Shadow lairs are really hard endgame content that drop unique gear and have unique layouts and souped up bosses. And you can't really practice them because they cost 1800 energy. That's a lot. I think that is too much.

I think shadow keys should cost 600, and the materials should need three of to craft the equipment with. I have no problems with those pieces of gear costing a lot, I just have problems with the lairs themselves being so expensive to run. If the increase in time requirement is too much, give an option to spend three keys at a time to get three drops at the end.

I did my first ever lair today - gloaming wildwoods, because all the other lairs drop total trash for equipment - and got all the way to the boss, where I had to give up because it was functionally impossible to kill the boss with the levels me and the two other players had. So i just had to lose 1800 energy, a non-trivial amount of work to get, because I had no way to practice beforehand or check it out to find out how it worked and what was needed or get better.

This is also a complaint post about rabid snarby, sticking a defense up/speed down aura and a respawning silkwing on a boss that is invincible half the time, inflicts a debuff that lowers your attack, and also is duplicated, is too much. It isn't as poorly designed as the treasure trove boss, but it certainly sucks in a novel way that nothing else in this game does.

(This is also a post saying that every shadow lair equipment besides the snarbolax set needs a buff and a niche)