Digit.1823

Pretty sure the argument is between players who feel excluded by li/kp groups and people telling them to (and rightfully so) make their own groups. What has Anet to do with any of this and any barriers Anet's putting up? This is a player/playerbase issue.

Except for the fact that everything you typed here is wrong. DPS meters were a blessing in disguise for a lot of classes and players to find out they weren't actually doing terrible in raids. Remember what happened to every class that wasn't Elementalist in the first Era of raids when the first bench marks were released? Oh right you don't otherwise you wouldn't type what you just did so i'll explain it. So in the beginning we only had a static golem to go by to get our first damage "benchmarks". Elementalist seemed to be ahead of the curve by a gigantic margin, literally talking 10k dps over the second class that came close. So what happened during raids to any dps player that wasn't an elementalist? They got kicked at the slightest sign of trouble in killing the boss. Only to find out later when DPS meters were widely used that a lot of Ele players were actually doing horrible, horrible damage, and that Dragonhunter over there we used to kick out of raids in favor of Eles wasn't actually doing that bad. So it was an incredibly eye-opening experience for a lot of players and ushered in a new Era where people were actually judged on their performance and not discriminated against by the class they played. I know what sounds better to me... P.s. Slow and steady might win a race, but actually doing damage and killing a boss in 4 minutes instead of 8 minutes also wins the race y'know. Food for thought.

So you're already acknowledging the fact that simply doing 1-1-1-1-1-1 on Daredevil would be better for you, so why didn't you just do that and get 24k on auto attack Daredevil? And what off-meta build are you using? Out of curiosity.

Well i must have missed that particular trait then, or my stupid ass simple never used it, then again it was over 4 years ago. So that functionality hasn't been available for quite some time. To make a thread about that now sounds like....a little bit late to the party?

How do you mean? They never followed you in the first place. And in the current iteration of these specific skills, if you press the skill button again after summoning the spirits they will actually teleport to your current location. So you can kinda make them follow you around albeit on a cooldown.

It's absolutely nice to hear that the people who didn't really need build templates are satisfied. Anet will be happy about this feedback. I'm sure we can say the same about the people who actually did need the build templates and were the ones asking for them, let's take a look on the forums and on reddit............oh.............

Amen brother! AAAAAAHMEEEEEEHN!

Because the devs have themselves admitted that they do not possess the knowledge nor the technical programming skills to fix the absolute maddening horror show that is the dungeon spaghetti code. Everyone responsible for the original dungeons are no longer employed with Anet, thus you can be certain there will never be anything done to them anymore. Maybe you should've been a bit more informed if you are indeed such a veteran player. Have a good day.

That trailer is absolute eye-candy. Well done! Can't wait to see how the teams will perform during the ERP.

This topic will basically go the same way as the thread we had last time, this is the thread she posted a while ago: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/11645/kittymarks-the-kitten-girls-comprehensive-benchmark/ TL;DR Summary: She posted a ton of really bad builds with blatantly wrong rotations, people talked about it. White knights defended, sane people pointed at flaws and tried to discuss, Kitty basically only ever responded with "But if i don't test this, then who will?!" and in the end the thread faded into obscurity. As it should have, and as this one will also do. Everything you ever need to know how this will end up can be found in the old thread. But that's just my opinion.

After reading through the recent comments in this thread the entire discussion between you and x amount of other posters here can basically be boiled down to you having a severe, SEVERE, lack of understanding how different mentalities work in whatever kind of environment. Everything you said about being free to play how you want is 100% true. As long as you play solo. You are free to play how you want, that is until you meet up with other players and attempt team-oriented content. Then it comes down to what the group mentality is. Group mentality = chill? Then just relax, sit back a bit and clear the content on the pace that is comfortable for you and your party/squad members. Group composition and meta set-ups don't really matter here, as long as you clear the content even if it is at a slower pace. Group mentality = exp? Then make sure you are up for it because these groups will probably go with meta compositions and are there to clear content quickly and efficiently. Both mentalities are viable and are not toxic at the core. It's when the two different mentalities collide that the problems occur because they are very hard to mix. You want some "Double-Longbow-Dragonhunter coming in with Doom sigils on his weapons so every time he weapon swaps he does a whopping 3 stacks of poison in full nomad gear" joining your exp party? That idea is not gonna fly buddy. I hope you understand why. I'm curious about this as well: Do you understand that there are also people out there that get satisfaction and joy out of doing something in the most efficient way? It's not even toxic, I'm in statics like this and even then the atmosphere is really laid back and chill but because the skill level is high enough we can still clear quickly and efficiently. I mean there's nothing wrong with being good at something and enjoying it as well. P.s. Also you maybe wanna look into your "conspiracy-idea-kinda" rants because some are just...just no...just really no...

