Re: what the Echo buff does. Raises damage dealt and maximum HP if you continually wipe.

Example, I intentionally wiped to 50 SMN quest fight on my alt.
1st/2nd attempt: ~2.6k HP (no buff)
3rd: 3.1k
4th: 3.9k
5th: 5.2k

Didn't see another increase on the 6th so I just stopped testing. I have heard that every stack of the Echo buff is +10% damage dealt as well.

Even with this, there will always be people bad/lazy/desperate/etc enough to buy a HM win, much less an Extreme win.