Simple, the 3k guys are there for BNPs for rep gear, or crafting mats. If you don't like it, blame cryptic for leaving them no other options, not the players for using the options available.
No, I'm going to blame them for it. There's 4 other reputation systems that don't require BNPs. They choose to go into that one while being woefully under-qualified.
Did a post-nerf ISA run last night and it is a decided improvement, still needed to pop grav wells on both sides to give us some breathing room to pop the generator but I am not sure that was 100% needed. Still ran out of time, probably went about 60-90 seconds past. Plus for whatever reason I was drawing a lot of aggro and died 3x (flying a Scryer). It gives me some opportunity to rethink what I am bringing into the fight. Pre-nerf I felt like it was a futile battle, but I think this is now doable with the right set up and tactics. Probably we'll be rollilng this in 5 minutes in 6 months time.
Advanced REALLY needs to be scaled for the casuals who have been around long enough to have some decent stuff and some skills.
What is "decent stuff and some skills"?
Let's assume that someone that isn't completely ignorant and unskilled knows that two copies of an EPtX ability (such as 2x EPtS or 2x EPtW) allows for 100% uptime on that EPtX ability, and knows that we can have two of them up at once.
Two years ago, as a complete and utter noob in a Sci Oddy (so 2 tac consoles) with no rep gear, a maximum of purple Mk XIs or blue Mk XIIs, and 8 blue Mk XI Plasma-Disruptor arrays from Past Imperfect, I still got 6k DPS with the following crappy build as an engineer:
Yeah, that's right - unnecessary amounts of defense, and my Weapon Power would drop to like 60 during the one FAW I had. This was also when Teams shared cooldowns. This got me 6k as a noob who had to ask on Team chat what people meant when they said 10% or MRRMLL.
So assuming that I had "some skills" even though I didn't have any tactics beyond "10% or MRRMLL", "use TT1 if a shield facing drops", "keep EPtS3/EPtW1 going", that's a base of 6k with free gear from back then. I didn't even use Fire At Will most of the time, because OMG aggro scary (in spite of, you know, being practically invulnerable).
Gear today starts with the Solanae set, the Obelisk set, and Mk XI purple AP arrays. Purple Mk XII Phasers with [Acc]x3 are obviously also now available in DR. Since there hasn't been an increase in the level cap for over 2 years, someone who's got "decent stuff" should be using at least Mk XII purples, if they haven't bothered with a Fleet.
Someone with "decent stuff and some skills" should be doing at least 7k - heck, pre-DR the queues had improved to the point that the average PUG in IS(old)E consisted of people with around 9k DPS.
I'm hitting 8k on a good day(on a REALLY good day I hit 11-12k) and its like shooting a slab of armor with a spitball at 30 paces.
Murphy's laws:
1- Murphy’s Law tells us that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
2- And anything that does go wrong will get progressively worse.
3- And if you survive the first two laws it’s time to panic.
I'm hitting 8k on a good day(on a REALLY good day I hit 11-12k) and its like shooting a slab of armor with a spitball at 30 paces.
Yep, same. I've got what most would call a pretty solid Escort DSP build and I frankly feel like a useless weight to my team on Advanced. Even with a full Alpha strike and those Borg spheres are now basically walls of HP that laugh at me.
Honestly, what were Cryptic THINKING with this Advanced mode?
Yep, same. I've got what most would call a pretty solid Escort DSP build and I frankly feel like a useless weight to my team on Advanced. Even with a full Alpha strike and those Borg spheres are now basically walls of HP that laugh at me.
Honestly, what were Cryptic THINKING with this Advanced mode?
The recent reduction to Advanced is a step in the right direction, however I think a further reduction is still needed. :cool:
Agreed with all 3 posts, they are still a tad too high for, the average pug group.
Even pounding away with 10k-13k dps, they hold up for quite awhile and, the average player base doesn't go around wanting to rely on dps #'s alone, just to even stand a chance.
Advanced could stand to be toned down slightly and, I do mean slightly for the average pug dps to stand a decent chance!
I was running the very same STF before todays patch.
I got 1 MK 13 console, everything else is MK 12, still the group I was in could easily complete the run, as long as not some TRIBBLE destroys one of the generators too early.
In my experience the only reason those runs fails when they do,are because of same TRIBBLE using FAW or directly attacking and destroying one of the generators while the rest of the group are still fighting the Cube and sphere.