No one will do it if there are no specific rewards, at least not enough people to warrant the developing effort. Fractal t1, t2 and t3 are populated because they have the potential to give same drops as t4 and CMs, but even then, guess which tier gets the most LFG posts? People will always try to maximize their profit and play the content at what level gives the most drops, even if they supposedly aren't ready for it (again, fractals are a great example of this - t4 can be a pain to pug). This is just how people work, and Anet is better off working on "normal mode" itself. But then again, this topic has been done in this forum, over and over and over again. MINOR EDIT: there are a dozen unique skins, auras and a couple currencies only available to fractal CMs, but do not let this detract you from the point, that is, a player can still get all the major drops from fractals such as golden weapons by playing up to t3, it's just a massive effort that even justifies an inexperienced player going straight to t4's so that said player can have an easier time with rewards and a harder time with the encounters. Yeah but here's the thing Maxwel: Less effort = less rewards. I mean the only specific rewards i can think of that you might be referring to is everything related to legendary armor. The skins specific to the raids (because let's face it, we're playing fashion wars 2 not guild wars 2 :# ) Mini's and infusions. But then comes the question Why should people get those for less effort? A question i have yet to see being actually tackled with decent arguments without someone just yelling "hUrR duRR diSgUStiNg eLiTistS". I'm cool with the whole "ez mode shtick" because i do believe you will get more people into raids that way (even though we both know that there are a myriad of factors why Anet is not committing to this). Also look i know why you're trying to make the point with fractal reward structure and it is a good argument, it truly is. But Raids =/= Fractals. And because of that the argument from the fractals point of view just doesn't stick with me. Even if only for the fact that Raids are currently the method of obtaining legendary PvE armor, an option that fractals sorely lacks. Surely you've read the forum posts maxwell where people basically only desire an easier mode for raids simply to get legendary armor with less effort, something they unfortunately only admitted after probing a bit though. (And i've been part of that discussion, not gonna dig up the whole tale here). Also, let's just theorize a bit here. Let's say Easy Mode Raids ever sees the light of day. Then that means Raids has 2 whole difficulty options where Fractals still has 4 levels of difficulty. 4 levels is easier to spread out and balance rewards then just 2, that's just basic math. So how would you then propose you spread the rewards over just 2 difficulty levels? I mean you know how i feel about it, i already threw in my 2 cents. :p So... remove the skill requirement and leave the gold rewards and just "throw a few regular ascended drops in there every once in a while".I'm sorry just what else do you think drops in raids? Hey get that pointy finger away from me with the whole "remove the skill requirement" bs. Take that up with the OP. Otherwise my reply to your question about drops: Ok.

Sure there will be rewards! Just no LI/LD/Raid specific achievements/Wing specific skins. You want those, go do raids as they are currently intended (or "normal" mode raids). For the rest you can have it all for all i care, get the gold, the drops. Heck throw a few regular ascended drops in there every once in a while. Should be fine.

