Dawntrail's Fight Design is Refreshing Already

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[@xhelan131]

ive been flabbergasted at how amazing the dungeons and trials have been.

[@chump5876]

New expert dungeons are so funny 😂 I play on jpnserver and love watching people try to figure it out 😂

[@marvinkwon2824]

Thought the same!

[@johnathansanford8206]

What are y'all talking about? It's literally copy paste of previous content. The dungeons are still the same boring formula, the trials are dull. And the entire story is just us babysitting. Worst expansion to date.

[@SilverVibes]

​@@johnathansanford8206I'd say the mechanics have received a nice bump up in difficulty from previous expacs. It is probably going to increase the general playerbase's skill, especially the final trial. If you are saying it isn't I'd imagine you haven't really done any content past Extremes. All good. Respect your opinion. If it was really that bad, we'll enjoy this expac while you sit it out, or not. Doesn't really make a difference.

[@atdaocito]

I thought the same! I've been playing since ARR. I thought the same thing.

[@bendonatier]

The level 95 boss was like "Healer strike? Nah strike healers"

[@DK-sw8uz]

Came here to basically say this. I was shocked when my DF party had trouble staying alive at a few points. I’m like, “Is this Yoshi P’s revenge for the healer strike?!??!?”

[@mquezada88]

That was me with the dungeons at that point. Pfft.

[@Nimoot]

@@DK-sw8uz All of this was slated in months and months before the 'healer strike'. It's 100% coincidence.

[@kikidffo8963]

Legit ex1 is healer lead LOL that's how I feel you stack om healers and healers are working to.keep you alive 🤣

[@Cherryblossoms110]

@@DK-sw8uz Why would it be revenge though? It's exactly what they're asking for. The healers still striking are just dumbasses who don't know what they want. The strike has had no effect so far anyways, they were supposed to have started striking on 7/2/24 and my DPS queues since then have gotten BETTER, not WORSE, because everybody already finished leveling their PCT/VPR and are moving back to their main...

[@StrikerTVFang]

I don't think I've died this much in MSQ dungeons EVER.... and I enjoy that. My party really worked together to beat one of the dungeons and it was refreshing!

[@maxime_simard]

Has a healer main it was refreshing to actually having to think about healing and not just being a glare mage.

[@SwiftbladeSpecials]

Dawntrail reminds me for the first time of how titan hard felt way back in the day, that an inexperienced party is really gonna struggle to learn stuff but an experienced party will thrive but actually have to try more often. Glad to see us creeping back towards less comfortable content and back into a grindset. I love both styles but it's nice to feel challenged in day to day stuff again.

[@elvangulley3210]

No you just want to drive off other players the make everything super hard croud is very selfish

[@ItachiKai]

@elvangulley3210 youre kinda a cringe victim, aintcha?

[@elvangulley3210]

@@ItachiKai no you want to drive players away

[@lethaltoconcrete2194]

@@elvangulley3210 Is it your opinion that dungeons have become hard to that degree? I don't personally think that's what's happening -- they might push back a bit more and be more engaging, but they're still casual content. They're just gonna be less boring than the ones in Endwalker.

[@Calvinooi]

​@@elvangulley3210Titan is not even that hard, you just need to be awake while you play, instead of going on autopilot

[@ColorOfSakura]

We actually had multiple PARTY WIPES in MSQ dungeons. I’ve not had that happen since Stormblood? Heavensward maybe? It was so refreshing and most of all, fun. It felt nice to feel challenged in the sense of requiring mechanical awareness and also quick thinking on how to respond to incoming mechs.

[@kirigherkins]

This is EXACTLY what I was wanting from Endwalker as a casual player who doesn't raid or do extremes! Bozja hit that sweet spot of engaging and fun content with some real bite to it, but you didn't party wipe automatically if things go wrong. DT normal content is chaotic, dangerous, but ultimately recoverable except for that one boss with literal instakill mechanics lol. It's *fun*. Taking first-timers through these fights is hilarious and very satisfying as a tank because I get to actually use my protective cooldowns to save lives, like healing allies with Warrior, shielding someone with TBN, or covering people with Paladin!

[@shawnscouten5184]

Bozja casual mechanics are amazing design, and I’m glad some of that has finally transferred over to the msq.

[@lucaslingenfelter1456]

Very glad I went healer first this expansion. I had to raise a lot of people in some of these dungeons. Especially the optional 2.

[@DoctaDiesel]

I remember after finishing the protector fight, myself and the group of randos I queued with all immediately went "that fight was rad as hell" in chat.

