Feedback:User/Racthoh/Balthazar's Coliseum - PvE Madness

Three memorable PvE moments go as thus; the first quest in Ravenheart Gloom (To The Rescue!), the waves of enemies killed before approaching Mallyx, Zos Shivros challenge missions. The common theme here is endless combat, but each had their faults. 'To The Rescue!' was a part of the Domain of Anguish and thus plague by poor design with lazy difficulty ala environmental effects. Punishing players simply because of their profession is not fun. The waves before Mallyx are a joy but spending a few hours clearing the Domain of Anguish for 20 minutes of fun isn't. Zos Shivros is probably the closest, but you're awarded Luxon faction and the waves stop being a challenge once you reach the turtle spawning phase. The frantic nature associated with endless combat has limitless potential, if done right.

Another hot topic that has seen a lot of discussion is the matter of seven heroes so I'll throw that into the mix as well.

What I am suggesting is another challenge mission, one that will hardly require much work to implement. The basics are you have a team of eight in a closed off area, enemies will spawn randomly in a manner similar to the waves before Mallyx (appearing from all sides, spawning from the ground), and you are awarded based on how long you survive and how quickly enemies are killed as they spawn. You are rewarded points at one minute intervals and whenever an enemy dies with the aforementioned criteria to ward off players who seek to use invincible type builds. No consumables can be used, no morale boosts are given. Just pure mindless chaos.

I hesitantly suggest assistance at timed intervals. For example, a random NPC appearing to assist the party every 5 minutes either offering a defensive position depending on the number of people who have died/amount of healing done or an offensive role if the group is missing too many points as a result of slow kills. The NPC would fight with the group until killed and would be treated as a party member so it benefits equally from all skill mechanics. The reason I hesitantly suggest such a factor stems from the potential abuse that would undoubtedly arise through the formulas that determine which NPC would arrive. If that can be avoided then it would certainly add more fire to the chaos as enemy mobs could increase in relation to the number of NPC allies.

Zos Shivros' waves of enemies eventually stop, this mission would not. The quantity and variety would simply increase, as would the pace of their arrival. It is imperative that the groups enter from different angles as to avoid AoE balling once the mob becomes too great. It is a must that the enemies be capable of handling everything, from "Save Yourselves!" to Shadowform, nothing will be uncounterable. Also important that the enemies continue to spawn and not wait until a particular wave is dead similar to the waves before Mallyx. The players shouldn't be allowed a reprieve similar to the 'To The Rescue!' endurance battle.

Regarding the earlier notion of seven heroes I would suggest a separate listing for players who enter solo, with a twist. A full team of eight should be the minimum, but if a player wants to enter solo then their build making skills should be tested as well. Allow the player to enter four of their heroes as henchmen, with three using the hero interface. As another alternative allow the player to enter a full team of eight hero bars and observe their ability to clear the endless waves, another way to test the potential of player creativity when designing builds.

Rewards should be available to entice an audience. While I'm not sure how popular challenge missions are as a whole it would seem Speed Clearing is the popular past time for good reason. Gold, materials, title track progression depending on what enemies spawn, just something that would draw attention to the format.

If nothing will be done to the power creep this game has seen then something should be done to test the limits of that power. I respect the notion that the designers would like to rework the elite zones instead of nerfing skills but there is simply too much in play to make reworks ultimately worth the effort. While speed clears might no longer be possible in under half an hour if the Underworld is completely redesigned Essence of Celerity, Armor of Salvation, Grail of Might, and a batch of PvE skills will continue to make the areas a joke. If you truly want to restore the difficulty these places once offered you're talking about reverting almost everything we've seen introduced since the game started to expand beyond Tyria. I would question why such an effort was never made to PvP but that's beside the point. As the game is now it would be more entertaining and enjoyable to see what has been offered pushed to the brink from a PvE perspective.