Pharos Sirius...

Multiple times now I've queue'd up for High Level Duty Roulette, received Pharos Sirius, and half the group complains about how hard the dungeon is or how much they dislike it and leave.

I don't get it. I've cleared the place several times with few issues. The only boss that is remotely difficult is the final one. But as long as you kill the adds quickly, avoid her abilities when she flies in the air, and the healer dispells asap...it's a joke.

Has anyone else experienced this? This is incredibly frustrating especially when queueing as a Bard. Takes half an hour to get in the dungeon...and all these children leave immediately because "it's hard" or "I don't like it."

I don't really blame them.

The final boss is frustrating (especially in the context of a duty finder) and I'm in no hurry to do it again myself.

I only tried it once. Didn't know anything about it, and neither did my friend. This was back when it was pretty new. The other two people in our party were also new to the dungeon. We failed on the first boss. Wiped many times. I haven't been back since, and I've been avoiding the high level duty roulette because I'm afraid I'll get it. I need to do some research before going back, and I will probably go back with a group entirely of FC friends.

I have experienced this quite a bit and to be honest I have the same reaction as the people complaining, I just don't share it in game. Pharos Sirius is actually one of my favorite dungeons, but I cringe when it appears in the duty roulette. Seemingly without fail DF parties will include individuals who aren't geared enough to complete it. When that happens, we make slow progress up until Siren, and then we beat our heads against her until the dungeon timer runs out. Not my idea of a good time :/

I don't have a healer to 50 but from the perspective of the other roles it is a simple dungeon like any other. There seems to be a big burden on the healer when fighting Siren. Your healer's competency is checked like no dungeon has before this one, and if they cannot keep up then your party is going nowhere and you will run out of time. The fear is getting a bad party and wasting an hour with no mythology reward. I always explain the strategy clearly to people who are new and it usually helps.

I guess I got lucky when my partner and I ran this dungeon for the first time. We only had troubles with the first boss and the rest was smooth sailing, including Siren.

What was annoying though was when we queued up and told the first two people we arrived in dungeon with that we were new to it they both left. Thankfully the second group were willing to help us learn and explained things as we went through it.

But over all the dungeon didn't seem painfully hard. It was difficult but the good kind.

I didn't think it was so bad. I have only played it once, though. We only wiped once and that was on the last boss. I thought it was pretty fun.

However, I have heard that healers have it pretty hard in that fight.

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Originally Posted by SoliasCrinfain

I didn't think it was so bad. I have only played it once, though. We only wiped once and that was on the last boss. I thought it was pretty fun.

However, I have heard that healers have it pretty hard in that fight.

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It depends on the competence of the DPS and the tank for adds control and stunning Lunatic Voice.

This dungeon is getting so much hate that I'm terrified from even trying it :/

If you see a fresh lv50 healer with less than 3k HP it will be a safe bet to leave and eat the 30min rather than wipe again and again in the next 90min and fail the dungeon.

I've been to the dungeon once, though not with my main class (dps) but with my healer (item lvl 68).
Sad to say, but we failed because of me - I haven't played healer often and had my difficulties removing the seduction debuff through healing while keeping the tank healthy at the same time, but I'm sure an experienced healer would have had no problems there...

My main issue with the dungeon is the difficulty<=>reward comparison, because getting lvl60 gear for a dungeon that is close to not doable with a full group with item level between 50 and 60 is just rediculous.

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Originally Posted by ImDingDing

If you see a fresh lv50 healer with less than 3k HP it will be a safe bet to leave and eat the 30min rather than wipe again and again in the next 90min and fail the dungeon.

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As much as I agree... (esp if its roulette)
I was once that Lv50 healer and 90 minutes was the experience I needed to not fail the second time.
So please check with the healer first before leaving =x it may mean a lot.

Pharos Sirius (henceforth known as "PS" because typing is hard) does not need to be retuned, nerfed, reduced in difficulty or any of that stuff. If anything, it should be made slightly tougher (the third boss is lol and really needs to be brought up to match the other bosses in difficulty).

However, it needs to drop item level 70 gear, equivalent to Darklight, but with different/shuffled bonuses (also no two-slot pieces please). Make them look unique so that people who want more vanity options and roleplayers will be interested in running the dungeon even if they have better gear. Then take the new item level 60 sets (Lord's, Blessed, etc) and put it in Haukke and Copperbell HM along with the AK jewelry, move the AK dungeon set back to AK and the WP dungeon set back to WP.

That way people will have a lot more incentive to run this dungeon, and there will be a slightly clearer progression path.

