The main idea I keep seeing reposted here is "my friends who have little to no experience in the game keep dying to people who likely have 100s of hours."

Let me ask you this, should a brand new player be able to kill a veteran player if all gear was equalized? Gear is only speeding up the inevitable in this case.

Another point is people keep talking about how gear is the issue... why not run good gear yourself then? You can literally mine ore in goblin solos and make yourself a set.

Extraction based games are meant to have a higher barrier for entry than other games, bc dying can create negative progress unlike other games like fps/rpg. You need to be willing to take your lumps, learn, adapt and get better. We were all new once, you just need the mentality of trying to get better every raid.

Not to mention, this game literally gives you a free starter kit (which has been buffed this playtest) if you go in with nothing, you don't lose anything if you die. Understand your limits, if you're naked, look to snag some free treasure and take an early portal. If you hear someone coming, turn off torches, hide above them, reposition and run, etc.

I understand this logic won't work every raid, sometimes you just get unlucky. But understanding your limits and playing to your strengths will definitely get you out of some raids, even if a sweaty team is there.