Let me elaborate actually, at the moment the cosmic planes can be reached easily and you can avoid the guards to a fair extent

Again, restating the earlier issues:

Currently, the ethereal communes have the advantages of a heavily defended entrance (a la cosmic), unterrainable environment (a la elemental), and full guard placement (a la prime commune). There is no reason for us to have all three; that is imbalanced. I do not believe anyone will dispute that.

However, there are other issues to consider when approaching the balance. The fae are not slain, they are taken by a quest. Defenders can be observed without fear of retribution. The opposing commune has an unremovable freedom to flow around the territory. The fae do not automatically attack enemies. Blah blah, you know the drill. It's been covered.

Since raids on Ethereal are undetectable without someone physically squatting on the plane, watching for intruders (and in turn being watched by the would-be raiders), the somewhat bypassable burst defense of Celestia and Nil is not an equally passable defense. Instead, I suggest removing the advantages we have that puts us on the level of the cosmic planes--the archways. Thus, anyone who has a sliver of talent for raiding can gain access, and some resources can be obtained without ever risking contact with any guard or totem. Yes, it is true that it will still be a very different raiding dynamic than raiding cosmic, but it would make both equal in difficulty for the raider and defensibility for the defenders.

Why would you hit anything?

Why would you hit anything?

What are you talking about? Easy to get to? Unless you can Tesseract to someone else, have an Aethership, or a Cubix you cannot get to the Cosmic Planes without going through the guards at the Nexi. The guards do not more but they are grouped in 20+, only a large group of combatants can take those down.

I can feel the urge to crush the poor girl's ego rising, so I'm just going to ignore Ferlas from here on out.

Again, restating the earlier issues:

Currently, the ethereal communes have the advantages of a heavily defended entrance (a la cosmic), unterrainable environment (a la elemental), and full guard placement (a la prime commune). There is no reason for us to have all three; that is imbalanced. I do not believe anyone will dispute that.

However, there are other issues to consider when approaching the balance. The fae are not slain, they are taken by a quest. Defenders can be observed without fear of retribution. The opposing commune has an unremovable freedom to flow around the territory. The fae do not automatically attack enemies. Blah blah, you know the drill. It's been covered.

Since raids on Ethereal are undetectable without someone physically squatting on the plane, watching for intruders (and in turn being watched by the would-be raiders), the somewhat bypassable burst defense of Celestia and Nil is not an equally passable defense. Instead, I suggest removing the advantages we have that puts us on the level of the cosmic planes--the archways. Thus, anyone who has a sliver of talent for raiding can gain access, and some resources can be obtained without ever risking contact with any guard or totem. Yes, it is true that it will still be a very different raiding dynamic than raiding cosmic, but it would make both equal in difficulty for the raider and defensibility for the defenders.

Why would you hit anything?

With this proposal killing an aspect would become near impossible. You talk about the little fae who are in the end not really important to the cities (remember we are trying to balance against the cities not against another commune). Killing an aspect would require you to be in the room with the aspect for some time (I would hope an aspect doesn't die in 5 staffcasts, it it does it needs changing), aspects call for guards, guards arrive, you stuck with however many guards the commune has places near the aspects. You can run yes but in the end your aspect will recover before it's over.

Or even better commune places 20 guards at aspect, with guards retargeting on hitting a barrier or divinefire you would need to slay all 20 before moving onto the aspect. I hope it's clear that this is rather unbalanced towards the supernals where you only have to deal with 1 or 2 archangels and a supernal.

Best solution imho would be:

Leave archways be.

Remove guards and totems from the whole ethereal, except guards at the archway and at the nexus. And the nexusguards only on standguard, otherwise they would come to the avatars help.
Yeah...that'd be it.

Ah, and don't forget another advantage. Communewarriors can get to Ethereal without help. Citywarriors need a lift to those planes.

Best solution imho would be:

Leave archways be.

Remove guards and totems from the whole ethereal, except guards at the archway and at the nexus. And the nexusguards only on standguard, otherwise they would come to the avatars help.
Yeah...that'd be it.

You can steal Fae with honeycombs. You don't need to hit anything to clean them out.

You can steal Fae with honeycombs. You don't need to hit anything to clean them out.

You can steal Fae with honeycombs. You don't need to hit anything to clean them out.

You do need to hit to fight the daughter/ladies or the aspects or the avatars, or the people.

You cannot, however, beat Aspects to death with honeycombs. Sadly. That'd make an awesome deathsight.

OR you can kill them and give them to Gorgulu.

And a large group of combatants can take out 20 guards. You need a large group of combatants to take out the Supernals/Demon Lords, don't you? So, 20 guards helping Avatar = Demon Lords helping eachother.