Its come to a point where I'm asking "is it stupidity or malice" when this happens.
Over a 3 day period I had over 80% of the runs fail for reasons stated above.
This is what I've been feeling trying it after the tweak. Today I did one, once the nanite spheres showed, I hit the warp plasma and gravity well on them along with a TIF to slow them down while I sped back to get in weapon range of the transformer. I target it, it's at 100% hp. I WAS THE ONLY PERSON SHOOTING AT IT. CC expired, Spheres got free, mission lost. I had three teammates engaging the spheres that spawned in on top of the transformer, and one more over on the other side of the map apparently doing nothing. I'm sorry, but more tweaks need to be made for advanced to work with PUGs. People used to joke about the old elites being doable with two or even one fulled optimized ship, but that's how these things need to be balanced for PUGs, where on average you not only get a fair number of people doing terribly, but often one or more who do absolutely nothing.
I'm sorry, but more tweaks need to be made for advanced to work with PUGs. People used to joke about the old elites being doable with two or even one fulled optimized ship, but that's how these things need to be balanced for PUGs, where on average you not only get a fair number of people doing terribly, but often one or more who do absolutely nothing.
Yes, before one or two good players could really hold the team together. Now, its just a mess. Those one or two are just about managing to survive against the relentless HP walls of Hell.
Right now we are in a transitional phase... I hope.
Where people queue for advanced and find out that they might not be up to specs.
new advanced really is for above average players. you don't need to be a pro gamer but some thought put into your build and some knowledge about the general strategy would be required.
over time we should find those people left in the queues who could already do it or managed to improve.
had two successful runs just today which felt a lot more satisfying than the old elite.
Where people queue for advanced and find out that they might not be up to specs.
new advanced really is for above average players. you don't need to be a pro gamer but some thought put into your build and some knowledge about the general strategy would be required.
over time we should find those people left in the queues who could already do it or managed to improve.
Frankly, it's about time that people stepped up. The average player was coasting at too low a skill level.
The 50s going into ISA at release are pretty much like a fresh 44 going into ISN.
When the 44s go into ISN, they won't even have the reputation system unlocked, they'll be restricted to Mk X gear, have no reputation gear or traits, and won't even have their skill trees maxed. The good 44s will be able to do it anyway, but much like when the 50s first tried going into ISA, it's a big test of how much you can punch above your weight.
This is what I've been feeling trying it after the tweak. Today I did one, once the nanite spheres showed, I hit the warp plasma and gravity well on them along with a TIF to slow them down while I sped back to get in weapon range of the transformer. I target it, it's at 100% hp. I WAS THE ONLY PERSON SHOOTING AT IT. CC expired, Spheres got free, mission lost. I had three teammates engaging the spheres that spawned in on top of the transformer, and one more over on the other side of the map apparently doing nothing. I'm sorry, but more tweaks need to be made for advanced to work with PUGs. People used to joke about the old elites being doable with two or even one fulled optimized ship, but that's how these things need to be balanced for PUGs, where on average you not only get a fair number of people doing terribly, but often one or more who do absolutely nothing.
I also think that we are in a transitional period while the more hapless among us figure out what the heck we are supposed to do in these updated STFs. It is really about players not understanding what you need to do in a given STF. With a halfway decent team, with focused fire on the transformer I firmly believe that you can pop it without any CC on the incoming nanite spheres. Sure that helps and I am glad to do it.
Thinking back on the old ISE some of this should have been painfully obvious. 5-6 min ISE runs without a A2B/BFAWing Scim were a thing of beauty. Everyone was in the right place at the right time and brought decent (but not mega) amounts of DPS to the battle. But there were always enough of those 10 min runs where things just seemed off. People not knowing what to do, where to be, not really having enough DPS...... so what we see in the new ISA shouldn't have been a surprise.
I think as is ISA is totally doable with a halfway competent team. Where I would really adjust is reducing the hitpoints on the final tac cube. If you've made it that far, dealing with a giant punching bag isn't much fun. Now if that tac cube actually did anything that would be different.
Define decent...because the math is, IF you pop all the generators at the same time, you need around 12k DPS each to pop the transformer before the nanites get there. That is beyond the 90% marker for the player base and negates a good chunk of for fun ships that you may have making use of various consoles that are actually kinda fun to play around with. I'm sorry, but that is not what advanced should be. That is what elite SHOULD BE. All you moar dps crowd have a whole fraking difficulty level for yourself...why are you trying to take TWO of them?!?
