So Sands of Time is in T8?

[Shirai]

so you can no life an animus weapon in a few days, but you can't join a static raid group? that's a bit of a stretch of the term "casual"

The shield takes only two trials to Animus.
You hardly need to be a no life king to obtain that.

[Kaze3434]

Poor design choice imo. I would rather that everyone get the drop and keep it in turns 7+.

i wouldnt call that poor design really. just a way to control how many people can get the "best" gear. it makes the gearing up process longer than it was before.