Shadowbringers Dungeons: Why I Think They Are Lacking And How I Propose To Fix Them

RSS News · Mar 8, 2021

Shadowbringers Dungeons: Content Flaws and How to Fix Them

Goals

Issues

Not Enough Dungeons Per Patch

As of 5.1, only one dungeon has been released per patch. This is in contrast to Stormblood which had 2 per patch, leading to Expert Roulette becoming stale.
The one dungeon per patch is a side effect of the trust system requiring a lot of resources (?).
In order to solve this issue, we can do a couple of things. Ideas range from occasionally adding harder difficulty dungeons, which would not have the trust system.
Another idea is scaling back the trust system in some way, maybe to only x.0 leveling dungeons for example, or removing it entirely allowing for the (safe) creation of 2 dungeons per patch. The wholesale removal of the system is a nuclear option and would likely make a lot of people mad, but I personally wouldn’t be opposed to the idea as I do not use or enjoy running dungeons with trusts.

Dungeons Are Too Easy

While my finger may be too far removed from the pulse of the casual player base, the dungeons in Shadowbringers are way too easy.
The reduction in difficulty has a lot to do with how trash mobs hit for very little damage given the mitigation tools tanks and healers now have. You can wall to wall and effectively never need healing as long as you have a basic understanding of proper tank play.
The bosses are too mechanically limited. Beating them feels effortless and empty, there is no tangible experience to hold onto after the fact, as they are just rolls. A perfect example is the Spectral Berserker from Heroes’ Gauntlet, which has exactly 3 mechanics, and doesn’t even have a tankbuster.
Both of these could potentially be side effects of the trust system requiring simple content, but I cannot be sure on this and could very well be extrapolating.
The easiest way to solve this is to make optional challenge dungeons. Alternatively, you could ramp up the difficulty of all dungeons.

The Trust System and How it Necessitates the Current Issues With Dungeons

Currently, the trust system allows you to experience dungeons with your fellow Scions.
Benefits to the system are instant queue times and character/world building
Issues with the system are numerous, they take longer than naturally queuing for them and doing them with other people, even on dps accounting for queue times. The trust system takes up a lot of resources internally that could be better used on other content such as more dungeons just to name a few.
Overall the trust system is important for the game but is, in my opinion, not a fair tradeoff for losing out on more content.

Trade-offs

Dungeons are more engaging, more difficult, and there are more of them.
The removal of the trust system removes a core component of what FFXIV wants to be