[@wolfinthedepths]

no matter my thoughts on the story, combat design is genuinely so much more enjoyable than the last few years, it's very refreshing. i can't really pay for a sub consistently (college student moment) but I'm excited to come back when normal raids drop

[@wolfinthedepths]

oh and Viper is absolutely taking Dragoon over as my new main, that Lady Maria from Bloodborne fantasy (with the Cryptlurker scouting set especially) is just *feelsgoodman*

[@voistar5387]

​​@@wolfinthedepthsFirst expansion where I didn't know which new job I wanted to main going through the MSQ (lucky there has been enough XP for both). VPR (while a little lacking pre-90) and PCT are easily the best expansion release jobs they have ever done.

[@JJMomoida]

@@voistar5387 100% agree. I'm thinking I will actually stick with picto throughout the rest of the expansion cycle as my main. It's just so much fun lol. I've not had much time with viper but what I've seen seems pretty fun.

[@voistar5387]

@@JJMomoida Most difficult part about learning VPR at first was memorzing the positionals but saw a comment that simplified the basic attacks well based on the color of the ability icon: Green = Flank, Orange = Rear. Then the two abilities you get from your single target ability with two charges (forget its name) is similar to the Reaper's Gibbet and Gallows so I just put them in the same place in the hotbar as those abilities are for my Reaper. PCT is definately better at lower levels but VPR is still good, just take more getting used to.

[@zeehero7280]

Game is still doomed if they don't course correct on story, but whoever was designing mechanics should keep doing so.

[@goataku1154]

Most fun I’ve had with dungeons since I started in shadowbringers

[@appa_23]

Im getting so many Stormblood vibes and I love it. People disliking the story and content being top tier 😂.

[@IyasuHN2]

ok but I can live with that...that was fantastic and I didn't have that stick up my butt that loved HW story so much so SB is just my favorite expansion. the story was not golden but the expansion, content and the post msq was amazing

[@teemopanda02]

@@IyasuHN2 Story is a bit worse than SB but the content is a bit better. There are a lot of narrative issues and plot convenience in DT, so you'll likely not like it either even if you liked SB's MSQ

[@fallow84]

honestly, i hate the story so far but stormblood was my favorite expansion because at the end of the day, the story is 50 hours, and the content is 2 fucking years. if DT keeps pace with StB's content quality, we're in for a good time.

[@densha63]

This I agree. I love the dungeon mechanics. In my opinion, this is a step-up in terms of difficulty and variety. There are some old mechanics given a new coat of paint but I love how the dungeon is literally NOT " a walk in the park" kind of thing. I'm loving the normal trials! I died a few times haha! But it was fun yet challenging at the same time. I hope they do this on the alliance raid as well XD

[@carneliansweetness]

As a healer main. I am grateful they made recovering easy. The number of times i had to do the walk of shame because i died and the whole team had to restart hahaha.

[@finalsurvivor1]

The EX 2 cheese is getting patched actually, which is honestly astounding since it's completely opposite of how they handled unintended strats in the past (eg. Judgment Nisi, Waking UWU Garuda late, P7S Purgation, P12S's first mechanic) and is another indicator that they really want to improve fight design. Granted, the cheese strat here appears to be a bug rather than an oversight, but still I can't think of any other time they patched a cheese strat like that.

[@aznlink7]

Only time I can think of immediately off the top of my head was Ramuh EX where SMN's Titan egis could hold aggro and skip tank mechanics

[@juicytin14]

It's a bug - there is a debuff which is supposed to take effect when it expires without resolving the mechanic, but at the moment the debuff does nothing on expiration. I suspect it may deal do a damage down or just kill players outright

[@vaan_]

I hope they nod at this funny occurence whenever we have a dawntrail ultimate, by having a mech during zoraal phase where you MUST go into the wall to solve it, would be pretty funny

[@kiiturii]

idk how all those strats you mentioned work, but from the ones I know this cheese strat feels quite different.. It's not just an alternate strat, it's completely skipping a mechanic by standing in the "death" wall, it just doesn't look good on the fight at all

[@bigquazz3955]

One of those is not like the rest

[@SuperHexer123]

I have yet to do EX1, but man the moment I finished MSQ I HAD to go and start running EX2. Genuinely such a fun fight and while I have yet to get the wings/music, I find myself losing track of time in farm parties lol. It's also crazy because this isn't something I usually do, I like EX trials but im never a day 1 runner of them I usually wait a bit. Also with personal bias I loved the look of trial 3, but after doing the fight it easily became my #1 favorite trial in the game. It's definitely going to be a day 1 grind when the EX drops because I gonna NEED those wings if they look how I think they will.