While your suggestion is appreciated, and please don't get me wrong, this suggestion has been made before and has been shot down before. There are a lot of insta kill mechanics in raids as it is, you cannot balance around those simply by "reducing damage". I mean how does one reduce something that kills you instantly regardless? Also, if the damage thresh hold is too low then why bother avoiding mechanics anyway? I mean if the green on VG only does 10% health damage instead of the current 70% (or somewhere around that number) then why ever bother going for the green circle? Might not be the best example since even with 70% damage it gets out healed anyway, but i hope you get the point i'm trying to make. See simply reducing damage in order to force people to learn mechanics is a bad suggestion in and of itself since it promotes nothing but lazy game play. Imagine someone coming from super easy mode to normal mode and then suddenly finding out he actually has to run around Sabatha's flame wall since he can no longer face tank it? Or finding out that the green @ vg actually does quite a bit of hefty damage? Or what about Slothasor's poison? I mean if you get super low damage anyway then you might just as well drop it on top of the group if it doesn't really matter, right? Oh how i imagine people would react if someone from super easy mode comes into normal mode slothasor and just drops the poison smack dab on the group because hey: "uuh, that's what we always do in super easy mode". Sounds a bit silly, but guaranteed that this is going to happen. And as a final small example, how does one reduce damage on Dhuum's soul split when you need to do a green circle? If you don't grab enough orbs that's game over, at least that's how it currently works. How would one go about fixing that kind of mechanic for an easier setting? You either can't, or you need to remove it all together but then the point of having people learn mechanics on lower difficulties has failed. Of course one shot mechanics should stay, as for how they function I'd consider them to be more mechanical than just a simple dmg output. I don't think you can't balance it. For Sloth just reduce the green poison dmg but keep the dmg from the poison you drop the same. Yes you can balance it, the idea that this isn't possible derives from the radical stance against the idea of an easy mode. For Dhuum it's the same. Just reduce the dmg on things that are not mechanical. Failing in collecting enough orbs will still be game over. And so on. Personally I feel like you don't even try to wrap your head around it. Claiming the bosses can't be balanced in any other way as they are right now is just silly. But isn't keeping damage the same a counter point to easy mode? I mean wasn't the whole point you tried to make that everything got reduced damage so it would be easier to learn mechanics in "super easy mode"? You're missing the psychological point though, i mean if people get conditioned to keep in mind that something is damaging but survivable then to some degree they will learn to ignore it if the situation allows it. But then when you turn that same damaging component into an instant kill mechanic i bet you people are going to get caught off-guard by it and then they basically will have to re-learn to some extent. So why not just skip that whole "middle-man" section and just let mechanics be mechanics and damage be damage? We already have quite a good set up with bosses of varying difficulties at the moment. The latest addition, Wing 6, is also an arguably easy experience compared to some of the older raids which is perfectly fine. If anything i would argue that Wing 6 is a perfect place to start raiding considering it's easy-to-get-into setting. Addendum: Personally i feel like you don't even try to understand any other perspective then your own. (See what i did there?) I've read your commentary to some of the other posters and it really just seems like you're not the person to have a reasonable discussion with anyway. More like, you see us as nothing more then opponents to be conquered in some silly battle of wits or something. It just stinks of immaturity. I mean honoustly: "You don't ask me to watch my tone, that's for starters, you're not a mod and if you can't handle it then report, but don't expect me to follow a stranger on the internet." Really?...So you're not capable of rational unemotional discussion unless someone is literally a mod on these forums and directly asks you to watch your tone? You can't do that when someone else who isn't a mod asks you this when it's been clear you're being very antagonistic against several people already? I mean...what? It's quite odd though right? I mean..."Grrrrrr rawr i will not follow anything a stranger says on the internet, growl!!1" But then you expect us to follow you and the points you're making while you are, in fact, a stranger to us? Seems...hypocritical....no? You're not special Clyan...you're just not. Everything you said here has been said before. That's why multiple people have already told you to go read the whole thread because everything you brought up has been done-and-dealt-with before. Literally everything...even your immature response at this very moment has been done before okay? You're not the hero to help the pro-easy mode crowd finally get rid of us filthy anti-easy mode monsters because you, and only you, can bring forth the indisputable arguments that will finally win this glorious battle of wits. It's hilarious to even entertain the thought.

