Ayrilana.1396

You unlock the next mastery at the vendor

> @"LetoII.3782" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > @"Dawdler.8521" said:

> > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > > @"Dawdler.8521" said:

> > > > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > > > Prime time is when the most people are using their internet so that's when there is likely to be congestion issues on the networks.

> > > > > Thats not how server lag works.

> > > >

> > > > You’re assuming the issue is the servers themselves.

> > > We know it is since Anet has described the server skill queue not keeping up with the amount of players (hence their solution has been to reduce player counts).

> > >

> > > This has nothing to do with prime time however. 50vs50 at 20:00 or 50vs50 at 03:00 is the same scenario for the skill queue.

> > >

> >

> > Source?

> >

> > ...

>

> It's not exactly obscure knowledge.

>

Then a source for that particular reason should be easy to provide.

> @"Dawdler.8521" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > @"Dawdler.8521" said:

> > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > Prime time is when the most people are using their internet so that's when there is likely to be congestion issues on the networks.

> > > Thats not how server lag works.

> >

> > You’re assuming the issue is the servers themselves.

> We know it is since Anet has described the server skill queue not keeping up with the amount of players (hence their solution has been to reduce player counts).

>

> This has nothing to do with prime time however. 50vs50 at 20:00 or 50vs50 at 03:00 is the same scenario for the skill queue.

>

Source?

...

> @"Dawdler.8521" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > Prime time is when the most people are using their internet so that's when there is likely to be congestion issues on the networks.

> Thats not how server lag works.

You’re assuming the issue is the servers themselves.

> @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > > > It's not. Melee is still the higher DPS option and most groups seem to need as much DPS as they can get. I also feel that everyone should just go full DPS because most of the people I see that do go DPS are doing less than 10K which won't be enough if there are support players. I see too many people trying to get a balanced party but that only works if your DPS can actually DPS.

> > > > >

> > > > > In my experience it may be meta for the same reason you say having everyone DPS is meta, most people struggle with the intensity of mechanics in melee. I think it's pretty telling the group that died more was also the one we barely failed on.

> > > > >

> > > > > I'm not saying you're wrong, you're probably absolutely right that well-played melee is better.

> > > >

> > > > The issue is that ranged attacks are lower DPS and it’s low DPS that is causing people to fail. Having players all go range is just setting them up to fail even more.

> > > >

> > > > There’s really no reason to fail mechanics. The Thunderhead boss is pretty much the matriarch wyvern. The FoR boss players just have to get out away from the boss when it does the telegraph for the one attack. It’s not like it’s a raid which is throwing many mechanics at you at once.

> > >

> > > Umm so what about those burn pulses the FoR boss stands in for many seconds at a time? I know for a fact that I was not even hitting my power GS dps from arc when i decided to power chrono. Admittedly I did die, but even before I did, I noticed those DPS numbers dropping lower.

> >

> > You obviously use a ranged weapon and/or wait for the boss to be pulled. You don’t just camp your ranged weapon the entire time.

>

> But everyone here just told me melee was still meta? No one mentioned this, not even once.

Nobody is telling you not to use a ranged weapon at all. There are situations where you do can swap to a ranged weapon in many fights but melee should always be priority.

> @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > It's not. Melee is still the higher DPS option and most groups seem to need as much DPS as they can get. I also feel that everyone should just go full DPS because most of the people I see that do go DPS are doing less than 10K which won't be enough if there are support players. I see too many people trying to get a balanced party but that only works if your DPS can actually DPS.

> > >

> > > In my experience it may be meta for the same reason you say having everyone DPS is meta, most people struggle with the intensity of mechanics in melee. I think it's pretty telling the group that died more was also the one we barely failed on.

> > >

> > > I'm not saying you're wrong, you're probably absolutely right that well-played melee is better.

> >

> > The issue is that ranged attacks are lower DPS and it’s low DPS that is causing people to fail. Having players all go range is just setting them up to fail even more.

> >

> > There’s really no reason to fail mechanics. The Thunderhead boss is pretty much the matriarch wyvern. The FoR boss players just have to get out away from the boss when it does the telegraph for the one attack. It’s not like it’s a raid which is throwing many mechanics at you at once.