I agree totally with what you're saying about elite and advanced. Elite does not need 66% of the queues. However, a GW3 will reduce the requirement maybe to 8000 dps?
I've succeeded the last 3 or 4 I've done but it's taken the whole clock to do it and it's sort of an exhausting effort - something that's fun once or twice a week instead of once or twice a day.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Define decent...because the math is, IF you pop all the generators at the same time, you need around 12k DPS each to pop the transformer before the nanites get there. That is beyond the 90% marker for the player base and negates a good chunk of for fun ships that you may have making use of various consoles that are actually kinda fun to play around with. I'm sorry, but that is not what advanced should be. That is what elite SHOULD BE. All you moar dps crowd have a whole fraking difficulty level for yourself...why are you trying to take TWO of them?!?
FWIW, and this is coming from memory from 2 days ago, in the successful ISA I ran that somebody parsed DPS from top to botton was: 13.5k, ~11.5k, 10.5 (which was myself in a Scryer), ~6.5k, and 4.4k. The team was myself in a Scryer, 2 Guardians, an Eclipse and a T5-U Avenger who was the top DPSer. I'd probably be safe to say that the 2nd Guardian and the Eclipse (they were the bottom 2) were under-performing. To be effective in ISA doesn't require a team with everybody on the other side of 20k DPS, with auto macroing keybinds, min-maxed with gold MK14 gear. What we are talking about is more situational awareness, a little bit of strategy and understood teamwork and making better use of what one already has in terms of gear and abilities. Plus we haven't even made it that far in post DR to see people hit mastery/ship traits for those going T5U or T6, plus the specializations. I am willing to bet the bottom 2 cruisers in that match could see 1-2k more DPS just by flying their ships better.
That said I think there are places where I'd still dial advanced back. In the context of ISA the spheres could be brought down a little bit more -- I want to say there are around ~500k HP as is. If not that maybe eliminate that extra sphere guarding the transformer. But where the big nerf bat needs to be swung at again is the tac cube at the end. It still sits at around 5 million HP but doesn't present any real threat. You just pound away at it till it dies. And more often than not you fail the optional on the stupid timer because of that.
the spheres, the ruddy tac cube, those nanite spheres in particular need a nerf bat to the hp on their shields and hull.
Murphy's laws:
1- Murphy’s Law tells us that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
2- And anything that does go wrong will get progressively worse.
3- And if you survive the first two laws it’s time to panic.
And they failed... advanced takes more than what 90% of the player base can do.
No.
It's more than what they do. It is not more than what they can do.
I'd like to think the average player is better than that. It's not that they're too stupid or ignorant to improve, but that they've merely become complacent and stagnant because the bar was set so low.
It's more than what they do. It is not more than what they can do.
I'd like to think the average player is better than that. It's not that they're too stupid or ignorant to improve, but that they've merely become complacent and stagnant because the bar was set so low.
If you look at what players are parsing matches for... the average player does less than 5k DPS. The average player does not want to improve what they have and in most cases will take offense to any suggestions to improve their DPS.
The average player from what these parsed STFs are reporting are doing less than 5k DPS and represent 90% of those that do STF queues. This is data that is being reported by players that are recording damage data during their events.
My own experience correlates well with what is being reported. The Advanced STF queues allow no room for others to carry these low DPS ships and thus forces a player to either waste time with pugs and accept a very low chance of success or seek out channels with players that can do the events.
I try to help those that want the help.. but most don't even care.
I try to help those that want the help.. but most don't even care.
See, that's the thing. STO is the only MMO out of the MMOs I've played (GW1/2, WoW, Vindictus, AO, CO, NWN, PWI, RO, SoF, HG:L) where you can get into the endgame (pre-DR), gear up, and massacre everything without ever learning how to play well.
All those other games, even if you're in the best available gear, if you don't know your abilities, where/when to use them, and how to properly position yourself, you'd get wrecked at the endgame.
Pre-LoR I still remember STFs needing some semblance of tactics and coordination, but random PUGs pre-DR didn't even need to MRRMLL or 10% anymore, and just straight up blasted through everything.
So of course players didn't care about improving. They never needed to.
