Quote Originally Posted by Duelle View Post
I know where you're trying to go, and I will disagree with you on it. I'd prefer the old normal/hard mode switch before making certain content only for hardcores.

It stings a lot more when said content is story-relevant content. As much as people hate WoW, blizzard learned this lesson with their first expansion, where the 2% that were top-end raiders were the ones who saw the end of the storyline for The Burning Crusade, meaning that the other 98% of the playerbase effectively missed out on interacting with several important lore characters.
It is not my idea of letting a major proportion of the playerbase miss out on relevant story content.
I think there can be "hardcore" raid environments and dungeons like the one's I have suggested without keeping a lot of story out of reach for "casual" players.
For example one of the bosses in those "hardcore" dungeons could be an ancient legendary guardian from a past society, which has slept for centuries underneath Thanalan. Which you as a "hardcore" player must defeat to gather relics from ancient societies.
These "hardcore" dungeons and raid environments can have mini stories which are intertwined with each other, but don't have any real influence on the attack of the Garlean Empire which I think is the main-story material with the companies.