Quote Originally Posted by Komoritane View Post
I wonder if it might help for the dev team to focus less on extremes (i.e. grinders vs. elite raiders) and more on the average player.
The average committed player does not want to fall more than a little behind on weapon item level, but doesn't want to grind each level of Alex NM 200 times for relic items and can't clear the A3S DPS check. If you force them to choose between these two options, then they might choose neither and stop playing until the next level of tome gear comes out.

The average raider does not need a raid group to clear Alex NM and can't clear Alex Savage, but still wants the opportunity to raid. Again if you force them to choose between these two options, then they might choose to wait for future content.

The average social player is looking for more diversity of content to play with their friends and FC members, but they don't want to mindlessly grind Diadem and not all of their friends may be capable of clearing Thordan Extreme. New dungeons, or a way for old dungeons and trials to be relevant again (i.e. more tome rewards for lower level content) could help with this. Hildebrandt trails are also usually around the right level that everyone can enjoy.

As others have mentioned in this thread, it feels like a lot of content is being recycled (Atma RNG? again?), probably due to the push to release each new extensive patch by a comparatively small number of dev team members. However, sometimes it's important to take a step back and ask yourself, "Will the average gamer actually enjoy this?" It seems like maybe the dev team can't see the forest for the trees, as the saying goes.
If they something like Thordan is too difficult then doesn't that make Void Ark and Alex normal right up their alley? What do you even want? Stuff that can be cleared in the first run or not? If it's on the DF on release, then it would have to be the former. Even the 24 mans can take the whole 2 hours for people doing it the first time. That said, the development team is not small by industry standards so I wish people would stop using this as a statement. So you say you want content that you want a raid group for (i.e. content that you cannot pug). That already is the first couple floors of AS. Did you try them? But then you go around and say they can't clear Thordan (which is a pretty easy fight compared to raid content). A lot of people say "Thordan got the difficulty right" so isn't this the goal for your group to work towards. I mean do you just want a version of void ark that is not on the DF (and thus no one can do, because who can make 24 man statics)?