As a high-end PvEr (40+ FotM on two characters, Dungeon Master with all explorables on farm) I, along with many others, have found a lack of engagement in the current dugeon endgame system. It is clear that, as the amount of available AR increases with more ascended gear coming out, Agony will need to find a place in the game at-large, not just in fractals – confining it to only that particular dungeon trivializes Agony Resistance and makes Fractals feel too alien compared to the rest of the game in terms of strategy, difficulty, and party composition.
How to deal with these issues? Kill two birds with one stone.
I suggest creating a third tier of dungeon difficulty (hard, heroic, whatever), available only to players who have completed all paths of that particular dungeon. In this mode, players can run the explorable paths as normal except the degree of difficulty is increased in terms of mob hp/damage, and boss attacks should apply agony.
Attacks such as Alpha’s dragon tooth/spike ring, GL’s projectiles, Kohler’s spin, etc applying agony would make the dungeons more punishing and exciting for experienced players.
This will make agony resistance desirable and grant a new challenge to top-end PvErs, and would not require a huge amount of new programming to implement.
Discuss!