Could we get some "Mainstream" content?

[Iriadysa]

I would agree that Ex primals are "mainstream".

I wouldn't categorize content according to their difficulty directly, however. Instead, I'd consider more the time investment required for such content; specifically the amount of structured time you must dedicate to a specific content.

People tend to categorize casual - hardcore and the gradient between them based on difficulty as if, for some reason, casual players were bad players and hardcores were specially good at playing. This is by no means truth and I'd bet my hide that you find the same proportionally good and bad players in both groups. The difference is one of them is bigger than the other, thus bad players seem more prolific (and in raw numbers are of course more).

On the other hand, structured time is usually the mark of a hardcore player. These are players that are able and willing to commit their game time for a specific goal with specific organization. Note that this doesn't refer to the amount of time invested, as there's certainly casuals that invest copious amounts of time into the game and hardcores that don't play as much.

The thing is, to dedicate your time to a goal you must commit with other like minded people who are willing to commit the same amount of time and, what's more prohibitive, the same time frames. Perhaps the younger people reading this won't understand it but as a more adult gamer the problem isn't necessarily not having time for your hobby but actually having a steady schedule for it.

So if you rate content in terms of structured time requirements, only Coil 2 fits the bill. The rest of the content starts at the mid range part of the gradient with Extreme primals (yes, all of them, even Titan) down to the absolute casual content.

I would agree that there's mostly casual content and that perhaps the worst part of 2.2 and onwards is the elimination of actually relevant mid range content. While Ex primals are mid range in my mind, they are also pointless in terms of actual progression... even Ramuh.