Map Runners & Death Rates

I think this was one of the coolest concepts rolled out with Kingsmarch, but the implementation has really missed the mark on this one IMO. Map runners are a gold sink and they do a great job of that.

But these guys have some serious problems vs. ship runners:
- They die much higher than 1% despite the label that it's a 1% death rate. This has to be closer to 1% per runner (so 6% in practice).

- Low level map runners are worthless. They will fail even in white maps. IMO a runner lower than lvl 5 is a skip in every scenario. Compare this to boats which have chance of failure as well, but costs are quite a bit lower and still warrant sending out ships even in what might be comperable to white maps.

- Lvl 9 & 10 runners require hundreds of thousands of gold in rerolls to man up a team.

- You will need a team like this to realistically run red maps.

I keep coming back to death rates for these guys being too high. I only run these guys if the minimal percentage of completion is 90 or above. Yet when they don't complete it feels like a runner dies 1 in 3 or so. I've yet to run a red map with runners. Only yellow and only 90% or above. Yet in 50 maps I have lost 5 lvl 8 & 9 runners. That might be bad luck. But seriously, WTF? The amount of extreme outcomes here is way too high.

If GGG was going to adjust anything about this mechanic I would request it to be fewer deaths and more map failure. I can live with variable rewards similar to the ships taking 25-75% of the loot. I can also live with even higher cost of operation to run the maps. But when a lvl 8/9/10 runner dies this often it is INCREDIBLY painful to replace them. These guys are already expensive just to pay for running the maps. Please don't punish us with having to constantly reroll & replace these guys. It just feels overly punishing at the moment.