gornonthecobMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 421Arc User
edited April 2015
I agree. The difficulty is fine. It's the execution of how the difficulty is achieved that I don't like. This entire expansion is a grind.
It's becoming less and less about Dungeons and Dragons, and more of a Refinement simulator.
After alienating the 20% of the lowest tier of players (the less skilled ones), cryptic will probably try to alienate the 20% of the upper tier of players in terms of skills. Why not make everyone angry and frustated, after all, when you could stick to your choice and deal with one minor loss instead of two.
I agree. The difficulty is fine. It's the execution of how the difficulty is achieved that I don't like. This entire expansion is a grind.
It's becoming less and less about Dungeons and Dragons, and more of a Refinement simulator.
Actually, the level 70 dungeons are hard through difficulty rather than grind.
Neverwinter players are stubborn things....until you strip them down to bone. (Cursed players, my flowers, MINE!) Oh how I plotted their demise.
I definitely agree with the sentiments the OP expresses. Though I do believe there is significant tweaking/bug fixes that can/need to be done. That being said the general fact things are harder is very good for the game and it's future. :cool:
0
silverkeltMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,235Arc User
edited April 2015
I still think the following should happen..
A. we need more artifact rp to drop in every lair/DD/Skirm, reward players to play.
B. Salvage needs to be put back in game.. to some extent or another.
C. Removing cheesy 1 million damage hits, thats not about making the game easier, its pure cheese stuff, no one can mitigate that , its over the top.
D. enact the GWF fix! Trying to heal that class is bloody impossible, they have to get close and right now , they die, pretty easily.
E. Increase gear level to 2k for t1 and 2.5 for t2. Remove scaling from tiamat and enter a limit of 2.5k to enter. This just helps everyone.
Other then that Im ok.
I just dont like grind on RP, its getting out of hand, there has to be a limit on it.
I was just comparing my lvl 75 t2 geared out toons from lotro to my lvl 70 ones here.. I literally had BiS on some of them (or close enough, didnt have 1st agers.. but pffftt) and I had like 7500 hps and 3k power on some.. the stats and grind and everything else you put into this game is getting over the top. I dont remember a time, in the game, where I didnt think to myself, IF I just healed better, placed skills better, had better whatever, that we couldnt get it done. But here.. 1 million hp hits.. is just a tad ridiculous.
I want to play more then one toon effectively and right now YOU CANT. Thats simply not good for mmo business, not in this day and age.
Find a better medium for grinding, it needs to be reduced (black ice comes to mind.)
That is simply my largest complaint atm. Fix the grinding for this stuff.
0
silverkeltMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,235Arc User
Just to make sure that some feedback about people who are AGAINST this whole "it's too hard" nonsense is sent to the Devs.
I disagree with the opinion of some people who claim that the game is too hard.
The difficulty is just fine, please, do NOT reduce it.
Thank you,
Have fun,
Almondum
Even though I dont want a general reduction, I do want some tweaks, like the 1-2 million hp hits, its just ridiculous. Anyways, I do have to ask, are you doing content based on part with DC AP bug? If so, then I would like to ask your thoughts, if it was removed, do you think same content is doable?
Don't agree with OP.. Now you can't go run dungeon with whoever you want because they either can't perform good enough or don't have gear to pull out numbers..
Mod 5 might have been lil bit too easy (excluding garakas 1shot-s ;D which was fun) but it was content doable by anyone regardless how good and geared they was, you were free to take your friends with you and have fun however newb / bad they were you could have still made it.
And now ? Can you carry 3 ppl with 2 skilled / geared players ? Hm ? I don't think so..
Remember games are primarly about having fun and good time with those dear to you, games are not about frustration and being :mad:.
Let's they realistic Guys! Ok. (forget ur QQ) I think the current difficulty is FINE for PVE Content-zones (all Mobs/HE's/drags etc.)
This can stay how is it, No changes needed!
