Quote Originally Posted by StrejdaTom View Post
What idea is that? Mind telling me?
I'd like to dedicate a new thread to pitching the idea.

However, the short of it is, rather than a "Savage" mode at a set difficulty, we take inspiration on games that grade performance as part of their reward schedule and develop a sort of "Arcade" mode - which would have triggers within the content itself that would increase the Raid's difficulty in trade for higher score, as the fight goes on. The raw scoring results in currency given, as well as reaching certain 'ranks' of performance once unlocks new tiers of rewards to spend the currency on.

To keep it more skill-based, and engaging, I would have an ilvl sync somewhere easily accessible to obtain. This set ilvl is how the difficulty of the fight is tuned. The ilvl sync can be bypassed, but at a penalty to performance points (thinking it automatically locks you out of the highest tier of rating if you haven't already obtained it.)

I would actually remove gear progression from the rewards, seeming they expire during the next even patch anyways. But instead try to give more permanently desirable rewards, like new skill animations, partical effects, on top of your typical mounts, new armor styles/glamours. Some benefit to Free Companies for their members participating in these Arcade Mode raids would also help incentivise.

The idea is - easy to grasp, hard to master - the longevity of the competitive scene would stretch beyond simply first clears and branch into the realm of high scores. Players who want to raid casually will be able to do so for rewards, albeit at a slower pace, and intensives to push for higher scores for higher tier rewards and the unique skill/animation based rewards will keep the content relevant even when the push of progression moves beyond the raid's ilvl sync.

Of course there are a lot more details to it, but that's the gist of the idea - crafting a Raiding system that has wide appeal an positively encourages improving performance, while rewarding those who achieve it in a way more visible than titles and longer lasting than armor glamours.