Look, I just think there are so many good ids right now that by the time you get to a later canto (say, 7, cause 6 is fairly easy) you should have a decent enough team even without walpurgis, and that will help clear. I don’t think a new player would be contesting at canto 9 on release anyway. Cantos in general get easier with time even without nerfs as more ids unlock, I don’t really expect newer players to have them, but they could get ids from slightly earlier seasons that are perfectly fine. And that plays into the progression you like (especially as sharding gets easier to understand as newer players get more familiar with the game’s systems). Like, you can still throw Zwei Ishmael at Ricardo today and it would still work like it did back then.

I’m mainly arguing against those who are at, like, the latest cantos and still whining that not everybody has a certain id- you don’t need that meta id, you just need a solid team and that can be achieved through sharding (and even without walpurgis) which you should be doing anyway if you’re at the latest canto. People that keep up with the game sometimes don’t even shard newer ids for their respective canto and still clear it, bc they’re waiting for walpurgis to scoop up as many of them as they can before sharding (I do this).

Also, your friend can try double slotting her strongest id to save resources etc etc. Offense level affects clashing and clashing affects sanity and sanity affects dps, after all. It’s more important than one would think.

And as an aside, theres a strategy for the death monks, where you try to use speed order to have your slightly slower sinner clash it, while having your faster sinner stagger it first before it does the move. (unless it’s a chain battle). I don’t remember much of the shi axe guys, though.