But for the Dungeons, they have to lowered a bit all the DMG- Output of mobs,
Cuz Close-melee players GF/GWF are Constant nearly enemies there is too much 1-Hits for us,
Not the same as lucky Ranged class.
Mostly mobs/bosses atack only close-players, this is why we have all this problems,
Ranged classes in NW have have simply to much freedom and almosts highest advantage inGame.
PVE Content - Zones = Is Fine, How is it.
PVE Dungeons = must a bit tunned down.
<::::::[]==0 GwF 0==[]::::::> ● Still waiting for the promised Improvement ●
Not everybody stated mod 6 with 2-3k+ item level you know? If you're afraid that game may become to easy "FOR YOU" then let feel free to use some worse items for a more challenging game play or make the mobs deal bonus dmg based on your item level, so game will always remain challenging no matter what gear you get.
The fact is that m6 is a nightmare for any new players who were NOT ABLE to prefarm easy gear or currencies earlier and the gear which you can gain through lvling process will give you max ~1400-1500 item level, which is 2 times less what old players got.
Not to mention Devs who dont take in to account that witout full gear reset new players may not even have a chance to do any 1600 lvl bosses, because end game players from m5 will still prefer to faceroll the content with getting people that have highest GS possible. There's no legit way for new players to even catch up the old players.
The difficuly scaling of m6 content is total failure. look for example how RIFT scaled their difficulty in new content from 2.8 to 3.0 Nightmare Tide. All the BIS gear from super hard end game 20man raids was good only for leveling process and once people reached max level they had to replace it with pvp or dungeon gear (dungeon are rather easy in RIFT as their end game content are 10 and 20man raids) First bosses in 10 and 20man bosses are quite easy to finish with dungeon gear that was even easier to get (it was only time consuming due to RNG but nowhere as hard m6 is). Basically, even total noobs or new players who stared from 0 are able to start the end game content without trouble because difficulty scale with bosses rather than Tiers, so people could farm 1-2 bosses for several weeks until they get some better gear and then progress the 3rd, 4th, 5th boss and so on. The deeper you go the harder the bosses get usually. It's all same tier but bosses get more mechanics and require more dps or complex strategy to finish before the bosses enrage.
People are not demanding easy access to end game. (aka clearing T2 dungeons with w/e setup or gear) they just want to be able to all the dailies which they could do before without so much problems and lags. If they dont want to nerf the mobs it's fine, just buff the gear which players get from lvling and the story/daily/weekly quests so new players wont be so much behind old players who despite "gear reset" still are way ahead.
While this type of topic will attract fairly divisive opinions, the game difficulty/content format will be decided by something far more basic.
1. If Cryptic are happy with the game income from the Mod 6 changes, it will stay as is.
2. If Cryptic see a decline in player numbers/revenue from Mod 6, there will be changes.
Yep pretty basic and obvious stuff here, but that's the reality of how it works.
...............vote for your favourite expansion.......... "Mod 6. Oh my f****** god. It gutted the game pure and simple. And what wasn't gutted was messed up by the poorly thought out new level cap and equip. The game never recovered from that atrocity". ..............not this one then.............
0
magnusolamMember, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 82
edited April 2015
It would make a lot more sense to cater for both those who want 'a challenge' and those who just want a bit of fun. Introducing a choice of difficulty levels so that players can choose how challenged they want to be should be the way to go. Rewards should remain the same across the different difficulty levels so that a natural progression can then ensue (i.e. new players can move up a difficulty level once their characters are sufficiently tooled up - or existing players can drop a difficulty level if they just want a bit of fun for a change).
0
kaiserschmarrnMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 390
I think the difficult in T1, T2 could be ok, if they would implement some dungeon content for Not-Nearly-BIS people to improve to T1 level. I have the feeling there is an entry-level T1 missing. In module 0 not all T1 and T2 dungeons were equal - you started with epic CT - epic CC - ... - CN and that was a good difficulty ladder.