>

> Umm so what about those burn pulses the FoR boss stands in for many seconds at a time? I know for a fact that I was not even hitting my power GS dps from arc when i decided to power chrono. Admittedly I did die, but even before I did, I noticed those DPS numbers dropping lower.

You obviously use a ranged weapon and/or wait for the boss to be pulled. You don’t just camp your ranged weapon the entire time.

> @"Nephalem.8921" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

>

> > I'm not misinterpreting anything. I simply highlighted a contradictory/hypocritical part of your post where you were fine with ranged being meta over melee but took issue with a certain build being meta over others. You say your fine with metas changing between encounters for the **4 cfb + 1 ren** isn't really meta anywhere else that I can think of. I question it being the meta here as well. As long as people don't fail mechanics, **ANY DPS CLASS CAN SUCCEED COMFORTABLY DOING DRM CMS**.

> >

> Its meta'ish in 100cm. 5 fb for phase 1 and 2 ren, 2fb, slb for phase 2. Nobody relogs for 2nd phase so you usually play with 4 or 3 fbs.

Ah. I don't really do fractals anymore so I didn't know that was a thing for that one.

> > Defensive being aegis? Tempests have rebound and scourges have barrier. Both of those negate some or all damage.

> Rebound has a massive cd and only works vs killing blow. Barrier doesnt work vs hard hitting pve champs. It doesnt negate the dmg. Scourge has also by far the lowest dps.

>

I was just listing defensive capabilities that a couple other classes offer that's similar to aegis. Barrier has often been used to hard carry players more so than aegis. It works fairly well for the Snowden CM so long as you strip the boons off the boss.

> > You're too hyper-focused on there being a balanced between optimal classes for every scenario which is incredibly unrealistic. As I've stated multiple times, any class is capable of doing any content in the game. This very much includes the CMs for DRMs.

> Some cant really pull their weight. There is a 30-40% gap between scourge and meta dps and mesmer is very bad in fractals.

Are you speaking about DRMs or fractals in your post?

> @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > > > @"Nephalem.8921" said:

> > > > > > Meta is 4cfb + ren. You dont need healing when you can aegis everything. Ren can provide superspeed for the escort aswell.

> > > > >

> > > > > So much balance, that class diversity right there......

> > > > >

> > > > > To be brutally clear, it's not that I want guardians nerfed, I just think too many mechanics are hard countered by them. I feel like when such large disparities in class capability exist, it's a clear balance problem.

> > > >

> > > > First off, every class is very much capable of doing the CMs. Secondly, with all of the classes/builds in the game as well as the numerous encounters, it's unreasonable to assume that every class/build would be equally balanced for every encounter. I mean, in your OP you were claiming range to be meta. Would that be considered balanced? It's wrong to assume that things are not balanced just because something else is optimal.

> > >

> > > What meta doesn't feature guard? I'm fine with something being meta in certain encounters, for example I'm sure melee is meta in the original CMs for DRMs, it's just guard is heavily features in almost any meta. I can't think of an encounter where you wouldn't want a guard, but you can't say the same thing for every class. That, to me, is a heavy indicator that professions are not well balanced.

> > >

> >

> > Then it's a matter of preference regarding what's unbalanced. You find ranged being preferred over melee perfectly okay but dislike how certain classes may be more preferred in **optimal** situations. In both situations a group of players are being preferred but in only one of them you are negatively affected. Meta, or optimal, comps are not the only way that something can be done. This has been repeated over and over since the game launched. You can easily complete every DRM CM with all DPS players assuming that they can do actual DPS and not completely fail mechanics. Every class is capable of doing enough DPS.

>

> You've massively misinterpreted what I've said, not sure if a conversation is even valuable anymore. I gave an example where ranged isn't meta and clearly said I'm fine with metas changing between encounters, it's when something features over and over there's a problem. Also note, you're talking about playstyle metas, I'm talking about profession metas. Also note guardian isn't meta just because of DPS, it's the defensive capabilities that make it so preferred. It has those AND damage. PROFESSION balance is what I started talking about. If you keep going off about ranged, you're missing the point entirely.

I'm not misinterpreting anything. I simply highlighted a contradictory/hypocritical part of your post where you were fine with ranged being meta over melee but took issue with a certain build being meta over others. You say your fine with metas changing between encounters for the 4 cfb + 1 ren isn't really meta anywhere else that I can think of. I question it being the meta here as well. As long as people don't fail mechanics, **ANY DPS CLASS CAN SUCCEED COMFORTABLY DOING DRM CMS**.

