I know I’m in the minority but Haunted Mines never really bothered me. I always felt it was a wild, chaotic, fun match going up and down the mines.

I’m torn between two different ideas. The first is during the skull phase all players are forcibly teleported into the mine. There is no way out and the exits are blocked by rubble or magic from the Raven Lord and/or The Grave Keeper. However, you can hearth back to the hall of storms to heal and then teleport back into the mine. You cannot leave the hall of storms, there is simply a portal inside the hall of storms back to the mine and you cannot exit. I’ve also thought of several ways the players can be arranged during the mine teleport phase:

- Randomly placed

- Pseudo-randomly placed (There are 10 pre-determined locations)

- Each phase teams are placed on opposite sides apart from the other team

Another mechanic is to add minecarts that travel on predetermined tracks. Imagine Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It would be fun to see teammates flying by above and below you, going underground briefly and appearing again. This is another movement assisting mechanic such as the portals on Towers of Doom and Warhead Junction or the moving tracks on Volskaya.

Once all 100 skulls are collected players can now leave through several different exits that are now unblocked, or just hearth.

The second idea is to discourage pushing cheese during the skull collecting phase. Once the skull phase begins all merc camps disappear. Towers, Forts, Keeps and the Core gain 25% range and their damage is doubled. I’ve thought of maybe even adding 20 armor to all structures. This would definitely discourage attempting to push during the skull phase. You could still do it, but likely not advised.

Let me know which version you like better, or if there are any other improvements I missed.

TL;DR

Option 1 - A forced, inescapable thunderdome in the mines until the skulls are collected.

Option 2 - Towers, Forts. Keeps and Cores are buffed so much you might as well just go into the mine. Merc camps disappear too.

*Edit - A few things slipped my mind. (It's been what, 4-5 years since it's been in rotation?)

Suggestion by u/Senshado - Both lanes should not get a golem at the end of the objective. The first to 50 skulls get the golem the other team doesn't get anything. I like that. Or, all the skulls need to be collected and it affects how strong the objective winning teams golem is, similar to BoE. There would have to be 99 skulls to avoid a 50-50 tie though.

There's also been some comments on the golem scaling or the golems not being strong enough. Ok, then let's tweak the numbers and make them stronger.