Sm and elite content improvements to keep people going.

What's your CR?

Psssttttttttt, look at his signature

lol

Ummm the hardest most mechanically challenging raids this game has seen have been unlimited deaths a death counter is an artificial difficulty, it's easy to make anything "hard" by increasing the base damage everything does and give you only 2 deaths.

Still unlimited pick ups hasnt been fun since wave eo legit

That's because the quality of the raid mechanic design dropped off drastically after that time period. After that the first raid we got was A&B, then Lockdown and Love & War all the only difficulty presented was when you were going for feats, if it was a normal raid run there was no issues. Then the death counter came out and the only "difficulty" came from the artificial imitations imposed by the 2 deaths. Throw in random one-shots and the raid becomes part luck like ToD and DWFE rather than being about skill overcoming the mechanics placed before you. There is a reason SM didn't have a death counter either.

Sm was fun. But i like the current setup makes ppl have 2 beaware. Point is elite is not driving ppl away

Needing to get rezzes creates a whole new element of difficulty to the raid, you have to have players be aware of their surroundings not only to avoid damage but to see if other players are down, and dps especially like to tunnel vision in this game. You have to have communication so multiple players don't all run to the same rez increasing the chance of multiple players going down as well. There are plenty of groups throughout SM that I knew had the high enough skill levels as players to beat the higher rounds but what those groups problems were was their complete and utterly garbage pick ups.

I'm not saying elite is driving people away but when its the same artificial difficulty over and over that gets more boring any anything else, it was the same with PvP when they took out the rock-paper-scissors mechanics. It took a whole element out of pvp where you would have strategy to counter setups, running with a tank to keep the other groups power low and to have immunities or to have another dps and push damage or have another troll to keep the healers bogged down etc, it takes a layer away from the game design.

There's more overall challenge to knowing that you are going to die and then have the group prepare for the eventuality then just knowing after your second death just wipe and restart. I.E

Umm, Wave and Nexus r not even elite...

Everyone seems to be complaining about how hard or easy the raids are and death counter this and death counter that, you couldn't even beat Nexus without spaming the alerts to get that green and blue gear to beat it...

That raid was considered the "easy" raid of that dlc, we had to work for that... Wave was another Monster on its own most had to glitch through it...

These raids are not elite, these raids where not spamable, you almost needed full green and blue just to be in them out of the alerts.
SM didn't even exist when t5 was out, majority of the community want to skip content, and has now, that these "elite" raids are easy compared to wave which isn't elite...

We do need a alternative (SM) (SM XP grind unlocked) (something), or give use what t5 gave us... Other wise people won't stay for a daily grind.

Thank you for wording what I was trying to say last night. I couldn't put it into words lol.
But yeah, this times 10. The most challenging content this game has ever seen had no false difficulty. The combination of 2 lives and random one shots is irritating and just gives the player a worse relationship with the content they're playing.
SM had a scaling difficulty. Decent player? Okay, get to round 4.
Elite player that just beat round 10? Get to round 15, I would love to see you try . I personally despise the fact that this artificial difficulty is what our new Survival Modes are. It seriously discourages me and so many others from playing. (Like I've said, time and time again, I know entire leagues who have quite due to SM's disappearance.)
Ultimately, there seems to be a huge disconnect between the elite players and the elite content and that is not a good relationship to have for this demographic, however "small" it may be.

Question: "What are we gearing up for?"

Answer from my perspective: To make the current DLC easier & to hit the next DLC running.

Don't believe me?

Please post a link to the video of players w/CR 235 & lower beating the elite raids.

For that matter are there any videos of groups where nobody was above CR 240 beating the elite raid?

If the game gets boring too quickly, is it the game or the way people view/play it?

Yeah, that was my point, lol.

One small problem. You can get any green and blue gear and be up and beyond last DLC's cr/stats within the first two days if you enter the new DLC with zero vendor gear from last DLC. Two days versus two months of grinding, both for the purpose of being geared up for the next DLC? Which would you choose? Personally, I will still gear up myself because I like completing my feats, but I can definitely see why others feel no reason to.

The question you thought you answered still stands, and there is no appropriate answer in my opinion with the way the progression system is currently.

Get rid of free gear like that coming off the quark vendor and time capsules and make them styles only, restrict replay badges, push people into a longer term daily grind.

problem solved.

I still need 500 marks to complete my Elite gear. Not even close to being done.

I'm 246. I've bought a few raid resets but haven't "spammed replays"

This solves the quick CR climb, but it doesn't answer the question of what is the end goal.

It will increase DLC longevity somewhat, I will grant you that. However, it will turn 2 weeks into 4, or a month into 2. That long term longevity that would make a potentially great DLC like this one into a great DLC overall is not something that would be attained so easily. There is still something people need to strive for, and lengthening the CR climb won't change the fact that people feel max CR is not worth attaining. An end goal isn't the only thing necessary for a great DLC, but it is an important factor.

This could just end up being a reality that everyone ends up brushing off as a 5%'er problem as is usually the case, but that is not optimal.

It's also highly unlikely replay badges would ever get restricted.

I know it's highly unlikely, but it is the solution, I'm open to ideas about how to make the progression window better without limiting I just don't see how it's possible when you're giving people the absolute freedom to circumvent it entirely in exchange for cash or even in game cash.

removing the ability to share replays would be another way to slow many rolls, but that would cut in to their bottom line for sure as well.

In terms of what your goal is, revert to OC style content.

Large DLC in the year, two really hard normal raids. ditch elite content entirely and have some event versions of the raids that reward less marks for the people that can't complete normal.

supplement this with two small DLC's that don't supercede the primary DLC's but rather assist people further needing assistance with reaching the end goal.

So no Deluge vendor gear? What was the max CR for all purple Deluge gear, 231 - 232?

Then 8 green/blue drops from 2 days of content (2 duo x2 + 2 alert x2), that doesn't attune to the gears max level because the players CR is at 231-232, and you think that player will be geared up for Elite? They might reach CR 235-237 with lucky drops of only blue & purple heavily weighted gear after 2 days.

I think you've been going into new DLC's as OP as possible, and have lost perspective.

Elite players get bored & want more of a challenge. Shocking. I'd expect Jordan to get bored playing at a state basketball tournament too.

If players find the gear-grind meaningless then why are the doing it?
If they can answer the question then it is appearently meaningful.

Won't happen.

Reason: You can have 400 SP and still have problems to complete DWFE.

I agree with the general sentiment of your post however a top end player starts at 240 near to maxing out and will be within a few drops.

That point aside I agree people are undermining their own progression by replaying ad nauseam and using quark vendor gear.

They're actively ruining the game for themselves then complaining about it.