Defensive being aegis? Tempests have rebound and scourges have barrier. Both of those negate some or all damage.

> > > Also it's insane as far as balance is concerned to have a meta be stacking multiple classes of the same type when the total party size isn't even big enough to have 1 of every class.

> > >

> >

> > What should a party have one of every class? Why should an encounter be balanced around you needing one of every class?

>

> Why have any more professions if one is god? I've never seen an MMO where the devs thought it was healthy to have 1 god class until now.

You're too hyper-focused on there being a balanced between optimal classes for every scenario which is incredibly unrealistic. As I've stated multiple times, any class is capable of doing any content in the game. This very much includes the CMs for DRMs.

> The whole point on an RPG is to play a class you identify with, so being sub-par just because you want to have fun is bad. I thought that was just generally understood.

>

Players are subpar all the time so why does the profession that they play matter in regards to that? Your statement that "being sub-par just because you want to have fun is bad" can easily be applied against those who don't even try to be good in the game and simply want to have fun in their own way. So all of those who are doing poor DPS and refuse to perform the mechanics better, are bad according to your statement because they're choosing to be subpar in favor of having fun in their own way.

> @"Robban.1256" said:

> > @"Crackmonster.2790" said:

> > Just before i was gonna farm up another 1-2 sets ascended gear sets, the spirit farm got ripped.

> >

> > Still got 220 left to farm today/tomorrow.. anyone got a clue what are good ways to target them now? Heading into silverwastes now..

>

> There's much better ways to earn spirit shards than SW, for silverwastes the average is 5 shards per hour.

>

> Here's the top:

>

> Lab farm (Halloween)

>

> HoT adventures + griffon races(daily)

>

> Dragonstand ~10 spirit shards + (9-11g/h)

>

> Stonehead farm (baubles) ~10 spirit shards + (14-16g/h)

>

> HoT meta train(vb,ab,td) ~ 14 spirit shards + (18-20g/h)

>

> Crystal Oasis ~ 14 spirit shards + (23-25g/h)

>

> Can see values of some here https://fast.farming-community.eu/open-world/farmtrain , https://www.peuresearchcenter.com/benchmarks.html , https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HOBKHgaPbmc1uMAqupeta824hQzjhiaXBWhPXjORAZs/edit?usp=drivesdk

Keep in mind that those spirit shard values were likely entirely based on spirit shards dropping from champ bags which no longer is possible.

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > Completing something **five** times is grindy?

>

> I think he meant that the missions aren't doable in CM (which is what you need to succeed in five times for the Top Dragon Responder achievements).

I probably should have quoted the post above mine as that was what I was questioning.

> @"medivh.4725" said:

> Need more ways to get those Prismaticite Crystals then just from home instance farming. Finishing of Dragonstand meta should award few

Do DRMs. I was getting an additional 9 every day before the recent update by just doing three of them. You get one for every DRM you complete. If you do CMs, I believe that you get more.

If all else fails, you can buy the ingots off the TP.

Completing something **five** times is grindy?

> @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > @"Nephalem.8921" said:

> > > > Meta is 4cfb + ren. You dont need healing when you can aegis everything. Ren can provide superspeed for the escort aswell.

> > >

> > > So much balance, that class diversity right there......

> > >

> > > To be brutally clear, it's not that I want guardians nerfed, I just think too many mechanics are hard countered by them. I feel like when such large disparities in class capability exist, it's a clear balance problem.

> >

> > First off, every class is very much capable of doing the CMs. Secondly, with all of the classes/builds in the game as well as the numerous encounters, it's unreasonable to assume that every class/build would be equally balanced for every encounter. I mean, in your OP you were claiming range to be meta. Would that be considered balanced? It's wrong to assume that things are not balanced just because something else is optimal.

>

> What meta doesn't feature guard? I'm fine with something being meta in certain encounters, for example I'm sure melee is meta in the original CMs for DRMs, it's just guard is heavily features in almost any meta. I can't think of an encounter where you wouldn't want a guard, but you can't say the same thing for every class. That, to me, is a heavy indicator that professions are not well balanced.

