What is your favorite, and least favorite dungeon in the heavensward expansion? What do you hope for in the second one?
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What is your favorite, and least favorite dungeon in the heavensward expansion? What do you hope for in the second one?
Antitower was my favorite! [I also enjoyed fractal when it was a thing. ]
I didn't particularly like the new Ampa nor Hullbreaker.
Antitower, Lost City HM. Really cool design, fights, and music. Arboretum is interesting too, love the music and atmosphere but not so much the fights.
Hullbreaker sucks, Sohm Al sucks until the final fight, and I don't like Xelphatol that much either.
Antitower all the way. One of the coolest dungeons I've seen thus far.
As for the most disliked? The Vault. Because SHICKNESH MUSHT BE PURRGED.
Arboretum was the most looked forward to. I wanted to go inside since I first visited the outside area. That said, I hope there will be a hard mode and that it will be better. It wasn't bad, its beautiful...
Honestly I could say this about most of the dungeons. Running just the two really wore them out so fast.
I do love the newest two. Library probably the most though. But you know since I've been doing PotD so much it maybe took a lot of weight off the the repetitiveness.
Xelphatol, Vault, and St. Mocciane's Aboretum are my favorites. Great music and atmosphere in them, and I love the vault boss memes.
Least favorite is Neverreap, hands down. That place is cancer, aids, and herpes rolled all into one with a heaping helping of unfun.
Hullbreaker hard gets a shout out for being amazingly boring.
Favorite: Gubal HM
Hated: ARF ( way too long for what it is, especially with a baby tank )
I honestly enjoyed all of them, do I have to feel bad about that? One of them was less enjoyable, not saying I hated it or anything, just basing it on the concept this dungeon could have been much more. Maybe they run out of time, it's the first HW dungeon (lvl51) I think, after having leveled so many alts, you would assume I could remember the name but I can't :/ and my most favorite was and actually still is The Vault. I can't even count how much entertaining runs I've encountered, with people running straight into the horses, trying to kite horses, running to the other side of the map and die to fire aoe's, plain out refused of running the dungeon and just logging out at the last boss etc. Always a blast.
Favorite is definitely the Arboretum. It felt fresh and interesting to me when it first came out, and I still have fun every time I run it (Though maybe that's just because it's a rarity since 3.1, so I've never been burnt out on it). Love the music, the environments, the bosses, it's great. Also like Xelaphatol and Gubal HM for having some of the most interesting boss mechanics seen in 4-mans in a long while.
Least favorite, is hands down, before all else, all of my hate, Neverreap. I hated it from the first time I ran it, and I hate it every time since. ARF with all the Lore grinding parties is easy to get burnt out on, especially since it's a tad slower to run than most others, but I don't find it all that bad. I'll usually post a groaning comment whenever I land there just because of how often it comes up. Roulette landing me in Neverreap? A string of curses and emphatic "NO"s. It's a pain in the ass, poorly designed, with annoyances at every stage, and bosses that are just asinine for level 60 play.
In terms of aesthetic design I can't complain much about any of them. I have to agree with the common notion the hull breaker hard was very bleh but my problem is with the general gameplay design of EVERY dungeon. They're all glorified hallways. I'd like to see something new. Give me a large spread out area that let's the players decide which direction to go in first, which objective to complete first, or how to complete that objective. Give us reason to explore the dungeon rather than just run through it. Require the party to split up and complete objectives apart from each other that somehow still coincide with each other to encourage communication. I'm just tired of the Hallway -> Boss -> Hallway -> Boss -> Hallway -> Boss, format and would like to something new. The dungeon most set apart seems to be hauke manor, and even that's not by much.
Favorite : The Vault
Reason: It's the only dungeon in all of Heavensward where I actually need to pay attention to what I am doing. If I am DPS or Healer, it doesn't matter. I must focus. Also, because of level sync, bosses are still a little challenging. Every other dungeon, including new ones, have such easy boss fights now. I mean, Gubal HM final boss is often killed before Behemoth even appears...
