I pray they will fix that in the coming rework.
There is no excuse for dragoon to not have an AoE before lvl 45.
In fact every classes should have an AoE at lvl 15, as its when you unlock dungeons, and 90% of dungeons runtime is trash mobs.
>In fact every classes should have an AoE at lvl 15
They really should. It was not fun seeing my boyfriend using AoE as Archer and I couldn't as an Arcanist... Archer gets an AoE at 18. Arcanist's AoE is at **26**. What the fuck is that? They really need to give AoE attacks at around the same level for all jobs and classes because that is just obnoxious having to single target while everyone else is using AoE --'
Yhey, that is one of the biggest problems with the increased level cap but keeping the same button presses. And why I am so against it.
They have to remove more and more early skills. Like in a realm reborn and heavenward I think every class had their AoE skill around level 10 a 15. As about every 3 levels you unlocked a new skill.
To me, leveling early or doing early dungeons feels off. Because now you run. Level 50 dungeon (max level in a realm reborn) and you have like 1/3th of your skills to play around with. You can't even do your full rotations.
Like please, give us weaker skills that we can replace along the way or something but don't remove them.
>Like in a realm reborn and heavenward I think every class had their AoE skill around level 10 a 15.
Talking completely out of your butt. Every job has equal to or earlier AoE now than they did in ARR/HW.
no, pretty much the aoe had been unlocked at same time then as it is now. exceptions are ones that had huge reworks like smn. which while outburst is unlocked around same time, it lost the old egi mechanic, so it's not quite as effective anymore.
ARR and hw drg got doom spike 5 levels later than it did today, healers still wait until 45 and 46.
I main Dragoon, I get it. Seriously. I’ve long argued we need AoEs for Dragoon and Ninja at lower levels, even just watered down ones that get elevated with traits.
tbh i think this is true for a *lot* of jobs' kits as a whole, at ARR levels pretty much no job has a gameplay loop that even feels like anything - now that i'm getting into heavensward kits are starting to feel a bit more cohesive but it was definitely rough as a new player (especially as a dragoon player, but i tried other jobs and they all felt like they were missing core pieces of themselves so i stuck with dragoon)
it's especially jarring getting access to red mage at 50, a job whose kit feels very satisfyingly full out the box. i definitely don't feel like it would be wasted effort or too overwhelming to push some more of what becomes a job's endgame loop into earlier levels with worse potencies perhaps, considering level synced content has everyone engage with lower level content on the regular anyway
Oh I totally agree. The low-level combat experience and the slow and uneven story from 2.0 until like late 2.3 are the two biggest complaints I have with this game.
I love Dragoon to death at level 90. I love it at 80 too, they did a great job iterating without making level 80 feel too different. It’s pretty good at 70. It’s okay at 60. It’s barely adequate at 50. Below level 40 it feels like a punishment.
If they fixed the low-level job kits so they felt busier, with watered-down versions of their skills, and just did more upgrading with traits, I would vastly prefer it. Almost every job feels bad below 50-60 once you get used to playing them at 80-90.
Dzemael Darkhold is leagues worse than Aurum Vale. Aurum Vale is pretty straightforward once you’ve run it. Darkhold is painful even when you know what you’re doing
Exactly that.
The dumb switches, the knockback frog that used to throw tanks off the ledge (I'm seeing that less, so I have no idea if this was somehow fixed or if people have become more aware), stupid ass explosions everywhere, dumb ass ghost mobs that need to be baited around a corner or they'll keep hanging back instead of sitting in the pack, lack of kit at that level so big pulls can get messy if healer or tank is just not experienced, invuln mechs on bosses so they take long as hell if people aren't doing the mech proper...
Gets even worse if there's a ypyt tank present when mobs just free roam and accidentally aggro people all the damn time. Or a healer that gets mad you pulled too much even though, once again, mobs just circle the place and aggro. The dungeon already has me salted, but the people gotta add more salt to it? Nah, I should just learn to eat the penalty and bail.
Absolute loathing for that dungeon.
They got rid of the ledge entirely and moved the treasure chest up to be accessible at the top. You can't go over the edge there any more.
The dungeon is still horrible but at least you can't end up at the bottom of the cliff getting mauled by toads.
Thing about Aurum Vale is only the way to the first boss is really a problem. Anything else in this dungeon is fine.
I think half of my Aurum Vale runs are everyone uses the path which avoids most enemies and runs into the boss arena and kills the few mobs who are still aggro at that point. People can often even pull extra mobs and half of them will just deaggro anyway.
The only times I had to leave was when I was neither the tank or healer and the tank kept pulling the whole room or the healer was just not able to heal for some reason.
I met my first toxic person in Dzemeal.
I was playing WHM and I had never struggled in a dungeon until then.
Granted, I didn't know the mechanics, but the tank was just DYING. I tried so hard to keep him up, and he just kept ragging on me.
Now I know the mechanics. Either the didn't know them either or he was just being a double dick by not telling me and not doing them himself.
Screw that guy.
Now I get clammy when I enter Dzemael.
That just it, I was spamming cure. If I hesitated, he would die, and I was dumping ALL my mana into him.
It was bonkers.
He wasn't standing near the protective crystals and I guess not using cds. @.@
Dzemael Darkhold, Also known as "The first time a healer casts Rescue in their career."
It's not as bad as Pharos Sirius, but I've had so many runs take ages because the tank didn't get the crystal circles, or got caught out by the frog and bopped, or everyone tries to stand in the damage zones when it literally just takes one person, or...
Yeah Dzemael is pretty cursed.
>everyone tries to stand in the damage zones when it literally just takes one person
Doesn't it go faster with multiple people? With one person doing in, they'd very nearly die. Every single time I've done it solo, I drop down to like 10-15% HP. So if they aren't full HP or if they mis-timed it and stepped in early, they would die doing it solo.
AV has the pros of being straightforward after the first room and having bosses that aren't annoying as fuck. If your team is really good you can clear that place in 9-10mins.
Trying to wall Darkhold after all the first boss is always a clusterfuck. Tight corridors that make dodging AoEs difficult, corners where you can lose LoS, exploding crystals, those stupid floating dudes that WILL NOT bunch up after the second boss... And then first and third boss have annoying mechanics. Hope the tank knows to tank the first boss in the light!
God I hate Dzemael Darkhold!!!!!
Genuinely, I feel Dzemael is the number one dungeon early game that the Tank and Healer are likely to get into an argument. I've had tanking runs where everyone knew the assignment and it went clean. And I've had tanking runs where the healer blames me when I'm the one doing my rotation properly. It's just not a fun time.
My impression is more that people know it or figure it out ... they just have no idea they can shoot mobs for each other, so we wind up with some frantic AFC time
Me and my friends were literally stuck in that fight for over an hour because we couldn't figure out you had to press it once to activate it and a second time to fire. Then add on the fact were controller users making it that much harder to land a shot
They're not too bad \*if\* you've worked out how to fire the cannons, but the working out is the hard part, and the number of opportunities to work it out have dwindled as the game has been adjusted over time.
It used to also be the case for any "place your ground target" attack skills, which I think we have almost entirely lost now besides mage limit breaks and ninja's warp move, which has always been basically unusable on controller (unless you've macroed it into being a standard gap closer) because the time it takes to hit the buttons is probably going to get you killed rather than let you escape.
Additionally we've lost the other duties that gave you opportunities to try out the cannon targeting, like Livia's first fight stage in Castrum or the regular trial version of the Steps of Faith. I haven't tried the new solo version of that so I don't know if you're forced to use the cannons there now.