Oh, and please, please, please, PLEASE make the music loop. PS has some of the best music out of any of the four-player dungeons! Why do the hard modes have looping music and unique battle music, but Pharos Sirius does not? Hell, AK's music is really nice, too. But it plays exactly ONCE and then stops, leaving us with silence and Generic Dungeon Battle Theme. What the hell?

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Originally Posted by Caraway

While I agree with almost everything here I don't agree with making Pharos drop i70 gear. How about making i65 instead? That keeps the dungeon progression that's already there going from 50-55-60.

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Nobody will bother doing it for i65 gear. Too many people have darklight. Arguably it's easier for your average solo queueing casual player to get gear from CT than it is from Pharos Sirius, and that gear is item level 80; better than darklight in virtually every case!

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Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Pharos Sirius (henceforth known as "PS" because typing is hard) does not need to be retuned, nerfed, reduced in difficulty or any of that stuff. If anything, it should be made slightly tougher (the third boss is lol and really needs to be brought up to match the other bosses in difficulty).

However, it needs to drop item level 70 gear, equivalent to Darklight, but with different/shuffled bonuses (also no two-slot pieces please). Make them look unique so that people who want more vanity options and roleplayers will be interested in running the dungeon even if they have better gear. Then take the new item level 60 sets (Lord's, Blessed, etc) and put it in Haukke and Copperbell HM along with the AK jewelry, move the AK dungeon set back to AK and the WP dungeon set back to WP.

That way people will have a lot more incentive to run this dungeon, and there will be a slightly clearer progression path.

Oh, and please, please, please, PLEASE make the music loop. PS has some of the best music out of any of the four-player dungeons! Why do the hard modes have looping music and unique battle music, but Pharos Sirius does not? Hell, AK's music is really nice, too. But it plays exactly ONCE and then stops, leaving us with silence and Generic Dungeon Battle Theme. What the hell?

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While I agree with almost everything here I don't agree with making Pharos drop i70 gear. How about making i65 instead? That keeps the dungeon progression that's already there going from 50-55-60.

See for me the only time I've been in it is dred into it or used the DF and gotten an in progress past the 1st boss group that couldn't hold up their end so I could do my job during siren effectively. The 2nd time I was in there I got bad enough lag that the mobs would disappear on my screen and we wiped and even though I told them this the brd was all meh let's go again!

Ways Pharos Sirius can go bad:

* Heal can fail to top people up after Siren puts her to-be-charmed debuff on.
* Heal can fail to keep up after group-wide Vulnerability Up goes on.
* Heal can fail to move away from crawling adds.
* DPS can fail to pick up adds.
* All can misread Siren's position when she flies off, resulting in needless damage.
* All can miss Siren going to mid (insta-charm for non-mid players).
* All can be insufficiently geared, due to low threshold for entry.

I've actually never cleared this dungeon.....

In fact, I've actually never been past the starting point. Everyone leaves. It would seem that the majority of players don't enjoy the dungeon.

I could be mistaken here, but it seems to me that it would make more sense for every dungeon to be somewhat enjoyable by the majority. But when you want to talk about Pharos, or Aurmn Vale, most people seem to cringe at the mere mention of those places.

Wouldn't you think that's a problem with the design of the game? Develop an aspect of the game, and practically everyone wants nothing to do with it...that sounds like a failure to me.

Maybe dungeons should have a beta phase...and if most players seem to dislike certain parts of it, they can fill out a survey to submit and then the developers can tweak it until it's generally more fun.

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Originally Posted by FritoBandito

t you think that's a problem with the design of the game? Develop an aspect of the game, and practically everyone wants nothing to do with it...that sounds like a failure to me.

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The thing is, Pharos Sirius is the most epic and engaging dungeon in the game in my opinion. Its loads of fun to do when your party is properly prepared to face it. However if you use the DF to join it you're risking running the dungeon with undergeared players (Who haven't done anything wrong, their gear just isn't quite up to par with the dungeon yet). With other dungeons you can still fight through and beat the dungeon if that happens, but not so with Pharos Sirius.

I would say Pharos Sirius is the best designed dungeon yet, its just too challenging to be taken on by those only freshly lvl 50. And of course, fresh level 50s are the ones that most want to do it :P So you'll encounter them often.

pharos is fun but it's obvious it needs tuning. Increase the ilevel requirements and make it drop i70 stuff. would make progression a alot more fun for everyone. Who wants to run boring phil tome runs in main scenario.

I still feel the first boss is significantly harder then the others. Mostly because it is a messy fight and there is very little you can do to clean it up because the only safe spots from the aoe put the dps and the healers in a tough spot when the wolves spawn as not enough stun in the world can keep up with crystal bursts especially at lower level gear. Siren while is strong it is a pattern that besides the hugme zombies could be pushed pass with knowledge of the fight. I think it is a well put together dungeon and I can agree with the i70 stuff now more so because the system has outgrown it but if you do it for pharos you would have to do it for the other hard modes which some may have a problem with but hard modes do seem easier to me but the trash in PS seem much more hellbent on as well as capable of wiping the party.

