Feedback:User/Konig Des Todes/Tomb of the Primeval Kings


 * This suggestion assumes that my normal mode and hard mode suggestion takes place. It is important to read that suggestion before looking at the suggestions for builds.

The Tomb of the Primeval Kings is long overdue for a change, even moreso than Sorrow’s Furnace due to the fact that it was a bot's playground until they simply removed the target of the bots (which was a solution to botting, but not making the place interesting).

Maps and their goals
After a while, the four maps gets tiresome, and there are many more usable maps (can easily use the HA maps out of rotation). Along with that, merely doing a "kill them all!" situation each time gets... bland. As such, I propose increasing the number of maps, make them faster to go through (if one wishes), and in turn have a variety of requirements to go through said maps, and most importantly: Randomize.


 * Goal types
 * Other-team annihilation - the map is completely clean except for (an)other team(s). The group(s) would be randomly chosen, and they would have team-complimenting builds. Effectively, they'd be designed as "super enemies" but with the idea of balance over "moar numbers" and would hold counters to the most common set-ups. These builds would be altered whenever a meta-equivalent is created for Tombs.
 * Kill them all - same as it is for the first three levels
 * Race - basically, the idea would be that you spawn in an empty map and you're supposed to get to the other end. However, once you reach a certain spot, an endless amount of enemies (akin to those seen in Gates of Kryta (outpost)) would begin to spawn from behind you and head to the exit - you may be able to avoid them... but not without them getting to where you have to go.
 * Relic Runner - for the Unholy Temple map, works the same as the actual PvP format with NPCs functioning akin to how the White Mantle do in Aurora Glade.
 * Find the exit - no need to kill folks, no unending horde chasing after you. You're just supposed to mosey your way to the end... But there may be a surprise or two - like having to actually find that exit. This would be for the larger maps (with the exception of also being part of the below).
 * Kill the boss - levels where you need to find and kill a specific, sometimes random-placed, boss. This includes the Hall of Heroes (as it is and shall remain) and can be merged with the "find the exit" goal.

This map would be "new" in that it would be a slightly restructured version of the entrance to Slavers' Exile (i.e., level 1). The change would merely be to replace the statue in the center with a chaos portal. Alongside the addition of this level, remove the portal from the outpost and instead have access via talking to an NPC - this is mainly to help reduce bots (though I'm unsure how effective it would be) and just to be an ass and force botters to reprogram their bots.
 * Map 1: "The Tombs" (possible alternative name) - ("find the exit")

This also allows us to get a look "inside" the tombs. Add some coffins and even bring back the old Primeval Kings ghosts which appeared for Wintersday 2005 - Elswyth, Kole, Millius, Wenslauss. Also add in some Zaishen members and mister Ghostly Hero.

The objective of this map would merely be to get to the portal. This is simply a introduction. However, it won't be without enemies. It would feature the return of an old favorite: The Unworthy Dead. We have lore for them already - they're those who died before reaching the Hall of Heroes, but now they fight for eternity, fighting both demons and humans. They're a third party enemy which wonder aimlessly attacking all within their path.

The first set of randomized mappings.
 * Map 2: The Underworld - ("kill them all"), Fetid River - ("team annihilation"), or Burial Mounds - ("find the exit")

The Underworld would remain the same in terms of objectives, merely gaining a slight mob change to accommodate new skill bars and designs of NM and HM.

Fetid River is rather medium sized and thus would fit a team annihilation setting well (see example enemy builds in a below section).

Burial Mounds is nice and large - designed to occupy 6 teams by the looks of the map - and thus would fit well with a find the exit goal - the exit could be randomly generated to appear either in the center or at one of the other teams' spawn points. I would allow flags to be kept in the arena, with a couple enemy AI programmed to take a flag there when the Obelisk Flag Stand is not under their control. Alternatively, the Obelisk could be used to constantly damage everyone (player and NPC).

The second set of randomized maps.
 * Map 3: Scarred Earth - ("find the exit"), Broken Tower - ("kill the boss"), or Unholy Temples - ("relic run")

Since Scarred Earth shares a similar layout with Burial Mounds, I figured the same goal would be fitting. Like with Burial Mounds again, allow use of the obelisk.

Broken Tower could be a kill the boss goal - the boss would be placed in the center, but invulnerable (and (temporarily) stationary). To remove the invulnerability, one would have to hit five triggers - each at the five team starting places (the sixth being where players start). Example scenario: The boss is called "Grasp of Agony" and is, essentially, a powerful Grasp of Insanity. When you first enter the center, the Grasp of Agony taunts the players. Once all triggers are hit, a second taunt (I'm imagining something similar to the Nundu Bay taunts), and once the boss is dead the counter begins.