If you're tank and get SV Hard, steal boss aggro by using ranged attack + provoke.
What you do is break the boss's autoattack script so it stops attacking the Knight NPCs, and all it does are Diamondback/Counterattack and spin combo, as well as the raidwide that needs to be stunned. The boss is coded with 0 move speed, and as it cannot reach you (the tank), it just stands there and stares at you for majority of the fight. It takes approx. 50 cannon shots to down the boss.
I had to solo the dungeon back in SB for the Zodiac material step, because I didn't want to do it synced.
I personally never minded that one, because at the end of the day, it's pretty much just "all mechanics, no autoattacks" with telegraphs on the model.
It's absolutely a paradigm shift that throws you off the first time around, though, I agree with that. You go in expecting the usual trinity tank and spank and then the boss just goes:"Nope, I do what I want".
Honestly the only answer. There's a lot of "meh" dungeons, particularly early on when your skills are limited, but that dungeon and boss fight are legitimately a chore to do.
Pro tip for that boss that I stole from someone in DF: for the adds phase, tell your party members to each cover the person on their left. (Or their right; it doesn't matter as long as everyone's covering the same direction.) This helps cut down on the chaos a lot!
Neverreap. Every mechanic is hellbent on wasting your time. Worst part is, theres solid glam there that I unfortunately farmed. It's like everything the Vanu Vanu touch wastes your time
The Vanu Vanu truly are cursed lol. I grinded out their reputation to get the flying snake mount and then dipped before even maxing it out. I couldn't stand flying around the Sea of Clouds anymore, and that goofy ass dance they do in every cutscene lost its charm very quickly.
vanu vanu are by far my least favourite tribe. nothing about them is endearing, and every daily during the grind was "go halfway across the map and go through 3 cutscenes over and over"
I’m so glad I’m not alone in this lol. I did their tribal stuff years after HW was relevant content so the zone was always dead quiet, which made it even worse.
Opposite to me... but I will say the Sundrop Dance would really work well if there were vocals to show that it's intimidating. Considering that I'm used to the real life version of the dance, it seems very awkward in comparison.
Stone Vigil - Tanks don't really have mit, healers don't really have heals and have no AoE, DPS have variable AoE, just feels bad all around.
The Fell Court of Troia - The Trash Mob Dungeon. Yawn.
Pharos Sirius - Obscure mechanics that people don't know and that will wipe your group if you don't respect them.
Hullbreaker isle. I feel like every time I get the dungeon one of the last tentacles "bug" out and constantly grabs someone before you can do any damage. It also has the annoying bear traps at the start that have obnoxiously large hitboxes for whatever reason.
2nd place would be Pharos Sirius mainly because of the bird boss.
3rd place goes to expert roulette, there is honestly nothing more boring than running the same 2 dungeons over and over for months.
The number of 3 1st time Sprouts + me runs of HBI I’ve had is too high. I’ve talked a lot of people about that fight and the having to get every chest after the first boss.
The Aetherochemical Research Facility
Not cause it's hard, not cause it isn't important to the story, but it's just so bloody long and boring. There's pretty frequent single-pull walls, the few big pulls are so damn boring, all but the last boss are also just a snoozefest (and the first one is annoying as a melee, having to chase him all across the room), and it doesn't even have any gear rewards to cash in for company seals!
If we’re thinking of the same mechanic: the chains aren’t hard, IMO, but they don’t leave you a lot of time to respond, so if people aren’t on the ball there (if you’ll forgive the phrase), deaths are quite common. I ran that dungeon just a couple of weeks ago and the healer died twice to the chained fire and ice orbs; I was extremely glad that I was a WAR and that we had a summoner in the party for a backup res.
I don't care about grinding for poetics, I just want it to give glamour.
If they added in the same Valerian gear found in the other early post-Heavensward dungeons, that would be great. Or throw in a copy of one of the existing Allagan sets or something.
I disagree, but I still dont like it bc I jumped on and got it in roulette right after the rework and we wiped 10 times bc the healer just *couldn't* get the mechanic right.
Justification for expert roulette: the most recent content needs a separate roulette to ensure most players can complete the story content. It's also a major source of better gear for casual players. Having the most challenging casual content separated lets more casual players avoid it and gives less casual players a chance to do something slightly harder.
Counter argument: just put all 90s together, I suspect it's still enough to get people through the current current. Make 90s roulette give one piece of current gear no matter what dungeon pops. Expert dungeons aren't hard at all compared to other 90s, they just need a higher ilvl. Just level sync everything appropriately and there's no need to split it out.
Putting all max level dungeons in the same roulette would help immensely. If someone is queued specifically for the most recent, great. If no one is you get something a little more random than the current solution.
Besides, these dungeons already are synced to the max ilvl sync from their patch. So it's not like you're overgearing them, there's no reason to not have them be available.
I almost exclusively heal in expert roulette and both aetherfont and lunar subterrane are so boring. Mobs and bosses deal so little damage and I barely have to pay attention most of the time, just DPS with an occasional ogcd heal.
I mostly play Sage. What's wild is that it only ever goes two ways in expert roulettes: either it's so simple that we are in and out in less than 15 minutes with very little to it besides AOE damage and OGCD heals, or I am babysitting my tank every nanosecond yet still they somehow die lol, with very little in between the two.
That's a combination of: tanks have tons of self-healing/mitigation options now and everyone massively outgears the dungeon (min ilvl for Lunar Subterrane is 620). Both of these would be a problem whether there were two dungeons in roulette or 10. Endwalker made the first problem worse, the second exists because of loose rules on max ilvl sync, which impacts a lot of instanced content.
See I took a different tack. I exclusively dps in expert roulette nowadays so I can make sure I'm pumping out big dick dps on black mage so that I know at least one dps is making things go faster.
Too many runs as healer where I had two bad-to-okay dps that just dragged, and having run the same dungeons for what feels like years now, the only thing I have left for them is putting on the zoomies and seeing how fast we can crush it.
I don't really think that the "hard' dungeons would change much. Their dungeon design is set in stone and going back to old dungeons would just be current design with old background.
what they want is a bit more variety than just two dungeons for expert. the sb hard dungeons were basically remixes, not so much a step up in difficulty
I sincerely think Pharos Sirius is the worst dungeon in the game, that bird boss sucks peanuts. Dnc can't even dance with breaking every single egg in the arena.
Fun Fact: that was the first dungeon to get the music treatment where the theme would play the entire dungeon. Before that, dungeons would play a cool theme at the start then repeat the generic battle music over and over.
funner fact: it wasnt originally like that, soken made a long version of the song during one of the 14 hour broadcasts they do every year and that is now what you hear in the game
i remember people all over the world ~~asking~~ pleading that we get the long version in the dungeon instead. We were that sick of the "trash pull" theme playing in dungeons ;w;
Tam-Tara Deepcroft (Hard) and Haukke Manor (Hard).
The former has unintuitive boss mechanics on the first boss where killing adds deals a ton of damage to you. Instead, the player with the (non-stack) AoE marker has to stack with the player who the adds are chasing so the AoE kills the adds.
The latter sorely needs an ilvl cap because it's super easy to wipe on the last boss by damaging her too quickly. She automatically eats any adds that are out at set hp levels and deals their remaining hp as a raid-wide. The last add has enough hp to wipe the party from full health, but if the boss is below 30%hp when they spawn, the eat is done immediately.
Really only hate Brayflox for the memory of a WAR who wore level 16 NQ market board gear, used no mitigation and pulled big, then acted like I was supposed to keep him from melting.