>

Then it's a matter of preference regarding what's unbalanced. You find ranged being preferred over melee perfectly okay but dislike how certain classes may be more preferred in **optimal** situations. In both situations a group of players are being preferred but in only one of them you are negatively affected. Meta, or optimal, comps are not the only way that something can be done. This has been repeated over and over since the game launched. You can easily complete every DRM CM with all DPS players assuming that they can do actual DPS and not completely fail mechanics. Every class is capable of doing enough DPS.

> Also it's insane as far as balance is concerned to have a meta be stacking multiple classes of the same type when the total party size isn't even big enough to have 1 of every class.

>

What should a party have one of every class? Why should an encounter be balanced around you needing one of every class?

> Many classes have a ranged option. Almost anyone playing an RPG likes to main and/or play a given class, and as far as that's concerned i feel like any individual profession should be very competitive against any other in a given encounter (perhaps they need to change build, but they should still bring something).

>

Yes, all classes have a ranged option. I'm against it being meta because it's significantly lower DPS compared to melee and DPS is the reason that people are failing the timer CM. Before I gave up on doing it in groups, practically everyone I was in a group with was doing under 10K DPS. There's no way to complete the CMs with DPS that low.

Every class being competitive against every other class in any encounter is unrealistic. However, every class can still perform well at the CMs. They just need to work on their builds and most definitely their DPS. Just for clarification, when I say work on their DPS, I'm not saying get it to raid level.

> @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > @"Nephalem.8921" said:

> > Meta is 4cfb + ren. You dont need healing when you can aegis everything. Ren can provide superspeed for the escort aswell.

>

> So much balance, that class diversity right there......

>

> To be brutally clear, it's not that I want guardians nerfed, I just think too many mechanics are hard countered by them. I feel like when such large disparities in class capability exist, it's a clear balance problem.

First off, every class is very much capable of doing the CMs. Secondly, with all of the classes/builds in the game as well as the numerous encounters, it's unreasonable to assume that every class/build would be equally balanced for every encounter. I mean, in your OP you were claiming range to be meta. Would that be considered balanced? It's wrong to assume that things are not balanced just because something else is optimal.

> @"Gorani.7205" said:

> Even if the map isn't "dead", it is a very inconvenient (and kind of long) meta event that only encourages you to play when everyone else is playing. It would be nice, if doing only one lane would work out fine, when you only have a small amount of people on the map, because the Pods only spawn at the camps after you have progressed towards the "towers".

> And of course a Pod in the home instance would be nice too.

It’s about an hour or so and there are enough pods for you to average 100 ore. This is also primarily for a legendary weapon as well so I don’t see the issue.

> @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > It's not. Melee is still the higher DPS option and most groups seem to need as much DPS as they can get. I also feel that everyone should just go full DPS because most of the people I see that do go DPS are doing less than 10K which won't be enough if there are support players. I see too many people trying to get a balanced party but that only works if your DPS can actually DPS.

>

> In my experience it may be meta for the same reason you say having everyone DPS is meta, most people struggle with the intensity of mechanics in melee. I think it's pretty telling the group that died more was also the one we barely failed on.

>

> I'm not saying you're wrong, you're probably absolutely right that well-played melee is better.

The issue is that ranged attacks are lower DPS and it’s low DPS that is causing people to fail. Having players all go range is just setting them up to fail even more.

There’s really no reason to fail mechanics. The Thunderhead boss is pretty much the matriarch wyvern. The FoR boss players just have to get out away from the boss when it does the telegraph for the one attack. It’s not like it’s a raid which is throwing many mechanics at you at once.

I had been struggling to complete this CM as the groups I always got could not do enough DPS and we'd fail the timer. I decided to just go in as a power DH and surprisingly enough I was able to comfortably beat it with over a minute left on the timer. The power DH build is the same exact one used for raids except that I swapped out the sigil of impact for a sigil of destroyer slaying and the utility was a potion of powerful destroyer slaying. Honestly any high DPS class (I was doing 20K+) will probably work but I would still use the sigil and utility as those are best in slot.

When you go in, you want to turn on all three CMs. You also want to go to the other NPC and enable dwarven support which you'll have to pay for using the DRM currency (it's like 10). The reason for selecting this is that you can speak a dwarf (or rather interact with something in front of it) to get an item with three charges in your special action which does quite a bit of damage. It's probably best thing to use in every DRM.

