Quote Originally Posted by Mawlzy View Post
I think part of the problem we're facing is that a single mechanic now dominates fights: responding rapidly to (often obscure) tells and moving to the safe spot.
To be fair:

As far as any normal-mode content is concerned -- that is, anything someone can reasonably queue for in Duty Finder -- I can't recall any "obscure" tells. If someone can see the tell, then they have a good chance of knowing what they need to do. (I'm setting aside concerns about reaction times.)

Having said that, my "if" there is carrying a lot of weight, and there are two aspects to this:
  1. Cast names are meaningful, but the default UI and tutorials makes no effort to highlight that information.
  2. Visual effects in Endwalker and Dawntrail have emphasized flashiness to the exclusion of all else. These effects look fantastic in a job trailer, where there is a single character going up against a striking dummy, but those same effects are utterly oppressive and blinding when you have a striking dummy that fights back, or 3 or 7 or 23 other players alongside you.
So, in practice, the boss might be casting, "I Will Fail My Right Arm Like a Crazy Person in 5 Seconds," but good luck actually seeing that in the cast bar or in their character model.