While your suggestion is appreciated, and please don't get me wrong, this suggestion has been made before and has been shot down before. There are a lot of insta kill mechanics in raids as it is, you cannot balance around those simply by "reducing damage". I mean how does one reduce something that kills you instantly regardless? Also, if the damage thresh hold is too low then why bother avoiding mechanics anyway? I mean if the green on VG only does 10% health damage instead of the current 70% (or somewhere around that number) then why ever bother going for the green circle? Might not be the best example since even with 70% damage it gets out healed anyway, but i hope you get the point i'm trying to make. See simply reducing damage in order to force people to learn mechanics is a bad suggestion in and of itself since it promotes nothing but lazy game play. Imagine someone coming from super easy mode to normal mode and then suddenly finding out he actually has to run around Sabatha's flame wall since he can no longer face tank it? Or finding out that the green @ vg actually does quite a bit of hefty damage? Or what about Slothasor's poison? I mean if you get super low damage anyway then you might just as well drop it on top of the group if it doesn't really matter, right? Oh how i imagine people would react if someone from super easy mode comes into normal mode slothasor and just drops the poison smack dab on the group because hey: "uuh, that's what we always do in super easy mode". Sounds a bit silly, but guaranteed that this is going to happen. And as a final small example, how does one reduce damage on Dhuum's soul split when you need to do a green circle? If you don't grab enough orbs that's game over, at least that's how it currently works. How would one go about fixing that kind of mechanic for an easier setting? You either can't, or you need to remove it all together but then the point of having people learn mechanics on lower difficulties has failed. Unfortunately you have the festival raid with Freezie. The mechanic are not instant death, however they are punishing if you stand in them. This festival raid in my opinion is a very strong reason why an easy mode raid would work. I had pugged this bad boy since the start of the festival with very few problems. When problems occurred we made adjustments and then succeeded. Gw2 efficiency may not be the best way to measure the success of this either, since this is a festival, which is generally very popular content to begin with, allowing free to play accounts and other accounts not attached to efficiency to hop and try the content.Yeah cool, but Freezie's mechanics were not made with insta death in mind anyway so ...eh.... Also i would argue that you should be careful with the "in my experience" argument, because (hurr durr) in my experience pugging Freezie is absolute hell if i am not on a support/healing profession. Both our viewpoints are equally valid. The pug groups i had people are still oblivious to mechanics, like letting the snowball stack on top of the team without running away, standing in the blue frozen lines, eating the kamehamefreeze wave. (On EU btw, dunno if that matters) Funnily enough, the point actually is because me being on support/healer is the fact you're able to carry so ridiculously hard anyway is why we get the kill regardless of the absolute trash players in the squad. Hell maybe even the fact that being able to carry so hard is what makes people lazy, because hey i can just ignore mechanics anyway. I dunno...seems like i would appreciate having your experience instead of my current one.

While your suggestion is appreciated, and please don't get me wrong, this suggestion has been made before and has been shot down before. There are a lot of insta kill mechanics in raids as it is, you cannot balance around those simply by "reducing damage". I mean how does one reduce something that kills you instantly regardless? Also, if the damage thresh hold is too low then why bother avoiding mechanics anyway? I mean if the green on VG only does 10% health damage instead of the current 70% (or somewhere around that number) then why ever bother going for the green circle? Might not be the best example since even with 70% damage it gets out healed anyway, but i hope you get the point i'm trying to make. See simply reducing damage in order to force people to learn mechanics is a bad suggestion in and of itself since it promotes nothing but lazy game play. Imagine someone coming from super easy mode to normal mode and then suddenly finding out he actually has to run around Sabatha's flame wall since he can no longer face tank it? Or finding out that the green @ vg actually does quite a bit of hefty damage? Or what about Slothasor's poison? I mean if you get super low damage anyway then you might just as well drop it on top of the group if it doesn't really matter, right? Oh how i imagine people would react if someone from super easy mode comes into normal mode slothasor and just drops the poison smack dab on the group because hey: "uuh, that's what we always do in super easy mode". Sounds a bit silly, but guaranteed that this is going to happen. And as a final small example, how does one reduce damage on Dhuum's soul split when you need to do a green circle? If you don't grab enough orbs that's game over, at least that's how it currently works. How would one go about fixing that kind of mechanic for an easier setting? You either can't, or you need to remove it all together but then the point of having people learn mechanics on lower difficulties has failed.

