Shadowbringer Dungeons from best to worst

Waited 2 years for this, not including dungeons like Holminister or Qitana Raval. Only 80s. Just a reminder the game has no "utterly unplayably bad" dungeons. at least not right now thus far. Also its all subjective fill free to disagree

1) ]Amaurot

Since SHB launch, its been revered as a great expansion, so it makes sense that its first 80 still out does all of the rest. Highlights are its first boss and final boss (which from my research is the only one with a plausible enrage) the music and the adds and random aoes peppering the land while Amaurot burns. The 2nd boss just beig aoe fodder is utterly lame and is the only bland spot on a good dungeon

2) Hero's Gauntlet

2-8 are significantly harder to deem what surpasses what as they are all bland and unthreatening in their own way, but Hero's is the least bland. Decent bosses and some mobs that shake up the W2W (wall 2 wall) routine just enough to not be a snooze fest. Highlights are the decently varied mechanics besides that its pretty standard

3) Paglth'an

The final dungeon in the game and compared to Ghimlyt and Baelsar's its kind of a wash, simply being pretty to look at doesnt reallly make it fun to play. But ill say the first and final boss are decent, second boss would be much better as a mob transition rather than a boss in all honesty but since its not its gated and safe. Its just ok not boring enough at least not compared to other of SHB dungeons

4)Twinning

Ignoring the music because saying the music makes the dungeon is like saying frosting makes the moldy cake taste better, its flavoring not the base. Mobs are boring as usual besides the donut aoe ones which make it abit spicy, but the bosses are just a tad bit unthreatening. First boss mechanic to shatter glass to summon more mobs is awesome but its no threatening and causes a "oh shit" moment thats become so rare in content like this and other 2 are just routine at best

5)Grand Comos

At some point this was my least favorite dungeon but after replaying it, its not as bad as some others...still not great and waning on the ok. First and final bosses are ok mobs as casual and bowling pin-like as ever and 2nd boss is kinda lackluster not much to say other than that really

6)Anamnesis Anyder

The bismark one, its barley better than the other one due to the summoning mobs in the last room making w2w abit more fun, bosses all kinda suck in their own way, Plain weirdness buff should really be buffed because of how negligible it is on the first boss, second boss is mechs weve seen for ages with eye of the beholder stuff and final boss is
just kinda bland

7)Akadaemia Anyder

Speaking of negligible, i dont even recall the bosses here that well due to how unmemorable they are, and if a dungeon isnt even memorable than its just a waste of creativity. mobs are also barren which is the one thing Anamnesis had over this, but ill say Akadaemia is a good length better than Relict

8) Matoya's Relict

Copperbell mines is the only dungeon I will say it surpasses. It is so boring and unthreatening that I have actively tried to die as a tank doing this on expert roulette and failed, and tried to do it on minilv to make the mobs hurt more and see all the mechs and barely made a difference besides a extra stack marker which is probably the 2nd most common attack next to a circle aoe. Tried actively not doing mechs and still did it with zero wipes. This place has no business being this obnoxiously safe. Probably the worst case of gating so far as if the game is afraid of you to w2w drawing out the length to a already boring instance. Sastssha does less gating than this lv80 expert dungeon and its the very first dungeon in the game! Best thing is the snort mechanic cuz its the only mech that can kill you other than that its a massive waste of creativity that i hope isnt rivaled to anything in EW

1 The Twinning
2 Heroes' Gauntlet
3 Amaurot
4 Akademia Anyder
5 Anamnesis Anyder
6 Paglth'an
7 Malikah's Well
8 Mt. Gulg
9 Holminster Switch
10 Qitana Ravel
11 Dohn Mheg
12 The Grand Cosmos
13 Matoya's Relict

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jirah

1) ]Amaurot

Since SHB launch, its been revered as a great expansion, so it makes sense that its first 80 still out does all of the rest. Highlights are its first boss and final boss (which from my research is the only one with a plausible enrage) the music and the adds and random aoes peppering the land while Amaurot burns. The 2nd boss just beig aoe fodder is utterly lame and is the only bland spot on a good dungeon

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I would like to write a tierlist, but it would be more like "the bad to the worst ones." Just saying that the worst are definately Hero´s Gauntlet and Matoya´s for a bunch of reasons.

In kind of Amaurot the endboss sadly doesn´t even has a real enrage since you can solo the boss as any tank. Just eat the laser with a def and heal up after it.

Fun is subjective, I don't think any of the (Shadowbringers) dungeons is any fun in fact.
As far as the aesthetics go I would place Mt. Gulg first solely for the latter half and The Twinning last because I don't like the design aside from the Alexander reskin and the music.
The rest in the middle is ok, I prefer it over the Stormblood and Heavensward dungeons for the most part

Depends which way you want to go. Mechanicly speaking, the leveling dungeons were far superior in my opinion. The "expert" dungeons are a joke. Even with min ilvl. You just pull one group less, hooray.

If we go with asthetic? Uff....Matoya´s is probably the only dungeon i dont like. Number one would probably Amarout. The collapsing city, Emet´s monolouge, the music....Holy frick. That was epic.

My personal opinion from best to worst.

ShB Capstone Dungeons:

1. Amaurot
   Things that checked: atmosphere, the build up, Emet's monologue, naming conventions, uniquely behaving mobs, does not suffer in the hands of iLv & potencies creep. This one lives up to its name and being base ShB's penultimate.
2. Heroes' Gauntlet
   Everything that checked in Amaurot are also here, save for the monologue & unique mobs.
3. Grand Cosmos
   From this point I'm getting more biased with my opinion. I love buildings styled like Grand Cosmos. Everything in Heroes' Gauntlet also checked here except ilv creep, although it's not as significant as any subsequent dungeons I'm listing after.
4. Paglth'an
   This one loses out to Grand Cosmos only due to how alarmingly significant iLv creep is & utterly bland 2nd boss. At this point of gameplay I thought Amaurot's 2nd boss was the last time I'll see this kind of "just extra wall pull mob to deal with"-boss, heck it's not even threatening, at all.
5. Akadaemia, Anamnesis, & The Twinning
   These three doesn't have anything appealing. Akadaemia & Anamnesis being slightly ahead of twinning simply because I think the only moment I had small amount of fun is during the first wall pull and last wall pull respectively.
6. Matoya's Relict
   This dungeon doesn't check anything. If any I'm actually really sick of getting this dungeon via roulette. From all the interactable portals and moderately high amount of downtimes in encounters feels like the dev are trying to artificially prolong the experience... rather poorly, that is.

Honorable mentions for ShB Leveling Dungeons:

1. Mt. Gulg
   Similarly rated like Amaurot. The only downside here is my eyes hurting from the excess brightness of the dungeon's scenery. Vauthry's rambling also somehow made it more immersive.
2. Qitana Ravel & Holminster Switch.
   Qitana would be on the first spot if Gulg never had Vauthry's rambling. That first impression when I first jump off the waterfall cavern... just sublime. Holminster never had that kind of impression, but it sort of made up with the way this dungeon introduced to us: there's that sense of urgency. I feel needed. I'm very important, right now, and I'm going to make things -right-.
3. Dohn Mheg
   Save for Feo Ul, Nu Mous & Amaros, I never liked any of the fae folks. Fuaths being the worst offender. The thought of me going through all those danger just to... entertain these entities just doesn't feel cool.
4. Malikah's Well
   This one here feels very bland compared to the rest of leveling dungeons. I was under impression that I''d see some Eulmorian souls considering Ran'jit did intercept us few quests prior to unlocking the dungeon, but... nothing. The dungeon being just cave cave cave and more cave also doesn't appeal me, aesthetically.