I can safely predict the new expansion will be junk at launch

Flagging should be done by beating a prior raid starting at tier 1. This business of having to beat it X times is an artificial constraint that causes endless problems. Firstly, for top guilds they get to spin their wheels for no reason other than killing time until they get the requisite number, and for mid tier guilds it creates the issue of endless reflagging loops due to turnover.

As far as unlocking is concerned, the best compromise would be to require X wins to unlock the raid, but once unlocked it would be open everyone else on the server as well. That would serve the same purpose as the current system in slowing unlock progress down but not act as an undue impediment to second tier guilds guilds. Attach some sort of evolving item to the expansion to provide an incentive to people to beat events multiple times. For example, beat the first raid 10x and the item evolves one step, beat another raid 15x to evolve to the next step, etc, with the top tier raids requiring a lot more wins than that to get the final evolve. So everyone gets a bit of evolution, but only the regular players in the top guild get full evolution.

I don't understand why somebody is so keen on the third and fourth variation of Kael Drakkel and that stuff...!??

Kael: Original
Kael: Rain of Fear
ToV: Original
ToV: Raid instance L95+

and now the third try to get the same stuff again? Sorry, this does not sound very creative but more like old and cold coffee.... TBL was indeed partly a new experience despite not everybody was able to enjoy it due to restrictions and flagging.

I hope the new expansion is a NEW expansion with some fresh ideas and not always the same old content with new clothes and complete overpowered stuff like RoS and TBL. I hope that this time it is playable from the start and betatestable without getting owned in complete raid gear in the first simply zone like TBL:Stratos a year before. I hope that there is new content and not only a boosted five-level-upgrade so that everybody needs the urge to buy it. I hope that this time complaints in beta about group content is heared also from casual players. I hope that the elite players have their stuff and their difficulty but exactly in their area which I hope, is not interfering again too much with the group content like in TBL or RoS. I hope that progression is possible to do instead of giving up because of stupid ultrahard trials which are not in the slightest any kind of fun. I hope this expac is a kind of EoK - a xpac for everybody instead only an elite part of players. And because hope dies last I will buy surely for one account the new xpac and then decide if this will be worth the money for the others or better wait a year to get it for a cheaper price and work on old content which has more "success potential".

Anyways... I am looking forward and I ..... hope....

I have always been more of a fan of open zones. If you can beat it, good on yer. Flagging is... dumb.

Back in the day, I LOVED that anyone could try Naggy and Vox.

I think this is the core issue at hand and not the difficulty of current raids. Originally Raid gear from 2+ expansions old was still a better option than current group gear. If they would stop making group gear that rivals the previous expansions raid gear, it would help give mid-tier raid guilds something to go after and look forward to. Previous raid gear is still better than current group gear in most cases but since the HP/Mana is so close people get the perception that it's just as good. Raid focus items and weapon damage ratio's still exceed current group stuff but it gets glossed over as not that big of a deal it seems.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't WoW expansions come out like... Half as often? Giving them a whole year longer to develop? With a larger, better funded team? Let's say they shave 5 months off that year. Holy s**t! 1+5=6, WoW can do longer beta because they have more time. Who would have guessed...

TBL has been the most fun I've had in a long time with EQ, and actually prompted my return to the game. I quit, I thought for good, back in TDS, shortly after beating the expansions final raid. Maybe the DPS classes aren't tuned all the same, or maybe planar creatures just have ridiculous saves - We'll get to see which it is in the next expansion though! Gotta say, I'm pretty excited, not only for Beta, not only for the extra levels, new AA's, that 14th spell slot I noticed the ability to set a keybinding for...

Sign me up for three copies, DBG!

And the real world effect of your change will be that guild rosters shrink to 42 slots. It does not matter that 54 will be an option as it is easier to field a consistent 42 than 54.

Once flexibility enters the picture people take the easier route, just human nature.

The easy fix is to make raid/group gear inflation less.
Then last expansions (raid you haven't beat yet but you now have 5 more levels) raids are still viable gear targets.

We get few enough raids that the devs have time to build and debug.

I play toons on both spectrum's and it is great when I can earn gear in slightly older raids on my toon that plays those that is not obsoleted the minute an expansion launches.

I still think the best answer to group gear (both for complaints that group gear sucks for $class_of_choice - usually tanks, but others too) is to literally make group gear 2 expansion old raid gear.

No complaints about lack of AC for tanks, lack of heroics for other classes, lack of ratio on weapons, and the dev only has to make raid gear for each new expansion.

and then those people who don't get the previous raid gear because "it's not worth it" whine because they don't tank as well, or deeps as well, or heal as well.... raid foci are a significant difference for literally every class, but how many people are willing to roll back to RoS or EoK to get it? not nearly as many as there should be.

Exactly, they see the HP/Mana on group gear and think it will do just as good when in fact the Raid Focuses and higher AC make more of a difference than anything.

Let's not forget that TBL focus effects will even work to their full degree on level 115 spells!

No they are not. RoS raids are largely a waste of time since you get gear that is almost as good from TBL group content. I imagine that the new expansion group gear is going to be similar.

Raid focus from RoS > Group focus from TBL. The difference is significant.

They is not a significant difference. You are much better advised to improve your general survivability in an AE environment.

At the moment my advice to new recruits is to get GMM group gear in non vis slots, TBL group TS stuff in vis slots, and you are good to go. Don't bother with RoS raid stuff. It is slightly better, but not to the extent that your performance is going to be meaningfully improved. If you have EoK raid gear, switch to GMM/TBL stuff immediately.

that is horrible advice, depending on the class. a healer without a raid focus will do *significantly* less healing even with the exact same cast counts and AA than one with a raid focus (and that completely discounts the difference in mana pool, which is 60-80k). dps classes are similar for their foci of choice. some slots don't matter much, but some 100% absolutely do. if current expansion raid gear is not an option (for whatever reason), last expansion's raid gear is still a better plan B than using group gear.

that is much better advice.

I was in a guild that beta'd for TBS, and SOF. Yeah, there is no doubt that people beta testing raid events get a head start for the launch. All high end guilds have people who's job it is to figure things out, ie quest lines, faction for key quests etc. And being in beta is a great opportunity for that. But keep in mind that these folks are giving up their time that they could be raiding and gearing up on Live. And they aren't receiving much in the way of compensation for spending hours running events. They try not to let any one guild get exposure to too many events.
The only way to prevent anyone from getting an advantage would be to hire hundreds of people to do the testing, which isn't really viable given the organization and skill requirements required. Being in a high end raiding guild is like having a 30+ hour a week job, only you don't get a paycheck. Certainly people in beta are trying to learn as much as they can, but to say they aren't taking the job seriously is a HUGE assumption. Not to mention that all this testing occurs well after normal work hours, which means the Devs are putting in some serious OT. And the crappy thing about a salaried job is that you generally don't get paid for OT! The gaming industry in particular is horrendous in the way they treat their employees. I still see a lot of the same names from when I played FT 10+ years ago, which is incredible longevity. We're damned lucky to have so many still willing to give up so much of their lives for a 20 year old game.