[@Saiga906]

As a healer main I cannot express how happy I am with how much fun it as been to heal in this expansion, I had an smile from ear to ear when I saw an actual healing check in a trash pull in one of the level 100 dungeons!

[@IyasuHN2]

The dungeon mechanics are definitely while not difficult, an enjoyable step up in difficulty that i didnt feel like i was half asleep during these fights. The ex trials actually had some sick brand new mechanics that are just fun and engaging to do

[@shinon748]

This level of dungeon difficulty is perfect for what dungeons are. They aren't meant to be super difficult but at the same time you don't want your video game to be so easy you turn your brain off. This is engaging enough.

[@juicegirl2696]

Healing in Dawntrail has been amazing. I love being able to utilize my entire kit instead of just poppin a Eukrasian Prognosis and goin back to dosis spam. It is noticeable when the healer is doing good now.

[@javiermontiero4982]

Its nice to see and hear positive reception to the expansion. I've been seeing a lot of negativity. I've enjoyed it a lot so far, so it's been a bummer to think it's not doing well.

[@voistar5387]

You never can trust the "reviews" that come out in the first three/four days. Its always the people that went in with a preconcived negative opinion, or rushed through the story in 2 days by no lifeing it who aren't streamers, or skipped cutscenes (seen a lot open admissions of that this time around). Always should wait about a week or two to start looking at opinions and even then make sure the sources are trustworth (aka not steam, reddit, or twitter). Its only been a day since the official release and we are already starting to see more positive opinions or people pointing out the holes in some of the complaints. Not saying all the complaints are invalid, some are based on subjectivity and personal preference, but some of the "reviews" about the MSQ, battle content, and a certain character are people straight up lying or intentionally ignoring certain aspects of the MSQ (seriously I am only at lv94 and I can already call bullsh#t on all the people saying a certain character is poorly written and has no character development anywhere in the story).

[@rejectamenta]

He skipped the entire story, so he'll have a very different experience compared to someone who didn't.

[@voistar5387]

@@rejectamenta If there is one thing I have learned the last few years with games, people don't need to skip a story to completely miss or not understand things clearly shown/explained to them. Media Literacy has fallen of the face of the cliff the last four years for some reason.

[@waterscape8198]

@@rejectamenta oh no bouhouhou wuk lamat voice is annoying wawawawa , those people can suck it

[@maharaja101]

I just beat the MSQ today and was on a full media blackout since early access began. I'm actually kinda shocked to find all this negativity. Personally I loved it and this was easily one of my favorite expansions ever. Loved the MSQ, the zones and the music, the graphics update, all of it. And the dungeons/trials were the best normal mode content since probably Stormblood. Hell, even logging in went smoothly and I had zero issues there (granted, I did log in early in the morning each day which probably helped a lot). I really don't get the hate but each to their own I guess,.

[@Mrtll]

These dungeons have you engaged and i love

[@TajinQ]

I wonder if this change in dungeon design will encourage more people to try harder content. I barely did any back in Endwalker but I'm having so much more fun in Dawntrail dungeons it's pulling me back into extremes and I definitly will try the arcadion next month

[@rh0dr1]

I think another thing about dungeons this expansion is trash mobs are way more varied. It's no longer 2 big packs of mobs that are easy to wall to wall, and while there weren't really any crazy triple pulls, i think just having a decent variety of enemy amounts is a really refreshing thing.

[@Mrtll]

The tank buster in ex1 blew me away

[@captainziggy82]

Hella fun

[@IKIGAIofficial]

the stack after stack beams even in normal had that epic omega ultimate vibe

[@volts6042]

Loving the fights so far, trial 3 in particular is making me excited to see ex3

[@Pikachu-qr4yb]

Are the ex fights not released yet?

[@volts6042]

@@Pikachu-qr4yb just ex3, the extremes for trials 1 and 2 are released currently and I would recommend doing them whenever your can, they’re quite fun

[@Haze-ej7sv]

@@Pikachu-qr4ybwe only have ex 1 and 2. The 3rd on always releases on x.1

[@slimfastsubaru2043]

The spread, stack, lookaway mechanic while dodging aoes on ex is going to kill so many people I'm sure xD

[@xXLordYggdrasillXx]

Overall I very much agree. The only thing where I will reserve judgement is their ability to test every role equally in different ways in different fights. We dont have a great sample size right now with only two extremes, but one of them being a typical EW wall boss with fast paced movement requirements is a bit discouraging. As a caster player I dont dislike being challenged on movement, but it always leaves a sour taste in my mouth when I see the melee next to me being able to ignore any thought about uptime or positionals. These things should be challenged just as much as caster movement. Otherwise we will just continue with the same melee bias as always.

