Yoshida did not make this game pay-to-win. The players did. *NOT a cash shop thread*

[Nalien]

The mentality of make things harder and require an awesome static didn't work to well for Wildstar.

That's only half the solution. The main issue is the way mechanics are just suddenly dropped on you. They did an OK job with Primals, since the story mode ones introduce the mechanics while the hard/extreme ones just ramp up the difficulty and perhaps add a couple new mechanics, but Crystal Tower and Coil?

Guildhests would have been a great way to teach players mechanics, but they were completely optional and only really worth doing the once. They'd have been a great educational tool if SE actually made them relevant, instead most teach you nothing (or instead tell you to do something stupid like focus on adds when the boss goes down in seconds) and all endgame mechanics end up being taught to new players by old players, which a lot of people just don't have the patience for.

By far the main issue is that the game expects nothing of you until Coil. The fact that all content is simplistic and thus easy to carry people through doesn't help. The game should have steadily taught players how to handle basic mechanics as you level, instead it basically teaches you nothing 1-50 and then ramps up the difficulty for endgame. You go from simply dodging things and killing adds, to mechanics like Allagan Rot which get completely ignored because not a damn thing in the game prepared players for it. A Guildhest could so easily have introduced a mechanic similar to Allagan Rot, make it a requirement (or at least worth doing frequently) and people wouldn't have gotten to Turn 2 and failed time after time to a completely alien mechanic. Christ, Silencing High Voltage was a completely new mechanic to 99% of the games population in 2.0, it was pathetic...

This games biggest failing is the dichotomy of its difficulty. You either have super casual content where you can almost ignore mechanics and still power through, or you have instant KO mechanics. It simply isn't a good system, it means your casual players can have almost no idea what they're doing, while your hardcores have it completely sorted. Don't treat casuals like children and gradually expect more from them as they level (almost all "difficult" leveling content currently can be ignored for FATEs), then when they get to endgame they might actually have a clue what is going on and be able to adapt, or have others explain things simply ("It's like X" rather than having to explain the entire thing like you currently have to). For the most part mechanics aren't even hard in this game, it's just an utter lack of practice, due to an utter lack of any content requiring practice before Coil. Silencing High Voltage is in no way hard, but when people are getting to Coil for the first time and have not once had to Silence anything, let alone coordinate with another player, that is an issue.