Having played a couple of days at Tier 2, I feel as though, I'm not supposed to be in Tier 2. I feel completely useless in Tier 2 dungeons. I don't know if it's the fact that my gear is completely terrible, or if the content is specifically designed for at least 4 players. Either way, every shot/swing I take feels like firing a bb gun at a freight train. This isn't a huge issue for a good third of the levels, but many of the dungeons include a mass spawn event or two, involving little space to maneuver and around 7 to 12+ enemies in the room at once.
This would probably be okay with 3 or 4 players, but I can never get T2 groups of more than 2. To me, this shows either an issue in scaling of monster strength/number, or an issue with the power of 2* gear.
Now, inevitably, someone is going to suggest that I learn to play better. That's fair, and I am working on my gameplay. However, perfect play shouldn't be require to not die 3 or 4 times on one arena dungeon. It shouldn't be this difficult for 1 or 2 players to make their way through the game.
I'm having the same issues here. I attribute part of it to lack of knowledge of the teir. And perhaps even part to how easy T1 was, I flew through it mass attacking everything without a care in the world, just hack and slashing everything to pieces. Upon entering T2 and trying to solo it I can attest to what you have said, it is a very steep hill to climb. I made it through one maybe 2 floors to find myself dying often.
I did however play a few team runs, maybe 2 or 3, and that was much easier going, I even piggy backed my way to floor 18 at one point, I'm sure my team didn't like that much haha. If anything going at it with a team is only easier because you can revive each other often.
There is definitely a steep incline in difficulty and effectiveness 2 star gear has in T1 to T2 which is understandable, but it seems a bit too steep to me, the need for me to quickly gather up 3 star gear is more than apparent. I have basically gone back to doing T1 until then, but I'm sure 3star gear is more widely avail in T2 than T1.
I like that this poses a challenge and I don't walk through it like I did T1 (although I like that getting to know your surrounding and gameplay aspect of T1 without too much distraction of things being hard) gives me something to strive for, but at the same time there is a kind of impassibility aspect to it, and I saw this not only in what I experienced, and clearly what Super Samuri experienced but the people in my group as well.