[@amethonys2798]

I just decided to heal the first extreme instead. Picto is actually annoying on that fight because you can never actually plant in your leylines since the pull has the ice nonsense and the 2 minutes is during the light party soaks where again you can't stand still.

[@antarath517]

They've been pumping those hitbox circles so full of steroids for years now, even on the regular bosses

[@Paul-bs5wl]

They've done a great job, even if I haven't loved every encounter individually, it really seems like they've taken the right lessons

[@lillianafarron7870]

That's actually funny you said that about the healer in the 95 dungeon. On my first run, I as the Smn had to rez so much, healer kept going down and yeah we ended up wiping once. Having done E4S before I could immediately recognize the Titan Maximum mechanics and it wasn't that bad for me, but wow it was rough for them.

[@ark5074]

As a healer I was so happy in these dungeons and trials that I had to actually focus a lot on healing the party. The final boss in particular was so brutal that I had to use 2-3 Healer LB3s just to keep the party alive and I absolutely loved it. I hope they continue this with the raid series cause if they do then we got a banger raid series on the horizon.

[@Dayv018]

Definitely a step up in fight design, really enjoying everything so far

[@Cherryblossoms110]

2:48 I had the pleasure of doing a modest-sized morning train on Day 3 and all ~25 of us actually WIPED trying to figure out the Zone 6 eye boss's mechanics

[@MikkiZHskDK]

So far i love the expansions story and protagonist as well as all that is happening , im invested and the dungs and tricks, chefs kiss

[@shirox11]

Battle content has been great so far in Dawntrail and it’s really making me look forward to Savage and Ultimate.

[@Skylar_Spirit]

Dungeons are actually fun now I love it

[@Saracchio]

On the other hand, the biggest boss I'm facing difficulty with at the moment as a Dancer is the first boss of the final story dungeon. that +/O mechanic with the boss' front conal at the same time is a nightmare to dodge around, even when trying to be economic with your movement.

[@StrikerTVFang]

That boss honestly is the first roadblock for many people in the expansion. He just baits you and lots of people fall for the bait. It's such a simple mechanic... but the way it presented is a mind-f**k

[@kiiturii]

when I ran it 3 of us got it pretty quickly but one guy just could not figure it out at all lol

[@Saracchio]

@@StrikerTVFang My real problem with it is that there's so much going on at one time that it's easy to misstep or get clipped, which spirals down into quick deaths. En Avant can sometimes be a blessing and a curse based on the distance it sends you as well. ;_;

[@voidshaman3580]

I did all the dungeons with trusts. This was definitely more challenging than Endwalker. But also fun.

[@ThatRedHusky]

Me, who hates clowns: Boy golly I sure hope I don't get Scarborough Fair! Straight up, Simon & Garfuck that dungeon visually.

[@pwnagraphic690]

The dungeons have been great. Definitely more engaging and less face roll mechanics lol. the 99 trial was a blast.

[@tsbulmer]

The auto-scrolling part of the first dungeon isn't the most engaging combat, for sure, but the music and energy always makes me happy to run it. It even got me to put a /beesknees macro on my bars, so you could say the dungeon gave me an extra button to press! :P

[@Firestar1992]

I found all the dungeon bosses (except the very last MSQ one) very fun and neat. I played AST and it really did challenge my skills as a healer, and for most of them I might die or take a couple vuln stacks and then when I learned the mechanic I consistently went "Oh, that's neat!" The second boss of the 95 dungeon was was a particular standout to me. Screeeeeeew the last boss of the last MSQ dungeon though. I died 4 times to it, 3 of those when it was below 10%.

[@wilddragonchase]

encounter design has definitely improved significantly. im somehow reminded of stormblood content. expert dungeons are also decidedly more expert-feeling. trash pulls were more engaging in both of them - i think they intentionally bring back an older mechanic for the last trash/miniboss pull, like with the dolls and the lasers. i also like that they included specific things in the dungeon boss which are straight up mechanics checks, and tell you that it is. strayborough teacups gave me nightmares lol

[@shawnscouten5184]

I’m impressed that so much has improved design wise. I think things did get a bit harder in normal mode at least, and I think that is a good thing. Also, extremes in particular are amazing.

