No arguments there.

Sometimes the set pieces they design disguise it well enough (or are simply pretty), at least, but other times, we're... literally just in yet another cave.

[NaoSen]

SE have this way of "Players will always choose the optimal way so we will only give them one way" and you end up with a less immersive experience as a result.