Pure PVE view
Everyone (casual gamer, hardcore gamer, ...)
- wants to feel like a hero, wants to be an important part of a party (during dungeon runs)
- wants to have the feeling he is improving his char
- wants to have a dungeon that is a challenge but he can accomplish it (must not be every time) and a dungeon he's not yet ready to do
Leveling people (newbies, paladins, very casual players)
- nice leveling experience (ok nice till 60 and 60-70 cough)
- leveling dungeons
=> should be ok
BIS people at 70 (hardcore gamers, good gamers with good groups)
- improve their char by running T2 dungeons and earn seals
- "improve" their char by running dailies solo
- have a challenge finishing TOS (wait till they fix DC exploit with constant AP gain, then it will be challenging)
- looking forward to finishing CC
=> should be ok
Nearly BIS people at 70 (invested casual gamers, bad hardcore gamers, good gamers with mediocre groups)
- improve their char by running T1 dungeons and earn seals
- "improve" their char by running dailies solo
- looking forward to finishing T2
=> should be ok
Not Nearly BIS people (casual gamers, new players, mediocre players)
- must group for running dailies in IWD, WoD, DR
- no challenging dungeon they can accomplish (the 3 person dungeons are a strange joke and T1 are too difficult)
- no dungeon to look forward to, because their way to T1 is too far
- no real char improvement
=> problematic
0
magnusolamMember, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 82
Everyone (casual gamer, hardcore gamer, ...)
- wants to feel like a hero, wants to be an important part of a party (during dungeon runs)
- wants to have the feeling he is improving his char
- wants to have a dungeon that is a challenge but he can accomplish it (must not be every time) and a dungeon he's not yet ready to do
Leveling people (newbies, paladins, very casual players)
- nice leveling experience (ok nice till 60 and 60-70 cough)
- leveling dungeons
=> should be ok
Interesting, however not every player wants to be forced into groups, occasionally perhaps but not always. Player choice is important.
Not Nearly BIS people (casual gamers, new players, mediocre players)
- must group for running dailies in IWD, WoD, DR
- no challenging dungeon they can accomplish (the 3 person dungeons are a strange joke and T1 are too difficult)
- no dungeon to look forward to, because their way to T1 is too far
- no real char improvement
=> problematic
Again the requirement to group up.
Include difficulty levels:
Everyone becomes free to play however they want (depending on how they feel that day)
Progression for new players is sorted
Players who want a challenge can only group with others who want a challenge (occasional idiots may intrude, but they'll die quick)
Players who don't feel like dying a lot can only group with like minded players
Generally the game becomes a lot more inclusive (bigger player base, more revenue)
0
katbozejziemiMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 856Arc User
edited April 2015
Nobody wants to play an RPG where they are just as weak at the end of the game as they were at the beginning. Not to mention weaker.
0
silverkeltMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,235Arc User
Whew.
I'm sure you were one of those guys spamming 20k+ GS for GWD, weren't you?
nooopes. Ive never have, Ive run in legit from a couple months after Ive joined the game.
Part of the issue, is mod 3-5, made a very lazy gaming community (maybe as far back as mod 2) as loads of people easily got overgeared and blew through EVERYthing, they could solo things, so dragging people in who didnt BOTHER to even get the boons, was easy.
Now, its much harder, btw, you make it sound like, 2k is something NOT achievable by just purchasing blues out of the AH or something. Its pretty easy to get to that point, with very little AD.
This is the real problem, come on, people with 1 green artifact, a few green items, wants everyone else to drag them through. Prepare for the DDs and they wont be as hard as they feel.
Ive never, ever had a BiS character and never will. Its not really possible without previous exploitation or market manipulation (or having 60 effing leadership alts)(or buying black market stuff) . That doesn't mean I dont go as far as I can and prepare my toons to actually play.
The days that some new 60 is rolling into something and killing everything left and right is gone, thats not my doing, thats cryptic, Im ok with it, IF they are also ok with increasing the difficulty to run these items.
