I've seen lots of suggestions for how to make VR more manageable. Lifestone at the tree, automatically award the recall, sell portal gems, award portal gems and so on. These are all interesting, but I think there is a single thing that could be done that would solve the issues and at the same time leave the area necessary for new weapon upgrades and still very hard to get through.
STOP TAKING AWAY ESSENCES!
If I could hang on to essences I've collected, a death at lvl 7 just means I have to either clear a path to each portal statue on the way back, which is all that we currently have to do, or make a mad dash to the portal stone and hope I can open it and use it before I am mightily smited. Those who prefer the mad dash method are most likely going to find themselves at their lifestone, so the way the area works won't change too much, since you still need to kill quite a few monsters to collect amber. What this change would do is change the current dynamic where hour upon hour upon hour are literally wasted when you die at a late stage of the area.
On Verdantine, there are only a handful of us who are willing to go at all. There are only two of us who are willing to keep going and going and going. When my 2-3 man group gets divided by death, I am hesitant to abandon my progress to go back for them, and they are largely unable to catch up without me. My character currently has 25 essence on him, but that means nothing since they'll be stripped as soon as I go back in. Allowing me to keep them would give me a fair shot at actually making it to the tree, since I'd only need to make it to the portal stone to do it. This doesn't in any way diminish the challenge of getting to the active portal stones. I collected those 25 essences all in level 3, but still wasn't able to make it on my own to an active portal statue, thus the reason why I'm not there but still have them.
Keep them attuned and untradable, heck, even put a cap on them, like you can only carry 50. Or put a weight on them to make stockpiling them a costly option. But don't make us start from scratch every single time, especially since we have SO MANY trips to make if we want Paragon weapons.
Make this change and all of the rest becomes bearable, while not eliminating the challenge or allowing people to simply skip it. I don't think it is fair to allow a character who is incapable of overcoming the challenge to reap the benefits at the center, but modifying how the essences are handled will make it possible for more people to make it to the center over time.
STOP TAKING AWAY ESSENCES!
If I could hang on to essences I've collected, a death at lvl 7 just means I have to either clear a path to each portal statue on the way back, which is all that we currently have to do, or make a mad dash to the portal stone and hope I can open it and use it before I am mightily smited. Those who prefer the mad dash method are most likely going to find themselves at their lifestone, so the way the area works won't change too much, since you still need to kill quite a few monsters to collect amber. What this change would do is change the current dynamic where hour upon hour upon hour are literally wasted when you die at a late stage of the area.
On Verdantine, there are only a handful of us who are willing to go at all. There are only two of us who are willing to keep going and going and going. When my 2-3 man group gets divided by death, I am hesitant to abandon my progress to go back for them, and they are largely unable to catch up without me. My character currently has 25 essence on him, but that means nothing since they'll be stripped as soon as I go back in. Allowing me to keep them would give me a fair shot at actually making it to the tree, since I'd only need to make it to the portal stone to do it. This doesn't in any way diminish the challenge of getting to the active portal stones. I collected those 25 essences all in level 3, but still wasn't able to make it on my own to an active portal statue, thus the reason why I'm not there but still have them.
Keep them attuned and untradable, heck, even put a cap on them, like you can only carry 50. Or put a weight on them to make stockpiling them a costly option. But don't make us start from scratch every single time, especially since we have SO MANY trips to make if we want Paragon weapons.
Make this change and all of the rest becomes bearable, while not eliminating the challenge or allowing people to simply skip it. I don't think it is fair to allow a character who is incapable of overcoming the challenge to reap the benefits at the center, but modifying how the essences are handled will make it possible for more people to make it to the center over time.