Awesome post, and I both agree and disagree to many parts of it. I have never been a fan of weekly lockouts, because that is just an artificial way of extending the gameplay time. If you can only attempt it once a week that means only 4 attempts at your loot in a single month. If people are completely loot driven, of course they'll stay subscribed for another month to try to get that loot. I've always preferred items being semi-rare with as many chances as you like. Not to the point of Atma though, that drop rate is... something else. I wonder what the official drop rate % is?

On the topic of insta death mechanics, I'm divided. I love Titan HM and Ex because I know I'm skilled enough (if memorizing a set pattern and knowing when/where to move can be called skill, lmao) to down it. Think Dark Souls. Very difficult situations thrown at you, satisfaction at finally learning how to perfectly manage the situation. I think that most content should be difficult in the sense that you have to play your class well rather than knowing how to dodge well. There should be mechanics though, yes.

Not insta kill mechanics, but ones that if you fail to learn it and get hit by it 3-4 times in one fight then you'll finally die. Maybe a stacking damage debuff that only affects damage inflicted from this mechanic? Or maybe it should be something where it does what ever the mechanic is once every minute (or at set hp % intervals. Maybe he does it once at 90% then again at 70%) to give you a chance to learn it. If you get hit by it at that point, simple recovery. The next time he does it (again either at a set time interval or something like 50% health), it does it twice in a row and this time if you fail to dodge both you get hurt pretty bad. It does this maybe once or twice, then progresses to the point where when the mechanic happens (time intervals again or boss health maybe 30% and/or 10%) it does it 3-4 times in a row. At this point if you haven't learned to dodge it and you get hit by all of them, you WILL die. But if you've learned it even enough to dodge it once or twice you'll be hurt but alive. The same thing with a stacking debuff that only affects the mechanic damage would work even if he only does it once every time. Each time you fail to dodge it you take more damage from it.