Second favorite: Hullbreaker HM.
Reason: It's outdoors. It's colorful. It's different from the other dungeons. I think the concept is interesting and fun. I like the 2nd boss.
Least Favorite : Aetherochemical
Reason: It appears too often. SO tired of it. No treasure (I want it for desynthesis). Many people hate it, so tanks and healers sometimes don't focus, and people die.
least: sohm al
best: fractal continuum
Aesthetically, my favorite dungeons in HW have to be both Gubal Libraries; the environments have an interesting feel to them and are detailed in the right ways if you bother to look around. They both start off nearly identical (granted, it's the same location), but I like how the atmosphere in the HM version let's you know something's not quite right (complete with the slow beginning of the new remixed track). I also like how the two dungeons seemed to reverse their progression of atmosphere; whereas the normal mode you travel from something more seemingly normal to sinister/neglected in the basement, hard mode has you travel from something sinister (or ominous) to a more well-lit/maintained section on an upper floor.
My aesthetically least favorite dungeon is Hullbreaker HM, no matter how anyone justifies it to me, it feels like the least-inspired revisited dungeon with the excuse that it was turned into a training-ground area to do as little with it as possible and call it "new." All the barricades, gates, bridges and structures ruin a lot of the original beauty of the normal-mode area, and this dungeon makes the "hallway with mobs" feeling stick out to me more than any other dungeon did in HW.
Aesthetically and mechnically, Sohr Khai probably ranks number one for me. I also like The Lost City of Amdapor and Xelphatol is slowly growing on me. Least favorites would definitely be ARF, Antitower and Hullbreaker, if only because they gate pulls. It just feels so incredibly arbitrary when its not the trash mobs or bosses hitting too hard, but the devs basically saying "those four mobs are enough." Oddly, I love the gauntlet fight leading up to Mistbeard. Everything before it though? A complete bore.
If we're including story dungeons, The Vault and Aery jump into my top three. Both have some challenge at level, let you pull a fare bit and I rather like the atmosphere.
After running each dungeon many time for tomes I can honestly say I avoid running them all whenever possible >.> Every time we get new ones in the patch the fun usually lasts for 1-3 runs, for me, since they all follow the same simple formulaic recipe ._.
Yep, untill they move away from the: straght path with mobs -----> boss fight ------> straight path with mobs -----> boss fight.
The best HW dungeon is the Halloween Mansion, its random and requires some level of teamplay. I hope Christmas event will atleast be the same level or better.
me least favorite dungeon is the aetherofarming farmsearch farmcility(aka aetherochemical research facility), seriusly, SE needs to lower the reward of that place to make it still worth to run, but not to the point to farm it, it gets tiring to get that place every day for 3 months on the lvl 60 roulette thanks to all the people farming it, and the new relic astep isn't helping whit that
and me favorite one is saint mocianne's arboterum
Favorite(s):
Antitower because it's just so....calm. Though Calcabrina is still not something I wanna see before I log off for sleep. Also, being a FFIX fan, it's a nice callback to Ispen's Castle. Plus, still not over that David Bowie reference even after all this time.
Allagan Disco Facility- I mean, Aetherochemical Research Facility and Fractal Continuum, because Allagan. Allagan everything!
Lost City HM
Gubal Library, NM is the only one I've ran so far since I'm taking my time to get used to swapping main jobs and learning rotations. Though HM might be up there as well just from what I've seen.
Least Favorite(s):
Saint Mocianne's, though I deal with it because it's pretty. I may not like it overall, but it's pretty.
Vault, especially if you get those types who just refuse to move apart (or move at all) for the fire chains. Which I tend to run into quite often.
Hated: The Aery, Sohr Kai, Dusk Vigil, Hull hard.
Favorite... Well, pretty much everything else! I have a very love/hate relationship with these things.