0
silverkeltMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,235Arc User
Nobody wants to play an RPG where they are just as weak at the end of the game as they were at the beginning. Not to mention weaker.
Well thats because.. of lazy programming, they shouldve rescaled the entire game in progression, of course, so much easier to just reset the new levels.
0
aulduronMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,351Arc User
edited April 2015
Since I don't tank or heal, I haven't tried any new dungeons. Every group I've seen form is only looking for one of them, and there just aren't enough good tanks and healers to fill all the groups. I'm trying hard to find a reason to run new content. I've yet to hear of any rewards to be gained from running them. You get a few seals, but it costs hundreds of seals for each piece of gear. Even if I get all the new gear and rock 100K+ HP, I'll still get 1-shotted. Where's the fun? What's the point?
I tried the cult prison last night. It took me several tries to get to the boss. After trying many strategies without getting him below 60%, and finally realized "even if I do win, all that will happen is I still won't get the companion that is supposed to drop". I left the instance and it's very unlikely that I'll ever go back.
Game difficulty is something that is highly subjective, it depends on your skill level as a player, the amount of time and or money you can invest in maxing out your toon, whether you prefer to play with a team or solo, and how much challenge you find enjoyable vice frustrating.
My 21 year old son spends most of his day attached to the computer, he has tons of time to play, is highly skilled, and has maxed out gear, and enchants. I and my wife play a few hours every few days, and are far more casual, while we were all lev 60, we were far less well equipped. Obviously my son takes mod 6 as a welcome challenge, while my wife and I don't like it, we were challenged (at least by bosses) before and frustrated now.
I would think that the game could have very difficult areas, and scenarios for the uber players, without upping the difficulty on the entire game. No level of difficulty is going to fit all. Most games recognize this and have, hardcore, or nightmare modes to challenge the really top line players, without driving off the others. You're never going to find ONE happy medium that pleases everyone, but you can strive to have content at that is enjoyable for players at different levels of difficulty.
0
silverkeltMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,235Arc User
Game difficulty is something that is highly subjective, it depends on your skill level as a player, the amount of time and or money you can invest in maxing out your toon, whether you prefer to play with a team or solo, and how much challenge you find enjoyable vice frustrating.
My 21 year old son spends most of his day attached to the computer, he has tons of time to play, is highly skilled, and has maxed out gear, and enchants. I and my wife play a few hours every few days, and are far more casual, while we were all lev 60, we were far less well equipped. Obviously my son takes mod 6 as a welcome challenge, while my wife and I don't like it, we were challenged (at least by bosses) before and frustrated now.
I would think that the game could have very difficult areas, and scenarios for the uber players, without upping the difficulty on the entire game. No level of difficulty is going to fit all. Most games recognize this and have, hardcore, or nightmare modes to challenge the really top line players, without driving off the others. You're never going to find ONE happy medium that pleases everyone, but you can strive to have content at that is enjoyable for players at different levels of difficulty.
Your right, those other mmos have that, its called t2 raiding, this game doesnt, the one raid they released was a super casual affair. (heck they have have a stepping stone , with t2 skirm raiding, which gave you a t1.5 gear set up, trust me those skirm raids in other games, are twice as hard as tiamat was in mod 5)
Im not for or against whatever people want to do per se, the whole issue with me and still is the amount of RP gating they have introduced, it stinks. Thats still my #1 complaint about this game.
Reduce black ice requirments.
Reduce amount of RP needed for artifact gear.
Reduce the amount of protector seals needed for gear.
There Id be happy.
The real issue here is one of progression, they dont have a good leapfrog from step a , b and c. They sort of just lumped it all together and allow whomever , to enter whatever.
Back in other games.. you simply WERE not invited to a group without having a proper setup. IE.. you were not set up to heal, gone or never invited, you not set up to tank, gone or never invited, you didnt stack enough HPs, gone, or never invited.