I was directly replying to this following statement of yours: "Completing the content on a lower difficulty gets you a significantly reduced amount of the exact same time-gated stuff and some items drop less frequently." Which you can find it my previous reply in this thread. I was specifically talking about the "time-gated stuff" that you mention. How you go from that to this completely unrelated comparison about copper and gold is something i will truthfully have to admit i cannot grasp. The monetary currency used in GW2 has nothing at all to do with the time-gated items in raids like LI or magnetite shards because copper/silver/gold is not time-gated, you can get that from everything you do. From events to killing monsters to selling the items that you get from playing the game. Heck, you even get gold as well as LI and magnetite shards when killing raids bosses. Do you even notice that you are ignoring a large part of a well structured reply, ripping out and nit-picking a single tiny sentence out of it, and then replying with something so out of context that simply reading it confused me greatly. It's like you forgot our entire exchange that happened before this post and turned it into a completely new conversation. If you feel that people are misunderstanding your concept of what "reduced amount of the exact same time-gated stuff" means then for the love of all please elaborate further. Give us details on how you think it should be done then, and then maybe we could actually move the conversation forward. Things like: Should story/easy mode raids give out the time-gated boss collection items for the legendary armor?How much LI should you get from story/easy mode raids or should we even get LI at all?What do you mean with "items drop less frequently"? Is it a flat 50% less chance or more/less? Maybe something else you're thinking of?Should the magnetite shards be rewarded on boss kills in story/easy mode raids and if so then how much should it give? Should the cap on magnetite shards in story/easy mode raids be the same as normal mode (150) or do you want the cap to be lower like 50?If you would just explain what you mean then maybe people wouldn't have such a hard time understanding you. Being and remaining vague helps no-one.

I'm glad we can finally get to the core of your argument so i can ignore all the other fluff and smoke. Because nitpicking my comment and ranting isn't helping the conversation move forward. So it basically boils down to you saying: Story/easy mode raids should get all the rewards, albeit in a reduced fashion and lowered drop chance. Sound about right? I'm pretty sure this conversation has played out before in this 4k+ post mega thread, either between other people or maybe even between you and someone else and others have already stated why this shouldn't happen. I say shouldn't because hey, Anet might cave and give in to the demands, who knows. Unfortunately this is not how the reward structure of raids works right now in regards to LI or Legendary Armor. In programming language it would be between 1's and 0's: You can work towards Legendary Armor and get LI's = 1You can't work towards Legendary Armor and get LI's = 0 Even if you time-gate it more by making it so that only a full wing clear gets you 1 LI, or killing a boss get's you 1/10th of an LI is not a valid reason for giving a watered down version of the current format all the rewards available. Again this is players proceeding to get equally rewarded for putting in less effort, which is logically unfair. Merely making it more time-gated means sure they will take longer, but considering they will beat bosses more quickly and easily because bosses will have less hp/less damage/more forgiving mechanics or players get buffed so they do more damage makes the effort of actually doing/clearing the raids significantly easier. Currently LI's are also very bad to consider as currency considering you only get 1 per boss anyway and it is as of this post only used in the making of Legendary Armor, it literally serves no other purpose then that. They are also stored in the material storage and not the wallet, making it seem that Anet also does not consider LI's currency. It's not like as you say with fractals where Tier 1 nets you like 5 - 8 fractal relics per completed level. And Tier 4 nets you around 18 - 20 relics which you can use to buy a plethora of items from the various fractal vendors. The difference between the two should be clear, unless of course you also want to talk about magnetite shards etc. If there is anything incorrect here please feel free to elaborate further on your concept of reduced rewards in raids.