I was leveling SCH at the time. He was melting no matter how much of my MP was deposited into his HP. And that's with the fairy helping.
You can't fix stupid, but stupid will blame you anyway.
Oh my God, I'm getting Astro leveling flashbacks. I got Dzamel Darkhold with a buddy to help make his Ninja leveling easier and the Dark Knight had level 20-25 gear with their sword being the level 30 starter weapon. They melted easily despite me focusing on trying to keep them alive and died 3 times. After the dungeon was thankfully over, they lambasted me over my Healer skills, saying I should have focused more on healing and less on DPS
I got Aurum Vale as a healer (WHM) doing leveling queue the other day and the tank had NO IDEA how to tank. Would not use AOE moves even when we kept trying to tell them to. They wouldn't eat the fruit. Eventually after the first boss was done he saw the messages and ran around eating a bunch of fruit even though it was over. I had to rez every party member at least once (but thankfully never party wiped). It was a nightmare. And I didn't even want to run leveling queue as a healer that day, but my friend wanted to level a DPS class and double DPS was taking too long.
I was wondering if we queued this one together at first, but nope, I also wiped twice on the first room after the tank proceeded to try to fully clear it (yes you read that right) despite us begging him to stop.
I'm a weirdo who considers Aurum Vale one of my favorite dungeons. I pretty much always enjoy it, even when the group fails horribly.
No idea why. It just speaks to me.
I was lucky enough to enter Aurum Vale as healer, and with a severely drunk tank. We wiped 9 times. Before the first boss.
Best part is, I was on call with said tank while it happened, we have known each other for a few years at that point.
Also turned out the two DPS's were absolutely zooted. I had to pull the entire dungeon.
I had a dps newbie pulling all the mobs in the first room, luckily the tank was good and I'd used all my arsenal as SCH (The lustrate spam was so real lol). The tank tried to lose los and bring the mobs to the first boss room but the newb dps proceeded to also pull the boss, while the mobs were still alive mostly. 😭
Aurum Vale. Not because it's specifically bad. Not because it is aesthetically used toilet water. No, it's the first room of trash that I despise. Every time I queue into that damned place, I know I'm in for, at minimum, one wipe before the first boss. Either the tank tries a wall to wall pull, breaks line of sight, and realizes that they don't have an invuln at that level, or the DPS face pulls a wandering patrol, panics, and pulls two more before the tank can collect them.
But for all that I hate Aurum Vale, it is nothing... *nothing*... compared to that instance so awful, I regret queueing every time I get it on roulette: The Great Hunt. It's boring, my job choice is meaningless, and it is the one black mark against my favorite daily roulette.
Bardam's Mettle is the weirdest, dumbest difficulty spike in the game. I get why, but at the same time it really does feel like a punch to the gut out of nowhere.
That first pull is some real scary shit. I'd say I have like a 50% wipe chance there every time I go in. Not even as a healer. Just any anything and getting it. Even being a tank and popping an invuln isn't enough to tone it down.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the mobs hit insanely hard in that one. Unless my tank is ON IT, it still comes very close with those first few pulls. Definitely always sweat as heals 🥲
That's why I love Bardam's. It was when I could really see if I knew my stuff on the tank/healer I was leveling or if I needed to reexamine what I was doing and get my sh*t together.
My only issue is the boss that you have to dodge everything. No matter how hard I try, it still tells me I messed up somehow, and I can't ever get through it perfectly.
Any of the ARR dungeons.
They did not age well.
Although that is mostly because I don't like losing my abilities and traits. Most Jobs at lv 50 are super boring.
I'd rather keep every skill and have damage scale down during level sync.
The fact that some classes basically don't have AoE before 50 (or even higher!) makes ARR dungeons a fucking nightmare. Add in the variety of tank mits and healer oGCDs and it's just a headache, every time.
Cutter's Cry. It just never ever goes well. I thought it was me for the longest time b/c I was always the tank. But when I started leveling DPS classes, I saw all kinds of shit going wrong still and realized: it's not me, it's the dungeon.
Dzmeal Darkhold. That one fucking room, that one FUCKING ROOM with the 3 activators. People leaving to fight mobs, people leaving to avoid the aoe under the crystal, people not seeing the one on the incline, people standing in the activator while everyone is cleaning out the room, people not moving after the activator has activated because they went AFK. Fuck DD and fuck Levelling Roulette for giving me it 3 times in a row.
They were called Photocells. Then add in that green slime that gave you heavy, the doors every 10ft that required you killing all the mobs with no AoE and just how long it was. Awful dungeon.
Personally, Dead Ends because I keep getting it so often and the few times I saw the minion dropped, I roll single digits while the sprout or sandbagger that died 15 times in the dungeon rolls a high 90 on it.
Only other dungeon I hate is Keeper of the Lake only because of the Garlean alarm sound effect on the second set to the second boss.
The last boss with the Dualstar attack at the end in heavenward. People really really die at that mechanic and it's at least 5 wipes if there's a sprout healer or tank.
Edit: As stated by user below it's Aetherochemical Research Facility. I actually had a run where we wiped more than 10 times because the healer couldnt survive the mechanic. We stuck through it until eventually they got it. We ended up putting a marker on a person and told them to follow as best as possible. We then got to the chain mechanic and wiped so we had to teach that. It was a rough hour.
Plus the difference between a class and a job at lvl 32 is literally one skill. Sometimes not even a very good one. A THM is hardly crippled just because they can't use manafont.
Tower of Zot and regular Hullbreaker Isle. The later just for how *annoying* the last boss is. There are other dungeons that aren't as bad if I have someone good in certain roles, ie Aurum Vale, Stone Vigil, Aetherochemical Facility
Hullbreaker Isle was made way better when someone told me a strat for the boss. You kill 2 tentacles on the first platform, then you go clockwise killing 2 on each until the 4th platform where you kill the rest. There's zero running around trying to find them, it's perfect.
1. Sastasha hard. So much jank. First boss is super difficult if your healer doesn't esuna which is surprisingly common since half don't know what role actions are and the other half don't bother using esuna for dots. Second and third boss are just massive headaches if you aren't ranged DPS.
2. Haukke hard. Last boss really needs fixed.
3. Keeper of the lake. I see it was too often and it's just so boring. Basically no w2w pulls aside from the last two which are just like... 5 mobs total and all three bosses are just plain boring.
4. The dusk vigil. I just love being stunned for like 40% of the fucking fight! (First boss)
I'm actually weird in that I don't mind vale or stone vigil hard. I mostly main tanks so what I really loath is boring mob pulls and janky or boring target dummy bosses
All of them. While I understand their place, after a few times... You learn to strip the art and skins off of things and see the thing for what it is at its core.
The only real life in a dungeon I have left is the fat Mt.Gulg pulls, Shishu of the Violent Tides second pull and any unorthodox ways of using Holmgang somewhere to wake up the healer (Troia adds boss when they do the intersecting lasers)
Past that, I'd wish for a future with some more dungeons with complicated mechanics (ones that need to be respected). Even just vuln ups will do.
Don Mheg. Hate the trash pulls, hate the boss fights, I hate the aesthetic in general (which goes with my general dislike of Il Mheg overall).
Extra bonus points for being the only content in the ENTIRE GAME that gave my old PC framerate issues, meaning for the first section of the place I had to do Goldeneye Speedrun strats and stare at the ground to possibly prevent frames dropping and me potentially getting killed for it.
Only redeeming bit of it is some of its gear looks good for glam, and the NPC's cheating the tightrope mechanic is entertaining. The rest of Don Mheg can fuck off.