When you're feeling secure about your performance, you don't care about improving. Why do you need to run faster, why do you need to lift heavier, why do you need swim longer? You're already fast enough, strong enough, last long enough. This is what it means to get fat and complacent.
I think when we suddenly need to be faster, stronger, last longer, that's the measure of our character. Some may quit, some may whine, but - and perhaps I'm overly optimistic, or have too much faith in people - I believe most will step up to the challenge. They just need that push - always a little scary, a bit frustrating, and rather annoying - to get there. But they'll get there, because overcoming adversity is what humanity does.
See, that's the thing. STO is the only MMO out of the MMOs I've played (GW1/2, WoW, Vindictus, AO, CO, NWN, PWI, RO, SoF, HG:L) where you can get into the endgame (pre-DR), gear up, and massacre everything without ever learning how to play well.
All those other games, even if you're in the best available gear, if you don't know your abilities, where/when to use them, and how to properly position yourself, you'd get wrecked at the endgame.
Pre-LoR I still remember STFs needing some semblance of tactics and coordination, but random PUGs pre-DR didn't even need to MRRMLL or 10% anymore, and just straight up blasted through everything.
So of course players didn't care about improving. They never needed to.
When you're feeling secure about your performance, you don't care about improving. Why do you need to run faster, why do you need to lift heavier, why do you need swim longer? You're already fast enough, strong enough, last long enough. This is what it means to get fat and complacent.
I think when we suddenly need to be faster, stronger, last longer, that's the measure of our character. Some may quit, some may whine, but - and perhaps I'm overly optimistic, or have too much faith in people - I believe most will step up to the challenge. They just need that push - always a little scary, a bit frustrating, and rather annoying - to get there. But they'll get there, because overcoming adversity is what humanity does.
Here's the problem chief, those of us who remember those tactics, also remember trying to PUG when they were needed. It usually didn't work out, because if even one guy wasn't on board, he would probably break something and ruin the whole run. This is why they were tweaked. On average in PUGs, there will be at least that one guy, probably more. Advanced isn't supposed to be the super hard "premade only" difficulty, that was elite's job. I can only control how well I do, I can't reform the entire playerbase of the game just so I can run content.
Comments
No, I'm going to blame them for it. There's 4 other reputation systems that don't require BNPs. They choose to go into that one while being woefully under-qualified.
ARE YOU LISTENING CRYPTIC?
I wish. I didn't go green. I do have a mirror ha'fah is storage just in case tho. Guess I'll trade up- tnx for the info.
Awoken Dead
Now shaddup about the queues, it's a BUG
What is "decent stuff and some skills"?
Let's assume that someone that isn't completely ignorant and unskilled knows that two copies of an EPtX ability (such as 2x EPtS or 2x EPtW) allows for 100% uptime on that EPtX ability, and knows that we can have two of them up at once.
Two years ago, as a complete and utter noob in a Sci Oddy (so 2 tac consoles) with no rep gear, a maximum of purple Mk XIs or blue Mk XIIs, and 8 blue Mk XI Plasma-Disruptor arrays from Past Imperfect, I still got 6k DPS with the following crappy build as an engineer:
Lt Tac: TT1/FAW2
Cdr Eng: EPtW1/RSP1/EPtS3/Aux2SIF3
Lt Sci: HE1/TSS2
LCdr Eng: EPtW1/ET2/EPtS3
Ens Sci: PH1
Yeah, that's right - unnecessary amounts of defense, and my Weapon Power would drop to like 60 during the one FAW I had. This was also when Teams shared cooldowns. This got me 6k as a noob who had to ask on Team chat what people meant when they said 10% or MRRMLL.
So assuming that I had "some skills" even though I didn't have any tactics beyond "10% or MRRMLL", "use TT1 if a shield facing drops", "keep EPtS3/EPtW1 going", that's a base of 6k with free gear from back then. I didn't even use Fire At Will most of the time, because OMG aggro scary (in spite of, you know, being practically invulnerable).
Gear today starts with the Solanae set, the Obelisk set, and Mk XI purple AP arrays. Purple Mk XII Phasers with [Acc]x3 are obviously also now available in DR. Since there hasn't been an increase in the level cap for over 2 years, someone who's got "decent stuff" should be using at least Mk XII purples, if they haven't bothered with a Fleet.
Someone with "decent stuff and some skills" should be doing at least 7k - heck, pre-DR the queues had improved to the point that the average PUG in IS(old)E consisted of people with around 9k DPS.