[@aristaljunior]

I actually really enjoyed the 2 slapsticks at the end of the dungeon, it was the first time ever that i considered Aoe healing or miting when doing trash pulls and honestly i think thats pretty good the game needs more of it IMO. The tortoise tho i dunno about that one just having chariots around it every now and then isnt that engaging

[@BonJoviSXS]

Noticing repose works on hard stomp had me almost die because I got so excited.

[@PKcrash]

As a healer I can say the 100 dungeons have been amazing. I used to be able to fix others mistakes with just a quick oGCD but now the game forces you to gcd heal due to the outgoing dmg. Its been awesome.

[@Skyztamer]

5:50 I've only done this dungeon twice so far; and as a tank. I don't know if its intended, but both runs I've been targeted with that tracking AoE which I'm only used to targeted with as a DPS or healer. Iirc more or less in EW I could just keep the boss centered and as you said, only make slight shifts in my position to solve every mechanic; but this mechanic here forcing me to kite around the arena as a tank with this level of chaos including the mobs we can't let grab us was really refreshing to me. Part of me was sorry for the melee DPS, but they're probably also running around trying to not get grabbed.

[@DeadEye935]

I would've liked some two target bosses, but overall I'm really impressed. Leveling is gonna be honestly really fun. Final boss was particularly good and I'm just hoping we don't get Endsinger'd with the EX

[@ryanadams2671]

The dungeons are a LOT of fun and keep everyone on their toes. I absolutely HOPE this is the standard for dungeons moving forward.

[@Zephhi]

I was gonna say, damn the dungeons themselves are so good

[@insentia8424]

Imo, they could have put the trials into a raid (as a first fight in a tier) and they would hold up well enough for that spot. Definititely a step up in difficulty to the trials we got at launch the last few expansions.

[@andrewtimothy9792]

the fact that dungeons have instant kill mechanic makes me so happy dungeons now arent a snoozefest anymore

[@notmousse]

Nice, been looking forward to this.

[@yep8058]

When Yoshida said "Expert dungeons are going to be for Experts" he meant it. It's not masterful level of skill, but just below that level of knowledge and skill. It's perfect and exactly how it should be. You want the casual into midcore difficulty to be as smooth as the Expert dungeons are. I think the entire encounter and duty design is the best it has been in a long time, regardless of what people think about the story.

[@yep8058]

I personally consider myself as a really good player and even I got completely f*cked by the first boss in Strayborough multiple times given how easily you can grief yourself but also others.

[@DeadEye364]

These new fights have hands...but that first boss of every dungeon were brutal, and I love it!

[@amethonys2798]

The issue with the dungeon "lieutenant" mobs in the trash pack is they are just big dumb health sponges a lot of the time. The turtle shone on screen from the 97 is the biggest offender imo because he also cucks melee uptime a lot. It's honestly the point where if I am on SGE or whatever in dungeons I blow my AoE load and just spam single target since the health desyncs so much we are in a 4v1 for like 30 seconds after the rest of the trash dies anyway.

[@1337penguinman]

Finally ran one of the new expert dungeons last night. On a DRK with no tome gear. That HURT.

[@robertoporrata3911]

The tankier mobs aren't really that bad until you get to that giant turtle one, that takes like a minute.

[@x108a1]

Tha 95 dungeon boss we wiped 5 or 6 times to. The healer was doing their best. Most of our wipes were due to a knock back mechanic. That was followed by a stack mechanic that kept being on the tank. The tank used a gap closer to move away from the party. Leaving us to chase him. And him blaming the dps for casting when we should have been stacking. The last run tank dashed, healer rescued tank and we survived the stack.

[@MainUkraine]

As someone who cleared DSR then quit and came back, I'm actually struggling with the # of mechanics happening back to back in these ex trials. Maybe I'm still readjusting back into the game but I don't remember EW EX trials being this hard at launch.

[@slimfastsubaru2043]

I'd say barbra/golbez were harder, rest of the ew ex were pretty easy tho.

[@amethonys2798]

Tbf Zodiark was barely different compared to the normal mode. Also, we are coming off Zeromus who was also in the running for easiest extreme in the expansion.

