Heavensward raids will have a normal and hard mode

[Deadwing]

Iunno. I think having the normal mode be story-only would be a waste. The game needs more mid-tier content, imo, and having normal drop loot would be a good way to do it.

Normal could be of a difficulty similar to EX Primals- not too hard, and pretty doable once everyone has the hang of things. Still requiring cohesion and teamwork, but not to the extent that FCoB currently demands. It would drop lower item level equipment (probably the same level as currency gear, if that system is kept) and said items would probably look different compared to HM drops, similar to the visual differences between i100 and i110 PvP gear. (yay, glamour options!) A lockout would still be in place, of course.

Hard mode difficulty would be akin to the current raid, or tuned slightly higher (due to the availability of NM gear.) It would feature new and deeper mechanics than normal, some of which are entirely different, to keep things exciting and surprising.

[HakuroDK]

snip

I respect what you're saying. I just find difficulty to scale more like this (or, at least, it should scale more like this):

Normal: Casual/Story Difficulty
Hard: Mid-Tier Difficulty
Extreme/Savage: Hardcore Difficulty

That difficulty signifier makes it easier to determine which content is best suited to which kind of player. I am a very solid mid-tier player. I can usually clear Normal difficulty content without breaking a sweat and Hard Content gives me just enough of a challenge where it's testing me (in a good way), but it's not wipe-tastic. I have cleared SOME extreme content, but Twintania is still a serious issue for me.

...and honestly? Hard content should stay out of the story. Seems silly to have HM Primals in the story as it stops casuals in their tracks. Fine for separate content, but not the main storyline.

[Deadwing]

snip

Yeah, that's perfectly fine, too.
I don't think having a "story" version is a bad thing, but I'd like to see it below Normal and Hard, I guess. Since the current Savage mode drops the same loot as the standard (Hard, in my model) it just makes sense in my head.

Also, I forgot to mention the beauty of having normal mode drops on par with currency gear- we'd see a lot more gearing options in the mid-tier than we do right now. As it stands, your gearing options if you want to be non-raider max ilvl is a full set of currency gear. For DRG last patch, that sucked. The amount of skill speed on that set is unreal.