Unholy Temples would be the Relic Run I mentioned above.

A set-in-stone map. I chose this map to be set in stone due to it showing the transition between the two kinds of maps. I think it should be a race because given its |layout, it is one of the only maps in HA which is a nice straight path (there may be others, since I haven't been in any HA map outside those in Tombs atm other than observer, I can't be sure).
 * Map 4: Forgotten Shrines - ("race")

Third and final set of randomized maps.
 * Map 5: Sacred Temples - ("relic run"), Golden Gates - ("kill them all"), or The Courtyard - ("team annihilation")

Sacred Temples could work as both a team annihilation (what I think would work best) or as a relic run (what it was originally designed as). I would suggest relic running, and for AI reasons, the gate in the center would be always open. Outside the two gates which gives it its name, Golden Gates is solely a backwards S shape map (a 2? a z?). As such, I think a "kill them all" would be most appropriate as you'd have to do that anyways. The Courtyard can fit multiple things. As such, it would be what Sacred Temples is not: team annihilation.

The final map, set in stone. Kept the same in terms of objectives - kill the boss(es). Like with the other "kill the boss" goals, a script for when encountering the Darknesses - perhaps to explain why they invaded the HoH (that was never explained) - would be appreciated to make the area feel more alive and less like a half-assed job.
 * Map 6: The Hall of Heroes - ("kill the boss")

Entering Tombs
Since the portal in the outpost would be taken out (and nothing else changed), instead of walking into a wall, access to tombs would be via an NPC, specifically: Commander Kuro. In a similar fashion to how one enters Nightfall and Eye of the North missions.

Likewise, to make up for another thing this elite area lacks that other has, he would give a quest (which would be necessary to enter). The quest would be completed upon defeating the three Darknesses and can be turned in to Kuro once returned to the outpost.

Enemies
As per my normal mode and hard mode suggestion, enemies would be balanced and less gimmicky - and as such would have fewer enemies to make up for their strength. Previously I had suggested added in the expansion professions, but let that only be for Hard Mode. How the mobs are, however, makes it mindless killing with mindless enemies - not much strategy used, and the same professions are over-used.


 * Note: Like I've stated elsewhere, I do not trust my abilities of balance, so these are merely placeholders for the time being.


 * New mobs that already exist
 * Wrathful Storm (later maps only)
 * Grasp of Chaos (beginning maps only)
 * Torment Claw (normal mode only)
 * Lesser Grasp (beginning NM maps only)
 * Add Boro's version (skill wise) of the Mindflay Spectre (monks).


 * In normal mode
 * Alter the Chaos Wurms - all Chaos Wurms share the same, ranger, build.


 * In hard mode
 * Replace Terrorweb Dryders with Terrorweb Dryder (silver).
 * Replace the Chained Souls with Shadow Nightmares (necromancers).
 * Replace Torment Claws with Chaos Worms (paragons).
 * Replace the Banished Dream Riders with a new version of Cursed Dream Rider (ritualists).
 * Replace the Scythe of Chaos (mesmer) with their dervish version and Demon Spawns.
 * Add in 2 new foes - a necromancer and a paragon.

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 * Because of the size of the lists, I have put them in multiple collapsing boxes.

Tomb Entrance/Level 1

 * Normal Mode
 * 18 Lesser Grasp
 * 24 Grasp of Chaos
 * 26 Torment Claw
 * 20 Unworthy Dead
 * 20 Unworthy Dead
 * 20 Unworthy Dead


 * Hard Mode
 * 26 Grasps of Chaos
 * 28 Chaos Worms
 * 20 Unworthy Dead
 * 20 Unworthy Dead
 * 20 Unworthy Dead
 * 20 Unworthy Dead
 * 20 Unworthy Dead
 * Builds could be taken from a past/current PvP meta, to reflect how the area was once a PvP location.

The Underworld

 * Normal Mode
 * 24 Grasp of Chaos
 * 26 Torment Claw
 * 22 Chained Soul
 * 28 (30) Banished Dream Rider
 * 24 Scythe of Chaos


 * Hard Mode
 * 30 Grasp of Insanity
 * 28 Mindflay Spectre
 * 28 Chaotic Energy
 * 29 Demon Spawn
 * 28 Shadow Nightmare
 * 28 Chaos Worms

Fetid River

 * Team annihilation

Burial Mounds

 * Normal Mode
 * 24 Grasp of Chaos
 * 26 Torment Claw
 * 26 Mindflay Spectre
 * 22 Chained Soul
 * 28 Wrathful Storm


 * Hard Mode
 * 30 Grasp of Insanity
 * 28 Mindflay Spectre
 * 28 Chaotic Energy
 * 30 Wrathful Storm
 * 28 Shadow Nightmare
 * 28 Cursed Dream Rider

