100% wrong. For raiders .. end game is raid gear. For causuals .. end game is group content gear. The fact you want to conflate the two shows your true agenda..
A point that's been missed is that GMM gear is tagged with prestige. People have theorized that gearing up through GMM is "easier" for the purpose to get "casual" players to purchase subscriptions in order to equip prestige GMM gear. If GMM is a ploy to bump up subscriptions, then nerfing it could defeat said ploy? Unless, one supposes, T1 Velious expac non-prestige gear will be on the order of GMM stats (where sought-after GMM augs *might* now be considered chase loot in the context of mudflation therefore justifying buffing the zone).
Problem is that there really is no "intermediate" stuff in the game for these toons to be doing. EoK may be easy street, but when you hit RoS T1 zones, they chew up intermediate players and spit them out. And it doesn't get easier from there. Progression in RoS is a pita. Then you get to TBL, which the start T1 zone chews up and spits out RoS group geared people. And progression is definitely difficult there (heck, I haven't even completed it yet). So, where exactly do you want these "intermediates" to go?
So, your argument is that GMM exp rates reduce the eeee-peeeen potential of the truly hardcore people who will pee in bottles and take no-doze to stay away for two or three days straight to be the first lvl 115 on the server........... ... and therefore, the exp rates in GMM should be nerfed. Nice.
No doze and pee bottles are for filthy casuals.... ...cocaine and condom catheters, get on our level.
There's nothing that screams EQ like nerfing their own anniversary celebration content. 115 is coming out and the gear will be outclassed. Worried about xp just make it so over 110 gets almost nothing like 105+ in cotf HA. Got these devs wasting their time nerfing what seemed like a nice little gift to the -entire- player base (see:casuals and hardcores alike) for 20 years of existence, instead of fixing things that are actually terrible and matter like the tp items for smoke trial amphitheatre.
One zone? Non visible pieces? That will be trash in 3 months time? Excuse me while my eyes roll out of my head. You don't have to go there or use the gear if it bothers you so much, and it certainly doesn't make anything trivial, even if you get every piece, max luck you're still able to die just fine.
To me, keep GMM the way it is, raid geared toons will level faster no matter what. You nerf GMM, the casual players will suffer the most and make the grind to 115 longer and harder. Why raid geared toons will fill up a few EoK zones for xp, while more grouped geared toons will fill up GMM HA.
We should ask the wonderful devs to just make a clershadzerkmnk so we can all do everything halfway terrible just like they do.
Typical, stuff gets re-balanced to be in line with the rest of the game, people whine and blame raiders. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing other players in static zones.
Well, GMM HA are now risk/reward re-balanced - just like the raid geared whiners wanted. This bites for casual players.
How hard is it now? I'd like to add that most people were along the lines of "leave it alone" in the raid crowd
The raiders loved GMM because it kept us from having to spend lots of time grinding. Don’t blame us for your messes.