As a vet player (just under 2 years) I still do PvE regularly. I like the format for it allows me a bit more roster diversity and shield hopping can get dull after a while.
I think D3 did a fantastic job with one aspect of PvE that I personally always loathed. No other mobile game did this to such an extent as MPQ, but the idea of playing on a schedule always drove me nuts. Being on the east coast I was pretty much limited to S4 and knowing that it was either going to be MPQ or an evening of socializing definitely left a bad taste.
The new format completely eliminates the schedule and for the first time in a long time I no longer feel that PvE is on a schedule. In fact if one uses shields for PvP the schedule obligation has been largely lifted. Kudos D3, an amazing accomplishment.
However it is becoming increasingly clear through this PvE (and for many of you long before) that the only real solution to the entire PvE conundrum is to simply transform all sub-nodes and main-nodes reward structure away from current format to the Gauntlet style awards. It is obvious that D3 is recognizing the impossibility of binding people down to a schedule as the players hate. Remember 2.5 hour refresh? Then it was 8 hour refresh. Clearly the move is away from MPQ telling you when to play and to return that choice to the player.
However the last sub will still govern placement and even if you did everything right the first 6 days and was the first to finish, it can all go up and smoke on the last day. So while we have achieved the perfection of eliminating the obligation of schedule based play, the last day still shows shades of an outdated thought process.
The best and only way is to transform all of PvE into gauntlet style rewards. If you put the time in and struggle through some of the last nodes then be rewarded. Nice and simple!
Thanks!
P.S. Please remove the last of the critical boosts, nobody wants them/needs them in PvE.