You'll also want to get at least tier 2 morale but tier 3 is very much doable if you're efficient. From the portal, you can go south and you will reach the road with the crafting stations which have a large number of NPC to rescue and boost morale for. This is also the faster way back to the clear event and boss. A single loop around back to the portal will complete rescuing the citizens and get you about halfway on the rally one. Focus on killing destroyers while watching the mini map for the rally npcs to be ready again. You can weapon swap to get out of the rooted/channeling thing when you talk to the npc.

For the event to clear out the destroyers, you want to prioritize the harpies as they're the ones that do the most damage. Save your dodges for the destroyers that leap and knockdown you as this could be fatal if paired with the harpy destroyer attack. If you see an elite, mount up and go around it as they take a lot of time to kill. You can ignore exactly one elite mob and still have the event complete. Sometimes there may be a second one which you'll unfortunately have to kill. You do have some buffer for deaths here and on the boss (depending on your DPS) although I wouldn't push it.

The mechanics for the boss are fairly simple. Jump over or dodge through the random shock waves. Try to not spam dodges as you'll want one for the large conic attack which is the dark orange reddish one that pulls you to the boss. He seems to do this after he lays the fire field but I really wasn't paying close attention to the sequence of attacks.

When you see the attack with his arm up, and there's a pinging on the ground in front of it, **get away from the boss** and use ranged attacks. Jump or dodge through the shock wave of this attack but keep away from the boss. The fire field left from the attack does a lot of burning damage and it is still bugged. You can stand just outside of the graphic on the ground and still tick damage from it as well as a few seconds after it disappears. It's best to just have the boss come to you to be safe.

Try not to get chain CC'd by the shock waves when it phases. The mechanic between each phase should be self explanatory but you want to stand in the green. If you run out of the special action item, you can run to the npc between phases as the attack with the green circle will be out of range. You can ignore the CC bar.

With any luck, you'll be able to beat it.

tl;dr

Use high DPS class. Use destroyer slaying sigil and tonic. Don't fail mechanics.

It's not. Melee is still the higher DPS option and most groups seem to need as much DPS as they can get. I also feel that everyone should just go full DPS because most of the people I see that do go DPS are doing less than 10K which won't be enough if there are support players. I see too many people trying to get a balanced party but that only works if your DPS can actually DPS.

> @"Zephire.8049" said:

> Especially when all the other DRMs with 3/3 CMs can be solo'd with time to spare. Snowden doesn't need to be easy but it shouldn't be impossible when literally every other DRM lets you solo them if you so wish. That's not how difficulty increases should work, especially since the things people had the most difficulty in the other DRMs were bugs, not features.

>

It has been done to solo with plenty of time to spare.

> Also requiring raid composition + swiftness boonbot for the escort for a _story_ mission that is less forgiving than the actual raid escort is bad and should never have made it to live. Especially without communicating that that's what they're doing.

>

You don't need swiftness nor a raid comp. You just need people not to do sub 10K DPS. I just did Field of Ruin with a group and we failed because everyone was doing horrible DPS. I was doing 15-20K and everyone else was around 7K. The timer should not be increased because players are not willing to even try to play better.

Edit: Just did another Field of Ruin attempt and once again nobody but me broke 10K. I wish I had farmed these all on the first day as it seems all of those who could DPS have already completed theirs and moved on.

> Adding 1-3 minutes to the timer, making sure Ryland is scaling properly (also reducing visual noise during that fight), and adjusting the speed of the escort NPC wouldn't make the encounter "too easy", it would just make it so people could enjoy the difficulty (and yes, risk of failure) without failure being completely out of their control. Especially as you'd need to go through the entire escort phase to see how much time is left for Ryland, so you can't even restart within 60 seconds.

>

Failure isn't out of the players' control. It's the players causing it to fail.

> And again, this is a story mission, not raid or strike. Difficulty is fine but it shouldn't require as much or more time and planning to setting up a group than an actual raid.

It's doesn't require that much time and planning to set up.

> @"DKRathalos.9625" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > You’ll have more than enough time if you give the NPCs superspeed or swiftness.

