Ranking the defence of the gates

[Nymrod]

For me

1) Dorukan's Gate. Held by Xykon for months, could not penetrate the main defense of the gate. This is an epic level spellcaster with access to the strongest antimagic in D&D (superb dispelling) yet still could not penetrate the gate's defenses. Also do we know that Redcloak is actually right about a good aligned person being able to bypass it? I thought that was just an untested hypothesis. So very hard to access and was only destructible because Dorukan wanted it to be destructible.

2) Soon's Gate. Extremely hard to take and hold given there is an entire city and a truly epic level defense in Soon and the rest of the Ghost Martyrs (just imagine someone like Miko joining Soon as a deathless defender bound to the gate; Xykon would have been dead). I only rank it second because while the gate is hard to take, it's not hard to destroy. This is a throne room, monarchs hold court, a strong group could have gotten in there under false pretenses and sundered that gem before anyone could react.

3) Tie between Lirian and Girard's. Both are just stupid. Girard's defenses count entirely on his family. No matter the indoctrination after a while there would either not be enough in number or strength to keep those defenses all of which are completely negated by a single spell any high level adventuring group keeps access to (either true sight or mind blank) not to mention undead being unaffected by mind affecting effects. Meanwhile I guess Lirian never told Dorukan how she was defending the gate cause he'd have been forced to give her at least some pointers. Mid level npcs, destructible environment, a single major deterrent that can be warded with a low level spell, undead or paladins (seriously the sapphire guard could just strut there and take over the gate). Any group that would have probed her defenses/used divination could have countered her.
I do not mind Girard's being this stupid because the major deterrent was still impressive and it perfectly matched his own delusions. But Lirian's I consider a weak point in storytelling. Lirian should have known better.

Not ranking Kraagor's because too many unknowns. Not impressed with the teleportation trick. Most groups would have been using arcane sight/greater arcane sight and spotted the conjuration effect on each doorway. Even if that is hidden, the geometry of the caves makes no sense so you'd have to wonder if there was teleportation involved. A single errant dispelling of enough power near the gate would have shut down her teleportation traps for long enough that someone would notice something is up, something that could easily just happen by mistake. I am still waiting to meet whatever deepspawn buddy Serini has birthing all these monsters though. Expecting something major defending the last one (Tarrasque time?)