Every class had a function and it was up to you to get it to that place. Of course those games allowed free respecs, so if you go tired of killing trash mobs with a "tank" or "healy" spec you could respec to go through and then respec again for your raid.
0
lirithielMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 2,482Arc User
edited April 2015
Well at least the bots seem to be royally screwed by the increased difficulty lvl - one good thing to come out of this I suppose
Our pain is self chosen.
The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.
Come on guys who are u kidding with balanced and fairly challening words? I have GF which nearly 10k defense and before mod6 i had 19k gs. Imnot saying its pretty good but i thought it should be enough for some dungeons.. Instead i found at dungeons we got 90-120k damage from mobs or someone shared 1m dmg.. Even my shield up elol 1st boss gave 100-120k dmg and im not even close to that **** boss so i thought yea its kinda new attack. How can gf's gettin 100k dmg even shield up. im looking my stamina meter and it wasnt empty when i took that dmg. U guys saying keep challenging so let me ask what about new players?Who just reached level 70 and couldnt play cause of dungeons hard, icewind hard,heroics hard..We got some equip but what about them? Also as u can see ppl leaving already even finding ppl for heroics is diffuclt now..
Comments
It's becoming less and less about Dungeons and Dragons, and more of a Refinement simulator.
Locksheon Gaming
Follow me on Twitch - Youtube - Facebook!
Balanced.
Go Cryptic!
PS - I quit.
Clerics trying to dps instead of protecting the tank so that the tank can get killed by a horde of mobs in a second: funny.
Ands its not even a very good refinement simulator.
Actually, the level 70 dungeons are hard through difficulty rather than grind.
A. we need more artifact rp to drop in every lair/DD/Skirm, reward players to play.
B. Salvage needs to be put back in game.. to some extent or another.
C. Removing cheesy 1 million damage hits, thats not about making the game easier, its pure cheese stuff, no one can mitigate that , its over the top.
D. enact the GWF fix! Trying to heal that class is bloody impossible, they have to get close and right now , they die, pretty easily.
E. Increase gear level to 2k for t1 and 2.5 for t2. Remove scaling from tiamat and enter a limit of 2.5k to enter. This just helps everyone.
Other then that Im ok.
I just dont like grind on RP, its getting out of hand, there has to be a limit on it.
I was just comparing my lvl 75 t2 geared out toons from lotro to my lvl 70 ones here.. I literally had BiS on some of them (or close enough, didnt have 1st agers.. but pffftt) and I had like 7500 hps and 3k power on some.. the stats and grind and everything else you put into this game is getting over the top. I dont remember a time, in the game, where I didnt think to myself, IF I just healed better, placed skills better, had better whatever, that we couldnt get it done. But here.. 1 million hp hits.. is just a tad ridiculous.
I want to play more then one toon effectively and right now YOU CANT. Thats simply not good for mmo business, not in this day and age.
Find a better medium for grinding, it needs to be reduced (black ice comes to mind.)
That is simply my largest complaint atm. Fix the grinding for this stuff.
Even though I dont want a general reduction, I do want some tweaks, like the 1-2 million hp hits, its just ridiculous. Anyways, I do have to ask, are you doing content based on part with DC AP bug? If so, then I would like to ask your thoughts, if it was removed, do you think same content is doable?
Whew.
I'm sure you were one of those guys spamming 20k+ GS for GWD, weren't you?
Go Cryptic!
PS - I quit.
thumbs up
Difficulty is absolutely ok. Thanks.
Mod 5 might have been lil bit too easy (excluding garakas 1shot-s ;D which was fun) but it was content doable by anyone regardless how good and geared they was, you were free to take your friends with you and have fun however newb / bad they were you could have still made it.
And now ? Can you carry 3 ppl with 2 skilled / geared players ? Hm ? I don't think so..
Remember games are primarly about having fun and good time with those dear to you, games are not about frustration and being :mad:.
I think the current difficulty is FINE for PVE Content-zones (all Mobs/HE's/drags etc.)