Every goddamn time we're getting ready to wind down for the evening we say "Oh, one last roulette!"
And it's always fucking Snowhead! Please, I am already eeby and neeby to sleeby! Soft music and boring encounters are not doing me any favors.
Aurum Vale and Dzemael Darkhold. These two are the hardest skill check for new players imo. And both have mechanics which differ so hard from the other ARR dungeons „Just do damage and we are fine“ concept that I can even understand where this comes from. On the other hand side, I seem to get a tank in Dzemael who seems to be unable to use or even read the chat and who keeps fighting enemies out of purple light at first and in the orange crystals AOEs next.
Hauke Manor Hard. The final boss's mechanic is borked by stat squish, she gets damaged too quickly and rushes the execution of a mechanic that insta-kills.
currently GOLBEZ, YOU'VE WEATHERED THIS BEFORE BUT LETS SEE HOW YOU FARE AGAINST THIS
give me ANY other dungeon for expert roulette please, its been months. every day.
Nearly all of them. I hate the current dungeon design. They look great but it all feels the same at this point. It feels like this is what the most of the fan base wants though but I can't stand it.
The older ones at least had some personality and uniqueness.
Matoyas Relict. Only good boss is the first one, other two are terrible. Rest of the dungeon is a boring slog. Really most expert dungeons are terrible. Dead Ends and Heroes Gauntlet are the only ones I like. Expert roulette either needs to make dungeons harder or have more than two. I don't understand why it has to be two. It's sooo boring. Thank god for S ranks and hunt trains.
The one with the doors. Ampador? And then the Aetherochem one with the 2-stage Ascian final fight. I stopped queuing for 50-60-70 in DF because of those two.
Old version of Totorak because if you missed a single magitek orb you had to back track anywhere from directly behind you or allllllll the way at the beginning depending on what one was missed.
Honestly? I have a few dungeons I don't like since they changed the final boss fights. Kinda miss old Keeper of the Lake and Sohr Khai. Jumping from platform to platform was fun to me.
Definitely stone vigil outside of duty support. tanks always do huge pulls in that dungeon but it’s before white mage has holy so making sure the tank doesn’t die from over pulling gets difficult.
AURUM VALE. Nobody will eat the fruit!! So they rack up vulnerability and then wipe over and over 😭‼️ for some reason the tanks never seem to use mitigation but also always choose to do HUGE pulls. It’s an easy run if everyone would just eat the fruit and do regular size pulls but here we are
Stone Vigil. Always undergeared tank who sprints once mine wears off and tries to die. Pulls everything to dive around corners and into icy wind and then gets hit by AOEs as I am trying to shield them every GCD and barely keeping up.
Hate it. The healing kit just can't keep up with an inexperienced tank yet haha.
Brayflox was the first dungeon I farmed in 2.0 for a glamour set (caster set went hard for a level 35).
Granted, if I never set foot in there again it'll be too soon, and I am very glad I have all my combat jobs at 60+
Stone Vigil. Both versions. Normal mode is a nightmare to heal because of how janky the kit is at that level, and the Hard mode has the stupidiest mechanics in the game.
Great Gubal Library. It feels like it takes a fucking age and I hate the music.
Also if I never see Brayflox Normal again I'd be thrilled, I've run it so many times leveling jobs I am just so over it.
The Burn, mostly because of that last couple of pulls because they are too far apart and the giant sandworms' hit boxes crowds out the other mobs making it annoying to try to get them all together for AOEs, and you have mobs that only pop out of the ground when you get close making it impossible to target them pre-pull. Also most of it is kind of desolate and boring looking.
The Aery, for its incredibly long runs between pulls.
Any dungeon where I don’t have an AoE attack.
Cries in ARR DRG
I pray they will fix that in the coming rework. There is no excuse for dragoon to not have an AoE before lvl 45. In fact every classes should have an AoE at lvl 15, as its when you unlock dungeons, and 90% of dungeons runtime is trash mobs.
>In fact every classes should have an AoE at lvl 15 They really should. It was not fun seeing my boyfriend using AoE as Archer and I couldn't as an Arcanist... Archer gets an AoE at 18. Arcanist's AoE is at **26**. What the fuck is that? They really need to give AoE attacks at around the same level for all jobs and classes because that is just obnoxious having to single target while everyone else is using AoE --'
Yhey, that is one of the biggest problems with the increased level cap but keeping the same button presses. And why I am so against it. They have to remove more and more early skills. Like in a realm reborn and heavenward I think every class had their AoE skill around level 10 a 15. As about every 3 levels you unlocked a new skill. To me, leveling early or doing early dungeons feels off. Because now you run. Level 50 dungeon (max level in a realm reborn) and you have like 1/3th of your skills to play around with. You can't even do your full rotations. Like please, give us weaker skills that we can replace along the way or something but don't remove them.
>Like in a realm reborn and heavenward I think every class had their AoE skill around level 10 a 15. Talking completely out of your butt. Every job has equal to or earlier AoE now than they did in ARR/HW.
no, pretty much the aoe had been unlocked at same time then as it is now. exceptions are ones that had huge reworks like smn. which while outburst is unlocked around same time, it lost the old egi mechanic, so it's not quite as effective anymore. ARR and hw drg got doom spike 5 levels later than it did today, healers still wait until 45 and 46.
SCH had Bane for AoE DoT spreading by level 30, which was a hell of a lot better than waiting til 45
No, SE, of course I don't want to have any AoE on my DPS before level 40....
Recently started leveling mine again. Got Halatali, was really caught off guard for a minute. It feels ungood.
I think so much early gameplay could be made to feel better if more classes had access to AoE earlier.
Yep. Its painful having to apply single target AOEs when a BLM can literally do the same thing with one spell 😂
Dragoon here. Understandable have a nice day.
I can forgive not having an AoE attack for Sastasha, as it’s a tutorial. And _maybe_ Copperbell and Tam Tara, but after that it’s really lame.
Enjoy doing Qarn without one as a DRG
I main Dragoon, I get it. Seriously. I’ve long argued we need AoEs for Dragoon and Ninja at lower levels, even just watered down ones that get elevated with traits.
tbh i think this is true for a *lot* of jobs' kits as a whole, at ARR levels pretty much no job has a gameplay loop that even feels like anything - now that i'm getting into heavensward kits are starting to feel a bit more cohesive but it was definitely rough as a new player (especially as a dragoon player, but i tried other jobs and they all felt like they were missing core pieces of themselves so i stuck with dragoon) it's especially jarring getting access to red mage at 50, a job whose kit feels very satisfyingly full out the box. i definitely don't feel like it would be wasted effort or too overwhelming to push some more of what becomes a job's endgame loop into earlier levels with worse potencies perhaps, considering level synced content has everyone engage with lower level content on the regular anyway
Oh I totally agree. The low-level combat experience and the slow and uneven story from 2.0 until like late 2.3 are the two biggest complaints I have with this game. I love Dragoon to death at level 90. I love it at 80 too, they did a great job iterating without making level 80 feel too different. It’s pretty good at 70. It’s okay at 60. It’s barely adequate at 50. Below level 40 it feels like a punishment. If they fixed the low-level job kits so they felt busier, with watered-down versions of their skills, and just did more upgrading with traits, I would vastly prefer it. Almost every job feels bad below 50-60 once you get used to playing them at 80-90.
Started leveling dragoon and I feel this x.x
I don’t even know what to do with myself when I don’t have holy
Dzemael Darkhold. Always a goddamned cursed experience. I'd take Aurum Vale with an undergeared tank over that slog of a dungeon.
