Aurum Vale difficulty...you don't get book credit if you are dead FUN

So is it just me, or does anyone else remember this instance being easier than it is now?
I needed to clear it for one of my Curtana atma books and had quite the traumatic experience with it:

First 2 attempts using Duty Finder: other 3 members were all level 47, first time inside. Each boss took about 3 attempts to finish, and after multiple attempts at final boss it was clear it was un-winnable and people left.

Second 2 attempts going in with 2 endgame friends (a healer & brd): Almost the same level of difficulty. The first 2 bosses took a really long time to kill. The final boss continued to cause exceptional difficulty for whatever reason and took a few tries to down each time.... unfortunately BOTH times, I died a few seconds before the boss died. Being dead ,or even releasing to start, when the boss dies results in not receiving credit for the book completion.

I did manage to survive on the 5th attempt with a duty finder group full of ilvl90+ people. However, I feel like this instance may have been overlooked after so many other ones have had their difficulty adjusted. I tank in endgame, I understand the mechanics of all the fights and I am pretty sure everyone I ended up paired with did too. Thoughts peeps?

**edit** Looks like I most likely was scorned by the RNG gods and given incompetent players in duty finder. However, I've used duty roulette tons for pretty much every dungeon and never run into any problems outside of these AV runs yesterday, and a couple early Pharros Sirrus runs. In both cases I think the failures were due to the higher than usual burden placed on the healer due to debuffs on everyone at the same time.

Nope, still the same as ever. Ilevel also doesn't matter as they get level sync'd anyway.

Nope I did it recently and found it fine. But me and my group knew what to do. When 1st attempting this dungeon though it was a wipe fest xD Adds have to be AOEed down fast at final boss, people gotta clean their debuffs at 3 stacks everytime. I think it's stressful for new players.

It's actually easier than it was before because they boosted pet defence against poison and attacks and such. Did a few other things too but don't recall

I don't ever recall Aurum Vale being that hard. If people start heading the wrong direction and not follow the tank, you can pull some adds you don't want them to but either way, the last time I ran AV, no wipes, one shot all bosses. ..although i can't recall the bloody second boss really. Both first and lass boss really are the same type of boss so really if you can just know when to eat the fruit, that place is easy.

I hate Cutter`s Cry more than Aurum Vale.

The instance itself is very easy, especially after the disappearance of the latency problems in there. The problem is PLAYERS make it a horrible experience. I see quite a lot of players who are either tanks trying to grab everything in the first room, DPS not paying attention to the enemy/poison placement and getting themselves and possibly the party killed, and then of course players who don't know their rotations (but that's more of a things aren't dying fast enough thing). This dungeon tries to teach you to not do any of these things because you'll need to know what not to do after this, and unfortunately some players can't pick up on it.

I have horrible, horrible memories of that place when I tried to clear it in November. It took over a week to find a party to clear it using the DF. A the time it was the entry route to all the high level stuff and I was stymied for longer than I care to recall.

It is the only bit of the game I have vowed never to enter again.

I've had problems with Aurum Vale in DF, but after my initial clear with friends it's rarely been any kind of issue. More difficult than WP or AK for sure, but nothing unexpected ever seems to happen, except perhaps lag on the Cointcounter's 100-tonze swing.

ive been saying since 2.0 launched that AV and Dzmael Darkhold are both more challenging than any of the lvl 50 dungeons or the new HM for that matter.

the game needs more dungeons like this for the 50+ crowd. knowing that you might not one shot a dungeon makes them alot more exciting

Honestly find Stone Vigil and Aurum Vale harder than the 1st three turns of coil.

Impossible to overgear, meaning you're forced to accommodate all the mechanics built in. Stone Vigil has some nasty patrols walking around that can easily cause a wipe if you aggro them too early. Aurum Vale is easier imo, but can become a nightmare for the whole party if just one person screws up.

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Originally Posted by alhandra

the game needs more dungeons like this for the 50+ crowd. knowing that you might not one shot a dungeon makes them alot more exciting

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They tried that. It's called Pharos Sirius. Didn't end well.

