I'm all for the heroic tier being a challenge. I run an ever growing guild that takes on little players and builds them. When we finally got to the point where we could do t7 rancor raids it felt great, a real sense of achievement and team work. Challenge is good. We were all amped about the new raid but thought (realistically) that we only just manage to t7 rancor with our 40+ active members so the "normal" tank raid will be the place to start. We have watched the big fish plough through the new raid on their first attempts and speak of challenge...I say if you can do something first time, everytime, it is no challenge and you are deluding yourself. There was no thought or need for working out a strategic kill order or anything of the like... just whales blundering in with their "nuke it" hats on. The only challenge there is having a full guild.
The "normal" raid level seems much more time consuming and as such "challenging". My guild that can complete the heroic rancor started the "normal" tank raid on the night of release and are still, as I write this, only 50% of the way through phase 1 of the new raid!!! Balanced? No. I am a daily loggers and spend a little bit every couple of weeks on this game but I'm already at the point where I'm losing heart and I'm struggling to bring myself to have my ass handed to me by GG again. I'm thrilled by EA's work on this game but this is not right. Not balanced. Not fun. I'm at a real loss here. I don't want kenobi shards for normal prizes and I most certainly don't want Chewie shards to shut me up...I want that sense of achievement and progression that makes games like this work. People seem happy with heroic but I genuinely belief that "normal" is an unmitigated, soul destroying f $%k up.
*fire when ready, Commander*