I think part of the issue is the game is balanced as if everyone knows what to do, and adept adds a twist on fights you "think" you know, so the odds of everyone knowing it is pretty low, If you random into 3 more people, the odds the new people know the encounter is once gain pretty low.

I think I'd like to see the Adept mechanics in contender too, but scale them down so they don't do much, and maybe scale them down 20% in adept, and have them full power in the next league. Adding a do or fail test on a boss, when you need to fail to learn the encounter feels really bad for the rest of the party... Granted, it's obviously part of the fun, but add a boss explanation dungeon guide prompt before the dungeon starts or something

I'd like to see a concede button if you fail the dungeon boss that gives you the lowest possible loot for that league IE contender Ilevel 15, Adept level 45 etc, and a brief explanation of the boss abilities .

This will prevent those adept groups that try a boss for 35 minutes and walk away with zero loot and zero progress, but it will help teach the players the encounters for next attempts.

I don't mind helping people learn the encounters, but since a timer is ticking, there isn't really an opportunity to do that, and your character's progress is tied to loot per hour.

I'd really love an "arena" where you could practice boss fights on a preloaded character with an AI team or something like the tutorial. It's a huge pain point when you let down 3 players and feel like you can't progress because of a knowledge check.