So, I've been proging vDSR with several guilds the past couple weeks and it is entirely different than any of the newer trials. Every single boss has at least one group wipe mechanic where a single player wipes the group if they miss a mechanic. Some fights have several of these. On the other hand, most of the bosses don't have much in the way of dps checks. More often, the extra dps tends to push phases and give you more issues than it solves. Today in fact, Zos stealth buffed the final boss to prevent the bridge mechanic skipping strat for groups under 780k. I can see what they meant by that but given 780k will still skip I expect they will get the opposite result and farm groups still won't play that mechanic but will require players to do 100k on that boss, ~120k or so dummy parse.

I guess, what I'm saying, is I'm very confused where ZOS wants to take trials. Consistently for the last many, many, years they have designed content that is exponentially easier to do with higher dps. Most mechanics they design simply don't happen with high dps instead of stacking on each other quicker with higher dps. This trial is very much the opposite most of the time. Furthermore, they seem to have designed most trials to carry a few players. Even the trials with mechanics typically don't require all to get them right. vMoL and vCR+3 were a long time ago. This trial really requires everybody to get it right. All of this is a big shift in focus.

Personally, I feel quite torn by this. I'm a big mechanics first guy. I run a moderate dps build with higher than average health, a passive self heal and a shield. I have consciously prioritized survivability when things aren't perfect to max dps when they are. I do the mechanics roles in every trial I do and do them well. I like that part of this new focus. On the other hand, I've spent probably 20 hours in vDSR the last week and have no clear because all of my guilds have somewhat shifting groups instead of dedicated cores and fundamentally it is hard to avoid having a loose wheel or two on the buss. In vDSR that loose wheel is death to the group. I'm not sure having a normal Vet level trial require vCR+3 levels of competency is a good thing. Ok, I am sure it's a bad idea I'm just not sure how you fix it without wrecking what is good in the trial.

I think in the end, I'm really going to enjoy the couple of runs with a core group who has painstakingly changed all the loose wheels out one by one. I also think Neither I, nor anybody else is ever going to run this thing again in 6mos after our initial successful core finishes proging it and people start moving as they finish the gear they want or life intervenes.