Favourite: Arboretum was a quick dungeon with a nice atmosphere
Hated: NEVERREAP RAGE
Not quite sure what I don't like but I do love Vault, Somh Al (last boss), and.. thats about it.
I think Sohr Khai was my favorite, because it was aesthetically beautiful and allowed for some chain-pulling.
Hated Neverreap.
I pretty much disliked all Heavensward dungeons, but:
Favourites: Sohr Kai, Antitower, Aetherochemical Research Facility
Least Favourites: Arboretum, The Aery, Dusk Vigil
Love: Library (normal and HM) and Antitower
Hate: (N)EVERBORE (Neverreap)and Dullbreaker HM
Aesthetically definitely the Vault, Arboretoreum and Sohr Kai, these places are just gorgeous. I mean that might be my most hated class, art history, that I suffered through, speaking, but the Vault is very very pretty to watch. Arboretoreum, while mechanically Blegh was honestly one of the most gorgeous dungeons I've ever seen, and I absolutely love the design of Sohr Kai, but that might just be me digging ruins in general, even moreso when they float. Music-wise a special mention goes to Fractal Continuum tbh, when I got the Orchestrion scroll of that after a very fun run I nearly squealed in delight there.
Mechanically speaking, Sohm Al was really fun, even if it's just SCoB mechs watered down. I loved the first and final bosses in Pharos HM; Xelphatol and Gubal HM have got to be my fave Ex Roul dungeons up to date too. Special mention here goes to Lost City HM, that one spiced it up mechanically a little, those bosses are still fun.
A can of worms I'd gladly never run again is Neverreap (3 weeks and two days... in a row... 23 days in Bird Hell, and this is coming from someone who went to Bird School, which is for Birds). Seriously that one wins by a landslide. Next up is Aethero, that place is a DRAG and I really really don't like Forgettable Larry and Iggy Azalea, that boss fight's just stupid (too bad one run = one Singing Cluster... so I'll get it even MORE on 60 roul now, joy of joys).
If I had to pick an overall favourite, though, it'd have to be the Aery. No, it's NOT because Estinien's in there. That entire dungeon is just music-wise, aesthetically and mechanics-wise the single best one in Heavensward, but that's just my opinion(okay Estinien's a factor too)
Sohr Khai, Saint Mocs, The Anti Tower, Pharos Sirus HM, Both of the Great Gubals, Ampador HM, and Xelphatol are for sure my highlights. My first low light for me is Hullbreaker, because it was weak in design, though honestly that not that bad of an idea. It was supposed to be like a training session for the warrior of light. It's not that often that we get thanked so heavily. I will say that I liked the first boss from Final Fanasy VI making an appearance. I wish it was in a better dungeon. My second least favorite is probably The Aethereochemical Researxh Center. It's just so long, and honestly a pain for healers on the last phase. My third least favorite would be The Vault, simply because I had to heal it. The last two of my favorites were very good however!
I actually liked Reap a wee bit.
The two I despise tho are Hull HM and ARF. Hull HM was just... lazy design, not a good dungeon. ARF also is "meh" and I'm SICK of ALWAYS getting it in a 60 roulette.
Favorite dungeon: Vault. Very nice design and interesting boss fights.
Following up: Nevereap and Arboretum (both for same reason as above)
Least favorite: Aery. Hate everything inside it: ugly design, ugly mobs, ugly boring bosses.
Following up: Anti-tower (just very boring dungeon, with very simple design)
Gubal HM, Anti tower is my Favorite
Hate Sohml Al and The Vault....
I always really hated doing St. Mocciane's Aboretum, not so much because of the dungeon itself, but the tanks I encountered there in nearly all of my runs. These tanks had no idea that positionals exist(or didn't care or consider it) and tanked bosses in the dumbest ways possible. The main culprit was last boss that they loved tanking with only the front of the boss front poking out of the poo puddle. They also did this for the 2nd boss sometimes as well. These people weren't even new, some of them even had multiple melee dps leveled to 60 so I really don't understand what was so damn hard about it. I lost patience with this to the point where I stopped doing i would wait for my tank friend to come online and only did it with pugs if he couldn't make it. Another fun thing was that when 3.2 hit, I was happy to not have to do that dungeon all the time anymore...then I got it the first 8 times I did 60 roulette.