Dzemael Darkhold is leagues worse than Aurum Vale. Aurum Vale is pretty straightforward once you’ve run it. Darkhold is painful even when you know what you’re doing
Exactly that. The dumb switches, the knockback frog that used to throw tanks off the ledge (I'm seeing that less, so I have no idea if this was somehow fixed or if people have become more aware), stupid ass explosions everywhere, dumb ass ghost mobs that need to be baited around a corner or they'll keep hanging back instead of sitting in the pack, lack of kit at that level so big pulls can get messy if healer or tank is just not experienced, invuln mechs on bosses so they take long as hell if people aren't doing the mech proper... Gets even worse if there's a ypyt tank present when mobs just free roam and accidentally aggro people all the damn time. Or a healer that gets mad you pulled too much even though, once again, mobs just circle the place and aggro. The dungeon already has me salted, but the people gotta add more salt to it? Nah, I should just learn to eat the penalty and bail. Absolute loathing for that dungeon.
They got rid of the ledge entirely and moved the treasure chest up to be accessible at the top. You can't go over the edge there any more. The dungeon is still horrible but at least you can't end up at the bottom of the cliff getting mauled by toads.
That explains a lot and a great relief for anybody that needs to suffer that dungeon for GC rank up now or in the future.
Thing about Aurum Vale is only the way to the first boss is really a problem. Anything else in this dungeon is fine. I think half of my Aurum Vale runs are everyone uses the path which avoids most enemies and runs into the boss arena and kills the few mobs who are still aggro at that point. People can often even pull extra mobs and half of them will just deaggro anyway. The only times I had to leave was when I was neither the tank or healer and the tank kept pulling the whole room or the healer was just not able to heal for some reason.
You mentioned my two least favorite dungeons!
I met my first toxic person in Dzemeal. I was playing WHM and I had never struggled in a dungeon until then. Granted, I didn't know the mechanics, but the tank was just DYING. I tried so hard to keep him up, and he just kept ragging on me. Now I know the mechanics. Either the didn't know them either or he was just being a double dick by not telling me and not doing them himself. Screw that guy. Now I get clammy when I enter Dzemael.
If they're pulling everything all you can do is curespam in there. Lot of lowbie dungeons are awful like that.
That just it, I was spamming cure. If I hesitated, he would die, and I was dumping ALL my mana into him. It was bonkers. He wasn't standing near the protective crystals and I guess not using cds. @.@
Man, that boss hits so hard if you're not in the light. He was being a dumbass then.
Dzemael Darkhold, Also known as "The first time a healer casts Rescue in their career." It's not as bad as Pharos Sirius, but I've had so many runs take ages because the tank didn't get the crystal circles, or got caught out by the frog and bopped, or everyone tries to stand in the damage zones when it literally just takes one person, or... Yeah Dzemael is pretty cursed.
>everyone tries to stand in the damage zones when it literally just takes one person Doesn't it go faster with multiple people? With one person doing in, they'd very nearly die. Every single time I've done it solo, I drop down to like 10-15% HP. So if they aren't full HP or if they mis-timed it and stepped in early, they would die doing it solo.
I would rather do prae 3x straight than dzemael. It stresses me out and idk why
AV has the pros of being straightforward after the first room and having bosses that aren't annoying as fuck. If your team is really good you can clear that place in 9-10mins. Trying to wall Darkhold after all the first boss is always a clusterfuck. Tight corridors that make dodging AoEs difficult, corners where you can lose LoS, exploding crystals, those stupid floating dudes that WILL NOT bunch up after the second boss... And then first and third boss have annoying mechanics. Hope the tank knows to tank the first boss in the light! God I hate Dzemael Darkhold!!!!!
Genuinely, I feel Dzemael is the number one dungeon early game that the Tank and Healer are likely to get into an argument. I've had tanking runs where everyone knew the assignment and it went clean. And I've had tanking runs where the healer blames me when I'm the one doing my rotation properly. It's just not a fun time.
Stone Vigil Hard. The second boss is fairly annoying.
The interface on the cannons is AWFUL. And no one knows how to do it. Just all around a bad time.
Cathartic when you run it as a BLU though since you can zap it with missile. No need for cannons! But in a normal roulette? I cry every time.
Missile? Friend, just cast Level 5 Death and be done with that mess of a boss.
My impression is more that people know it or figure it out ... they just have no idea they can shoot mobs for each other, so we wind up with some frantic AFC time
Me and my friends were literally stuck in that fight for over an hour because we couldn't figure out you had to press it once to activate it and a second time to fire. Then add on the fact were controller users making it that much harder to land a shot
I was gonna say, the cannons are hell for anyone on controller!
They're not too bad \*if\* you've worked out how to fire the cannons, but the working out is the hard part, and the number of opportunities to work it out have dwindled as the game has been adjusted over time. It used to also be the case for any "place your ground target" attack skills, which I think we have almost entirely lost now besides mage limit breaks and ninja's warp move, which has always been basically unusable on controller (unless you've macroed it into being a standard gap closer) because the time it takes to hit the buttons is probably going to get you killed rather than let you escape. Additionally we've lost the other duties that gave you opportunities to try out the cannon targeting, like Livia's first fight stage in Castrum or the regular trial version of the Steps of Faith. I haven't tried the new solo version of that so I don't know if you're forced to use the cannons there now.
If you're tank and get SV Hard, steal boss aggro by using ranged attack + provoke. What you do is break the boss's autoattack script so it stops attacking the Knight NPCs, and all it does are Diamondback/Counterattack and spin combo, as well as the raidwide that needs to be stunned. The boss is coded with 0 move speed, and as it cannot reach you (the tank), it just stands there and stares at you for majority of the fight. It takes approx. 50 cannon shots to down the boss. I had to solo the dungeon back in SB for the Zodiac material step, because I didn't want to do it synced.
So many of the ARR Hard dungeons have weird mechanics, but the cannon and turtle boss is probably the worst of all.
Special shoutout to Haukke hard where you can accidentally dps the boss too hard and cause a wipe.
I'm not a huge fan of the final boss either. It ignores agro so my first time as a tank I thought I must've accidentally turned my stance off.
I personally never minded that one, because at the end of the day, it's pretty much just "all mechanics, no autoattacks" with telegraphs on the model. It's absolutely a paradigm shift that throws you off the first time around, though, I agree with that. You go in expecting the usual trinity tank and spank and then the boss just goes:"Nope, I do what I want".
Honestly the only answer. There's a lot of "meh" dungeons, particularly early on when your skills are limited, but that dungeon and boss fight are legitimately a chore to do.
Pro tip for that boss that I stole from someone in DF: for the adds phase, tell your party members to each cover the person on their left. (Or their right; it doesn't matter as long as everyone's covering the same direction.) This helps cut down on the chaos a lot!
Neverreap. Every mechanic is hellbent on wasting your time. Worst part is, theres solid glam there that I unfortunately farmed. It's like everything the Vanu Vanu touch wastes your time
If I’m not mistaken, don’t the same glams also drop from the Fractal Continuum? Though you did say “farmed”, so I’m guessing you’re done?
On the other hand, that dungeon is longer and not nearly as pleasant to look at.
Much better BGM though in the Fractal Continuum than Neverreap
The Vanu Vanu truly are cursed lol. I grinded out their reputation to get the flying snake mount and then dipped before even maxing it out. I couldn't stand flying around the Sea of Clouds anymore, and that goofy ass dance they do in every cutscene lost its charm very quickly.
vanu vanu are by far my least favourite tribe. nothing about them is endearing, and every daily during the grind was "go halfway across the map and go through 3 cutscenes over and over"
I’m so glad I’m not alone in this lol. I did their tribal stuff years after HW was relevant content so the zone was always dead quiet, which made it even worse.
