I understand the point of making the spells, to increase the challenge...but if TOFS is any indication...pulling a large room of 6 on level 3 (blue mobs to level 75) can beat my group down to 50 %.  This isn't just some randomly geared group with whatever armor I could spare for them...they are full T7 armor with 7.0's, full strikes and UCv2.  We're talking blue con mobs on only the 3rd floor as opposed to even con mobs in T7 that are clustered in a LOT of areas.  The spells need to be somewhat reasonable when implemented to expect anyone to be able to progress, I'm not saying resistable but reasonable...they can do damage but the rate at which they do this damage can't be an automatic wipe on an overpull because the stuns mixed with the rains and direct damage spells are too much to mitigate with hp and armor.

Gonna have to agree, if this "tuning" is anything like the clusterfuck TOFS is as far as (effectively) irresistable spells being spammed repeatedly by multiple mobs...because in T7 there are a LOT of clustered mobs, then I doubt I'll bother.  I have 81 essences banked and my crew in full T7 with 7.0's, and I doubt I'll bother with it much until I at least bleed my eyes out in previous content to work on UW up to the point I actually need Loping essences.  I'll go in there and try it out a few times  after the changes I'm sure, but if it's just an exercise in futility I'll log on enough to choke down what I can of essence farming lower tiers til I can at least get my warrior high enough resists to survive...but I doubt I'll bother with more than 1 character for UW.

Maybe start putting heroic resists on some of the T5 or T6+ armor pieces if you really expect anyone to take a 6 or 12 man crew in there and accomplish much.  Sorry if I'm overreacting but after spending the better part of a full week in TOFS, I'm gonna assume it's along the same lines of *balance*

I haven't been around much lately, but just wanted to chime in that I'd much rather spend my time doing UCv2 than the mindless chore that's UC...v1 charms aren't bad at all now but if v2 are as rare as people are saying, let me do the UCv2 quest twice per character instead of wasting away in HoH.  I haven't touched ToFS yet but it doesn't sound like a viable alternative to HoH if the drops aren't significantly higher.

It isn't getting feared off the island that seems to be the issue,  for me at least...it's falling through the island when I get feared.

Sorry if my opinion differs, but I don't see a problem with v2 drop rates in HOH. Charm upgrades have been extremely streamlined for v1 drops and v2 are the same rate they always were. I am back in HOH farming v2 drops for my gimps and average 2 drops per clear of just Heavens mobs, mind you sometimes more and sometimes less... yeah they may not be the ones I need, but they aren't any less common than they were before the changes to LDoN and that was the hardest part for me to get motivated for.

Sorry, I just have to add my take on the whole NEED for UC to advance in T5.  I rock a 6 box group when I play...2 paladins, warrior, monk, bard and shaman.  2 of the characters have UC, main paladin and my monk with the other characters max charms being warrior with a 50 sorc, bard 50 sorc, second paladin 50 oracle while the shaman rocks a guardian 4.  I started actively doing T5 about a week ago and decided to focus on gearing the warrior first since I switched him to main tank after T4.  I got my ass kicked pretty consistently not just from named mobs, but from the trash too.  I kept pushing and have been able to get armor drops for the warrior, every drop making it easier to survive encounters and in the last week I've geared the warrior in full T5, knocked out coral event for warrior and UC paladin and picked up various upgrades for the rest of the group.  Would it be easier if I sucked it up and finished the warrior's UC?  Fuck yes!  Is it absolutely required that I UC the main tank in my group before I even consider setting foot in T5?  Fuck no!
Sorry about the long diatribe, but my point is that UC grind sucks, it sucks so bad that I went into T5 expecting to fully get my ass handed to my because of all the horror stories I've read/heard regarding the NEED for UC and still was more willing to do that than finish the mindless grind that is UC.  I don't enjoy doing LDON, but I also realize that doing it isn't required to progress but it makes it a hell of a lot easier to do so.  Suck it up and take your beatings while you push forward or shut up and slum it in LDON a while to make it easier on yourself, but I don't think the system is broken.