This can stay how is it, No changes needed!
But for the Dungeons, they have to lowered a bit all the DMG- Output of mobs,
Cuz Close-melee players GF/GWF are Constant nearly enemies there is too much 1-Hits for us,
Not the same as lucky Ranged class.
Mostly mobs/bosses atack only close-players, this is why we have all this problems,
Ranged classes in NW have have simply to much freedom and almosts highest advantage inGame.
PVE Content - Zones = Is Fine, How is it.
PVE Dungeons = must a bit tunned down.
The fact is that m6 is a nightmare for any new players who were NOT ABLE to prefarm easy gear or currencies earlier and the gear which you can gain through lvling process will give you max ~1400-1500 item level, which is 2 times less what old players got.
Not to mention Devs who dont take in to account that witout full gear reset new players may not even have a chance to do any 1600 lvl bosses, because end game players from m5 will still prefer to faceroll the content with getting people that have highest GS possible. There's no legit way for new players to even catch up the old players.
The difficuly scaling of m6 content is total failure. look for example how RIFT scaled their difficulty in new content from 2.8 to 3.0 Nightmare Tide. All the BIS gear from super hard end game 20man raids was good only for leveling process and once people reached max level they had to replace it with pvp or dungeon gear (dungeon are rather easy in RIFT as their end game content are 10 and 20man raids) First bosses in 10 and 20man bosses are quite easy to finish with dungeon gear that was even easier to get (it was only time consuming due to RNG but nowhere as hard m6 is). Basically, even total noobs or new players who stared from 0 are able to start the end game content without trouble because difficulty scale with bosses rather than Tiers, so people could farm 1-2 bosses for several weeks until they get some better gear and then progress the 3rd, 4th, 5th boss and so on. The deeper you go the harder the bosses get usually. It's all same tier but bosses get more mechanics and require more dps or complex strategy to finish before the bosses enrage.
People are not demanding easy access to end game. (aka clearing T2 dungeons with w/e setup or gear) they just want to be able to all the dailies which they could do before without so much problems and lags. If they dont want to nerf the mobs it's fine, just buff the gear which players get from lvling and the story/daily/weekly quests so new players wont be so much behind old players who despite "gear reset" still are way ahead.
No, really...:rolleyes:
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
1. If Cryptic are happy with the game income from the Mod 6 changes, it will stay as is.
2. If Cryptic see a decline in player numbers/revenue from Mod 6, there will be changes.
Yep pretty basic and obvious stuff here, but that's the reality of how it works.
"Mod 6. Oh my f****** god. It gutted the game pure and simple. And what wasn't gutted was messed up by the poorly thought out new level cap and equip. The game never recovered from that atrocity".
..............not this one then.............
Balanced...
Pure PVE view
Everyone (casual gamer, hardcore gamer, ...)
- wants to feel like a hero, wants to be an important part of a party (during dungeon runs)
- wants to have the feeling he is improving his char
- wants to have a dungeon that is a challenge but he can accomplish it (must not be every time) and a dungeon he's not yet ready to do
Leveling people (newbies, paladins, very casual players)
- nice leveling experience (ok nice till 60 and 60-70 cough)
- leveling dungeons
=> should be ok
BIS people at 70 (hardcore gamers, good gamers with good groups)
- improve their char by running T2 dungeons and earn seals
- "improve" their char by running dailies solo
- have a challenge finishing TOS (wait till they fix DC exploit with constant AP gain, then it will be challenging)
- looking forward to finishing CC
=> should be ok
Nearly BIS people at 70 (invested casual gamers, bad hardcore gamers, good gamers with mediocre groups)
- improve their char by running T1 dungeons and earn seals
- "improve" their char by running dailies solo
- looking forward to finishing T2
=> should be ok
Not Nearly BIS people (casual gamers, new players, mediocre players)
- must group for running dailies in IWD, WoD, DR
- no challenging dungeon they can accomplish (the 3 person dungeons are a strange joke and T1 are too difficult)
- no dungeon to look forward to, because their way to T1 is too far
- no real char improvement
=> problematic
Interesting, however not every player wants to be forced into groups, occasionally perhaps but not always. Player choice is important.
