They looked at the data and saw sub-4 minute runs in some delves and thought it was far too fast for ANYONE to enjoy it so they are ‘tasking’ it up to slow it down.
If they add more moving parts to the delves…oof, talk about mistakes made in plain sight.
I don’t mind putting down the candle or poison totem - those are eh, a mild inconvenience at best.
But I refuse to do the underwater delves, or the delve that’s almost pitch black. (Seriously, does anyone like those 3? I know the pitch black one is just a story variant of Skittering Reach, but still … WHY?
Oh, and the delves where we have to shoot the pink egg to temporarily get rid of the webs. I hate timers on things, but aside from that, it’s bugged and my DH can’t get rid of them from range. 
Or my DK has to spend a rune to do it. If it was “free” like on a Hunter or Mage for everyone I’d be ok with it, but since it’s not … have to avoid those on half the roster as well.
I think the worst part is these annoyances aren’t delve specific, but rather story specific, so I have to go into the delve first to see if I even want to bother on a specific character. Unless there’s a way to tell what stories are up without going in. If there isn’t, then … I highly suggest they add this feature. 
I understand those little things are for the story but it feels like they came up with the most annoying things possible, then wrote the story around them.
I hate some of the new ones, such as the flying things that drop webs under your feet and endlessly spawn mobs. I can’t afk if needed or I come back dead or swarmed by mobs.
I like it when they have a reason for existing such as the old spores you could use to kill groups of mobs for you. Otherwise they seem to exist just to annoy players out of delves (and into keys…).
I don’t usually mind the torches or the air purifiers, but the versions that have you throwing them down every few seconds to not use them up can get tedious. I find the guys that yank me towards them in the underwater areas more annoying generally (got pulled off the edge from the momentum once or twice because of that), but as for the problem with “underwater” itself (i.e, the need for air), might I suggest the Kalu’ak fishing pole from Northrend? I haven’t cared about being underwater ever since they gave profession tools their own equip spot. Only reason I bother with the air bubbles at all is if I want to get the ~2sec speed buff for the lols.
i am so glad my main outgears them in every slot cuz they are pure torture at this point.
Yep that one is annoying and it seems to be in lots of the delves and stories.
Not only that, but there is variation in mob spawns in delves (both regular mob spawns, and nemesis packs replacing them). That doesn’t sound like much variety, but from what I can tell, in Visions, you get exactly the same mobs in exactly the same places every time.
Granted that allows for a level of precision in Visions that you probably can’t achieve in delves, but I’m not sure I enjoy that. I already have a precise routine for the first area of Stormwind. Now, the first 20 sec or so of the Vision seems rote and unfun. I can see that span getting longer and longer over time. It’s not that appealing. I guess that’s why it’s a limited time event… So once you’re done with it, you’re done.
Yeah this one is super annoying. I don’t mind the others much.
This one is especially bad in the upcoming Overcharged delves because they added 2 more ground-denial effects on top of the web spreaders.
Mixed feelings about the hazards.
The breathing mechanic in underwater delves is just dumb - some classes can totally ignore as can players with the fishing pole from Northrend or who happen to carry potions or Noggenfogger, so basically pointless (underwater delves suck due to the failure of the game to work along the Z axis - not due to the breathing mechanic).
The totems / candles don’t add anything in their delves, though they also don’t really annoy me much (the updated version where you can pick up a bunch and pick them up and move).
The super dark version of the delve in Hallowfall just gives me eye strain - it’s up there with underwater stuff in WoW where I get the concept and feeling they are trying to convey, but it just doesn’t work in this game.
Web mechanic for season two is a step backwards - the ‘eggs’ that just keep coming back aren’t terrible, just annoying, while the stupid flying crap that drops webs on you unless you waste time killing the pointless HP sponge spawn point as well as make it so you can’t just go afk if you need to without hunting down the spawn thingy.
Spores are fine after the changes / fix for S2 where they act like proximity mines and do significant damage to the enemies, though for me they are better run with melee than ranged as it is way easier to position the mobs.
Other things like explosive barrels or giant abominations or mine carts that are both player hazards and can be used against enemies are generally well done.
Sidestreet is probably my favorite delve overall just because none of the stories have a hazard that I dread while all the stories can be done relatively fast based on my pathing and enemy kill times (though the bot to turn off the electricity patches is kind of a pointless mechanic and has disconnected me more than once).
Oh and Blizzard really needs to add the delve story to the map / map API. It’s not like I’m going to run the terrible story just because I wasted time to travel to the entrance, I just avoid the delves with terrible stories altogether (I still haven’t run every Site 9 because the delve is in the middle of no where and the story with the scripted drills is just terribly slow for no reason).
It could be an add-on I’m using, but I can see what story it is on the tier-select window before going in. What I really want is the story name in the tooltip when I hover on a delve from the world map.
The story is available for all at the entrance on the tier screen, but not available even with an add-on from elsewhere.
All the delve information should be available from at least anywhere in TWW, including the story being shown on the map as well as delves ran being shown on the vault screen.
So…you want your gameplay to consist of you vs trianing dummies?
I agree, I really don’t like the totem dropping (I used to not mind them). I don’t run those Delves anymore. I enjoy the other ones, though. It’s what makes Delves different than dungeons.
As far as the ones with the candles and the air totems ectera, you can easily avoid those Delves.
There are plenty of others that are much easier such as Sidestreet Sluice.
There already are extra chests for Delves ie Nemesis chest and the bountiful and hidden treasure map. On average you should be getting 3 to 4 chests at the end of each Delve.
I avoid the ones you are talking about and go to the other ones that I enjoy more. And the story is different from Delve to Delve with variants.
I enjoy delves, personally. I dont do them more than I do because Im so burned out on current content again from running too many alts thru it lol.
yeah…that IS an annoyance, for sure. I thought the candles used to be on our head or something. Having to place them and pick them back up is…yeah…annoying.
Those exploding spores are HILARIOUS. Though they seem to not be so much anymore since they changed how they were working.
I thought someone said they reverted the change, but they seem to not be behaving as they were early on in TWW from what I remember of early expansion.
honestly, I just replace my head gear with the low level engineering piece that gives water breathing when Im in that delve.
yeah, less stats, but its just easier than the bubbles lol.
do they again?
I must be missing something because I ran thru again and they seemed to blow enemies back but their health bars didnt seem to be moved much.
I’ll have to go try again.
They fixed them - the enemies were taking some of the initial damage when knocked back by the explosion, then having their HP bar reset.
Now they are back to getting blown up if normal mobs, and taking significant damage if elite.
I see…I’ll have to jump into a delve here in a bit and see what I missed.
The spores were the best part of the delve before they messed them up lol
The only ones I truly mind are the respawning web nodes they added in S2. Absolutely obnoxious. They nerfed the purifiers and especially the candles to the point of being trivial but they buffed the webs. Why?
The best hazards are ones that can be used against the enemies. Rampaging Abnormalities, mine carts, exploding spores and that one delve story that lets you grapple bombs onto the enemies.
I love those, more of those.
Have you tried Stardew Valley?