I'm not saying this to be contradictory but yes I felt they were pretty bad week one. I wore them because it was the easiest way to hit 34 and I was under the false impression that the gear might actually get better. You can complete a 32 and 34 in less time than a 35 for the same guaranteed rewards and less hassle. And as far as killing Skolas at least once I'm not sure I agree with that either. I found the fight to be laughably random with the essence tainting and the mines are just artificially increasing the tension by forcing you to sprint across the map while passing taint. Is it hard? No I don't think so. Is it fun? No, I can't say as I find it fun or worth recommendation even for the "rewards". Even for the exotic bounties, I've had more drop on the 34's than I've seen for Skolas so it isn't even worth doing for those. The only value to Skolas at this point is for the triumphs if you want a shader and bragging rights.

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.

The essence tainting and mines are additions to the Skolas fight that just feel out of the blue. Skolas does nothing to taint you when you face him in the story mission and I don't recall hearing or seeing any mention of this mysterious power so it was simply put in to raise tension without any context. The mines are also just thrown in without any rime or reason to make the fight more difficult but again without context. In the story mission Skolas clearly has some sort of servitor fetish so the servitor bind doesn't seem to far out there and I can accept it pretty easily. But the other 2 don't ramp the tension because you can predict them, plan for them, and even wait until you're ready to handle them before triggering them so it is "artificial" in the sense that the tension doesn't gradually build or hit high points on its own since you can entirely plan for each piece. If the waves steadily got larger as Skolas called on more and more reinforcements that would feel more natural as it is grounded in Skolas's need to survive. If you could not permanently sever his bond and the bond stayed broken for a progressively shorter period of time so all your shots need to count that would be a natural ramping of tension. If he enraged and completely switched modes of attack and became more aggressive that would be a natural spike in tension because again it would be grounded in his desperate need to survive. That's what I mean when I say it is artificial, it is a seemingly random addition or added solely to make the situation more challenging without being grounded in any reason or lore. The ciphers are RNG, should have thought of that before I brought it up so it isn't really worth the debate. I agree it is up to the individual to determine the worth of the experience, I can't recommend Skolas for any good reason. Once for completion sake and then done.

eh, requiring some sort of justification for game mechanics is weak. at the end of the day it is a video game and fun mechanics take precedence over lore justification. how does Kraid throw so many fingers? how does sonic hold so many rings? how can your guy take so many bullets and after siting for a sec hes A-OK?

Actually it's called immersion and suspension of disbelief. Explaining game mechanics through lore is what allows them to be interesting and fun. Bungie asked us to be engaged in a story driven game so justification of these mechanics hardly seems weak. Sonic doesn't ask you to do anything but run and the story is just a token addition to the game. As far as being bullet sponges that is just how shooters have been designed to keep action flowing. I don't like it but that is the nature of the beast. At least in Destiny we are zombie light constructs and arguably not even alive so the bullet sponge thing is a bit easier to swallow.

point was games do it ALL the time, so its a very minor thing. Skolas was in the prison for a very long time, maybe its an environmental bonus like how Crota and Atheon have.

I guess we just differ there. While logic/reason get thrown to the wind often in the name of a quick and dirty way to provide challenge I can't agree that it happens all the time. You've accepted it and that's fine but I don't and I don't think the quality of games can improve by using the "it happens all the time" reason to excuse lazy design. I'm at a loss for how Skolas being in prison for a long time could possibly make him stronger unless Varriks was feeding him steroids or breading him for a new rise to power but that wouldn't fit the lore at all. Of course, the prison in general makes no sense and would be a whole other thread worth of discussion.