Hate to burst your bubble there but EQ has never been a "hard game" or "hardcore gamer's game". It might of been tougher than the competition but that isn't saying a whole lot. Maybe try competitive FPS or strategy games (you know, games that actually require a degree of thought and/or skill) if you really feel that need to "be hardcore", in the meantime quit tossing all your complaints on to "muh millennials". It makes you look a whole lot worse than the ENTIRE GENERATION you're trying to blame -- seriously, how ignorant is that?
That is why there are numerous guides out there for every class and yet every class does not have amazing players? I am sure most classes could be counted on 1 possibly 2 hands of great players in that class and the rest are average. While I agree the game is not very difficult (what Raf said is a huge reason why it is not that difficult), saying it does not require some skill or thought is amusing.
Laziness goes a long way in EQ, which is why you don't see the vast amounts of amazing players that there should be. Apparently pressing buttons is really hard though so we'll settle for mediocrity, this isn't related to any one generation or another like people really love to claim. I truly do fail to see this massive millennial conspiracy of 12 year old kids dumbing down the super rageworthy difficult game of Everquest (cause it isn't a real thing, it's a made up excuse.) Ever think that maybe after 10+ years and having learned every single in, out, and mechanic of the base game that there really is nothing left in the realm of challenge? EQ may or may not of been difficult back then because the entirety of the game had not been ripped open and displayed for all to see. Clearly not the case now. The sad truth of it is that there's really nothing the developers can do to bring back "mystery" and "challenge" BECAUSE of players like you and I (we've been here so long, can you honestly say there's a mechanic you haven't seen?). As for my comment on skill and thought, while EQ requires some there are other genres that require exponentially more and that was the point I was trying to get across. Don't get me wrong, I like the game as much as anyone else but I'm not so delusional as to think it's the epitome of hardcore gaming.
If you ask me this seems pretty reasonable to me. Though I would suggest that Medium be divided into 2 or 3 additional difficulty increments; so instead of Easy, Medium, and Hard you might have: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Extreme or Easy, Medium, Hard, Extreme, and Godly. Using the 5 difficulties I would go: T1 - Progression = Easy, Easy, Medium; T1 - Lootkeeper = Hard. T2 - Progression = Easy, Medium, Hard; T2 - Lootkeeper = Extreme. T3 - Progression = Medium, Hard, Hard; T3 - Lootkeeper = Extreme. T4 - Progression = Hard, Extreme; T4 - Endboss = Godly; T4 - Lootkeeper = Godly. You could mix it up a bit or tame it down by using only the first 4 difficulties, but this way the raid difficulties progress consistently, and each tier's Lootkeeper raid is more difficult than the progression raid and the same difficulty as the Endboss in the case of T4. I would also suggest that the Lootkeeper raids not be requestable unless either the previous tier's progression or the previous tier's Lootkeeper has been beaten. (I.E. T1 - Lootkeeper has no requirements; T2 - Lootkeeper requires either all of the T1 progression raids or the T1 - Lootkeeper raid to have been beaten; etc.) This let's people just do the Lootkeeper raids in later years when doing all the progression is more than most people want to take the time to do, but they still want certain chase items from the Lootkeeper.
https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index.php?threads/conqueror-of-rain-of-fear.5133/ No skill or thought required, evidently?
No, not really. I wont post examples but I'm not proud of getting that achievement and those who are surprise me. It was mostly dumb luck, not much else.
Only way to make raids challenging again is to not make each raid a mirror of missions and GM's and testers are beta testing. Otherwise to much is in hands of the players and once figure mechanics its not very difficult. That is reason why guilds burn through content at speed of sound. They have already done the events. I didn't beta test any of the last raids as matter of fact last time RF did was Chapter House. It adds little more challenge not getting days to weeks testing first. Just saying!
Beta testing isn't a big deal. But claiming it doesn't "help" in the sense of the way people whine about is disingenuous. I get the feeling most of the people whining about who beta tests does so more because they are jealous some other guild "beat" them in progression, and when the timeline between guilds 1 through 15 beating an event is 1-10 days, not having to waste a day or two learning basics of the event if its fairly complex is going to be a big difference. But them's the breaks, so people should deal with it.
They have done away with that as anyone can raid on beta without a gm. The C.W.L.U. wont and then come cry after the fact.
*shrug* Yeah, the "raid learning" has been moved to Beta. I admit I dislike this, but that's how it is now. As Abaz posted it doesn't really matter that much anyway, 1 day earlier or later isn't going to mean that much anyway.