People were freaking out a bit at first about Ruins of Ampador. The dungoun itself is a good example of fun mechanics, though.

DPS the gormund's belly to quickly break your friend out.
Tank co-ordinating with DPS to recieve the highest stacks of the debuff (We actually had a DPS take a debuff at one point, and he had to off-tank while we quickly nuked another one)
Coordination of Doors, smart positioning of bursting AoE's on Diabolos. As dragoon, I often can solo-handle this, but I imagine it would be a lot harder for a party that's not very... smart, about how they handle it.

Fun mechanics like this, that aren't mindless like FATE grind's 1-2-3 gameplay, are what I love to see.

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Originally Posted by alhandra

and Dzmael Darkhold are both more challenging than any of the lvl 50 dungeons or the new HM for that matter.

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DD is hard? I question that. A lot.

I find DD really easy. In fact, I ran it last night and had no issues whatsoever. It just takes time to do. I was tanking, and the only thing that I had to do "differently" was have everyone stand away from the mobs after the first boss so I could pull things to them without pulling the frogs on the cliffs. We even pulled way too much stuff in the room before the first boss and didn't die somehow. Only death happened on the last boss when the BRD derped, twice...


As for AV, if people know their roles, and know how to deal with mechanics, its an easy dungeon. Again, it just takes time.


"Off-topic"...if post-50 dungeons had gear-sync (say, the Hard roulette having a max of i70, Expert i80, and so on) they'd be a LOT harder. Overgearing is what makes them easy, not the dungeons themselves.

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Originally Posted by PArcher

DD is hard? I question that. A lot.

I find DD really easy. In fact, I ran it last night and had no issues whatsoever. It just takes time to do. I was tanking, and the only thing that I had to do "differently" was have everyone stand away from the mobs after the first boss so I could pull things to them without pulling the frogs on the cliffs. We even pulled way too much stuff in the room before the first boss and didn't die somehow. Only death happened on the last boss when the BRD derped, twice...


As for AV, if people know their roles, and know how to deal with mechanics, its an easy dungeon. Again, it just takes time.


"Off-topic"...if post-50 dungeons had gear-sync (say, the Hard roulette having a max of i70, Expert i80, and so on) they'd be a LOT harder. Overgearing is what makes them easy, not the dungeons themselves.

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Agreed on both the difficulty of DD and level-syncing 50+ dungeons. I still don't know why they haven't added an iLvl-sync to those dungeons...well, I guess I do: people will complain about how they don't feel powerful anymore, or about how long it takes to get through them now that they can't farm them in 20min. But then people complain about how they're too easy and blah blah blah. No pleasing anyone, I guess.

One thing about this dungeon is you need a competent healer. Not a good healer, I really mean just competent one.

I healed it for my book, so it went smoothly. No wipes or deaths. Easy even with PuGs that took way more damage than they should have. If anyone is having trouble with this instance I suggest grabbing a FCmate to heal it for you.

For AV bring a BLM to AOE the pods on the last boss as soon as they spawn and then it's super easy. I've only ever had trouble with this dungeon when we didn't have a BLM

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Originally Posted by KikInperi

For AV bring a BLM to AOE the pods on the last boss as soon as they spawn and then it's super easy. I've only ever had trouble with this dungeon when we didn't have a BLM

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You don't need a BLM. A WHM, DRG or BRD can do it just as well. The only real potential for failure would be 2 SMN and a SCH, but if everyone Shadowflares, Miasma 2s and Banes, things should die fast(ish)

I really can not believe people put things like SV and DD on the same level as AV. SV and DD are both jokes.

AV on the other hand is a royal PITA with DF. I remember trying to clear this thing for my GC. Took a good 8-10 tries. Lag in this place on bosses is still a bitch. Especially for the cyclops.

