Why would anybody make the first level 0 to 7000? There have to more people at the 0 to 7000 level than the other 2 tiers so it makes no sense. It is almost impossible to get on a raid now because that level fills up in seconds. I spend more time trying to find raids than actually participating in them. The first level should be back to 0 to 5000 and you should even consider adding another tier and letting 40 people on a raid and increasing the amount of damage to compensate for the additional players if necessary. I understand the attempt to improve the game but sometimes things don't need to be fixed and you make it worse.
You might want to open ya own, send it out privately and you will get invities sent back, networking works very well, if you rely on public raids, , yeah it is gonna be hard, the top tier has Always had that issue, since the implementation of raids.