Again the requirement to group up.
Include difficulty levels:
Everyone becomes free to play however they want (depending on how they feel that day)
Progression for new players is sorted
Players who want a challenge can only group with others who want a challenge (occasional idiots may intrude, but they'll die quick)
Players who don't feel like dying a lot can only group with like minded players
Generally the game becomes a lot more inclusive (bigger player base, more revenue)
nooopes. Ive never have, Ive run in legit from a couple months after Ive joined the game.
Part of the issue, is mod 3-5, made a very lazy gaming community (maybe as far back as mod 2) as loads of people easily got overgeared and blew through EVERYthing, they could solo things, so dragging people in who didnt BOTHER to even get the boons, was easy.
Now, its much harder, btw, you make it sound like, 2k is something NOT achievable by just purchasing blues out of the AH or something. Its pretty easy to get to that point, with very little AD.
This is the real problem, come on, people with 1 green artifact, a few green items, wants everyone else to drag them through. Prepare for the DDs and they wont be as hard as they feel.
Ive never, ever had a BiS character and never will. Its not really possible without previous exploitation or market manipulation (or having 60 effing leadership alts)(or buying black market stuff) . That doesn't mean I dont go as far as I can and prepare my toons to actually play.
The days that some new 60 is rolling into something and killing everything left and right is gone, thats not my doing, thats cryptic, Im ok with it, IF they are also ok with increasing the difficulty to run these items.
Well thats because.. of lazy programming, they shouldve rescaled the entire game in progression, of course, so much easier to just reset the new levels.
I tried the cult prison last night. It took me several tries to get to the boss. After trying many strategies without getting him below 60%, and finally realized "even if I do win, all that will happen is I still won't get the companion that is supposed to drop". I left the instance and it's very unlikely that I'll ever go back.
My 21 year old son spends most of his day attached to the computer, he has tons of time to play, is highly skilled, and has maxed out gear, and enchants. I and my wife play a few hours every few days, and are far more casual, while we were all lev 60, we were far less well equipped. Obviously my son takes mod 6 as a welcome challenge, while my wife and I don't like it, we were challenged (at least by bosses) before and frustrated now.
I would think that the game could have very difficult areas, and scenarios for the uber players, without upping the difficulty on the entire game. No level of difficulty is going to fit all. Most games recognize this and have, hardcore, or nightmare modes to challenge the really top line players, without driving off the others. You're never going to find ONE happy medium that pleases everyone, but you can strive to have content at that is enjoyable for players at different levels of difficulty.
Your right, those other mmos have that, its called t2 raiding, this game doesnt, the one raid they released was a super casual affair. (heck they have have a stepping stone , with t2 skirm raiding, which gave you a t1.5 gear set up, trust me those skirm raids in other games, are twice as hard as tiamat was in mod 5)
Im not for or against whatever people want to do per se, the whole issue with me and still is the amount of RP gating they have introduced, it stinks. Thats still my #1 complaint about this game.
Reduce black ice requirments.
Reduce amount of RP needed for artifact gear.
Reduce the amount of protector seals needed for gear.
There Id be happy.
The real issue here is one of progression, they dont have a good leapfrog from step a , b and c. They sort of just lumped it all together and allow whomever , to enter whatever.
Back in other games.. you simply WERE not invited to a group without having a proper setup. IE.. you were not set up to heal, gone or never invited, you not set up to tank, gone or never invited, you didnt stack enough HPs, gone, or never invited.
Every class had a function and it was up to you to get it to that place. Of course those games allowed free respecs, so if you go tired of killing trash mobs with a "tank" or "healy" spec you could respec to go through and then respec again for your raid.
The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.