is this a bug or a game mechanism?

I am not sure whether the act of ferrying people into the last quest of Duncan elite dungeon is a bug or a game mechanism.

here is how it works.

the Duncan's door will not be made accessible unless the other 4 quests have been done.

however the whole team can be ferried to Duncan if there is only 1 person in the team who have killed all the other 4 quests....

which makes this a very good economical opportunity for that person who had done the 4 quests, not trying to killing off Duncan, and keep on ferrying people into the Duncan's room..

this is manifested by people in Umbral Grotto, advertising ferry trips to Duncan , pricing around 1-2k per person in the team.

the run will generally take less than 4-5 minutes, and that person will be able to earn around 7-14k per run if there are a lot of groups going in.

However it seems to me this is not the same for chap 2's elite mission or other kind of ferrying, because Duncan can be killed in this way, very quick and the Hierophant's Chest can be exploited many many times, without going through the so called "whole elite dungeon" quest.

I just wonder, if that is okay for this kind of ferry to be continued.

So, are they just mapping out after getting them into the room?

the person who ferries people may decide to stay in the group, and upon the death of Duncan, leave the game and ferry another group of people..

so yes.. he can just leave the room, or

he can stay and make Duncan nearly die and leave the game.. and rinse..the quest again..

it seems to me the reward of that chest and the difficulty will then become an issue of too high rewarding for just a short quest.

where the reward is not for benefiting the player's skill but game exploitation.

Considering that Slavers' Exile will completely crush an unwary group, I think it benefits SOME skill. And personally, I like it better than DoA, where it was almost impossible to complete the final part without a near perfect group.

Slaver's Exile is henchable.

Some people however prefer to get straight to the point, and have no problem dishing out money for it.

So.... where's the problem? Complete the first parts, then ferry people and make money. This will drive the prices down, and make you rich at the same time.

Why shouldn't someone sell skill and ingenuity? If it's so easy, why doesn't everyone do it?

straight to the point without doing anything supposed to do, then why not just put a chest outside an outpost and drop 10 gold items at a time?

Isn't that what Nightfall did with the free chests?

It's not a scam, and IMO, not an exploit (although Anet might see it differently).

If it stay this way, we can assume Anet is OK with it, like running level 1 characters to Droks. If it changes, the gods have spoken and decreed it immoral.

It's probably an exploit. If so, ANet is working on it right now (rather than fixing other things in GW:EN )

Well it would be easily fixable... EVERYONE has to complete all other quests before Mallyx is playable.

It's too hard to find a full group of 8 who have completed the first bosses before duncan...

yeah, its allways asked in my alliance, has anyone beaten a couple of the slavers quests? then we grab a team and do the rest of them and beat it. I dont think this should be changed. Its hard enough to get up a all human team for dungeons as is. Plus, you are missing a lot of drops by skipping to the end anyway.

Then why can a person beat GWEN in an hour or so, by being in a group with a person that has beat it, they can take the person to the final 2 or 3 quests and go beat the Great Destroyer????

well if the chest really only drops 3 items (according to wiki) for an 8-person team, then I don't see any reason at all for people not going in there the quick route. If 8 people beat the dungeons then 8 people should get rewarded. If wiki isn't right, then disregard my comment.

I remember back in my enlisted days giving half of a brief to a bigwig from somewhere I can don't want to mention. After the brief was over he had his pet lieutenant (every bigwig usually has one) give the other guy a coin (1 per brief). It kinda makes you feel like shit. Then again, as the poster above me (judging by his name and chevron) will probably attest, that's what officers do lol.. It relates. 8 people go through the dungeons, 1, 2 or 3 people get the reward, the rest kinda feel like shit.

EDIT: Ok, scratch my comment then. Another entry in a different place mentions it does drop 3 items PER player. If that one's right, my argument goes away. Still its a game, and although I like to eventually do everything, some people like other stuff, like showing off wares and stuff. More power to them. It doesn't affect my play and only really affects people who play to trade, which more power to them as well.

it drops 3 items per player

Come on guys, this is ANet! It's not a bug, it's a feature!

Getting a green from the Hierophant's Chest is very rare. My group did 5 runs last night (ferried every time for 1k a piece) and only 3 greens weps dropped. Thats 35 times the chest was opened and only 3 green weps. So unlike the Mallyx chest where eveyone gets a green weapon, you really need to grind at this to get anything decent.

I'd say it's not a bug.

It's just like farming Final Assault in Sorrows. You can tag along with someone who already did the other quests and has it available.

I started ferrying tonight and have lined my pockets nicely.