Unreal Trials

[Shurrikhan]

There might be a big enough following of people that run ex but not savage to warrant this. Hard to tell without data (that I assume they have).

But, we see Shiva, Ifruda, Ixamuh, Leviathan, and Titan 2.0 in Normal Raids before we're even allowed to attempt their Savage versions. It's not like they lack for exposure.

[EaMett]

But, we see Shiva, Ifruda, Ixamuh, Leviathan, and Titan 2.0 in Normal Raids before we're even allowed to attempt their Savage versions. It's not like they lack for exposure.

Sure, but if you break it down into tiers of difficulty and/or playtime it makes a bit more sense. If all you've done is Shiva normal and you enjoy running ex content then normal was most likely not a challenge at all and your exposure to it was pretty limited (compared to progging a fight for instance). So having a more demanding shiva fight could be a logical decision.
Not saying they couldn't have come totally out of left field with something else like mog king, Odin, etc. But there are probably more reasons to it than just exposure. Shiva also seems like an easy fight to upscale and test the whole unreal thing with.