AV is only difficult because there are a lot of players that just don't know what to do or where to stand in that dungeon. Even explaining the mechanics, you can still be in for a bad time because the bosses are pretty specific with regards to positioning and things in order to maximize heals and to deal with debuffs like Burrs and Gold Lung expediently.

I hate it for that reason. It's a pain as a healer to run in DF. It's not hard in terms of straightforward difficulty, it's just hard because you have to be pretty precise in how you handle the bosses.

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Originally Posted by PArcher

You don't need a BLM. A WHM, DRG or BRD can do it just as well. The only real potential for failure would be 2 SMN and a SCH, but if everyone Shadowflares, Miasma 2s and Banes, things should die fast(ish)

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I didn't say you needed a BLM, just that if you're having trouble a BLM will make it easier (for the record, of course I've beaten it without a BLM).

And you can't shadow flare in Aurum Vale... or feasibly bane all the things before they hatch.

Content just needs ilvl syncing, and fast. It is true, there is more satisfaction to clearing aurum vake than any of the new dungeons, due to overgearing. I really resent SE for making all the new dungeons suitable for people in AF1 gear...why? Why can't we have difficult dungeons? Seems all we get for hard content is primals and coils....

I am inclined to side with your frustration, just because I don't necessarily like Aurum Vale. Not that I think it's a tough dungeon, I just don't like the way they designed it. The cyclops boss is almost a mirror image of the cyclops fate boss in coerthas, and the final boss is basically the first boss with add drops. I think they were lacking in the creativity department. Everything looks amazing in the dungeon (especially since now I experience it on PS4), but I think the mechanics are overused and dull.

That being said, I also just ran AV the other night for an Atma book and got into a group with 3 people who had never done the dungeon before, with the tank not level synced. I explained the fights to them and we didn't wipe on a single boss. We did wipe once, however. The first room, the tank thought he could maneuver his way around the mobs, but failed. And also didn't have Shield Oath on lol.

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Originally Posted by Eidolon

*snip.

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What is great about that dj (Amdapor) is that there are other mechanics in there as well. Not only can you DPS the belly to break him out, you can actually pass the Prey, like pass the Rot in T2. This can, in theory, prevent the swallowing all together (although haven't seen it done, but I did manage to be a pita and pass it to the healer who then got ate XD). Also if you pass, just like with rot, you get a debuff that makes it so you can't be preyed again for like 40 seconds.
Additionally the debuff that the Gremlin trash applies (Misery - that increases damage taken) can actually be dispelled by doing the /comfort emote on the affected player if you are close enough! (the consolation removes the misery). These are neat little mechanics that combined with the music of the dj in general make it one of my favorites (along with most of my fc). Hard mode for that dj is going to absolutely amazing and with luck, super fun.

It has been laggy since I started playing this game, but I think they fixed it like a week ago. I've done it twice with lag, and tried it now that the lag was gone and it was rather easy even if we had two level 47s with us in the group.
When you're used to spend 5-10 seconds trying to eat the food and suddenly it works instantly it's a lot easier

Aurum Vale made me quit ffxiv like 8 months ago. I have since came back(about 3 weeks ago), hit 50 whm and powned it a few times. Def not my fav instance though.

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Originally Posted by Sessurea

Content just needs ilvl syncing, and fast. It is true, there is more satisfaction to clearing aurum vake than any of the new dungeons, due to overgearing. I really resent SE for making all the new dungeons suitable for people in AF1 gear...why? Why can't we have difficult dungeons? Seems all we get for hard content is primals and coils....

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I'm inclined to agree, but not yet (or at least not with some of the lv50 content). Once more Hard Mode dungeons have been released, particularly the inevitable continuation of low level dungeons having a HM added, then an ilvl cap should probably be added to those. You really don't want to remove the option to quickly complete dungeons at 50, given the monotony of the tome grind that they have and the negligible rewards. Thus far, equips dropping in 4m dungeons serve no real purpose besides lackluster placeholder upgrade, selling/trade-in, glamour, or MAYBE materia conversion.

