I recently used crowns to purchase the set that includes the new Dueling Mat. There are very few houses that have a flat area big enough for this, mainly Coldharbour Surreal Estate. But I don't like the constant blue. So I cleared out my Moon-Sugar Meadow for an arena for my guild.

I've run into this problem before -- when you try to flatten an area by putting platforms or floors over it, once it reaches a certain height, effects on the ground (think Impaling Shards, Wall of Elements, or Scorch to name a few) actually go through the platform and onto the actual ground even if you can't see it. That's fine when you're just putting crafting stations on it or whatever, but if you are trying to put a training dummy or this Dueling Mat on a platform, it means you can't see the areas affected by the skill.

For example, here's Scorch when on a platform that's on the ground:



But when that platform is raised off the ground, the effect happens below it rather than on it:



I thought that maybe the solid blocks would work, so I made a couple dozen of the Necrom platforms which are several meters tall, but even though they're "solid", skills like those mentioned above still happen on the "real" ground, inside the platform.



It's really only an issue when you're using your skills obviously, which is only when dueling or using a training dummy. But the Dueling Mat basically requires a completely flat surface, and other than in Surreal Estate, I don't know of any other locations where you can get a big enough flat space without using platforms. Moon-Sugar Meadow requires elevated platforms (or tall ones like the Necrom ones) because the terrain is hilly and filled with boulders and grasses that can't be removed. So in order to properly place my Dueling Mat, I can't really avoid losing all ground-based skill effects for the people using it.