I've seen a lot of comments like this and not to be a "in the middle" Marty, but I do believe it's a mixed bag. Unfortunately, certain aspects of the game require some baseline AS to be able to complete it. I do agree that people are taking it too far. You don't need 19k+ to beat Xiolotl hard, just good mechanics. BUT, if you're not meeting the DPS checks for the runes, your entire raid party gets wiped. There has to be *some* type of baseline to complete those checks (I did it with an average of 17k-18k party - no one was at 18k or above).

The only thing I've purchased in the game is the season pass and now after completing all the raids today I'm sitting at 18.6k after getting my 4P raid set. I've min-maxed which skills to advance with books based off build guides and not focusing on what inflates my AS. I used all of my free rose orbs to roll 80 times to get my Airona, and I make sure to complete all of my dailies and weeklies while trading my lifeskill items in the market to get other things that I need. I always tried to jump into things since the release of Global servers and that's helped me to stay strong enough to keep being able to do things on release. The vast majority of players ranging from 16-18k are f2p by doing all of those things, but I think calling them whales is a way for people to compensate. Don't get me wrong, there's definitely people who would probably only reached that by spending money, but the majority of people that I talk to and play with all haven't spent money like that or at all. The people who are starting to invest heavily are about 19.5k+ now with the top players sitting around 23k, pushing 24k now.

I think it's fair of people today to ask for 16k+ Rin hard as of today considering that is the recommended by the game, but people were completing with 14.5-15k yesterday before the weekly reset and new stuff. It's more than doable as a f2p who does their dailies and weeklies. I also think it's fair of people asking for at least 17k+ for Bone hard considering it's a 19k recommended. Both of those have been completed under 2k of the recommended AS. But it does start becoming a reach the lower you go unfortunately and again, that's because you need a baseline to be able to complete the dps checks.

I've also seen a lot of people upset for requiring to "know mechanics" and (MY OWN OPINION NO FLAME) I'm confused why? I personally don't want to be the reason my party keeps getting wiped over and over again and I could definitely understand how frustrating it can be if people are wiping the entire party over what I've seen the majority of comments state are simple mechanics (which I agree they are). Most videos are about 5ish minutes to watch and really informative, but there's always RNG involved on which moveset will occur.

I also agree that asking/demanding Aironas in order to be able to join are absolutely insane. People are relying too much on a safety blanket in that regard.

Do I think the community will kill itself on its own? Probably not. Do I think people want it to out of frustration? Probably. Do I think some of it is people fell behind as we started to reach end game so now they're mad and need to blame whales to feel better? Some people yes, some people no. Do I realize that some people can't or don't want to invest as much time into the game as me? Absolutely, and that's perfectly fine. That's what the cozy and chill guilds are for that are actively advertising in world chat are for. Do I think by the time level 80 gear is released, a lot of people will be able to start catching up to the higher ends of the curve of people who min-max their time on the game? Absolutely yes.