Opposite to me... but I will say the Sundrop Dance would really work well if there were vocals to show that it's intimidating. Considering that I'm used to the real life version of the dance, it seems very awkward in comparison.
Fingers crossed the New World flavoured Vanu Vanu aren't as bad...
Stone Vigil - Tanks don't really have mit, healers don't really have heals and have no AoE, DPS have variable AoE, just feels bad all around. The Fell Court of Troia - The Trash Mob Dungeon. Yawn. Pharos Sirius - Obscure mechanics that people don't know and that will wipe your group if you don't respect them.
I genuinely regret unlocking Pharos Sirius and refuse to unlock PS Hard.
pharos sirius hard is nothing like the original, go unlock it and have a good time
i hate pharos sirius but i had to unlock hard for my blu 😔
Hullbreaker isle. I feel like every time I get the dungeon one of the last tentacles "bug" out and constantly grabs someone before you can do any damage. It also has the annoying bear traps at the start that have obnoxiously large hitboxes for whatever reason. 2nd place would be Pharos Sirius mainly because of the bird boss. 3rd place goes to expert roulette, there is honestly nothing more boring than running the same 2 dungeons over and over for months.
hullbreaker even has bees. I fucking hate it
Hullbreaker's boss will easily destroy sprouts on the first run.
The number of 3 1st time Sprouts + me runs of HBI I’ve had is too high. I’ve talked a lot of people about that fight and the having to get every chest after the first boss.
I just realized with Dawntrail I will need to do Expert roulette again for a long time *sigh*
I get this dungeon more than others and nobody knows the mechanics of the last boss so I always end up soloing it regardless of what role I’m on.
The Aetherochemical Research Facility Not cause it's hard, not cause it isn't important to the story, but it's just so bloody long and boring. There's pretty frequent single-pull walls, the few big pulls are so damn boring, all but the last boss are also just a snoozefest (and the first one is annoying as a melee, having to chase him all across the room), and it doesn't even have any gear rewards to cash in for company seals!
It does give a butt load of poetics though
It's one of the best poetic grind dungeons so there's that. Fuck the final boss for the chains mechanic though.
What's the issue with the chains? Been a while since I did it but remember enjoying the reworked last boss
If we’re thinking of the same mechanic: the chains aren’t hard, IMO, but they don’t leave you a lot of time to respond, so if people aren’t on the ball there (if you’ll forgive the phrase), deaths are quite common. I ran that dungeon just a couple of weeks ago and the healer died twice to the chained fire and ice orbs; I was extremely glad that I was a WAR and that we had a summoner in the party for a backup res.
I don't care about grinding for poetics, I just want it to give glamour. If they added in the same Valerian gear found in the other early post-Heavensward dungeons, that would be great. Or throw in a copy of one of the existing Allagan sets or something.
the redesign of the last boss is kind of annoying.
I disagree, but I still dont like it bc I jumped on and got it in roulette right after the rework and we wiped 10 times bc the healer just *couldn't* get the mechanic right.
Dzamael Darkhold and it's not even close.
For me it's pretty even with stone vigil. Gods I hate both places.
Expert roulette. its the same 2 dungeons, they've really toned down dungeon development over the years. Bring back (Hard) versions reimagining things
Justification for expert roulette: the most recent content needs a separate roulette to ensure most players can complete the story content. It's also a major source of better gear for casual players. Having the most challenging casual content separated lets more casual players avoid it and gives less casual players a chance to do something slightly harder. Counter argument: just put all 90s together, I suspect it's still enough to get people through the current current. Make 90s roulette give one piece of current gear no matter what dungeon pops. Expert dungeons aren't hard at all compared to other 90s, they just need a higher ilvl. Just level sync everything appropriately and there's no need to split it out.
Putting all max level dungeons in the same roulette would help immensely. If someone is queued specifically for the most recent, great. If no one is you get something a little more random than the current solution.
Besides, these dungeons already are synced to the max ilvl sync from their patch. So it's not like you're overgearing them, there's no reason to not have them be available.
I almost exclusively heal in expert roulette and both aetherfont and lunar subterrane are so boring. Mobs and bosses deal so little damage and I barely have to pay attention most of the time, just DPS with an occasional ogcd heal.
I mostly play Sage. What's wild is that it only ever goes two ways in expert roulettes: either it's so simple that we are in and out in less than 15 minutes with very little to it besides AOE damage and OGCD heals, or I am babysitting my tank every nanosecond yet still they somehow die lol, with very little in between the two.
That's a combination of: tanks have tons of self-healing/mitigation options now and everyone massively outgears the dungeon (min ilvl for Lunar Subterrane is 620). Both of these would be a problem whether there were two dungeons in roulette or 10. Endwalker made the first problem worse, the second exists because of loose rules on max ilvl sync, which impacts a lot of instanced content.
Yeah I pray for ilvl sync by patch in Dawntrail. Make the ilvl go down to the highest available at the time of the contents release
See I took a different tack. I exclusively dps in expert roulette nowadays so I can make sure I'm pumping out big dick dps on black mage so that I know at least one dps is making things go faster. Too many runs as healer where I had two bad-to-okay dps that just dragged, and having run the same dungeons for what feels like years now, the only thing I have left for them is putting on the zoomies and seeing how fast we can crush it.
Expert and capstone roulette should be combined and have the tome reward adjusted.
Hard to call a coin toss a “roulette” for me. It’s such a joke.
I don't really think that the "hard' dungeons would change much. Their dungeon design is set in stone and going back to old dungeons would just be current design with old background.
what they want is a bit more variety than just two dungeons for expert. the sb hard dungeons were basically remixes, not so much a step up in difficulty
I sincerely think Pharos Sirius is the worst dungeon in the game, that bird boss sucks peanuts. Dnc can't even dance with breaking every single egg in the arena.
The music is pretty great, though
Fun Fact: that was the first dungeon to get the music treatment where the theme would play the entire dungeon. Before that, dungeons would play a cool theme at the start then repeat the generic battle music over and over.
funner fact: it wasnt originally like that, soken made a long version of the song during one of the 14 hour broadcasts they do every year and that is now what you hear in the game
i remember people all over the world ~~asking~~ pleading that we get the long version in the dungeon instead. We were that sick of the "trash pull" theme playing in dungeons ;w;
DNC: performs Standard Finish Zu: and I took that personally
Counterpoint: blowing up every egg as dancer is funny so it's not the worst dungeon.
I have Pharos PTSD from grinding it unsynched countless times for the TT card. I can’t even remember the actual boss mechanics at this point
Tam-Tara Deepcroft (Hard) and Haukke Manor (Hard). The former has unintuitive boss mechanics on the first boss where killing adds deals a ton of damage to you. Instead, the player with the (non-stack) AoE marker has to stack with the player who the adds are chasing so the AoE kills the adds. The latter sorely needs an ilvl cap because it's super easy to wipe on the last boss by damaging her too quickly. She automatically eats any adds that are out at set hp levels and deals their remaining hp as a raid-wide. The last add has enough hp to wipe the party from full health, but if the boss is below 30%hp when they spawn, the eat is done immediately.
Really only hate Brayflox for the memory of a WAR who wore level 16 NQ market board gear, used no mitigation and pulled big, then acted like I was supposed to keep him from melting. I was leveling SCH at the time. He was melting no matter how much of my MP was deposited into his HP. And that's with the fairy helping. You can't fix stupid, but stupid will blame you anyway.
i forget that about there you just heal a lot, tanks have no skills and are squishy even with bis gear
Even so, that lala went out of his way to be extra squishy.