It made absolute sense because of this quote. You are directly replying to Tyson claiming that if they leave out the main rewards (No legendary armor or LI's) then easy/story mode raids will end up as dead content. These are your exact words. You follow it up saying that reduced rewards like fractals are the way to go, but what in your opinion are reduced rewards like fractals? Tyson already said exotics and rares would be fine for a story/easy mode raids. But do you mean that people should also get the Legendary Armor achievements? Or what about LI? Should they get 1 LI per boss or 1 LI per wing? Magnetite shards? Should people be allowed to work towards Legendary Armor at all in story/easy mode raids? Should ascended items drop? You need to be more specific or at least elaborate your point of view more because right now nothing you said made sense. It seems it was a good thing that i waited a bit and checked your later comments as well before replying because right now it just seems you're throwing up a lot of smoke and shouting "Fire, fire!" while there actually is no fire. People can also see this in the posts you made later in this thread, you're throwing around words like "Prestige!", "Longevity of the game-mode!" and "Legendary items are participation rewards, nothing more!" but you've never actually addressed the point of why people deserve the same rewards of a higher difficulty mode for doing less on an easier difficulty mode. I really would like to hear your thoughts on that considering your posts here. "Prestige"? - Subjective, you don't care about my Voice in the Void/Champion of Zommoros titles (which you might have too, i do not know). And i don't care about your The Blazing Light/Kingslayer titles (if you have those, i honestly don't know). Which i both happen to have + the 8 orb Liadri achievement, just to make clear that i do also enjoy challenging solo content. But since the prestige of titles is subjective it's an immensely poor argument. Who is to say what carries more worth then the other? Is it you? is it me? Someone else in this thread? Anet perhaps? You've seen the discussion between Feanor and Astralporing, even they can't figure it out despite maddoctor giving some insightful numbers from GW2 Efficiency. But in the end they're just numbers, and numbers might not lie but they cannot tell what carries more worth to a person. "Longevity of the game-mode"? - I'm pretty sure quite a few posters claim that story/easy mode raids would be fine for the following reasons: Being able to experience the story, the little bit that there is and nothing else.Being able to train the mechanics of the bosses without constantly wiping. And on a more relaxed difficulty setting so they can enjoy it more and nothing else.It seems a consensus among pro-story/easy mode raids advocates is far away considering the myriad points of view people are having. What is longevity to you anyway? I want to make clear i do agree with this though, it will probably give more longevity to the game mode considering that people can be eased into raids better so they can work their way up to normal mode and claim the main rewards in the intended difficulty mode. (The main rewards of course being LI and Legendary Armor) Longevity is borne out of the fact that people can continue playing, going from the lesser difficulty to the intended difficulty and then working their way to whatever rewards they want from that. "Legendary items are participation rewards, nothing more"? - This...this made the least sense. I mean what, just because you stepped foot into raids once you deserve the full credit and should just automatically receive a full set of Legendary Armor for simply auto-attacking the boss once? What do you mean with this? Again, a lot of smoke, but no fire. Would you be so kind to explain a bit more about this? Do you want story/easy mode raids to actually give out the full rewards or not? But then you'll have to actually explain why people deserve the same rewards of a higher difficulty mode for doing less on an easier difficulty mode. See we're coming back to this again. Also "buying raids" isn't exactly the same as actually doing the raids, that much is true, you still have to pay for a service. And raid-sellers do not need to pressure Anet into doing anything here, because their official stance is that they condone the activity because people are free to choose how to spend their own time and gold. If a group of players want to sell raids, that's fine. If people want to buy raids, that's fine. It's like with the old "Droknar runs" in GW1. That was fine too, i don't see how that should change now. So feel free to "I start buying the "people should adhere to higher standards" argument once the raid community actively pressures A-Net to do something against raid sellers" as long as you want, but that's never going to change. So like...that's just your opinion man.