[@antarath517]

@@slimfastsubaru2043 God Barbie was so fucking fun to heal, I hope we get to see more of that

[@MissEbet99]

I completely agree with your take on the difficulty of the new instances. Even if I'm dying I'm learning and the kill feels so satisfying when it finally comes, and it will help me to get gud, and not just coast through them. (Edit word change)

[@lck0ut348]

I pray that the phys ranged tax gets lessened (if not removed outright) so that the meta for high end content isnt hard fixed into either MMRC or MRC+BLM As it stands, there is like at least a 10% disparity between MCH and all the melees apart from VPR/SAM, the other melees also bring 2min raid buffs, and mch brings what, 2 mits, an extra interrupt, and extra movement speed outside of content only? Also the random mob having more than double the hp of the other mobs in the trash pull are not enjoyable, but other than that, Ive been enjoying the encounter design of both the dungeons and trials so far, they have done a lot of good things (including making healers more necessary for a team with average skilled players, which is nice)

[@edwardmitchell9189]

I have been wanting more engaging tank gameplay for a while now and watching myself get chunked in a dungeon while i have mits on has been great, along with what feels like much harder hitting autos on the extremes making me have to cycle mits more carefully.

[@yamilalcaide9448]

The EX trials also look really fun for tanks too, like EX1 on that mechanic where both tanks are taking a lot of alternating damage between the two, it requieres both smart and quick tanks and healers for them to not die.

[@Kittycat7070-]

i used clemency 5 times more in the first 3 days of dawntrail prerelease than i have in my 2000 hours previously in the game, starting at endwalker launch

[@silxer3154]

This is first positive thing I've heard about the expansion so far, since many seem to be very critical and overall negative about many things related to the game at the moment. So, it's refreshing to see this and something to look forward to (currently in Endwalker MSQ).

[@Nictusempra]

Dawntrail's absolutely great, there is no predicting what the internet feels like getting all upset about tbh

[@voistar5387]

Never give too much attention to early reviews from the first 4 days, its always the people that went in with negative preconceptions, skipped a lot of story, or didn't pay attention that give their opinions first and yell the loudest. And often times they don't take well to critisisms of their opinion or people pointing out the lies or errors in these opinions. Easy example is all the negative opinions about a certain Dawntrail character having no character development at all in the MSQ. I am only at LV94 in MSQ and I can already call bullsh#t on anyone saying that due to the character development that has happened. Best advice is to ignore some of the early opinions, especially if they come from steam, reddit, or twitter. Pay more attention to people that you can activiely see playing the game, like people in the game itself or people live streaming or posting their playthroughs. Much easy to trust someone when you can see them playing the game.

[@teemopanda02]

@@voistar5387 Regarding the character development, there is some, however, there is character development in isolation but when considering the context and wider narrative, it's simply not good enough. Especially consider the position said character is vying for, some of those things they developed on is the absolute bare minimum which begs the question as to why they deserved the WoL's full support. Effectively, they develop as a person but not as a leader, which again considering the core narrative was a bizarre character choice.

[@voistar5387]

@@teemopanda02 I guess its personal preference/ideals (as all things are) because one of the defining characteristics said character had at the start was one of the most important characteristic a leader needs to have, especially the type the Dawnservent seems to trying to pass his throne to, and so far (at lv 95 right now) they seem to have developed all the other aspects said character needed for leadership as well as their character. But it all probably comes down to personal beliefs on the ideals of leadership, which by nature is a difficult topic to one singular agreed on opinion with so going to be controversial by nature of the topic. Also damn didn't expect that one-side character to get the development they did but they shot up in my new character rankings. Also preciate the comment to the "said character format" to help with not spoiling things.

[@bloatedbehemoth1979]

Theres really only one boss i really dont like in the new dungeons and its the first boss of that one lvl 100 dungeon i dont know what they were cooking with that one but thats the only one i have complaints about

[@carbxncle]

Is it the weird doll head boss in that ghostly amusement park?

[@clooebooie8801]

​@@carbxncleProbably, that guy SUCKS

[@amethonys2798]

This. The fight isn't even hard. It's just annoying and takes 10 years because any "mistake" leads to a 10 second silence. The kids need an indicator on what their ACTUAL hitbox is because they lead to some of the most questionable grabs from seemingly across the arena. Zeromus poison balls had a more honest hitbox and they were also double the size of the ball.

[@natehkun1426]

God that boss lol. Yea we cant disrespect him because how the tank moves may make it impossible to keep uptime. The mechanic design has been refreshing for all PvE content so far. Looking forward to Normal and Savage, 24 man, FRU, etc.

[@Hitoridoodles]

I have really loved the dungeons this expansion

[@guitalex2005]

As a healer main since ARR I have never felt more necessary. Dear Lord.

[@acamacho023]

Bro dungeon 97 boss 2 is crazy fun.

[@michaelfalkner1186]

Though the final trial was literally bouncing up and down off the floor... The two dungeons and trial which preceded it were probably the most fun I've had in the game.