Scarred Earth

 * Normal Mode
 * 26 Torment Claw
 * 30 Chaos Wurm
 * 26 Mindflay Spectre
 * 28 (30) Banished Dream Rider
 * 28 Terrorweb Dryder


 * Hard Mode
 * 28 Chaotic Energy
 * 30 Wrathful Storm
 * 28 Shadow Nightmare
 * 28 Cursed Dream Rider
 * 28 Chaos Worms
 * 30 Scythe of Chaos

Broken Tower

 * Normal Mode
 * 28 Grasp of Agony
 * 24 Grasp of Chaos (only spawns via Command of Torment skill)
 * 30 Chaos Wurm
 * 26 Mindflay Spectre
 * 22 Chained Soul
 * 28 Terrorweb Dryder
 * 28 (30) Banished Dream Rider


 * Hard Mode
 * 30 Grasp of Agony
 * 26 Grasp of Chaos (only spawns via Command of Torment skill)
 * 32 Chaos Wurm
 * 26 Mindflay Spectre
 * 30 Terrorweb Dryder (silver)
 * 29 Demon Spawn
 * 28 Shadow Nightmare
 * 28 Chaos Worm

Unholy Temples

 * Normal Mode
 * 28 Grasp of Insanity
 * 30 Chaos Wurm
 * 20 Shadow Runner
 * 26 Mindflay Spectre
 * 28 Terrorweb Dryder


 * Hard Mode
 * 30 Grasp of Insanity
 * 32 Chaos Wurm
 * 20 Shadow Runner
 * 26 Mindflay Spectre
 * 30 Terrorweb Dryder (silver)

Forgotten Shrines
All enemies spawn infinitely, 8 at a time
 * Normal Mode
 * 24 Grasp of Chaos
 * 28 Grasp of Insanity


 * Hard Mode
 * 30 Grasp of Insanity
 * 30 Scythe of Chaos

Sacred Temples

 * Normal Mode
 * 28 Grasp of Insanity
 * 20 Shadow Runner
 * 26 Mindflay Spectre
 * 28 Wrathful Storm
 * 28 Terrorweb Dryder


 * Hard Mode
 * 30 Grasp of Insanity
 * 20 Shadow Runner
 * 28 Chaotic Energy
 * 30 Terrorweb Dryder (silver)
 * 28 Shadow Nightmare
 * 28 Cursed Dream Rider

Golden Gates

 * Normal Mode
 * 28 Grasp of Insanity
 * 26 Torment Claw
 * 22 Chained Soul
 * 28 (30) Banished Dream Rider


 * Hard Mode
 * 30 Grasp of Insanity
 * 28 Chaotic Energy
 * 29 Demon Spawn
 * 28 Shadow Nightmare
 * 28 Cursed Dream Rider
 * 28 Chaos Worms

The Courtyard

 * Team annihilation

The Hall of Heroes

 * Normal Mode
 * 28 Grasp of Insanity
 * 26 Torment Claw
 * 30 Chaos Wurm
 * 22 Chained Soul
 * 28 Terrorweb Dryder
 * 28 Wrathful Storm
 * 28 Banished Dream Rider
 * 30 The Darknesses x3


 * Hard Mode
 * 30 Grasp of Insanity
 * 32 Chaos Wurm
 * 26 Mindflay Spectre
 * 28 Chaotic Energy
 * 30 Terrorweb Dryder (silver)
 * 29 Demon Spawn
 * 32 The Darknesses x3
 * 28 Shadow Nightmare
 * 28 Cursed Dream Rider
 * 28 Chaos Worms
 * }

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Old enemies, new builds

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New enemies

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The Shadow Nightmare's purpose would be the same as the Chained Souls', but more effective. It's focus on touch skills, so someone with "Can't Touch This" would be capable of countering it - thus allowing a balanced group to be more effective than an A/Me bot.

The Cursed Dream Riders and the others are merely to fill in the missing professions as per my NM/HM suggestion previously linked. Cursed Dream Riders use Anguish but lack hexes as per the NM/HM suggestion where HM enemies have builds that compliment each other - in essence, the ritualist relies on the necromancers and mesmers to provide hexes for it.

The "Chaos Worm"s would use a very small model of the Chaos Wurms - basically being a worm rather than a wurm but with the same model. They act as a "shoutless paragon" - like Chaos Wurms, they will not be stationary.

Chaotic Energies act as a support to the group while also being annoying to the party (wells!).

