As many of these discussions we've had that just go in circles, I feel like everyone can agree that there are 3 large classes of players that we can generalize FFXIV's audience into and the only solution acceptable to all of them is to have 3 corresponding modes to the end-game raid.

I really think we're at the 'worst of all worlds' by having only 2 modes. If there was only savage (i.e. bahamut coil style, ignore the actual Savage bahamut raid pls. it's doesn't fit what I'm describing) raiding, it would be acceptable to all raiders but it would exclude a class of players who do not want that level of challenge from experiencing an important part of the story.

SE has decided that this 'exclusive' nature is not acceptable and has created the tiered system we have now. But this has required all raiders to compromise because all raiders want to raid, but not all raiders raid at the same level of competency. So the exact difficulty tuning of the Savage mode raid has huge implications for who can and cannot effectively enjoy the content.


Unfortunately, I believe that it is the case that the only acceptable solution in a tiered end-game is the have 3 tiers of difficulty. As a community we need to unite around this suggestion and force SE to take notice. We should also be willing to sacrifice potential content that we may lose out on by forcing them to create yet another raid tier. But I seriously think that a system which allows players to basically pick the difficulty of their end-game from 3 options is the only one that's viable in the long term.

As well, make it so that you can immediately enter the raid at whatever difficulty you'd like. There should be frankly separate communities of raiders for each of 'Story', 'Normal' and 'Savage' raiders and we shouldn't force people into the 'Story' mode the way we do now. Allow people to create the end-game experience that's right for them, do not tie the 3 tiers together into a united equipment progression curve like we have now. This just frustrates players at all 3 levels.