I agree. The old raids let you theorycraft to your heart's content. CG's nerfing teams that did too well aside, it was fun trying out an Acolyte/Initiate (I constantly get the two confused) NS, or a NS+JKA team in P3 of the Sith raid. They also had unique mechanics, the Sith raid especially, that made the battle more exciting but also in certain cases required knowing when to use them. Aside from the Tank raid, they had different levels of difficulty where the increase in enemy stats was mainly in terms of Health, while stats like Tenacity, Potency, Speed, Crit Avoidance, Offense, Defense, am I missing anything, also increased but not to a ridiculous level, and there were no additional mechanics being added to each tier. The lack of additional mechanics may have resulted in a bit of monotony, but it also meant that there was no additional RNG, meaning that if you managed to get a good score with a certain team and strategy, you could safely do it again the next run. Plus, with the old raids you felt like you were actually improving. If you (and your guild) finally managed to consistently beat the Heroic Rancor, you moved on to the Normal Tank, which was more difficult, had different mechanics and therefore likely meant you had to build up your previous teams or even new ones, and it offered higher rewards so as to reflect your progress. You develop your roster and eventually beat the Normal Tank, you move on to Heroic Tank, which again meant needing stronger and/or different teams and then receiving better rewards suited for your stage in the game, you move on to the Sith Raid and move from one tier to the next until you reach the Heroic level. In each case you had to develop different teams, but for the most part you were the one who decided what teams to develop, simply because there were no faction/character restrictions. And in each case you weren't in danger of losing rewards each time a new raid was released. If you were on the Heroic Tank stage when the Sith raid was released, you kept getting the same rewards from the Heroic Tank raid as before, simply because the old system felt more like a ladder you could safely climb at your own speed.
Meanwhile, aside from the reward structure, I have very few good things to say about the new raids. You are required to farm specific toons/teams instead of having the freedom to use your entire roster, meaning that you have to use the same strategies each week for months. You don't feel like you're actually progressing. If you're late-game, the moment a new raid is released, any and all progress in the previous raid means nothing, and you have to farm completely different toons/characters to at least get the same rewards as before, never mind getting better ones. If the old system was a ladder you could climb when you felt good and ready, the new system feels more like you have to immediately jump from one lifeboat to the next so you don't drown.
The Krayt raid is so far the only one of the three new raids that I actually liked. It had exciting and important mechanics, there was an increase in difficulty with each tier but the player bonuses were also significant enough that it still felt like a challenge but was manageable at the same time. The only downside for me was that it ran too often, and even then CG took care of it later on.
Then we have the Endor raid, which, while interesting in terms of thematics, was a mess. There was little to no synergy between the toons (compare having Kneesa, Gideon and Drogan in a team to the NS+JKA combo I mentioned earlier), the mechanics made little to no sense. The plus side was that you could at least auto it and still get a good score most of the time, which saved you a bit of time. Ironically, that should not be how a raid is done. If you auto it because you have eventually developed your teams to the point they can safely auto a battle, fine. But throwing in random toons in a team and putting it on auto every time because the core mechanics of the raid are nonsensical is something else.
And currently we have the Naboo raid. Where do I even start with that? Too much RNG (even with the recent changes, there is still room for improvement), the enemies are ridiculously overpowered in terms of stats and modifiers, whereas the hero/faction bonuses are downright meaningless for the most part (obviously the PotUp+HoT mechanic for the Lumi team is an exception, but compare the other bonuses to those in the Krayt raid) and the tier modifiers are lousy unless you're doing the highest levels, even the orbital bonuses aren't that meaningful, the time for each wave to enter is increasingly and absurdly long (even more so if you have to restart), most of the toons you need to farm are lousy (even GMY isn't that good outside of a JMK, JML or JKR team), while two of the best teams each require a toon that is locked in some way (JJB behind a legendary event, Queen Amidala behind Proving Grounds if you didn't unlock her early enough; fortunately I have both, but the principle is what matters; compare that to the Krayt raid, which required Conquest Maul but still had such mechanics that you could make up for it with other teams and comps).
I'm actually somewhat afraid of what the next raid will look like.
Capital Games Team
