The difficulty curve in the game has... problems...

[Issaella]

I have to ask: are you really concerned about the difficulty increase from Ex to Savage or are you concerned that PF will hold you back because you deem it too unreliable for you to make progress?

It it that PF is so unreliable I don't think there is much if any chance of completing it at all even if I can manage the mechanics because I then have to find a group of 7 other people who can perform at that level. The likelihood of achieving that with random assemblages of people from PF seems unlikely to the extreme. Especially when I've never even touched Savage content before.

Best if you are your party leader, you create the party and set x standard whether is be prog for a certain mechanic or a clear group or what ever. If some one it holding you back simply replace them.

Seem my above point. I have zero experience in Savage content. How would I possibly have enough knowledge/experience to lead a prog party? Let alone one that has any chance of completion?

Also going to point out that having rewards that are effectively upgraded versions of the normal raid gear creates the sense that savage is a progression of the normal raids, which it is not. If savage mode is supposed to be a mode for those that want a challenge, why would you want to have people who are interested in completion go out of their way to do it, considering that the matching weapon for the armor set is only available in the savage version?

This is essentially the only reason I'm even interested in doing it, there are two skins in p2s I want the dyeable versions of, that's it. And the only way to get them is to slam my head against a wall for untold hours with slim hope of even getting a clear let along getting lucky enough for a coffer or 6/12 clears for tokens. You are putting two disparate groups together with vastly different skills and motivation into the same content with no other way to obtain the rewards. I remember reading another thread a while back with a statement related to chasing a carrot on a stick only a lot of people will throw away hours and hours and never get any kind of reward (carrot) at all. And by gating the dyeable gear behind Savages the design is telling you "hey you got normal down now move to savage".

The other issue is the crazy amount of ramping that happens in difficulty going from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fights in savage. The game design team can't do anything about social issues or problems with finding groups, but content like savage should be doable in about two and a half months to clear for a group going at least 3 days a week. Going from PF that definitely did not happen... Yes, the fight should only be completed if people can stay alive through it while keeping dps up, but no one can progress on a fight if the fight ends with one person dying to a mechanic only 5 minutes into a fight, since no one can see the later mechanics to even begin learning the fight.

And this is the point I and other have been making in this whole thread that a lot of people don't seem to grasp. If you have zero experience with Savage then the difficulty is so high above any previous content as to feel like there is no starting point that will eventually lead to completion. And there is no gradual lessening of difficulty over the life of the current tier that would conceivably allow people who are behind/late to start to catch up. You are stuck starting at the beginning with only other people who are similarly behind/less experienced to bash your head against a wall until the next tier comes out and there is no one doing the content at all.