1- Murphy’s Law tells us that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
2- And anything that does go wrong will get progressively worse.
3- And if you survive the first two laws it’s time to panic.
do bug hunt elite its the only way
Yep, same. I've got what most would call a pretty solid Escort DSP build and I frankly feel like a useless weight to my team on Advanced. Even with a full Alpha strike and those Borg spheres are now basically walls of HP that laugh at me.
Honestly, what were Cryptic THINKING with this Advanced mode?
Agreed with all 3 posts, they are still a tad too high for, the average pug group.
Even pounding away with 10k-13k dps, they hold up for quite awhile and, the average player base doesn't go around wanting to rely on dps #'s alone, just to even stand a chance.
Advanced could stand to be toned down slightly and, I do mean slightly for the average pug dps to stand a decent chance!
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
This is what I've been feeling trying it after the tweak. Today I did one, once the nanite spheres showed, I hit the warp plasma and gravity well on them along with a TIF to slow them down while I sped back to get in weapon range of the transformer. I target it, it's at 100% hp. I WAS THE ONLY PERSON SHOOTING AT IT. CC expired, Spheres got free, mission lost. I had three teammates engaging the spheres that spawned in on top of the transformer, and one more over on the other side of the map apparently doing nothing. I'm sorry, but more tweaks need to be made for advanced to work with PUGs. People used to joke about the old elites being doable with two or even one fulled optimized ship, but that's how these things need to be balanced for PUGs, where on average you not only get a fair number of people doing terribly, but often one or more who do absolutely nothing.
Yes, before one or two good players could really hold the team together. Now, its just a mess. Those one or two are just about managing to survive against the relentless HP walls of Hell.
Where people queue for advanced and find out that they might not be up to specs.
new advanced really is for above average players. you don't need to be a pro gamer but some thought put into your build and some knowledge about the general strategy would be required.
over time we should find those people left in the queues who could already do it or managed to improve.
had two successful runs just today which felt a lot more satisfying than the old elite.
Thus, the L50s need to provide the most input on how it's setup. In T5 ships, not 6s, not T5Us.
Did two pugs with it and did fine, seemed to be mostly, T6 ships both times, though.
Sarah Knightly - Co-leader; Frontier Explorers - U.S.S. Witchblade
Rias Gremory - Leader; Frontier Marauders - I.K.S. B'ullwinkle
Frankly, it's about time that people stepped up. The average player was coasting at too low a skill level.
The 50s going into ISA at release are pretty much like a fresh 44 going into ISN.
When the 44s go into ISN, they won't even have the reputation system unlocked, they'll be restricted to Mk X gear, have no reputation gear or traits, and won't even have their skill trees maxed. The good 44s will be able to do it anyway, but much like when the 50s first tried going into ISA, it's a big test of how much you can punch above your weight.
Minimum cutoff should be 10k DPS!
The idea of the new elites was to give the 'holier-than-thou' DPS folks something they could go do and leave the rest of us alone. <<shrugs>>
Sarah Knightly - Co-leader; Frontier Explorers - U.S.S. Witchblade
Rias Gremory - Leader; Frontier Marauders - I.K.S. B'ullwinkle
I also think that we are in a transitional period while the more hapless among us figure out what the heck we are supposed to do in these updated STFs. It is really about players not understanding what you need to do in a given STF. With a halfway decent team, with focused fire on the transformer I firmly believe that you can pop it without any CC on the incoming nanite spheres. Sure that helps and I am glad to do it.
Thinking back on the old ISE some of this should have been painfully obvious. 5-6 min ISE runs without a A2B/BFAWing Scim were a thing of beauty. Everyone was in the right place at the right time and brought decent (but not mega) amounts of DPS to the battle. But there were always enough of those 10 min runs where things just seemed off. People not knowing what to do, where to be, not really having enough DPS...... so what we see in the new ISA shouldn't have been a surprise.
I think as is ISA is totally doable with a halfway competent team. Where I would really adjust is reducing the hitpoints on the final tac cube. If you've made it that far, dealing with a giant punching bag isn't much fun. Now if that tac cube actually did anything that would be different.
And they failed... advanced takes more than what 90% of the player base can do.
Yet... those 90% still Queue for Advanced and fail it for the majority that can do it.
A good rule of thumb... if you can't kill probes in Khitomer Space Advanced... dont Queue for Khitomer Space Advanced.
