I have only done the cheese 2 times. Once just to try it, because Yolo. The second time, I was trying to help a friend through the raid, and he just kept dying... So we threw him in the middle for the cheese. He still died, but we were at least able to still finish it without him that way :-P The cheese can be drastically easier, but only if you have at least 3 good people on your team that are good enough to carry. One good person on each totem and the other to carry the middle group.