Quote Originally Posted by Absimiliard View Post
EX trials (which I have to imagine are what you speak of) are not a middle ground. They range from completely brain dead to making savages seem like a vacation, with very few falling between these two options. Criterion on the other hand is just absolutely worthless by default, and no one should even waste the time with it until they give it some kind of proper reward structure.
That's why they're midcore content. Because they're having to span the ranges between MSQ difficulty and Savage difficulty. It's why some EXs like EX1 are about as easy as a MSQ trial, and others like EX4 are nearing savage difficulty.