[@Gryphon13]

That first boss in Strayborough is no joke 😂 why do I have 6 vulns? Why am I running for my life as a tank??? I love it lol the whole dungeon is great

[@socram3254]

I'm enjoying it a lot, I actually died a couple of times in MSQ dungeons, which I don't think has happened in years

[@silvinity4939]

The hardest part of the new dungeons (w/ trust anyway) (Maybe spoilers idk, read at your own risk): Krile constantly taking the melee spot for spread AoEs, I died so much just cause I got to a position with uptime just to find that little nuke standing under me. Could this have been solved if I paid more attention? Probably, but I choose to hold a mini-grudge against the easter-egg potato instead.

[@alexander3283]

I agree exept for some of the placement of big enemies in dungeons, the devs did a very good job. I also really like the new extreme trials and it makes me very excited for the savage.

[@amethonys2798]

Some of the big enemies are fine. The double dolls are honestly fine. The tortoise is unforgivable since he's also after trash you can't pull together into him (leading to at minimum 3 pulls) and just has infinite health while his only mechanic is just killing melee uptime making the fight last any longer. The last pull of the 95 is also really bad for this since the two big idiots don't even hit hard on the tank. I don't want to spend like 40 seconds+ killing a leftover enemy in a pack who literally just autos. This is why the dolls are fine since they actually threaten the group especially during their little enrage they have at like 40 percent or whenever they start slamming until the end.

[@NotTheWheel]

I was reposing the turtle for it's aoe - Whitemage Crowd control ftw 💙

[@Shizukanexen]

DT is so much fun. I got to the point that during bosses , I could play with one hand in EW. It was NOT fun. I like being engaged during all of the dungeons.

[@Tuskyboy]

Having loads of fun in this expansion. Story goes from okayish to pretty good but anything related to a party fight has been grade A. That battle music too man…so good

[@HikingFeral]

I'm loving the expansion. The content is fun and the graphics are gorgeous (albeit in need of some fixes). The story is very mid but I love some of the things i assume they will be expanding on as they lead us into the next arc. I actually have to look at my monitor even in dungeons, dungeons I say!

[@voistar5387]

Content has been vert fun so far (only at lv94 but man the dungeons and first trial were good). The zones mights be some of the best they've done, and the graphic uodate is amazing (wonder how long it will take me to stop being amazed at the upgraded Umbral Rings on my Au Ra's eyes, especially in darker environments, because damn does that look amazing now). I honestly am liking the story so far and its laided back nature (again only lv94 and I know that sh#t will go down at somepoint due to launch trailer). I can see it not being everyone cup of tea but I do like retracing the Dawnservants footsteps and learning about the different cultures (giants are best so far). Also characters have been nice so far, have no idea what some people advently hate about a certain character so much but I like them. I didn't go in expecting this expac tl be ShB or EW levels xrazying and so far its lining up were I though it would. Wilk probably rank in the middle of my expansion rankings, either behind or ahead of SB depending on the villain (Zenos was the first base MSQ villain I was able tk take seriously so he is the minimun standard to beat, Emet is obviously the highest standard), but probably ahead of HW because I still think the Ul'dah part of HW is my least favorite bit of story writing in the game (mostly the ending of it) and Thordan was the least interesting villain in the game so far for me.

[@ApocryphalSaint]

Ive run Vanguard over and over just because I love the second boss so much, I dont even care so much about the glam from it. I haven't had that in a very very long time.

[@Oppurtunafish]

That adamantoise really needed at least one more move

[@NotExplicable]

Hey there Mr.Happy!!

[@suparicky8889]

I've been playing since 2.7 and never had trouble with trails or dungeons and always woundered why peopme were saying they were hard and now I played the 1st 3 dungeons the 1st was ez but 2 and 3 we wiped a few times lol thes dungeons are fun I hope they can keep it up

[@kiiturii]

dungeons were really good for sure, the only one I had a problem with was the 99 one. The forced mini pulls are soooo bad and the bosses didn't feel nearly as engaging as the other dungeons. on the 95 dungeon final boss we lost our healer twice and had 0 chance of killing it, though we did have a drk and not a warrior tbf

[@TenchiSawada]

The dungeons and ex trials are great

[@dov3k116]

yeah definitely these mini bosses would be much more engaging to play against if there was more mechanics to them. If that's what square enix is going for.