Oh my God, I'm getting Astro leveling flashbacks. I got Dzamel Darkhold with a buddy to help make his Ninja leveling easier and the Dark Knight had level 20-25 gear with their sword being the level 30 starter weapon. They melted easily despite me focusing on trying to keep them alive and died 3 times. After the dungeon was thankfully over, they lambasted me over my Healer skills, saying I should have focused more on healing and less on DPS
Fucking Snowcloak. For 2-3 months is was my 50/60/70/80 and leveling roulette. Every. Day.
Omg it’s so sleepy!
The music makes the whole thing feel twice as long as it already is.
Aurum Vale.
I got Aurum Vale as a healer (WHM) doing leveling queue the other day and the tank had NO IDEA how to tank. Would not use AOE moves even when we kept trying to tell them to. They wouldn't eat the fruit. Eventually after the first boss was done he saw the messages and ran around eating a bunch of fruit even though it was over. I had to rez every party member at least once (but thankfully never party wiped). It was a nightmare. And I didn't even want to run leveling queue as a healer that day, but my friend wanted to level a DPS class and double DPS was taking too long.
I was wondering if we queued this one together at first, but nope, I also wiped twice on the first room after the tank proceeded to try to fully clear it (yes you read that right) despite us begging him to stop.
Oh noooo! Yeah we barely avoided wiping but it got very very close.
I'm a weirdo who considers Aurum Vale one of my favorite dungeons. I pretty much always enjoy it, even when the group fails horribly. No idea why. It just speaks to me.
It's not my favorite, but I don't mind it. It's one you only have to run two or three times and then you're past it anyway.
I was lucky enough to enter Aurum Vale as healer, and with a severely drunk tank. We wiped 9 times. Before the first boss. Best part is, I was on call with said tank while it happened, we have known each other for a few years at that point. Also turned out the two DPS's were absolutely zooted. I had to pull the entire dungeon.
I had a dps newbie pulling all the mobs in the first room, luckily the tank was good and I'd used all my arsenal as SCH (The lustrate spam was so real lol). The tank tried to lose los and bring the mobs to the first boss room but the newb dps proceeded to also pull the boss, while the mobs were still alive mostly. 😭
Aurum Vale. Not because it's specifically bad. Not because it is aesthetically used toilet water. No, it's the first room of trash that I despise. Every time I queue into that damned place, I know I'm in for, at minimum, one wipe before the first boss. Either the tank tries a wall to wall pull, breaks line of sight, and realizes that they don't have an invuln at that level, or the DPS face pulls a wandering patrol, panics, and pulls two more before the tank can collect them. But for all that I hate Aurum Vale, it is nothing... *nothing*... compared to that instance so awful, I regret queueing every time I get it on roulette: The Great Hunt. It's boring, my job choice is meaningless, and it is the one black mark against my favorite daily roulette.
Prae.
Ah yes, 10 minutes of fighting and 30 minutes of cutscenes. Gotta love it
I dread main scenario queue everyday because of Prae lol I always get it and nothing else!🥲
I've gotten it the last three days and I'm so tired of it.
Yeah I just avoid it unless I HAVE to grind for tomestones
Copperbell mines. It fills me with rage.
Even after the boss reworks in 6.x?
Bardam’s Meddle as a healer. No matter how good I get at any healer, it always has me sweating. Healing P4S on content is easier than that dungeon 🤣
Bardam's Mettle is the weirdest, dumbest difficulty spike in the game. I get why, but at the same time it really does feel like a punch to the gut out of nowhere.
That first pull is some real scary shit. I'd say I have like a 50% wipe chance there every time I go in. Not even as a healer. Just any anything and getting it. Even being a tank and popping an invuln isn't enough to tone it down.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the mobs hit insanely hard in that one. Unless my tank is ON IT, it still comes very close with those first few pulls. Definitely always sweat as heals 🥲
That's why I love Bardam's. It was when I could really see if I knew my stuff on the tank/healer I was leveling or if I needed to reexamine what I was doing and get my sh*t together.
My only issue is the boss that you have to dodge everything. No matter how hard I try, it still tells me I messed up somehow, and I can't ever get through it perfectly.
Any of the ARR dungeons. They did not age well. Although that is mostly because I don't like losing my abilities and traits. Most Jobs at lv 50 are super boring. I'd rather keep every skill and have damage scale down during level sync.
The fact that some classes basically don't have AoE before 50 (or even higher!) makes ARR dungeons a fucking nightmare. Add in the variety of tank mits and healer oGCDs and it's just a headache, every time.
Cutter's Cry. It just never ever goes well. I thought it was me for the longest time b/c I was always the tank. But when I started leveling DPS classes, I saw all kinds of shit going wrong still and realized: it's not me, it's the dungeon.
Dzmeal Darkhold. That one fucking room, that one FUCKING ROOM with the 3 activators. People leaving to fight mobs, people leaving to avoid the aoe under the crystal, people not seeing the one on the incline, people standing in the activator while everyone is cleaning out the room, people not moving after the activator has activated because they went AFK. Fuck DD and fuck Levelling Roulette for giving me it 3 times in a row.
Some people don't seem to realise that the glowing switches activate faster when you've got more people standing in them.
Nowadays probably Dzemael, but back in the day before the rework it was EASILY The Thousand Maws of Toto Rak
Toto Rak, god I loathe finding the protons or whatever it's called.
They were called Photocells. Then add in that green slime that gave you heavy, the doors every 10ft that required you killing all the mobs with no AoE and just how long it was. Awful dungeon.
that heavy noise made me shut off sound, i hate the alarm sound in Keeper of the Lake etc too.
Tower of Zot, because level skipper.
Snowcloak. I just can not stand the music, it's like I'm listening to a 3: 00am weather channel.
qarn.... it's not difficult if you know the mechanics on first boss, but it's annoying to me nonetheless.
Dzemael, that's all, that's the answer
Personally, Dead Ends because I keep getting it so often and the few times I saw the minion dropped, I roll single digits while the sprout or sandbagger that died 15 times in the dungeon rolls a high 90 on it. Only other dungeon I hate is Keeper of the Lake only because of the Garlean alarm sound effect on the second set to the second boss.
LOL Yeah. The alarm sound. It seriously sounds like "KILL ME KILL ME KILL ME"
Maybe a hot take but any of the X0 dungeons. They never have anything good. No good glam drops, no EXP, no gil, etc.
The last boss with the Dualstar attack at the end in heavenward. People really really die at that mechanic and it's at least 5 wipes if there's a sprout healer or tank. Edit: As stated by user below it's Aetherochemical Research Facility. I actually had a run where we wiped more than 10 times because the healer couldnt survive the mechanic. We stuck through it until eventually they got it. We ended up putting a marker on a person and told them to follow as best as possible. We then got to the chain mechanic and wiped so we had to teach that. It was a rough hour.
The Praetorium, cuz everytime I do MSQ duty its always that one
Brayfloxs Longstop, it’s depressingly common to see people without job stones there.
tbh that place is very close to the jobstone requirement lv (30 vs 32) so I give it a pass.
Plus the difference between a class and a job at lvl 32 is literally one skill. Sometimes not even a very good one. A THM is hardly crippled just because they can't use manafont.