Favorite dungeon is probably The Vault, I though the atmosphere was pretty cool, and the 2nd and 3rd boss were pretty memorable("sickness must be purged!",and the others). I also enjoyed the "diffuculty" of it when I first went through it.
I really like Sohm Al; it really feels like I'm going on an adventure, braving the trackless wilderness and so forth. Neverreap is a really pretty place to visit and I like the way you can see it in the Sea of Clouds, that lick of azure rock curling against the distant sky. Of the patch dungeons the Arboretum and Lost City HM are standouts and the last two are good as well.
On the other hand I dislike the Aery (too much purple, dull bosses) and the Vault (too much orange, humdrum scenery but cool bosses).
Fractal, Arboretum and Anti tower are my favourites.
Aetherochemical Research is the absolute worst most boring abomination of a dungeon ever, much like Praetorium and the other rubbish from Lvl50 -_-
Favourite: The Antitower
Least favourite: Neverreap
I'm not good at doing a list of goods or bads, so I just made some notes about each one.
Dusk Vigil:
I don't really like the icy/cold feeling. But it's not too bad, I like the middle and last bosses.
Sohm Al:
Not really a fan of any part of this. Boring mobs and pulls, just overall a boring dungeon. I think mobs also hit harder here compared to the other dungeons.
The Aery:
Nidhogg boss is annoying with the sable price mechanic, otherwise the dungeon is pretty fun.
The Vault:
Not a big fan of the monotone scenery. I think it could have been a lot prettier. This dungeon is also just kind of boring.
The Great Gubal Library:
The mobs here are more fun than the bosses, also I like the scenery a lot.
The Aetherochemical Research Facility:
I like the allagan theme here, really well done overall. I like the design of the 2nd boss with "testing experiments" with throwbacks to coil bosses. After Regula is fun, but that boss and before are just boring.
Neverreap:
I like the scenery here, bright and open it feels really nice. Bosses are probably some of the most annoying out of the whole game. Every one has an invulnerable mechanic / phase where you have to leave boss. Mob pulls are pretty fun though so I don't mind them.
The Fractal Continuum:
I really like the back story to this dungeon lol, I liked Gilly. Anyway this is one of my favourite dungeons. Good variety of bosses, the teleportation stuff is kind of neat and it doesn't feel like you are gated as much like other dungeons. This is my favourite HW dungeon.
Saint Mocianne's Arboretum:
This is the most obvious gating dungeon in the game lol. Interesting scenery and bosses that are pretty fun, overall a pretty good dungeon.
Pharos Sirius (Hard):
The original had great theming and this just...goes underground. Overall I'm not a big fan, some decent bosses and mechanics though.
The Antitower:
This dungeon is fun, I like all of it. I also love dolls.
The Lost City of Amdapor (Hard):
This has obvious gating but it's not too bad because you can burn down most stuff pretty fast. Nice bosses and overall a nice dungeon.
Sohr Khai:
Another dungeon that feels like stuff hits harder than all the other ones. This is like neverreap v2 with the annoying invulnerable bosses. I'd probably say this is my #3 least liked dungeon.
Hullbreaker Isle (Hard):
#1 least liked dungeon. This is just so boring, the original at least had the thing with the tomeliths this is just...nothing.
Xelphatol:
I like this dungeon a lot. I think ixals are pretty interesting, and it's nice to see their architecture not covered in snow and ice. Fun bosses and mobs even have some mechanics. Overally I enjoy this one a lot.
The Great Gubal Library (Hard):
Again I like the theming a lot. Overall a good dungeon, I think the mini mobs before fire boss are unnecessary but that's just whatever.