[Slydria]

I agree that the PvE content is not enjoyable in some ways and can feel like a grind, especially when done by yourself.

Currently, most people rely on someone else on a suped up character with strong AoE capability to essentially play the game for them, people do this not just because it's significantly faster than the intended route (a boosted fight could take like a minute for what the intended route provides in a couple of hours) but also because the intended route can be very inconsistent and far more time consuming depending on your build and how lucky you are with the items you find on the way or the ones you can obtain from other players.

Another reason people accelerate the game is because they don't find it fun, this is honestly one of the things I have difficulty trying to put into words what's not fun about it and I think that's because it's quite different for many people:

It can feel like a slog:
Depending on your build, you can have significantly different clear speeds; a typical fight could take half a minute for some and upwards of five minutes for others. As your levels go on, the more fights of the same level you need only increases and thus only makes that slog all the more of a drain. This in particular can be an issue due to the next point...

Damage is King:
One of the best things about SL2 is the sheer variety of characters you could create... However, for getting through the game at a timely pace, being able to deal lots of damage is important. Not being able to do so only punishes characters that are not suited for damaging roles such as say a support focused Curate. This makes PvE feel more restrictive than it really should be.

High Risk does not necessarily mean High Reward:
Alright, let's say if you had the choice to fight a group of 3 Jammers and a group of 3 Spatials of the same level, which would you pick? If you're leveling up, you'd probably take the 3 Jammers simply because they're easier to fight.

I think this is something that contributes to people being bored because the best way to do things for experience and loot is the easiest and quickest way. Imagine if in the above scenario, those Spatials gave you twice the experience than the Jammers, that'd activately encourage players to go for the more challenging encounter and potentially put them in dangerous situations where they'd have to play more strategically to win.


So to sum up, the biggest problems I think PvE has are:

- The path to Level 60 is inconsistent and the time it takes varies greatly between characters.
- The intended way feels slow and dull, especially when compared to optimized methods.
- It rewards speed and quantity over actual difficulty.
- It encourages high damage and big AoE builds over others.



As for ideas to potentially help with this, I think you could consider things like:

Experience Changes:
Simply having it so more difficult monsters provide a higher amount of base experience given. The curve itself could perhaps use more smoothing out to make the climb feel less of a sudden steep point.

Combat Bonuses:
Bonuses the party earns for overcoming challenges or being a team player: Could be things such as a bonus for taking a lot of damage, fighting battles while being not being fully equipped, being supportive of your allies with buffs and healing, etc.

This would be ideally to help with speed being the most important factor for rewards in a PvE fight and cut back on damage roles being simply the best for leveling in PvE.

Improving Static Dungeons:
To me the Jammer Cavern is a mostly good example of a beginner dungeon that allows you to consistently reach Level 10 while providing access to some useful early game items and a couple of quests.

Ideally, I think places like either Static Dungeons like the Shilo Water Caverns or locations like the Goblin Cave, Old Iron Mines and Chinotoa could be expanded to be more like the Jammer Cavern to provide a more consistent foothold for players to progress. More floors, more chests for particular items, maybe additional quests or bosses for some extra experience and rewards, so they'll be more interesting than a just a massive BDP floor or one-use locale.