@SE, For the next "catch-up" patch, please unlock the raid as well

[Ryuko]

Uh... what are we even comparing too? DPS checks and tank checks are non-existent. They literally threw a mechanic in that required you to bring a second tank as a body instead of 5 DPS. DPS check is as "tight" as AS1, which can be cleared 6 minutes earlier than enrage right now. Enrage is 11 minutes for Thordan BTW. You can literally stop DPS for a few seconds to do mechanics. I'm not too sure about heal checks, it's about as heavy as any other content we've seen.

I really don't consider the 'hard' enrage as the real enrage, because if people fail mechanics (and they often do), they'll have weakness by the time you get to the AoE damage phase followed by the knight (dps check) in the middle with the tether on Thordan. If your healers aren't already OOM by this point, it will be hard for them to keep up weakened people regardless because the group will take heavy AoE damage just a second or two before the central knight's AoE triggers. It basically requires the healers to get the group capped twice (with extra mitigation for weakened people). It's very rare I've ever seen a group get past this point simply because of weakness/gear/mp (and this situation will ONLY happen if your dps is slow -- so, it's likely most people are weakened at this point). Almost every group I've seen clear has had to do it before the knight in the center even spawns. This fight is not as forgiving as other extremes in this sense. Granted, it's easy to carry people through the fight, but only if (most) people are on point. Even in farm groups that were clearing consistently, I would almost always see one person dying on every single run.

What's even more amazing/ridiculous about this is I have done it with people currently working on A3S, and it still takes them hours (or DAYS) to grasp it... showing just how easy AS1 and AS2 are compared to AS3 and Thordan Ex. Again, I enjoyed the fight -- but I could see them nerfing it in some way. They always add echo to 'extreme' fights, but I wouldn't be surprised if other mechanics were slightly tweaked to be more forgiving.