I think this tier is indeed great. And this is a paladin-specific thing but thanks to the higher difficulty I could live out my class fantasy a bit by covering healers (and it actually had an impact) but I know once everyone's settled and there's a routine this will happen less often.

But all in all I think they did step it up. At the same time you could see how fast-paced the DDR had become and in the back of my head the thought of job homogenisation that comes with it (at the devs' insistence, not because it's an inevitable necessity) stings a little.

Another point is the story. I really enjoy it, much more than the MSQ. Even though we spend much less time with the characters I actually care about them and about the themes around souls. The events wrt the third fight in particular felt a lot more meaningful than most things in the MSQ for me.
So shoutout to the writers here too!