Maws of Torment...is a real torment. Not only is it often not done in meta trains but it is also really buggy. I've been working towards my Realm-Portal Spiker achievement for a while now and it is worse than crafting a legendary trinket, kitten it!
The East Maw escort NPC is almost 100% guaranteed to be bugged and not move past the bridge; West & North escort NPCs occasionally stall due to some random barricade that is not even on their way / get stuck in a wooden scaffolding pole / get stuck under the map (???).
If you're lucky enough to finish the escort on a lane, the first batch of Realm mobs spawned is oft-times too few to spike the portal completely and then you wait...and wait...for more to spawn. Meanwhile the timer keeps ticking.
Occasionally I meet like-minded players trying to get some portal spikes counted. These occasions make the grind somewhat tolerable. I've gotten 0-7 portal spikes in per meta run; most often 2-4.
But the worst part - it has been buggy and literally uncompletable via the intended mechanics for so long that people have figured out how to 'cheese' it. You can just skip the escort / spiking mechanics completely and slam the Siege Turtle at the portal / drop a few Skyscale fires on the portal, and voilà - the lane's Elite Realm Keeper is here for killing!
*cries in 'just trying to complete 100 portal spikes for my achievement'*
To be fair, the completion rate for the whole meta would be (near?) 0 if it wasn't for the 'cheese', though. Sadly.
The MoT final boss - Legendary Forged Demolisher - is a daily today. One might think it's a great chance to get some portals spiked...or is it?
I log in. Join a squad gathering for the daily. The commander asks who has Siege Turtle unlocked. Counts the turtles. Proceeds to explain that we're going to cheese it. ... I excuse myself, leave the squad and log out.
Literally unplayable.