The Difficulty Schism (And Why The Real Enemy is Scaling & Max iL Sync)

[Eyrilona]

What the armor is actually acting as is sort of a merit increase from ownership that represents extra effort put in by the player to advance their own character. I sort of feel that they don't give casual players enough merit and completely block them from achieving the same things that people who engage in the more time intensive content get. Even if savage or extreme is the faster way to get to the end of the road, there shouldn't be a situation where the casual player can't get optimal stats on their gear (and honestly, given the game abstracts away the benefits outside of some blurb of text there isn't much point to having choice on stats). Doing savage should be because someone likes the extra challenge, not because they want to get merits. The latter is the reason why things turn toxic because then the goal is to be optimal and collect as fast as possible.

I believe that at the root of your complaint is that you have a selective perception of what the goal of the game is. It is not meant to be to get all the all-round BiS optimal stats on your character as fast as possible. The goal, is to have fun. It is that you are able to clear and enjoy the content you care about playing. For some people, that even means giving themselves a handicap for the sake of challenging themselves, e.g. people who go into duties with the min-ilvl option on. This is not a pure stat block chasing game where the sum of your stats is your ranking or something. The game is designed in such a way that the difficulty level you consider your personal endgame will always be very doable with gear acquired from content a little easier than itself, so there should never be a step that is out of your reach for gearing reasons alone.

You called Savage and Extreme as the fastest way to the end of the road, but you only see them as that because you have defined 'End of the road' to mean getting highest stats, when really, the only thing for which clearing Savage is the end of the road, is on the road for clearing Savage. If you are not on that road, then there really is no reason to be bothered that it does hand out some extra gearing as merit badges that won't even be relevant to casual content because of ilvl sync.

If you feel that you are denied merit in the game by not having those on your character, then I think you might be externalizing your worth and could improve your own happiness by rethinking your sources of validation as a person and player?