I like your overall post, but I'd argue the bigger problem is the development teams failure to properly interpret the data they have.

For example, I hate Aurum Vale with a passion, and that has nothing to do with it being difficult. I simply find it both boring and frustrating. The mechanics are not difficult to complete or coordinate, and I never found wiping to be a huge issue. However, I did find it to be far less enjoyable than other dungeons. The frustration was furthered when you're down leveled to 49 leaving level 50 skills (if you went in at 50 for whatever reason, i.e. relic).

I feel the same way with Steps of Faith. I applaud the team for trying something new, rather than the circle trials and adding in mechanics like dragon killers and cannons, but ultimately I found the fight boring. I one-shotted it from the get go and never found the fight all that difficult, but it did require a bit more coordination and thought than the average trial. It's need for coordination and skill were not factors in why I found the fight boring, but simply the mechanics of the fight were boring to complete. It felt long and repetitive. Being on a cannon sucks, cuz u just sit there pressing 1-1-1-1-3-1-1-1-1-3-1-1-1-1-1 etc. Being a tank luring mobs to the front was boring, because you weren't really doing any mechanics than flash, run to front, flash, run to front. Essentially, the fact that you were moving in the fight limited what you could actually do, and the mechanics actually felt dumbed down to me.

I get the impression I am not alone in these feelings, but it seems like the development team is only receiving that people don't like challenging content.


As for your 2nd post, I think that it would help with people trying difficult content if there was not a huge gate blocking it. i.e. If you could queue for Savage in duty finder, people might go in there more often. There would still be statics and party finders, but the DF would just let people go in without having to really promise anything beforehand. I really don't see why they don't have it. When I first started playing, it was great the first coil was already in the DF and I was able to experience it that way, otherwise I likely would never have entered the raiding scene.


Your main argument is that the player attitude is to blame, but I'd argue that player attitude is a product of game design. There are many core elements which require you to replay content over and over, which encourages people from wanting the easiest/fastest possible route, and when something slows that down there is negative feedback. There are 100s of ways this can be tackled, but as it's built so much in to the core, I doubt it will happen. Thus the best we can wish for is a bit more variety.