Changes Could Be Made To Certain Aspects Of The Se

Quoting Aledar verbatim from A Journey Further:

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  • Aledar: That blade there...it's made for sacrifice. See how that gate is shut?
  • Aledar: In order to open the doors to the Outlook, we need to sacrifice a powerful soul.
  • Aledar: If you haven't gotten it already, the plan was to sacrifice our fourth. It's why I was hesitant about having you come along, though it was perfect.
  • Aledar: Think about it. A soldier with no relations, no loved ones, and no way to deny their fate. But...
  • Aledar: I've been mulling it over since we got to the town... You'll sacrifice me instead. I won't take no for an answer.

Would you really want someone you ventured from Fruma with, kill you just because they want to enter the Outlook and then casually wipe (we all know how unreliable NPCs are) because apparently plot armor decides to cease all existence and lead to a partial party wipe in AJB?

Besides, both Elphaba and Lucio had their shortcomings:
Elphaba: Easily distraught by an illusion. Her liver was "snatched" by an Irtitack, and when she went after it... well, let's just say "dead" would be an understatement.
Lucio: Too boisterous for his own good. He is probably the most impulsive of your 4-man party, and died because it was a good idea to talk to strangers you find in a dark and occult area. Spoiler alert: It's not.
It's (probably) better for them to stay dead. At least Death would have a short chat with them (might create a few drabbles about it somewhere).

There's an audio cue for Wretches spawning. They always spawn from the center-back, and have an ominous counter over their head, with a dark green name that sticks out like a sore thumb.
Wretches aren't even the biggest issue. They're there as distractions. Distractions that prove fatal if you can't deal with them in time.
The biggest issue... is the eating attack. Better known by the eye-stabbing community as "VORE VORE VORE", mainly because it imprisons you (safe from the laser, fortunately) and causes you to take damage if The Eye itself also takes damage[citation needed].

As someone above said:

They have somewhat set in stone spawn points anyway, so you can grind them. Kind of.

There's two major grind spots in EO. One of them is the Glow Bulb cave, which was the subject of a territory abuse in the Guilds community (has since been patched - Glow Bulb no longer belongs to any territory). The other one is the chapel-like structure in the high ground that leads to the Eyeball challenge (infamous for being camped for its T3/4 chests), containing All-Seeing [somethings] and Sated Gluttons. Both of which are Grind mobs. You really need to check the map more often.

Dern Portal area is more or less supposed to be barren. This is to Dern, what Light's Secret is to the Realm of Light.

Tol rune does not need a challenge on its own. Sure, you can buy the Runes from the market from the get go and cut out the middlemen that are the Nii Guardians and Uth Altars, but bear in mind that there's an Ironman gamemode. The challenge is you traveling to Gavel to get the Nii runes (or Corkus to get the Uth runes, mainly because the Golden Avia mobs spawn there, and quite often), then going back to the Silent Expanse. You can make the travel shorter with Teleport scrolls, but you get the picture.

I'm pretty sure you just slapped on some random items and called it "a build". Ask a class builder to make you a proper build, or use the Morph set (easily the most powerful set in the game, bar none).