So I'm not seeing how this is them changing things up from 2.0/3.0

[dragonseth07]

No it's not -- it's rewarding people for not putting effort into gearing.

Basically the intent in Stormblood is to split the game into a top tier (ex trials, raids, hard raid, harder raids, all the raids) where you have to work hard for your stuff and give it your very best effort and still possibly go home empty handed;

and a bottom tier (normal trials, 24 man trash, dungeons, fates, hunts, potd, whatever) where everything is handed to you on a silver platter, where you don't have to put in any effort -- and then pretending that this split never happened because tomestones fix everything.

I'm gonna be a jerk here and just say that the top and bottom tiers should be split in this game. Let the super casuals have their game, and let the hardcore raiders have theirs. The drama in this game comes from those groups mixing.

[Sebazy]

I'm gonna be a jerk here and just say that the top and bottom tiers should be split in this game. Let the super casuals have their game, and let the hardcore raiders have theirs. The drama in this game comes from those groups mixing.

Pretty much this. SE would do well to either figure a way to close the skill gap between the two communities (ideally by better in-game tuition and instruction, better incentives for good play, the much vaunted button reduction and some resemblance of a difficulty curve on content as players approach the end game) or at least think of a way to reduce the friction and frustration when players of wildly differing skill levels have to interact.

[St0rmchild]

I'm gonna be a jerk here and just say that the top and bottom tiers should be split in this game. Let the super casuals have their game, and let the hardcore raiders have theirs. The drama in this game comes from those groups mixing.

Effectively you're saying "either be a real raider or don't even bother with improving your gameplay coz you're a casual" - meaning you don't even want any level of challenge below the raid level -- thereby creating that glass ceiling that keeps the baddies bad, by removing their reasons and incentives to improve, and "protecting" the small group of 'real raiders' from the possibility of having to deal with new people.

The bigger you make that gap between the bottom and top groups, the fewer people will be able to cross it.