Did it first time with 2 FC DPS and DF healer, wasn't bad only wiped once on Final Boss.
Second Time did it with 2 FC DPS and FC healer, wiped alot on final boss cause healer wouldn't top people off.

Got it in Duty Roulette, 2 DPS with full AF gear and Healer in DL, kill First boss after a few wipes, healer left and i followed suit
Got it in Duty Roulette again, BLM with under 3k Health, DRG in Full AF armor and WP weapon, Healer with mostly ilevel 55 gear... left instantly and took the 30 min penalty...

Duty Finder / Roulette sucks for this dungeon, whenever I get it in DR I just take the 30min hit, not worth all the wipes.

It's because it has the same requirements for stunning capability and management that hydra or Ifrit have... except it's just a small group tome farming instance.

Not worth it. You get people not used to stunning/managing add agro and you wipe. Period. Effort not worth the reward.

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Originally Posted by Caraway

While I agree with almost everything here I don't agree with making Pharos drop i70 gear. How about making i65 instead? That keeps the dungeon progression that's already there going from 50-55-60.

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Absolutely. It should have been i65 gear! This is the most difficult of the end game dungeons and it does offer the exact same gear as the other "HM" dungeons. heck they can still do this :o and have only the new graphics apply to the i65 gear in Pharos.

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Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Then take the new item level 60 sets (Lord's, Blessed, etc) and put it in Haukke and Copperbell HM along with the AK jewelry,

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Just want to note that you can already get the Blessed set in Copperbell HM and the Lord's set in Haukke HM, making Pharos completely not worth doing at all once you've beat it once for the quest.

So SE learned that time based mechanics (all the bosses in AK for example) make a fight way too easy for people who are geared. to counter this they do things HP% based so over geared push out adds too fast and people do not realize the problem and wipe.

Boss 1, too fast dps = stacks from adds keep building till you blow up and wipe
Bird boss, too much dps = no time for stacks to fall off between hatchings = enraged mode = wipe
Last boss, ok this one something different, but not that hard when you understand mechanics and kill order for adds.

Glad SE actually made something that gets harder the more geared you are to give some actual challenges in normal dungeons..


and while the ilv drops are a bit of.. lets be honest myth/coil/CT is all you should care about and it wont replace darklight this early on so not much else you can ask for.

Been there 3 times failed 3 times... And you can't blame my heals on it after all I have cleared everything right up to coil turn 4 and garuda ex mode

just got this group today, on my WHM daily roulette. The tank was sitting at like 4990 HP, no one else has completed it.

It took a while, and we almost ran out of time, but we finished it. It required me SCREAMING at them to interrupt Lunatic Voice, follow me when she jump (since they didn't know the pattern), but we got Siren on like 5th try.

I had to be very strict but they each got their first kills, and some of them were very poorly geared. Hard to carry a group as a healer ..

If you can interrupt voice with blunt arrow or spirits final boss is cake.

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Originally Posted by Squa

just got this group today, on my WHM daily roulette. The tank was sitting at like 4990 HP, no one else has completed it.

It took a while, and we almost ran out of time, but we finished it. It required me SCREAMING at them to interrupt Lunatic Voice, follow me when she jump (since they didn't know the pattern), but we got Siren on like 5th try..

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Just to let you know. 4983 tank = i62 average. Which is already 7 item levels over what previous dungeons drops. Reminder, this dungeon drops i60 gear. Still obvious dungeon needs tuning.

It isn't hard at all as long as people know the mechanics. People are too lazy to learn it. My team went in Darklight and parts of AF (regular not 2/+1) to test the actual level limits. It is difficult, but totally do-able. You just really can't mess up and yolo swag.

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Originally Posted by Bridgeburner

Ways Pharos Sirius can go bad:

* Heal can fail to top people up after Siren puts her to-be-charmed debuff on.
* Heal can fail to keep up after group-wide Vulnerability Up goes on.
* Heal can fail to move away from crawling adds.
* DPS can fail to pick up adds.
* All can misread Siren's position when she flies off, resulting in needless damage.
* All can miss Siren going to mid (insta-charm for non-mid players).
* All can be insufficiently geared, due to low threshold for entry.

