Is Endgame Just a Cycle of "Static Killers?"

[Zumi]

Dunno but probably not going to be able to do a static on Gilgamesh, I think this server exemplifies how the raiding community dug its own grave:

1. Complain raids too easy
2. Get a raid too hard (AS)
3. Large numbers within an already small group quit, and
4. The remainder doesn't want to deal with new people and just cannabalizes a declining group of exp raiders.

This quote from http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/67805...eborn/74262206 is instructive:

'"But why don't you make a static or join one?"

Because those are still filled with morons as well and the few that actually have quality players in them expect you to not have a life. Statics are a failed concept for this game and the Devs should find a way to make content that trains the players to actually be good, know their jobs and actually motivate people to improve and to release content that isn't dependent on having "static" groups.

The MSQ and story trials do nothing to address this and actually make things worse. I 100% agree with Yoshi P that the average player skill dropped when Heavensward came out. People were better at this game in the 2.0 patch series as a whole.'

Although arguably coming from an elitist perspective, the implication is clear: the statics produced by the current raiding community are counterproductive and self-defeating.

Arguably, if SE wants to rebuild the "raiding" community, it needs to hit the reset button and blow it up. Reduce difficulty on all raids so that they are puggable/DF, and then gradually increase difficulty from there. The idea: cast as wide a net as possible to rebuild the base, and work it up from there.

If there's one segment of the player base that SE can use for short-term pain/long-term gain, it's the raiders. They're already a small group as is and SE already got their money and attention.

The difference in skill from the least skilled to the most skilled players is very large. In order to make stuff pugable the bar must be set very low. SE wanted the raids to challenge the top players which may have been like 1% or so of the playerbase. They could set the bar lower but then it would be really easy for the top players. Their goal with the normal modes and easier 24 man raids was to give content to players where you don't have to be in the top 1% of players to beat.

The hardest part about raiding is finding several people of equally high skill to play with. You can be really great at the game but when you are getting wiped by the same people in your group over and over it makes it so you can't beat content despite the fact if you were in a group of equally skilled players you could beat the content easily.