I agree totally with what you're saying about elite and advanced. Elite does not need 66% of the queues. However, a GW3 will reduce the requirement maybe to 8000 dps?
I've succeeded the last 3 or 4 I've done but it's taken the whole clock to do it and it's sort of an exhausting effort - something that's fun once or twice a week instead of once or twice a day.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
The elites were too tough for the ones complaining so now they want the scrubs out of advanced.
FWIW, and this is coming from memory from 2 days ago, in the successful ISA I ran that somebody parsed DPS from top to botton was: 13.5k, ~11.5k, 10.5 (which was myself in a Scryer), ~6.5k, and 4.4k. The team was myself in a Scryer, 2 Guardians, an Eclipse and a T5-U Avenger who was the top DPSer. I'd probably be safe to say that the 2nd Guardian and the Eclipse (they were the bottom 2) were under-performing. To be effective in ISA doesn't require a team with everybody on the other side of 20k DPS, with auto macroing keybinds, min-maxed with gold MK14 gear. What we are talking about is more situational awareness, a little bit of strategy and understood teamwork and making better use of what one already has in terms of gear and abilities. Plus we haven't even made it that far in post DR to see people hit mastery/ship traits for those going T5U or T6, plus the specializations. I am willing to bet the bottom 2 cruisers in that match could see 1-2k more DPS just by flying their ships better.
That said I think there are places where I'd still dial advanced back. In the context of ISA the spheres could be brought down a little bit more -- I want to say there are around ~500k HP as is. If not that maybe eliminate that extra sphere guarding the transformer. But where the big nerf bat needs to be swung at again is the tac cube at the end. It still sits at around 5 million HP but doesn't present any real threat. You just pound away at it till it dies. And more often than not you fail the optional on the stupid timer because of that.
1- Murphy’s Law tells us that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
2- And anything that does go wrong will get progressively worse.
3- And if you survive the first two laws it’s time to panic.
The spheres are a ******n nightmare.
No.
It's more than what they do. It is not more than what they can do.
I'd like to think the average player is better than that. It's not that they're too stupid or ignorant to improve, but that they've merely become complacent and stagnant because the bar was set so low.
If you look at what players are parsing matches for... the average player does less than 5k DPS. The average player does not want to improve what they have and in most cases will take offense to any suggestions to improve their DPS.
The average player from what these parsed STFs are reporting are doing less than 5k DPS and represent 90% of those that do STF queues. This is data that is being reported by players that are recording damage data during their events.
My own experience correlates well with what is being reported. The Advanced STF queues allow no room for others to carry these low DPS ships and thus forces a player to either waste time with pugs and accept a very low chance of success or seek out channels with players that can do the events.
I try to help those that want the help.. but most don't even care.
See, that's the thing. STO is the only MMO out of the MMOs I've played (GW1/2, WoW, Vindictus, AO, CO, NWN, PWI, RO, SoF, HG:L) where you can get into the endgame (pre-DR), gear up, and massacre everything without ever learning how to play well.
All those other games, even if you're in the best available gear, if you don't know your abilities, where/when to use them, and how to properly position yourself, you'd get wrecked at the endgame.
Pre-LoR I still remember STFs needing some semblance of tactics and coordination, but random PUGs pre-DR didn't even need to MRRMLL or 10% anymore, and just straight up blasted through everything.
So of course players didn't care about improving. They never needed to.
When you're feeling secure about your performance, you don't care about improving. Why do you need to run faster, why do you need to lift heavier, why do you need swim longer? You're already fast enough, strong enough, last long enough. This is what it means to get fat and complacent.
I think when we suddenly need to be faster, stronger, last longer, that's the measure of our character. Some may quit, some may whine, but - and perhaps I'm overly optimistic, or have too much faith in people - I believe most will step up to the challenge. They just need that push - always a little scary, a bit frustrating, and rather annoying - to get there. But they'll get there, because overcoming adversity is what humanity does.
Here's the problem chief, those of us who remember those tactics, also remember trying to PUG when they were needed. It usually didn't work out, because if even one guy wasn't on board, he would probably break something and ruin the whole run. This is why they were tweaked. On average in PUGs, there will be at least that one guy, probably more. Advanced isn't supposed to be the super hard "premade only" difficulty, that was elite's job. I can only control how well I do, I can't reform the entire playerbase of the game just so I can run content.