[@dnawulf3212]

Well then... something to finally look forward to, despite the reports of msq and jobs as usual. I quite like the sound of this , as an OG HW player. We back in SB era bois... besides jobs

[@ampur2]

my healer often dies on dungeon bosses lol...quadruple legend btw

[@Tyberes]

Yea finished farming EX 2 last night. If the raid is as good as these itll be an all time great.

[@SunChaoJun]

Waiting for my static's raid days to judge the extremes and eventually savage. The encounter design is a huge step up from Endwalker. However, playing as a healer still feels really bad. I enjoyed using Baneful Impaction and trying to figure out which mob to use it on. What isn't great is how I can only enjoy that once every two minutes. Not sure what others are encountering in their duty roulettes, but very rarely have I encountered anything that had awful enough players that forced me to use more of my kit

[@daanroelofs119]

honestly yes. but I do wish the trials would be a bit more challenging. Killing one of the two on my first pull seemed a bit underwhelming

[@tjandhuri]

This expansion reminds me of SB, TERRIBLE msq but AMAZING trials and dungeons and content.

[@Dyskresiac]

Another thing to note is that it seems like the Trust system has been seriously improved. That first trial with Trusts is just a superior experience than with people. It really is a powerful moment with the ensemble that most people unfortunately are gonna miss.

[@Mejandora]

As much as I like it to play with other players, if I have the chance to do stuff with NPCs I will do it without hesitation. It puts so much more to the story and it simply feels great to do stuff with your companions you spend time with over many expansions. Especially the last story trial... All I thought in that moment was: "Finally the band is back together"

[@ShaggyLad]

I am a Dawntrail MSQ hater, but I absolutely love the actual content they've given us! Dungeons are actually a decent challenge and fun, even as healers!

[@mrdarkstar3756]

As a long time tank main thus us my 1st exp as a dps main. Ya content was upped I can't remember dying si much in msq. The level 97 dungeon killed me the most easy but punishing mechs

[@Silvanis]

I have to disagree that the difficulty is easy. A LOT of these boss mechanics involve paying attention to multiple parts of the arena, while watching the boss animations, or having to memorize the pattern of markers before they resolve. This is a lot more of a cognitive load than we've had in non-savage content, and it's challenging certain types of players in ways they are weaker to.

[@benoitrousseau4137]

They really gotta do something about tanks who will solo the boss from 80% and waste 3 people's time though, it's super rude for first timers. It happened in Endwalker too, but I think the increased difficulty made it a lot more common for a healer to die early in Dawntrail and then the 2 DPS go down with them. You shouldn't have to play with duty support to learn a dungeon in this game (and besides I couldn't because I play with my wife.)

[@Saracchio]

!watchtime

[@ouromov2895]

Everything else except the story has been solid. Except Id maybe hope they opened up more buildings. Two meme lalahouses opened but not an inn with a reception desk in Urqopacha? Seems lazy af

[@kyledabearsfan]

Fights are fun, zones are cool, voice acting meh, story meh. Not a terrible expansion but kind of a letdown after how amazing Endwalker and Shadowbringers were. But, thats to be expected somewhat I suppose. Hard to just perfectly nail every expansion. Theres a lot of stuff I like, but the writing and voice acting isnt it imo.

[@Raelthorne]

I have pretty mixed opinions of the story for 7.0, having finished it. The second half just... isnt my thing. That said, all of the dungeons and trials that came with 7.0 are pretty peak. Ive never raided in FF before, but i am actively seeking a static for this expansion because if the raid is going to be the same quality as the rest of the group content has been, then I want a piece of it.

[@jtcav6484]

While playing it, the last zone just wasn’t doing anything for me. I was blown away when I first saw it, but going through the story it felt like I wasn’t getting that strong of a reaction. Then I watched a friend playing through it, after myself doing what must be done in the story- and I felt like there was a hole in my chest. Genuinely impressive storytelling and use of a videogame setting to exemplify the themes

[@hackfeatherstep9955]

I have pretty mixed opinions, for me the first half wasn’t my thing and felt like a chore but the second half pulled me back in and felt like it was finally getting interesting

[@amethonys2798]

​@hackfeatherstep9955 the issue is the second half just isn't really.....creative. Wow, computer gains sentience and does exactly what it is told in the most extreme way possible leading to going for genocide. We've almost had this exact same story already.

[@hackfeatherstep9955]

@@amethonys2798 And the same doesn't apply to the first half? Character who isn't ready to be a leader goes on a journey to become the leader anyway because of plot armor. We've had this exact same story already. (Lyse)

[@CrabSage111]

@@hackfeatherstep9955 Wuk actually does stuff to earn it though.