first time (normal mode) went pretty well, had some decent ranged DPS, a healer, and I was a guardian tank

 

second time, also normal mode, was a nightmare. everyone was equipped really really well, but we had two melee DPS instead of one, it just was...man, it didn't feel "difficult' ,it just felt cheap. i go through flashpoints on normal mode just to enjoy the story. If i want a really hard challenge I'll go with HM, but whey did i spend 60k in repairs only to have my group give up because the final boss kept wiping us out over and over again?

You made it that far with melee DPS? Me and my guild gave up at LR5 droid because me (the melee) couldn't survive along with the tank since he spams the little plasma arcs on the non-tanks, so my entire job of DPSing gets negated since I wind up killing the tank/myself because of all the aoe that occurs solely by me being there trying to do my job.

 

I can only imagine how melee unfriendly the other fights in there are towards the end. Doing that fight didn't feel hard, so much as cheap and require the "right" set up to run it.

exactly, there's a difference between being "cheap" and "hard"

 

like I mentioned, I'd be completely fine if HM was "too hard" sure it'd be annoying but it would still be HM, but they made normal mode too hard I feel like

they made normal mode too hard I feel like

 

I found the difficulty lvl for norm just right.

 

Its a new FP that drops 'epics', you want it to be as easy as the ast 3 dungeons in WoW that everyone was farming to 378 ilvl?

 

While our group didn't do it super pro, we did do it.

It was like ok, we failed there what can we do to ensure we don't again.

Put our minds to it and got some great gear for our pal.

 

I hope that BW have now set the standard.

Completed on HM with 2 melee DPS.. (1 Wipe on the droid, 2 on the final boss; learning curve)

 

Assassin Tank - 140 ailvl

Marauder - 140 ailvl

Marauder - 140 ailvl

Sorc Healer - 126 ailvl

 

If your having problems with the droid then I suggest you make sure he is kited properly and that your not missing any interrupts.

My group finished it normal mode, but for the blues that dropped considering it's difficulty level it didn't seem like the rewards were appropriate. The blue would be great for a fresh 50 imo, but a fresh 50 I doubt would be able to survive several of the encounters, or not without being heavily carried by the rest of the team - namely the healer.

It is hard. Lorrick has some strat, and the robot too, but most if the fights are mechanics and not dps. I have never done it on normal, but have doen ti mutliple times on hardmode.