Regarding latest live producer letter 02/04/2014

Correction: I meant the 02/03/2014 Producer Letter - Live -

Am I the only one who feels that player's shouldn't get "The Echo" buff in order to clear Coil content by default?

I know they mentioned you can do it without the buff on, but isn't a part of the game; the challenge of it and the sense of accomplishment/recognition for your team or another? If we're no longer weekly locked out of T1-5, can do it in any order to farm and throw in a higher ilvl cap which isn't tied to Coil, why add a further buff on top as well?

If there is an 'easy' mode in the works aka "The Echo buff" just for the sake of clearing content then I feel that no rewards or a lesser reward compared to the norm should be implemented. Easy(Story) mode can be a choice for players but not the default choice.

How does the community feel about this?

Its 1-5.... why fight ??

The people bothered by it are people who will be on 6-9. In which case what's it matter? I've only done t4 and hope to complete t5 before 2.2 but honestly I'm looking at 6-9 and don't care about 1-5 anymore.

I don't see how the Echo buff changes much, People who have already done it shouldn't care because it will be old content.

Turn off the buff?

I heard that the buff was optional.

They provided an option to have it on or off. Case closed. No one is getting cheated. If you want a challenge, turn it off. Wanna see the story through 1-5 and have a laid back group? Keep it on. Lesser rewards? They are being rewarded with what will be old gear. While they celebrate with lvl90 gear, people in 6-9/leviathan will be in 95+.

Its people like you who'd call a gold medal a slap to the face because it doesn't give buffs and people can win it again in 4 years.

The game was designed to try and push as much people into the top-tier end-game content as possible. That's why second-tier content gets the Echo buff and sometimes nerfs to mechanics.

And since the biggest reason for the Echo buff and the nerfs is to push people over to new content, it's counter-productive to then invest resources into designing a bunch of even weaker gear.

The echo buff isn't just for the sake of making people clear content. It's for the sake of making people catch up to top-tier content quickly. Hence it also comes with the removal of lockouts, listing on the Duty Finder, etc.

Well the gear that drops there will be rendered obsolete anyway so I don't particularly care. Turns 6-9 are going to be the new challenge.

Anything that gets my armor and weapons faster. I've been farming coil since October and have only seen the tank chest once and I let a mate have it cause he was under geared and I was already full i90.