Team Annihilation enemies
In normal mode, the teams consists of 6 - 1 of each core profession. In hard mode, the teams consist of 10 - 1 of each profession. There would be two maps with a team annihilation set up. All enemies' levels would be 20 - whether hard mode or normal mode. The increase in difficulty is meant to be in the diversity of professions for these guys, not higher numbers (e.g., 6 enemies will be exactly the same in both hard mode and normal mode - it's the other 4 which makes up the differences).

The Team Annihilation enemies would be the Unworthy Dead, and will share the same builds as those in the first map. The difference is that the Team Annihilation maps will contain multiple teams - one fought after the other - and the first level will have half of the professions.

All Unworthy Dead will share the same name, but will have different models. This is designed to make it harder to distringuish which is what profession - in PvP, you can't rely on names until after you distringuished who's who via model or skills; the lack of being able to distringuish outside of the target system will make this harder than PvP but this is part of the difficulty raise to compensate for having less skilled enemies compared to PvP (and fewer enemies compared to most PvE).

Another difference between these guys and normal enemies is that they have 8 skills in Normal Mode as well (but are still subject to the one-campaign-only rule).

Relic Runner enemies
All runners would be rangers.

Kill the Boss enemies
For those levels which have some big nasty blocking the path - much like how the Hall of Heroes map is set up.

Broken Tower I've pulled some skills from the List of removed skills, but altered what they do:
 * Unique skills

60
 * Skill. Creature kneels until knocked down or interrupted. Every 3 seconds, a Grasps of Chaos is summoned to this location.

10 15
 * Stance. For 10 seconds, when you hit any foe with an attack, all conditions on you are transferred to all adjacent opponents.

The Hall of Heroes

Fingers of Chaos
This skill is very complex and very out of date. It has no affect one half of the professions. An alternate change was discussed before - to couple every effect to affect 2 professions. I have a more, simpler, way to alter this:

5 8
 * Skill. (monster only) For 4 seconds, your attacks cannot miss and you have a 50% chance to interrupt spells.

This prevents things like Shadow Form farming while also proving a nuisance to balanced groups but not too much of a nuisance that balanced groups cannot fight against the skill. Against non-casters, they merely bypass attempts to not get hit, while with casters they have an inconsistent chance to interrupt spells. Also changed to a generic skill from a stance so that it cannot be ended.

Rewards
The first improvement in regards to rewards needed would be to add statue to HoM (model of one or three Darknesses). After that...

Ectoplasm
Since this is in the Rift, I see no reason why not to have enemies that drop ectoplasm - though not every one would obviously. Old enemies that drop them would continue to drop them, as would the some of the new enemies. In the end, the ecto-dropping monster list for Tombs would be:
 * Chaotic Energy
 * Cursed Dream Rider
 * Banished Dream Rider
 * Mindflay Spectre
 * Shadow Nightmare
 * Terrorweb Dryder
 * Tormentweb Dryder (silver)

End Chest
In order to make a chest work, the removal of Unique (green) Weapon drops from Darknesses. The chest would spawn after the defeat of the last Darkness is defeated, nearby where they originally were.


 * Chest Drops
 * Darkened Summoning Stone
 * Celestial Sigil (Hard Mode only)
 * 2 (in Normal Mode) or 4 (in Hard Mode) of the following:
 * Glob of Ectoplasm, Obsidian Shard, Ruby, Sapphire, Diamond, or Onyx Gemstone
 * Random Unique (green) Weapon
 * Random Rare (gold) Weapon


 * New Items
 * Shadow Summoning Stone (summons a non-boss Darkness)
 * 5 new "Shadow" skins - new/change Unique (green) Weapons (chest only) and Rare (gold) Weapons (add skins to Shadow Army drops as well)
 * Add 8 new "Shadow" skins as rare (gold) weapons - using both existing skins from Category:Shadow weapons and new weapons to finish the set (includes expansion weapons/attributes).
 * Suggestion on spear design: ; daggers - black dual Blood Knifes; Focus - Kole's Gauntlet's skin
 * Staffs, Wands, and Focuses would use all attributes of a single profession and be named " Summit "
 * For example: Necromancer Summit Staff would have the requirements: 9 Curses, 9 Blood, 9 Death, and 9 Soul Reaping
 * Shields would include all 4 possible attributes.
 * All weapons would be inscribable.
 * Use existing greens and add more green weapons, using the gold's skins.
 * Victo's Bulwark – Add Tactics to requirements; Caster Unique Weapons – Add all attributes of the profession its for;
 * Nadijeh’s Spear and Nadijeh’s Courage (Motivation/Command Shield)
 * Assassin - daggers; dervish - scythe; ritualist - staff and focus
 * Staff of Heroes (Chest only drop *all caster primary attributes in one* - new skin) - Suggestion on skin: or
 * Hero’s Bastion (Shield – Tactics, Strength, Motivation, Command *all in one*)