Are we getting a chaotic raid for every raid tier?

[Mawlzy]

I'm just glad they're experimenting with new bends on the core combat content at all, tbh.

That's not to say I wouldn't like wholly new experimental content, of course, but given that so much of those attempts haven't been that (instead, just bends on past experiments) and, by nature of not being related to core content, haven't been given any real weight (often aborting the project immediately if it doesn't see sufficient use), I'm happy to see that experimentation target something a bit more core this time around.

(Aside: Personally, next I'd most like to see a new take on dungeons and raids --in the manner of Bozja's, but taken even further in its abnormalities-- each by a different name.)

That's precisely what's going to happen with Chaotic, as predicted on Reddit when the difficulty level was announced.

[Shurrikhan]

That's precisely what's going to happen with Chaotic, as predicted on Reddit when the difficulty level was announced.

Then, I guess my main concern is that, per the norm, feedback will be misinterpreted defensively/fatalistically. Harder Alliance Raids is an easy sell to me, especially if that difficulty doubles as a way to make the content far less rote. 24-man Savage Trials far less so, even if I can appreciate the attempt to do at least something new.

I wonder what a good survey would look like, from which to parse actually useful opinion separately on each among the tuning, encounter design, and the trajectory of the content (how desirable the apparent design intent is to the given player and what adjacent intents they might prefer)...

[Mawlzy]

Then, I guess my main concern is that, per the norm, feedback will be misinterpreted defensively/fatalistically. Harder Alliance Raids is an easy sell to me, especially if that difficulty doubles as a way to make the content far less rote. 24-man Savage Trials far less so, even if I can appreciate the attempt to do at least something new.

I wonder what a good survey would look like, from which to parse actually useful opinion separately on each among the tuning, encounter design, and the trajectory of the content (how desirable the apparent design intent is to the given player and what adjacent intents they might prefer)...

I completely agree with you. SE's approach to "harder" content is mind-numbingly one-dimensional.

As to a well-designed survey, that's a very good point and the sort of thing one might hope a gaming company could figure out. What a good survey definitely is not is informally polling a dozen Twitch streamers whose livelihood depends on the regular release of top-end raiding content..

[Daralii]

I completely agree with you. SE's approach to "harder" content is mind-numbingly one-dimensional.

As to a well-designed survey, that's a very good point and the sort of thing one might hope a gaming company could figure out. What a good survey definitely is not is informally polling a dozen Twitch streamers whose livelihood depends on the regular release of top-end raiding content..

The only other thing they care about is completion percentage. It's why they consider the EW relics such a resounding success.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

I completely agree with you. SE's approach to "harder" content is mind-numbingly one-dimensional.

As to a well-designed survey, that's a very good point and the sort of thing one might hope a gaming company could figure out. What a good survey definitely is not is informally polling a dozen Twitch streamers whose livelihood depends on the regular release of top-end raiding content..

I wouldn't blame the approach to how they see harder content as something we can exclusively blame Twitch streamers for. Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't Japanese participation & clearrates for Savage content generally higher than western playerbases?

I don't like saying this, but if they are balancing according to what their main playerbase focus is capable of (JP), then we are possibly as a whole just getting skill issued and we are complaining into the void.

And we can't even pull the "I don't want to work another job after my 8-9 hours of work" card either because japanese work hours can go to like 12h in a day.

[Mawlzy]

I wouldn't blame the approach to how they see harder content as something we can exclusively blame Twitch streamers for. Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't Japanese participation & clearrates for Savage content generally higher than western playerbases?

I don't like saying this, but if they are balancing according to what their main playerbase focus is capable of (JP), then we are possibly as a whole just getting skill issued and we are complaining into the void.

And we can't even pull the "I don't want to work another job after my 8-9 hours of work" card either because japanese work hours can go to like 12h in a day.

Having worked in an adjacent industry I've never been convinced that JP preferences and capabilities are dominating game design. I know that is a popular complaint in NA/EU, but IME companies care about profit more than a subset of players who happen the speak the same language.