The Echo scales with numbers of players joining, im not sure about the drop off but when i did it like 2 months ago we had 5 players only i did pure essence and full stack, it took 30min. If all 5 had done it it would've been closer to 15. So imo its a personal responsibility to get the proper buffs, if you have 24 players the chance is a lot higher for a few to carry, but if its just 5 and no one uses deep stuff you will have big trouble.

This isn't new there was even a max exodus of those that wanted to farm DR with buffs which created 30-50min DF runs and 12min PF runs pre made on discord because they did not want to carry damage for the samurai who has no essence and skills slotted.