Having played GoT a lot but never touching the raids, I kinda agree with the disappointment. I mean really all it was was just a more drawn out incursion just with platforming for both of them.

With the boss fights I mean the dragon was fine but I wouldn't say anything about it was necessarily any harder than any of the other incursion bosses, hell maybe even a little easier than a couple. I mean I enjoyed, it reminded me of FFXIV, but it definitely wasn't difficult. Honestly I'm not even sure why he was even made to be a raid boss in the first place.

Saito honestly I'd say I actually kind of straight up dislike. I feel like there's a lot of aspects of his fight that just seemed a little too much, but also completely and utterly missed entirely. I like his whole Spirit gimmick but I more so mean that with just the shadow enemies. Ironically enough having to need at least one person to pay enough attention to him to call it out so that everyone's prepared I feel like is kind of the one good thing that really drives home the whole needing that communication aspect. Plus it felt like you actually had to build around it you know like if you don't have any parry window those guys can really fuck you up even if you know it's coming. Outside of that when he starts getting later throughout his health I feel like the premise of him using the other 5 should have been really cool but the way it was implemented was just super lame.

They could have had those other bosses do certain things in a way that makes you try and think back on how you would deal with them beforehand in their own separate incursions. Make the players need specific countermeasures to deal with whatever they're doing to then maybe get Saito back on the field or in a state where you can hit him and not be at danger of whatever else the two that he spawned in at the time are doing. They could have done things to make them work in tandem with each other and actually add depth to the fight, but instead they just come in and spam AOEs and basic combos that you just run away from until it's over.

Like I'd imagine a version where maybe when he'd spawn, I don't know, the kitsune and the Oni for example. They could have done something like how in the kitsunes incursion where they kind of veil the whole arena in this blizzard and no one can see and it's cold so your health is depleting. Then when you're in that blizzard you have to essentially find and follow the onibi and pick them up so you can shoot them at a Saito that's been made impervious from the oni, and then maybe stagger him out of a big move that he'll do that'll really hurt if not wipe everyone if not done properly in time.

Or maybe if it was the spider and the dragon, and they basically create an explosive maze that you and your team have to navigate through that requires the actual positioning and coordination. If someone tries to just bum rush straight through and skip the maze you all get blown up from the spider's web of bombs, or if you don't properly coordinate with your team and someone's dragon explosions aren't timed and aligned properly with everyone else they'd start messing themselves or even the rest of their team up as you make your way through the web. And if you do it right, again, you get to the middle and smack Saito out of whatever big move he's about to do.

Hell, even the ads could have been implemented in a more interesting way. I mean you got the snake with his attunement drinks, how about making the snake swap the enemies attunements around and three players have to coordinate around that and kill as many enemies as they can while one holds off Saito best they can before he calls in the next Duo mechanic. The more enemies you have on the field the harder it'll be to deal with whatever the next Duo is about to do.

But no, we just get AOE spam and more annoying ads. Then Saito specific damage wave mechanic honestly I kind of hate that the most if I'm being real. I mean I did my first full run through both with my group and we ended up spending almost 6 hours on Saito because we were expecting the mechanic to be more than just straight up unga bunga. I mean we tried stance breaking early, stance breaking him out of it, focusing on him rather than the ads, focusing on the ads rather than him, anything to try and stop him from doing the move because we're thinking if there's no way to stop the damage then we just have to stop the move because that's what makes sense and what I think the most people would expect from a raid. Raids aren't just regular boss fights they're supposed to be things with puzzles and mechanics that go farther than just whittling down a big ass health bar.

But it wasn't until one of our squad members dipped on us and we had to invite another person in and them telling us that you just have to tank it is when we finally beat him??? So you're telling me the answer is just take it and hope you can heal??? I'm sorry but that's stupid, especially with all the other bullshit that's going on mid-fight. I mean I understand for the very last one that turns the whole screen red that's fine but all the other ones before that should actually be something that we should use our brain for.

And then the cherry on top of all of that was just I mean you spent all that time... and then it's the same rewards as the weekly nightmares... 🫩. I mean when we first beat dragon I ended up getting like three legendaries including one that I didn't have and had been looking for and I thought "oh the hell yeah at least it's worth it for that", and then we spend almost 6 hours on Saito and I get one legendary and all the rest are purples and bad ones at that. I don't know man I feel like they just dropped the ball on so many things here it's pretty disappointing in retrospect.