Wait what? I thought people were here to just ask for story/easy mode so they could experience the story and train for raids in a more casual setting. You now also want the easy version to give you all the shinies for less effort?!?!?!? Nobody could have ever seen this coming!!!1!eleven On a more serious note, you should look up the explanation of "philosophy of fairness" which basically tells in excellent detail that it is only normal that the more work you do (or the harder you work) the more you should be rewarded. And the less you do the less you should be rewarded. This is actually such a basic logical thing that i'm a bit aghast that people still think easy mode version should give everything normal mode does. I mean back in high school when you did 90% of the work in a group project and the other person(s) did only 10% i'm pretty sure you would have felt a bit cheated if they just got the same grade as you for basically all the work that you did alone. I'll just repeat this again for everyone to read, not just for you alone, (ad nauseam) that most players who are anti story/easy mode are only against it because it would either:A: Take away resources to make raids which means it would take even longer to release. If they can release raids at the same pace AND also add story/easy mode most of the players here would not object because the wait time for new content would not be increased.B: As i explained earlier the story/easy mode version should not give the rewards normal mode does (main issues being LI and Legendary Armor). There is some debate over if story/easy mode raids should give magnetite shards or ascended armor/weapons which i won't dive into right now but again it is at least fair that story/easy mode has reduced main rewards because you literally have to put in less effort then normal mode. (And then we get back to the "philosophy of fairness"). (This next bit is directed to everyone equally, not you personally Tails but feel free to reply)If story/easy mode raids ends up being "hurr durr ded cantent" because it wouldn't give the max rewards like normal mode does then you've basically been making a very poor argument in case of it's implementation. Because how on earth are you going to justify people getting everything like normal raiders have been getting for the past few years but for half the effort. And don't start with things like "yeah but a full clear on story/easy mode would only give 1 LI per wing and not per boss" because the only thing that does is time-gate it more. It doesn't make the effort of killing the bosses and doing the events any harder or more challenging. Time-gating =/= more challenge.

I think what most people debating for easy mode for raids are forgetting is developer intent. Intent matters. It was the intention of the developers to make raids the most challenging content found in the game. We can all agree that if you want to make content that carries the label "most challenging" it needs to meet a certain benchmark of difficulty. It cannot be "as easy" or "easier" then anything else found in the game otherwise it won't be the most challenging content. And yes that will obviously mean that at a certain level some players are going to be excluded. And that is fine. It was the intention of the developers to also add exclusive rewards to raids, reason being of course is that with it being the most challenging content it deserved it's own set of unique rewards. A common theme among all games with diverse content, that the most challenging content gives the best (or unique) rewards. A logical thing. And that is fine. We as players have already exceeded many intentions that the developers had when it came to raids. They intended it to be for highly organised groups using voice communication to get the job done. These days? Just join a pug group, no voice comms needed and just kill the bosses. If every member of the squad has an idea of what to do you can get the kill. And it's mostly mechanics based anyway, dps requirements are quite forgiving as we all know (or should know by now). We as players have also exceeded expectations, as stated by the developers that raids are performing even better then what they at first calculated. Meaning that the decision behind implementing it was a very solid one. (Despite some nay-sayers rigorous attempts to state otherwise, but hey, making comments without data/proof is fun.) I'd hate to be "that guy" but if you really want to know how accessible raids are just go look at Kitty's kill video's (You know that girl that speaks about herself in 3rd person). Although it's clear to anyone that knows how to raid that the squads she's in are painfully sub-optimal, they do get the kill. They.Get.The.Kill. This, along with plenty of other video's showing off meta comps/people playing in all rares or greens, is enough proof that all you need is to understand about raids are the mechanics. DPS comes second. Sure enrage timers are there to provide a measure of ensuring you do more then just auto-attack to victory but the dps requirements are pretty darn low on most bosses. Addendum: And because this means mechanics are literally the most important thing raids wise, this is why people are arguing that if you do implement an easy mode you need to leave the mechanics intact because reasons. And anyone saying they dislike raids so much but are still forcing themselves through the content because they like the unique skins and want those, congratulations. Anet has accomplished exactly what their intent was (see there's that word again, intent). By giving unique rewards to the game mode that was intended to be the most challenging they have given you something you want so bad that you're willing to step out of your little safe space cocoon, and made you a better player for it. They made you play raids. And that is fine. And if you, after all that, still feel that you are doing something you dislike so much...well...maybe raids were intended to be for other players then you. And that...is also fine.