Progression Unworthy Grind Spots

I have come to notice that some of the "official" grind spots aren't quite up to par when compared to other areas near them. This is only one example, but let us take a look at a grind spot in Molten Heights found at [1160 17 -5518]:

Contains

• Level 91 Ignis which have 24200 HP and give about 1600 Combat XP
• Level 92 Lower World Guardians which have 52000 HP and give around the same XP as the Ignis despite having over double the HP

Now let's take a look at a neighboring cave that does not contain starred enemies, found at [1250 72 -5615]:

Contains

• Level 91 Bauxic Brutes, the most common spawn here, which have 6850 HP and give around 1450 XP
• Level 92 Paheao Flamecasters which have 25500 HP and give around 4800 XP
• Level 95 Obsidian Guards which have 28000 HP and give around 5200 XP

The above observations were made at level 93 with +33% XP bonus

Note that these two areas have comparable spawn rates, and that being said, it seems that the latter is more suitable for farming.

Is this intended? Am I missing something key here or are these areas in need of some rebalancing?
As a side note, I want to emphasize that this thread does not apply to all of the officially marked grind spots, but there are a few that seem to be in a similar situation as this example.

I am curious to see what your thoughts are on the matter, and I thank you for stopping by.

 

For level 60-ish, Great Bridge is more xp-intensive than Herb Cave (including the fire-themed grind mobs nearby). That said, Great Bridge is also extremely dangerous to grind on, with the sheer quantity of mobs and how powerful the archers are.

 

This makes sense, but I remember the appeal of grind spots being that the starred mobs give substantially more experience in accordance to how much stronger they are than enemies in the surrounding area (the grind spot west of Olux comes to mind, where the enemies are difficult to kill but grant a satisfying 1000+ XP per kill if I remember correctly), in addition to the increased respawn rate. On the other hand, there also exist grind spots where the starred enemies are not very difficult to kill yet still grant a large amount of XP (I have come across two of these in the Canyon of the Lost). I suppose what I'm suggesting for now is a bit more consistency across the official grind spots...?

With that said, the amount of XP granted by the enemies of this particular grind spot in Molten Heights seems a bit underwhelming given how difficult they are to kill (especially solo, with their erratic movement on top of the large HP pool). I will give the grind spot one more look with consumables when I have the chance (because what are "friends"?), but I do not think it will serve me any better than the nearby cave.

 

I returned with an intelligence, strength, dexterity, and agility potion (my build was mainly agi/dex) and I still wasn't satisfied with the results (the Lower World Guardians are probably my biggest gripe with this particular grind spot). I did a bit of exploring and made my way to the other grind spot in the northern region of Molten Heights and I can say it was a much better experience, with the enemies accompanying the Ignis having a similar health pool and the powerful Balrog yielding a satisfying 10000+ XP most of the time.

In short, no, it was not worth buying consumables and farming at [1160 17 -5518]. However, at the time of writing this post, I am playing solo as Assassin so there is no way that I represent "most players" either. I feel it would be incredibly difficult to strike a balance in the appeal for grind spots for both solo and group play without a mechanic such as enemy health scaling based on the number of players in the area (which I don't know whether it has been brought up and is planned or if it is even possible to begin with).

 

I'd like to point out the same with regards to Reawakened Idols. For mobs wielding 27k health (incidentally, Psychomancer, a level 80ish boss, has 100k), they only yield a paltry 2.5k base xp (estimated based on my xp bonus, I received just under 3k each). Seeing as many of the regular Dernel Jungle mobs, with barely 10-15% of that health, give a solid 1k, that's a pretty useless grind spot.