I was talking to a Guildie this morning. He encouraged me to go to Hexe (Elvia).

SPECIFICALLY: Marni Realm - Elvia Hexe.

Black Desert has a number of serious flaws that currently make grinding not particularly advantageous. These are:

1. Obstructures (ground clutter)

2. One-Shot Mechanics

3. Stun or Knockdown Mechanics (lead to being oneshot)

4. No means of getting Combat Experience through Combat.

5. Punished for Playing (your class, usually).

Marni Realm - Elvia Hexe overcomes all of these issues.

This is very good and should be replicated. Let's see if we can uncover why. 

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Marni Realm - Elvia has a "good geographic layout"

1. No Obstructions (on the ground)

A notable "feature" of BDO is that most Dekhia and High End grind locations have a "central obstruction". 

The central obstructure always blocks accesss to the "micro arena" you are forced to fight in. 

Classes who "travel" or "long mobility" action come with an iFrame get an immediate boost to loot per hour because of this.

Classes who "travel" or "long mobility" action do NOT come with an iFrame get an immediate punishment for existing permenantly because of this.

"the medium is the message". 

- The devs are clearly telling everyone who is negatively affective by "central obstructions" to quit the game.

-- they have been doing this for many years.

Summary:

Marni Realm - Elvia Hexe seems to have been "forgotten" in its passive aggressive snub to the majority of the playerbase. Leading to a fantastically enjoyable experience "traveling" within the combat arena AND receiving loot fairly (novel concept in and of itself).

Marni Realm - Elvia can be "customized"

THIS

THIS is the great innovation! 

You three packs of creatures with an UNOBSTRUCTED floor tile.  This means LOOT is being received fairly (mostly). iFrame travelers still have the benefit of not "colliding" with mobs, but low forward mobility classes are not immediately inhibited from grinding. (thanks). 

The major innovation is now set up from this immediately above. 

With travel unhindered a player can PICK to move between locations INTELLIGENTLY.

- Here you've achieved three things.

a) you've stopped insulting the player for not playing the classes you favor

b) you've stopped insulting the player's free-will by deciding to change from pack A, B, or C ... AT NEED

c) you've stopped insulting the player's intelligence for seeing and then taking advantage of these conditions

This results in something new to BDO:

d) options

Pay close attention here because you've got some incredible MONEY sitting here. 

- What you've done with this set up is make all the base conditions to create something like MAPS from Path of Exile. 

See, the player has some freedom to "customize" the experience.

a) focus on packs one at a time

- doing this is the slowest way to grind the marni realm, but safest. 

- low loot, but safe

b) focus on "gorillas". I'm not sure what the big undead guys are, but they remind me of "gorillas". Like the song, "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V_xRb0x9aw" 

It seems that you want to go from pack to pack rapidly killing the "gorillas" while also destroying as many "packs" as possible. 

Doing this leaves a lot of loot behind. Leading to the first hint of how you've got the area very close to how "Maps" work in Path of Exile. 

Another factor is that destroying the Gorillas seems to "up" the Difficulty of a Pack. 

Finally, clearing Packs ups the difficulty of the Tomb Stone Dudes which super charges both the Packs AND the Gorillas.

See what you've done? You've given the player a "throttle". 

- And the player can readily kill themselves with it by going just a little "too fast". 

- This is why having the ability to 'escape' to another pack from the one they super charged works so well here.

- something not possible if you'd stuck with the usual obnoxiousness of punishing players with 'the wrong class' using the "central obstruction"

Along with this you've got Mari herself (boss spawn), a explodey wolves, and soldiers. AND the big rift boss spawn (meta boss).

- Call this "flavor"

This also meaningfully moves Combat Exp. From level 66 forward.

- I know, terribly strange to get Combat Exp. from combat! So, so, very strange. 

Unfortunately, you throttle "fun" by limiting the "reward" of killing the boss... "relief" ...from being applicable except once an hour. 

- In other words, you actually punish your players for beating the boss?? By refusing to award them the AP reward, but instead blocking in? 

"the medium is the message"

You are telling the player's that their skill and ability are to be punished in doing this. Otherwise, this is simply the best content available in BDO at this time. 

Conclusions:

Marni Realm - Hexe (Elvia) is the most well designed spot in the game. Awarding players for being artful, skillful, and decisive AT THEIR LEISURE with a number of playful elements and flavorful moments. 

Whoever designed it needs an award. Well done.

- Please replicate this. The game would be so, so, very much improved with just a little more "customization" of this kind. 

Really great job.

Correction: 

"Maps" was the old mechanic. 

The mechanic from Path of Exile that this reminds me of is Lake of Kalandra.

In Lake of Kalandra players could somewhat "customize" the combat they would have each "map" (Marni) experience. 

this is a view from a gearlet.

if i go marni = where the monsters at? why do they respawn so slowly???

Obstacles, One-shot Mechanics, and CC (which delays players and often leads to being one-shot), are all prominent elements of high-end content and boss fights. These things make gameplay less smooth, and we would be better off without them. Here's hoping the new bosses do not include these elements.