I made a recent post about some of my thoughts on the Lost Halls and the problems it has for the game. I decided to make a thread that better encompasses my opinions on the dungeon and what I think should be done, in addition to encouraging discussion on the topic.
The Lost Halls is easily the most rewarding standard dungeon out there: a completed run will give the successful a bare minimum of 2 mana, with a decent chance at loot totaling multiple life pots. The effects of this easy source of wealth are easy to see on the economy: the price of life has stayed low for quite some time now, only pushed down further by the occasional LH or tomb event. Life is cheap to buy, and as a result getting to 8/8 is easier than ever. There are many players out there with hundreds of life pots sitting in vaults and on mules, meaning that their need to buy life is low, further reducing the playerbase’s need for the once-coveted stat pots. Life pots, it almost seems, are worth more as a form of currency for buying other items than they are for their intrinsic value as a stat-boosting item (I do recognize that this statement is debatable at best, but I thought it worth adding).
But it’s not just stat pots. The Lost Halls has the most powerful tiered items out there for every item slot, in addition to some of the most powerful UT items in-game. The drop rate for these items seems about standard for dungeon whites, meaning that their power is balanced by the dungeon’s difficulty. The issue is that many players run LHs multiple times a day in massive groups, which results in a large influx of these powerful items, further reducing the need for players to buy tradable items. It also does not help that the new tops and UTs are soulbound, meaning that the dungeon isn’t bringing much of anything new to the economy, while further creating a need for players to run this dungeon to get the best items. It is true that these items are soulbound to prevent duping, but the fact that they are not tradable remains and continues to cause issue nonetheless.
Also, fame is a thing. Lost Halls has pretty much become the new Fame Train, with players running these regularly to net huge amounts of fame on their characters. This fame turns into pet upgrades, which makes the player stronger and… more likely to survive the Halls! (And everything else, for that matter…) Regardless of whether the fame is for a stronger pet or that sick red glow, there is plenty of motivation for players to farm the dungeon to make that number above their hp bar as big as possible.
So… why is all of this important? The reason is because the Halls is the best at all of these areas: it gives the most wealth, the most powerful items and it gives players a ton of fame. No other dungeon has this; when the Tomb was considered endgame, had good wealth and UT items, but no tiered items to speak of. The Shatters had good UTs and tiered items, but lacked sufficient pot drops to make it worthy of farming in excess unless you were skilled enough to avoid dying for long periods of time. And, of course, the Fame Train was the best way to build up large amounts of fame. No one place had everything. But nowadays, a player can get by pretty well with just farming Lost Halls and nothing else, and end up quite a bit richer than most (if they can avoid dying, that is). Why would they run anything else? Sure, other places have cool white bag items, but you can just wait for an event to run whatever it is. You farm Lost Halls until you’re tired of farming Lost Halls, at which point nothing else is worthwhile and you end up quitting the game (at least for a couple weeks).
But there is another issue: whether or not the game should be balanced around them, we must remember that hackers exist. And when you can avoid death via autonexus and have no risk associated with any of your dungeon runs, why would you run anything other than Halls? The risk is gone, and the rewards are high. When a player can avoid negative status effects or any risk of death whatsoever, the Halls because one big, juicy treasure trove to farm at whim. As much as I would love to say that we should ignore hackers and just balance things to regular players, that doesn’t work in an mmo, and right now, this one has a major hacker problem.
Alright, I’ve been pretty negative. So what feedback can I offer? I would suggest giving LH a niche. Maybe two. Perhaps remove the guaranteed potion drops for everybody, or reduce the fame each enemy gives. I think that having powerful tiered and untiered items is a good idea for a niche that LH could fill, meaning that it retains endgame status for those searching for the most powerful equipment, but players must run other dungeons to gain wealth and fame. Tombs could have (slightly) increased life pot drop rates to give more incentive to run the dungeon. The Parasite Chambers and Ice Cave already give large amounts of fame, so they can probably stay the way they are.
What do you think? Is the Lost Halls good the way it is? Would you like to see different changes? Let me know!
TL;DR: Lost Halls rewards op, decker nerf plis. Also, JimdaFish can’t summarize.