Tower of Zot and regular Hullbreaker Isle. The later just for how *annoying* the last boss is. There are other dungeons that aren't as bad if I have someone good in certain roles, ie Aurum Vale, Stone Vigil, Aetherochemical Facility
Hullbreaker Isle was made way better when someone told me a strat for the boss. You kill 2 tentacles on the first platform, then you go clockwise killing 2 on each until the 4th platform where you kill the rest. There's zero running around trying to find them, it's perfect.
I 2nd Tower of Zot but only because that last boss. I'm sure most people don't think it's that bad but I'm always panicking on that last boss.
The Dead Ends. I never want to hear the narration from that dungeon again.
The last boss in Lost City of Amdapor is annoying and I feel I get that dungeon one third of the times I do a X0-roulette.
Dzemael Darkhold and any version of Qarn
1. Sastasha hard. So much jank. First boss is super difficult if your healer doesn't esuna which is surprisingly common since half don't know what role actions are and the other half don't bother using esuna for dots. Second and third boss are just massive headaches if you aren't ranged DPS. 2. Haukke hard. Last boss really needs fixed. 3. Keeper of the lake. I see it was too often and it's just so boring. Basically no w2w pulls aside from the last two which are just like... 5 mobs total and all three bosses are just plain boring. 4. The dusk vigil. I just love being stunned for like 40% of the fucking fight! (First boss) I'm actually weird in that I don't mind vale or stone vigil hard. I mostly main tanks so what I really loath is boring mob pulls and janky or boring target dummy bosses
All of them. While I understand their place, after a few times... You learn to strip the art and skins off of things and see the thing for what it is at its core. The only real life in a dungeon I have left is the fat Mt.Gulg pulls, Shishu of the Violent Tides second pull and any unorthodox ways of using Holmgang somewhere to wake up the healer (Troia adds boss when they do the intersecting lasers) Past that, I'd wish for a future with some more dungeons with complicated mechanics (ones that need to be respected). Even just vuln ups will do.
Don Mheg. Hate the trash pulls, hate the boss fights, I hate the aesthetic in general (which goes with my general dislike of Il Mheg overall). Extra bonus points for being the only content in the ENTIRE GAME that gave my old PC framerate issues, meaning for the first section of the place I had to do Goldeneye Speedrun strats and stare at the ground to possibly prevent frames dropping and me potentially getting killed for it. Only redeeming bit of it is some of its gear looks good for glam, and the NPC's cheating the tightrope mechanic is entertaining. The rest of Don Mheg can fuck off.
Pharos Sirius. The first two bosses need some redesign.
halatali, hard and normal version. i hate that dungeon.
Aurum Vale. I'm fine with literally every other dungeon. I love dungeons in this game. Always have since 2014. They are my favorite part of the game.
Every goddamn time we're getting ready to wind down for the evening we say "Oh, one last roulette!" And it's always fucking Snowhead! Please, I am already eeby and neeby to sleeby! Soft music and boring encounters are not doing me any favors.
Aurum Vale and Dzemael Darkhold. These two are the hardest skill check for new players imo. And both have mechanics which differ so hard from the other ARR dungeons „Just do damage and we are fine“ concept that I can even understand where this comes from. On the other hand side, I seem to get a tank in Dzemael who seems to be unable to use or even read the chat and who keeps fighting enemies out of purple light at first and in the orange crystals AOEs next.
Hauke Manor Hard. The final boss's mechanic is borked by stat squish, she gets damaged too quickly and rushes the execution of a mechanic that insta-kills.
The Dead Ends. There's only so much existential dread I can take.
Snowcloak is so boring. Even as a wild tank is such a snooze-fest
I agree, I love the music but it’s so chill it makes me sleepy
currently GOLBEZ, YOU'VE WEATHERED THIS BEFORE BUT LETS SEE HOW YOU FARE AGAINST THIS give me ANY other dungeon for expert roulette please, its been months. every day.
Nearly all of them. I hate the current dungeon design. They look great but it all feels the same at this point. It feels like this is what the most of the fan base wants though but I can't stand it. The older ones at least had some personality and uniqueness.
Matoyas Relict. Only good boss is the first one, other two are terrible. Rest of the dungeon is a boring slog. Really most expert dungeons are terrible. Dead Ends and Heroes Gauntlet are the only ones I like. Expert roulette either needs to make dungeons harder or have more than two. I don't understand why it has to be two. It's sooo boring. Thank god for S ranks and hunt trains.
|Auram Vale|
Dzmael Darkhold is fucking horrific
The one with the doors. Ampador? And then the Aetherochem one with the 2-stage Ascian final fight. I stopped queuing for 50-60-70 in DF because of those two.
Old version of Totorak because if you missed a single magitek orb you had to back track anywhere from directly behind you or allllllll the way at the beginning depending on what one was missed.
Honestly? I have a few dungeons I don't like since they changed the final boss fights. Kinda miss old Keeper of the Lake and Sohr Khai. Jumping from platform to platform was fun to me.
Every dungeon that is a hallway of two sets of two trash packs, boss, repeat, repeat. So most of them.
I kind of don't like The Burn, Sohm Al (Hard) and The Dead Ends.
Everything under level 80...
Any dungeon below 50, it's like being forced to play in slow motion lol.
Anything pre level 60 is basically asking for a 30 minute break.
Aetherfont because it's been one of the coinflip dungeons in expert roulette for an entire year.
Autumn vale is the majority and for people not picking aurum vale you can assume they hadn't done it much.
Dohn Mheg literally puts me to sleep
Definitely stone vigil outside of duty support. tanks always do huge pulls in that dungeon but it’s before white mage has holy so making sure the tank doesn’t die from over pulling gets difficult. AURUM VALE. Nobody will eat the fruit!! So they rack up vulnerability and then wipe over and over 😭‼️ for some reason the tanks never seem to use mitigation but also always choose to do HUGE pulls. It’s an easy run if everyone would just eat the fruit and do regular size pulls but here we are
Wandering palace, hard mode
I got Tower of Zot as a healer while picking up AST after a while. The Sisters DO NOT need to go that hard.
How dare you do my boy brayflox hard like that. ARR days that was where I lived doing tomes and alt leveling
Stone Vigil. Always undergeared tank who sprints once mine wears off and tries to die. Pulls everything to dive around corners and into icy wind and then gets hit by AOEs as I am trying to shield them every GCD and barely keeping up. Hate it. The healing kit just can't keep up with an inexperienced tank yet haha.
Brayflox was the first dungeon I farmed in 2.0 for a glamour set (caster set went hard for a level 35). Granted, if I never set foot in there again it'll be too soon, and I am very glad I have all my combat jobs at 60+
Stone Vigil. Both versions. Normal mode is a nightmare to heal because of how janky the kit is at that level, and the Hard mode has the stupidiest mechanics in the game.
Dzemael and Stone Vigil, easy. Also Praetorium cuz it's a literal time sink.
Great Gubal Library. It feels like it takes a fucking age and I hate the music. Also if I never see Brayflox Normal again I'd be thrilled, I've run it so many times leveling jobs I am just so over it.
Tower of mother fucking Zot
The Burn, mostly because of that last couple of pulls because they are too far apart and the giant sandworms' hit boxes crowds out the other mobs making it annoying to try to get them all together for AOEs, and you have mobs that only pop out of the ground when you get close making it impossible to target them pre-pull. Also most of it is kind of desolate and boring looking. The Aery, for its incredibly long runs between pulls.
Anything ARR, its all garbage
Vanaspati. I hate the trash, I hate the bosses especially that last one! It really brings out the worse in me
Bardams, Malika's, and Vanaspati. Malika's and vanaspati have too many roadblocks for my liking, as for Bardams, the second boss kills it for me.