Are you playing Platinum ?

Not tried it yet, only play Platinum with friends, and noone from my friends list seems to be online when I am.

Honestly - I think the bolded, underlined is true of the entire game design at its core.

The steady stream of staggers - from dogs, breachers, enemies whose attacks damage and stagger you through cover, etc. - create much more annoyance and frustration than actual difficulty imho.

Doing something difficult provides positive player feedback and feelings of success.  Being prevented (or interrupted) from doing anything at all (via staggers) only creates player frustration IME- but that seems to be the designer's idea of adding challenge and difficulty.

I really, really, really hate the dogs in this game.

Husks were indeed a better enemy. They didn't spam them as much, husks were slower, and if one did manage to grab you it was killed at the end of the grab animation. Breachers, adhi, and wraiths swarm much faster and get the added bonus of hanging around to pester you further regardless of breaking their grab. Oh, and MEAMP minions tend to spawn behind me for a bonus Waikiki-sneaky-between-the-cheeky.

I do. However, I can understand why veteran players prefer Gold. Platinum is not as enjoyable as Gold. The difficult is fun at first, but soon you realize the bullet-sponge/cobra-sponge enemies, the ridiculous hacks and the "play infiltrator rule" adds to it being nothing but mindless credits grind. There is little fun and no variety, unless you want to jeopardize your team and play what you want the way you want - which will most likely end badly.

Platinum, as it is now, feels more like a quick-fix for credits farming so that you can get some of the recycled toys added with Patch 1.09.

Played two Gold matches for the challenge today, it was too easy. The one Plat I had time for didn't go too well this time around. I think I leave the Operator at Gold for now.

yes, and i often find great teams, great players, they do all the hard work and i try tosurvive and be helpful

Meh. Too many BS hacks and uploads. I'll stick to Gold for fun. The grind isn't worth that bullshit. The enemy AI and the way hacks and uploads work just aren't compatible. We had 4 fiends spawn literally right next to the hack right after we killed them. Ascendants just camped the hack along with 2 or 3 Annointed even after all 4 of us went to the other side of the map. Unless you have a lot of concentrated fire from a well organized team, it just isn't happening. I'll be anxious to hear what the devs have to say about platinum on their weekly stream. They better have some good answers for a lot of questions about 1.09 or I, along with a lot of people, are probably just going to be gone for good.

I played the Human Vanguard this morning against Remnant on Paradox. Had extra shields and power efficiency booster to go with my Siphon Dhan and Hurricane or Rozerad. Concentrated on priming with Nova and detonating with shockwave or Charge.

Was a little hairy in the beginning since I was getting used to the fast pace and Destroyer spam. For big bosses, I navigated so I was priming them from their backs. Settled into a good rhythm and we were able to complete the mission (I think one died at extraction).

So it's definitely doable with a team. Just be prepared to be revived a lot or use your gels if you happen to charge into two destroyers or that black hydra.

Its hard as fuck, but enjoyable with the right teammates. I've done more than 10 games so far. I mostly play Gold with a friend, but Platinum is nice when you already have everything maxed. I wouldn't dare to take lowlevel characters on Platinum. Especially hacks are challenging, you will always need infiltrators for the hack and two other people for distractions. I wish I had a good premade team, it currently depends a lot on the randoms I get. My friend is too low, he just maxed out his common gear and buys uncommon now.

3 straight extractions on the Apex mission this afternoon-pugged with the same group all 3 times. 200% Weakspots on Sandstorm. Also extracted on it once last night with pugs. Have had hard time finding matches, though. I did fine hitting weakspots off host-just use the Shadow.

You should get expert or premium packs. Less chance to get Incisor upgrades...