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but wait there's more! /silly late night commercial tag off

*DD's can enrage the boss by overdoing damage/not breaking eggs/breaking too many eggs etc (gonna be honest,I'm a healer I know 'dd's do something with eggs or boss gets angry')
*Any party member can suck at avoiding the 'stacks debuff' on the First boss with the wolves 3 stacks=you explode/take a lot of damage
*Lack of Lunatic Voice Stunning. You make the healers role 100% harder by not stunning this move.
*DD's can be too slow at burning the wolf adds on first boss/tank can be slow to aggro the adds closest to him
*Party members with lower def/hps who aren't SS'd and who time their basic movement from point a-b between the 1st and 2nd boss wrong, can die from the falling rocks.
*Even some of the 'basic' mobs hit for a lot of damage...one bad pull and you can wipe like noobs on a simple mob.
*WHM's are in general, more of a liability in PS than SCHs...and I say this as a WHM main. The way a WHM's skill-set works/the amount of constant dodging+ need for big AoE cures can lead to MP issues/party members being out of cure range or losing the tank when trying to heal a dd. WHM basically needs a bard to make up for the slack...and not all DF parties come with bard. It is possible to do without Ballad, but to do so, requires skillful use of the WHM's entire skillset + party members with solid DPS/Hate Management and who know how and when to gather up to make the most of WHM AoE cures. (SCH has it rough too, but with better MP management and a fairy to assist, the SCH is more mobile...also, SCH's 'pre-healing' style lends itself much more to this dungeon as much of the healing of at least the final boss is 'keeping everyone topped off'...a feat slightly easier to do for a SCH).



Sad thing is: all this said, it's still a very fun dungeon...but the risks with a DF party don't match the potential rewards...not when there's faster easier ways to earn the same amount of myth and when the gear dropped isn't anything special/trumped again by easier methods (Turns 1-4 in BC are easier if you need some perspective). So unless you queue with friends or are a glutton for punishment this can be a scary place.

Still, other than me saying 'curse you Dungeon Roulette' and/or Congratulating my fellow party members after the Dungeon Roulette PS clear and then wishing them ' Grats!, May dungeon Roulette never send you here again' ....I always suck up my DF roulette lot when I get sent here and work hard to get a win. (But every time I queue for High Level Roulette I am praying it's NOT PS :P)

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Originally Posted by Ed_N_Ants

Been there 3 times failed 3 times... And you can't blame my heals on it after all I have cleared everything right up to coil turn 4 and garuda ex mode

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I'm a healer too. Haven't done Ultima HM/Primal Extremes/Coil yet... But...
Been there a few times, won a few, failed a few.
Yesterday I got a duty roulette there, and other than a screwup on Zu (dps killed too many eggs), no problem.
Even siren went down on first attempt.
Explanations were done at each boss prior to running in.

As long as people listen to instructions and can play their roles properly, it's not very difficult.

It's hard if you don't pay attention, or over gear it and don't understand that you need to slow down to have an easier time.

I think it's fine as it is. Drops could be better, but right now it shows a lot of brainless people up. Seen it beat with largely i60-70 people with ease (Although obviously a fair amount of time too), failed a good few times with near enough i90 players.

Also, first boss is the hardest imo, by miles. It's very very hard to forget your stacks and blow up next to someone squishy. Who usually has just blown up too so everyone dies. D:

I would like to do this dungeon, but with stories like this I definitly don't want to unlock it and add it to the duty roulette possibilities.

OK, no one said it so:

"Pharos Sirius is SERIOUS 0.o"


*couldn't resist

First try at this dungeon was with a pug, we got to Siren quickly, but wiped probably 12 times or so before running out of time. Being my first attempt, I figured I was to blame since Siren victory depends on healer a lot. Turns out the biggest issue was the DPS not taking out those crawlers quick enough. Went with some members from my FC for my second run, took out Siren on first try with no issues. Really helps when those crawlers are grabbed right away and taken down. Also, as the healer, have to be mindful of where they spawn and keep away as well.

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Originally Posted by Imapooonu

OK, no one said it so:

"Pharos Sirius is SERIOUS 0.o"


*couldn't resist

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Wow, Siriusly?

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Originally Posted by Komatose9514

and the healer dispells

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Its no classical dispelling. Maybe that is the problem for many? First try I was wondering too, how to get that debuff away. But after I did move my mouse pointer over the debuff symbol and read the text in the tooltip box, everything got clear.

Pharos is quite possibly the coolest 4 man dungeon. It can be challenging if you have a low i level healer, but is also very doable with patience and instruction. There should always be at least one 4 man dungeon like this at a time. Not all challenging content should be restricted to Full Parties.

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Originally Posted by CYoung187

I would like to do this dungeon, but with stories like this I definitly don't want to unlock it and add it to the duty roulette possibilities.

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That's a shame.