>

> Yes but here is the thing. Brisban Wildland also long escort but on CM even if you don't give NPC swiftness/superspeed you still have reasonable time to beat last boss.

> Snowden is just if you don't superspeed, last boss fighting time will be super short.

Superspeed/swiftness helps but it's far from a requirement. Groups primarily fail due to low DPS and failing mechanics.

> @"Blocki.4931" said:

> Nobody is asking for this to be turned brainless, but something is seriously off. Whether it is the NPCs being too slow or the timer being a little too short. The fight is harder than the rest, I don't see why the time should be this close when the rest clearly works.

So CMs should not get progressively more challenging? The issue isn't the timer.

> @"raykor.6723" said:

> _learn to play...try harder...you want everything easy_

>

> Folks, I think you're missing the point. Most people consider the story journal content as casual gameplay. Lots of us have challenging jobs and complicated personal lives. We game to relax and have some mindless fun. Raids and high-level fractals exist to provide challenges for the meta build, precise group composition, tactic mastering crowd that enjoy that type of content.

They don't have to do this one then. There are more than enough available achievements to obtain the emote which will likely not be used again after the first few days of acquiring it.

I could be a bug or the other person could be mistaken.

Are you referring to the one that requires you to not get hit by a specific attack or the one to complete five of the CMs?

Also, since you said “a few days ago”, read the patch notes posted since that last attempt.

> @"Astralporing.1957" said:

> > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > @"kamikharzeeh.8016" said:

> > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > > @"Firebeard.1746" said:

> > > > > I don't expect all of them to teach me. The teaching doesn't happen enough. If I'm wrong the raiding community would grow. And I'm completely fine with being wrong.

> > > >

> > > > You’re assuming that the reason that the raiding community isn’t growing is because veteran players are not teaching new players every chance that they get. You’re wrong.

> > >

> > > but i think he's partly correct, still.

> > >

> >

> > He’s not. Veterans raiders are often teaching in the training guilds/discords. There’s even a training event going on if you go to Reddit.

> And that's where it is only _partly_ correct. There are indeed training guilds and discords, and some veterans help new wound-be raiders trhrough those, or through in-guild trainings. It is also equally true that most veterans don't do that, and that the training capacity the community does have doesn't come even close to the actual needs for it.

>

Whether most veterans teach or not wasn’t what they were saying. Are the trainers on the training discord’s would inundated with requests that they are unable to help? Are players using those discords unable to get assistance? I don’t recall either of those mentioned so it’s a bit odd that you suddenly bring it up as a fact out of the blue.

> On the other hand, it's not like the lack of enough training options is the main issue here. Even if raiding community as a whole would be far more inclusive than it is now, it would not be enough - that's because it's the _content itself_ that's too exclusive for majority of this game's players.

>

Not related to what I said in my post although you do counter what the poster had said that the lack of training is why the raiding community doesn’t grow.

> So, partial truth. _Some_ veterans are teaching new players. Those teaching opportunities are still very limited. But even if they weren't, it doesn't mean the community would start growing.

>

Limited or not doesn’t really matter if the number of players actually seeking them is limited as well. Unless the existing options are unable to fulfill requests, you really cannot state that.

Well PvE, WvW, and sPvP are all part of one game; not three separate games. Players who isolate themselves to one part of the game, especially if it happens to be a very small part, will lose out on things.

The issue is that players are doing CMs the same as they would normal mode and other open world content. They don't look to improve and try things differently. One of the major reason that players run out of time is because of horrible DPS. These are players doing below 10K that are not performing a beneficial support role (e.g. alacren, healing). You're simply not going to clear CMs fast enough with DPS like that. Mechanics, such as CC and avoiding specific damaging attacks, is also another reason for failures.

I have yet to be in a group that can actually complete Snowden for those reasons and I'm pretty sure I'll give up trying to find one shortly and just solo it instead as it's apparently possible to do so.

EDIT:

Here are some tips for the Snowden boss.

Those multiple circle attacks that you see with circles overlapping... three of the circles spawn on three sides of the boss and one side is always safe. You can simply walk to the safe side and continue DPSing the boss. For the big circle with the telegraph that extends out, just dodge at the right time. Dodge out of the cone attack if the boss happens to be facing you. Use boon corruption or something to remove boons during that fight. Use swiftness/quickness on the NPC during the escort.