Difficulty

The difficulty of duties in Final Fantasy XIV follows a pattern set out below.

The following assumes that duties are played "synced", that is, without the option "Unrestricted party" enabled in the duty finder. If that option is enabled, duties from past expansions designed for a lower maximal level can become trivially easy to clear even solo for players with a maximum-level character.

Moreover, lower-level duties are generally easier than duties designed for the current maximum level, because in lower-level duties players' gear will almost always be at the maximum power allowed for by the level sync mechanics.

Easy difficulty

Duties required to complete the Main Story Quests and therefore to advance in the game represent the easiest level of difficulty. These include normal dungeons and trials (including those misleadingly labeled "hard"), as well as solo duties required by job or main story quests. These duties can be cleared easily "blind", that is, without prior knowledge of the duty.

The level 50 Alliance Raids are also very easy, as they were designed for significantly lower power levels than the ones available to players now.

Gear required: Tanks and healers should equip gear close to the character level for which the duty is intended, or there may be the occasional failure. DPS players should do likewise or enemies may take quite longer than usual to kill.

Preparation required: None.

Consumables required: None.

Medium difficulty

Normal Raids and Alliance Raids represent a medium level of difficulty. They incorporate challenging mechanics that may require multiple attempts to understand, and a high level of outgoing damage. Alliance raids are somewhat easier than normal raids because the large number of players allows to compensate for mistakes more easily.

Gear required: All players should equip the highest item level gear available to them. This will normally the best craftable high-quality gear purchased from the market board, or the gear available from the current weekly limited tomestone currency.

Preparation required: None. (Watching a video beforehand may help somewhat, but will spoil the story.)

Consumables required: Players should eat food corresponding to the current expansion's level range to increase their vitality and therefore their survivability.

Hard difficulty

The following duties are considered "endgame" content, representing increasing levels of difficulty, and are aimed at skilled and experienced players. Their difficulty stems not only from the high level of damage incurred by players, and by their increasingly complicated mechanics, but also from the following features:

Lack of telegraphs. Many damaging effects will no longer be announced in advance by glowing areas on the ground and must be anticipated from visual cues to avoid them.
Party coordination is required. Players must often take specific positions depending on their role. Such coordination can occur through third-party voice chat tools, or by a macro with written instructions for the party to follow.
Enrage timer. If the boss is not killed in a given time - designed to correspond to the damage output of a very competent party - it will "enrage" and kill the party.
Low tolerance for error. The mechanics of these duties are often designed such that the entire party, or most of it, will be killed if only one player does not follow the mechanics correctly.
Mechanical knowledge required. For the above reasons, endgame duties require all players to have a good understanding of the entire fight and its mechanics. This is possible because the fights are "scripted", in that the mechanics always follow the same order, even thought they will often contain a degree of random variation.

Extreme trials

Extreme trials are the endgame content most accessible to newer players. They are much more difficult versions of the corresponding regular trial. The most current extreme trial will drop weapons that are more powerful than the ones otherwise accessible outside of savage raids.

Gear required: All players should equip the highest item level gear available to them, enhanced with the best materia available.

Preparation required: While it is possible to beat an extreme trial "blind" with much trial and error, most players will prepare for the trial with a video guide.

Consumables required: Players should consume the highest-level food that boosts the attributes required by their job.

Savage raids

Savage raids represent a medium difficulty within the scope of endgame content. They are much more difficult versions of the corresponding regular raid. The most current savage raids will drop weapons and gear that are the most powerful available in the game, which are also often required to progress from one savage raid to the next.

Gear required: All players should equip the highest item level gear available to them, enhanced with the best materia available, and aiming for a "best in slot" setup consisting of a mix of tomestone and raid-dropped gear.

Preparation required: Most players will prepare for the trial with a video guide, unless they want to spend a lot of time figuring out the mechanics on their own.

Consumables required: Players should consume the highest-level food that boosts the attributes required by their job. They should also consume "potions" (Grade ____ Tinctures of ____, depending on the job) as often as possible during the fight.

Unreal and Ultimate duties

Unreal trials and ultimate raids are exceptionally challenging duties, harder than savage raids. Their rewards are generally only cosmetic in nature.

Gear required: All players must equip "best in slot" gear at the highest level available in the game, obtained from savage raids.

Preparation and consumables required: As per savage raids, above.