the mines mix things up by shifting priority, as well as making sure you are not just ignoring ads, because in the Skolas fight, ads are just as important as the big guy himself. juggling the taint makes for intense teamwork, as you cant have everybody just doing their own thing. you guys gotta stick together and move as a team. whats with people and the term "artificially increasing"? whats a natural increase? tension is being increased here, and as even you yourself stated, mines and taint DO increase the tension, so whats artificial about that? what would be a natural tension increase? its also not random at all, as everything triggers based on Skolas' health, so proper planing handles everything to the letter. personally I found Skolas very challenging and especially fun, post burn era (during burn it was just ridiculous; Skolas would 1 shot you, or the captains would rush and murder everybody. or during arc all of the ads would cut us down with their tracking bullets, ugh, that was absolutely no fun at all. oh and all of the yellow-bars too, blergh.) Skolas has given me ciphers 4/7 times, while 34s have yielded only 1 out of dozens. PoE gear is comparable to raid gear, giving special weapon loader and heavy ammo etc. its the weapons that fall flat, but thats only because of a single perk shortage. they all handle really well though, and have good base stats. its primarily Fatebringer that outshines everything else, as it is too good of a gun (12 rounds base? thats crazy high for a HC, especially for its impact as well. firefly makes it go from a precision killer to a crowd oblitorator, and finally outlaw grants it ridiculous reload speed. all of its perks make up for its shortcomings as a HC, so it has almost no weaknesses, which is why its too good of a gun. the only gun that comes close is Fang and VoC, both of which have very strong stats and the highest mag capacities of their class. but they are not as strong as FB because ok perks; VoCs full-auto is for the lazy, just like fangs 3rd eye, and zen moment is kind of weak, as VoC can have almost maxxed stability right off the bat, and Fangs mark/spray and play hardly help much [mag really high as it is, hardly ever empty it to reload]. other than those the rest of the raid weapons are pretty w/e or situational, just like the PoE primaries. yes, they are still overall better, but not by that big of a margin, with the exception of the prior 3.) regardless though, its ultimately up to the individual to decide the worth of the rewards, both reliable and un, as well as the time required to invest. that being said, I would recommend doing Skolas, with a Key, once. after that even i would say meh.