Feedback:User/J E T/Modifications to the Underworld / Other Elite Zones

I am a long time player and leader of a PvE alliance who has spent thousands of hours in game over the past 4+ years. What has concerned not only me, but a large amount of my alliance mates are the changes that have been made to the game to constantly combat speed clears. While I have no problem with ANet's goal of wanting to prevent insanely fast speed clears (I fully agree that a 7 min clear of the Underworld is unacceptable), I believe that modifying the content and trying to perpetually rebalance the skills is not the best approach. Instead, there is a VERY simple solution to solve this problem once and for all, without impacting the content of the game or worrying about what new skill exploit that players will come up with: Add timers to the end chests in the elite zones. For example, in the Underworld, Fissure of Woe, Urgoz's Warren and The Deep, it would be easy to add a timer which prevents the end chest from spawning until the party has been in the zone for at least 1 hour. This is similar to the timers already in place in multiple missions in the game, so the coding aspect should be simple and straight forward.

Why make this change? Because casual players such as myself are growing very tired of the changes that bar normal balanced teams from being able to complete these zones. Simply put, changes made to counter the 5% of players who do speed clears ends up making things FAR more difficult for the 95% who don't. The best example of this is the Underworld. The addition of the skeletons appears to have been made specifically to counter perma sins. However, this change did not result in a reduction of perma laden teams doing full clears. Instead, it increased the number of teams with permas (e.g - the Dayway team build, which uses 6 permas!), because it has become close to impossible for a balanced team to do a full clear, and many other tanking options - such as 55 monks and 105 dervishes - have been rendered completely obsolete by the skeletons. Although a balanced team can counter the skeleton patrols with careful pulling/clearing, the skeleton spawns (the ones that spawn when a quest is taken) are very VERY difficult for a balanced team to counter. Case in point is the Ice King quest. Can it be done with a team with 6 permas? Yes. But how about a more balanced team with average level players? Close to impossible. With 3 spawns resulting in 4 separate groups of dryders which go in 3 different directions, it is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT for a team without permas and/or obsidian tanks to complete it. Additionally, players are presently encouraged to opt for a speed clear team, because of (a) the huge amount of time savings that a SC team offers and (b) the increased chances of completing the run without a failure (because of the over abundance of tanks).

IMO, have the most recent skill balances worked? In a word, no. Teams have already posted 30 minute clears of the Underworld with the new nerfed version of Shadow Form. And, even if ANet were to change the skill again, it would only be a matter of time before some creative person devises an alternate way to exploit the system. Meanwhile, every time there is a skill balance to combat speed clears, non-leet players find their options even more limited for taking on the elite areas.

So, what do I propose?

(1) Add one hour timers to the end chests in the Underworld, Fissure of Woe, Urgoz's Warren and The Deep. While teams could be permitted to complete their clears in less than an hour (so they would not be forced to delay in the completion of a quests), it would immediately and permanently end the insanely fast clears which ANet has been concerned about, because players would be compelled to sit and wait until the 60 minute mark before the end chest would spawn. Yes, it might anger the 5% who exploit the system with uber fast speed clears, but it would have no negative impact on the remaining 95% of us, since it usually takes at least that long for a balanced team to complete such a run.

(2) Please please PLEASE remove the skeleton spawns from the Underworld. Trying to counter damage that is impossible to avoid or reduce seems like the addition of an equivalent "god mode" enemy to counter what had been the "god like" ability of permas to avoid damage. While I can understand the hesitance to remove the skeleton spawns without a chest timer, if a one hour timer were added it would no longer matter what builds people use for the UW, nor would it matter if they completed a full clear in 6 minutes or 60 minutes. Either way they would be forced to be present in the underworld for at least an hour if they want to get the end chest to spawn. Records for clears would then become nothing more than a bragging right, with no actual impact on the game economy.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

--J E T 21:06, 15 March 2010 (UTC)