Quote Originally Posted by Kaurhz View Post
As far as normal content goes, this has been the case since (and inclusive of) Heavensward, excluding the major story trial. E.g. Shinryu, Hades, Endsinger on launch. I don't really see why they should maintain or gravitate towards incremental difficulty curves for normal mode content. From experience, at any point we've had 'difficult' normal content, people have only ever generally avoided it at all costs. See the number of people trying to avoid anything beyond Weeping City by shafting their own item level. Also referring to Shinryu here where people would go as far as either AFK on entry, or duty leave for a 30-minute penalty on release. Granted, the community has come a long way, but personally, I don't really see many people standing by this directive beyond just platitudes.
To add to this, everyone used to abandon Steps of Faith as well. When I did it for my first time after a 40 minute queue, everyone abandoned and I had to queue up again. After a further 40 minute queue, everyone abandoned once more and I was forced to beg the remaining 3 to stay and let it refill. Once it refilled, it was easy and I could not understand why everyone was so afraid of it.

For almost all of the content with any sort of difficulty, most people wait until it can be done unsynced and farm it then. If you setup a synced party, most of the people who join were expecting it to be unsynced and don't understand what synced is. You have to try to explain what synced is and that it actually requires them to think.

Most people just seem to avoid anything hard. They like turning off their brain. Makes it easier and more efficient to farm whatever they are after.