I mean it's one thing to rely on RNG for boss drops week after week or month after month, but it's another thing to remove options of ease just to add tedium. Challenge is fine, but challenge only exists for so long. What if you had to run Aurum Vale as often as you do any end-game dungeon to acquire your tomes or whatever? Do you really think challenge would still exist for most people after running it a hundred times, if not more? Assuming you run dungeons frequently, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't enjoy lengthy dungeons like AV, even if it was challenging, if they still offered the same degree of rewards (tomes) as you try to upgrade your gear. Most people don't have the patience to run them hundreds of times over the course of a couple months. For example, those 13500 tomes for 2.2 relic quest? Yeah, have fun with running lvl 50 ilvl capped dungeons in DF getting all that (not to mention upgrading other gear).

Again, I'm not exactly disagreeing with you, I'm just pointing out how they need to go about it. It'd be a matter of unnecessary monotony (with a very brief window of being viewed as "challenging") implemented for no reason. Maybe the best recourse is to simply add an option for a party to ilvl sync. They could add extra rewards for completion as incentive for more players to hopefully take part in it, even though it's most likely only preformed parties would truly consider it. Extra tomes would be nice, but I'd think a chance to get unique items would be a lot better (if not gear/glamour related, then a minion or special crafting mats only obtainable through endgame dungeon ilvl sync).

Ready your torches and pitchforks, because I'm going to say something that I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with:

There has never ever been a hard dungeon in ARR.

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Originally Posted by MurakumoMillennium

Ready your torches and pitchforks, because I'm going to say something that I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with:

There has never ever been a hard dungeon in ARR.

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Difficulty is subjective, and I'd like people to understand that.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

Difficulty is subjective, and I'd like people to understand that.

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>>"Dungeons are too difficult"<<


>>I have a deficiency that I find difficult to overcome while participating in content with the exact same mechanics that others have little or no difficulty with because they do not have the same deficiency as I do.<<

It's not that the dungeon mechanics are difficult. It's the skill to accurately execute the functions required seems to outpace most players abilities.

Cater to the deficient players and remove mechanics and you have extremely boring content - cater to the efficient players with more complex mechanics and you have extremely frustrating content.

Twintania and Titan Extreme say hello.

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Originally Posted by Welsper59

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I've got to agree with you, but I also think we're a bit too far into the game's lifecycle to suddenly make a radical change like iLvl syncing all 50+ dungeons, as much as I would love to see it. I do agree that they should add it as an option for challenge, though. Extra tomes would certainly be a nice thing, but maybe give the final bosses a low chance to drop an HQ crafting mat, like Coke or Potash? Something along the lines of 1%, just so the market isn't immediately flooded. Perhaps if they do this long enough and the numbers reflect that they're popular, they'll phase out non-synced dungeons? Admittedly, that's a wild fantasy if there ever was one, but eh =P

Not to go on a rant, but I just wish people wouldn't rush trying to get everything, especially those who then turn around and complain about how "SE can't do content." But, then again, I'm fine with grinding things out over a long period of time. Atmas, Animus books--I'm perfectly fine with the way they're handled. I doubt I'll get my Animus much before 2.3, but I'll do it by running FATEs when I feel like it, and saving up my myth-tomes over time rather than spam DF and PF for dungeon runs.

It's just tough because everyone hates that dungeon so much it's only been done when they NEED it.

The only people you'll catch in DF are people who are not familiar with it/being new and don't know the mechanics.
AV is a strong MECHANIC based dungeon.

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Originally Posted by ReaperT

They tried that. It's called Pharos Sirius. Didn't end well.

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I think it'd be fine if you tiered it properly and didn't force it on people randomly. It looks like the direction they're going is each patch has it's own tier in the duty finder. So if they make some harder dungeons and put them all in a 4 star roulette everyone knows what they're getting into. If you want to take it easy on a given day, you don't do that roulette. So long as there's no praying you get brayflox hard and then rage quiting when you get stone vigil hard it's fine. You just take the brayflox tier instead if that's what you want.