Originally Posted by
Kaurhz
Punishing is perhaps the wrong word, but either way..
It just generally doesn't matter or not for the most part whether you fail a mechanic and/or whether you can auto-attack a boss to death, both of these things just build up terrible complacency, both with how the difficulty 'curve' in this game works, and with how people play their classes. The game doesn't really encourage people to actually learn in most capacities.
People often seriously overestimate what the 'other' option entails. I think to a degree your response is actually an exhibit of this problem. If the game had a natural form of progression, then people wouldn't be intimidated by something like the teacups from Strayborough, or the Barreltender from Tender Valley, nor would players find it such a stressful experience, and nor would we really have threads like this created because those players that do go into this content will have a smooth transition since they would not be missing fundamentals.