Heavensward raids will have a normal and hard mode

[Zumi]

So in the live letter they announed the raids in Heavensward will have a normal and hard mode. What are your thoughts on this? Are people who wanted story mode coil now happy? Will this mean less nerfs to the hard mode raid because casuals will get to see the storyline in the raids when they do normal mode? Hopefully it works better then only having the 1 difficulity in coil.

[SpookyGhost]

Depends on if doing the hard mode version yields a better reward. If you get the same gear for half the effort, why do the HM version at all? Curious to see how they'll handle that, since I imagine people will cry if the HM version does have better stuff.

[Muzetta]

Depends on if doing the hard mode version yields a better reward. If you get the same gear for half the effort, why do the HM version at all? Curious to see how they'll handle that, since I imagine people will cry if the HM version does have better stuff.

I'm fairly certain it'll be the same thing as we have with primals now. The "hard" versions are purely story-related and extremes actually give you loot.

[HulveinBlitz]

NM will probably not drop anything.
HM will drop loot.

[razzgrizz3]

nobody apart from world 1st pushers is going to do the hard modes if they dont have better loot imo.

[SpookyGhost]

I'm fairly certain it'll be the same thing as we have with primals now. The "hard" versions are purely story-related and extremes actually give you loot.

I'm not actually sure how well that would work for raid content. Queues might be a bit of a disaster if you get no loot from the NM version. Especially barren if you can't use DF for the normal version until 3 months later or w/e. I'm personally fine with two different difficulties for raids, I just dunno how they'll handle it to make it fair. I guess nobody complains about the current HM primals, but they also don't... do them more than once...

[Shinun]

I could see the NM having same loot as HM but less which if you include weekly lockouts could be quite a difference.

I think more though that NM will prob be a prep for HM with majority of the mechanics just doing alot less damage for training purposes.

[Riepah]

Maybe there'll be a Standard and a Gold version. Standard is for everyone to experience the story, but gives no loot. If you want loot, you can buy your 1-month Gold Raid VIP-ticket at the mogstation.

[Gralna]

Maybe there'll be a Standard and a Gold version. Standard is for everyone to experience the story, but gives no loot. If you want loot, you can buy your 1-month Gold Raid VIP-ticket at the mogstation.

[ZanzhizExaverion]

NM will be for story.
HM will probably be tuned more difficult, but nerfs are inevitable as the content grows old. Loot will be prized.

As long as there's gear behind a raid it will be nerfed so long as time goes on.

They nerfed Amdapor Keep ffs.

EDIT: This is what I expect.

Normal Mode: Fresh Level 60 gear/weapons like Hard Mode Primals from 2.0.
Hard Mode: Raid difficulty, high end gear.