Hardest Dungeon?

So in your opinion what has been the hardest dungeon in the game so far? For me I'm gonna have to say Anamnesis Anyder. I have only played it twice but both times were a struggle.

I remember years ago ARR dungeons were always a struggle past Halatali, due to the increasing amount of mechanics even between bosses (the annoying sludge/heavy effect and cobwebs in Toto-Rak, the dragon blasting you through the roof randomly in Stone Vigil etc), but the upside is the bosses were an increasing trial by fire, and made things interesting. Of course that's no longer the case by many years, but in 2013 I struggled. Reminds me how far I've come and grown as a player really. :D

But the hardest I think is still both versions of Sunken Temple of Qarn, so much so players actively ignored them, which is why SE mandated their completion in order to continue in ARR's 2.1 main scenario (the quicksand mechanic in the first boss and the final boss's mummification debuff/mechanic especially of the HM version was especially a bugbear, as was the infamous bees in the first boss of the original.). Now though, like all ARR dungeons, even synced they're pretty easy to deal with.

Post ARR, Sohr Khai in HW I remember was a particularly frustating one, mostly due to the Pegasus that was the second boss had odd mechanics that took me ages to get the hang of (Moglin and his moogle thugs were annoying but nothing too bad, and Hraesvelgar at the end was a pushover, it was the damn flying horse that got me every single time.

Also fun fact about Anamnesis Anyder - the first and second bosses for it appear later as (much easier, but still tricky) FATEs in EW in Elpis (the Unknown and Cyclops appear in the last two FATEs of the 'Grand Designs' FATE arc there). The FATE npc even remarks right at the end of the last one that he's "going to Ananmesis Anyder" to refine the concepts, pretty much confirming him as their creator (I make sure to slap him every single time for that ;)).

Keeper of the Lake gave me trouble the first time I played through it. It took me 4 or 5 times before I finally knew how to avoid the final boss AoEs.

Bardems mettle when it was current
every ad hit so hard
Garula and final boss was pretty annoying

I’m dividing my picks based on expac because I’m taking account of the way our toolkits availability impacts the dungeon experiences.

ARR - Aurum Vale
Cheese puddles, hard hitting mobs, awkward lv sync that locks you out from crucial abilities, and boss gimmicks that players actually have to pay attention. It used to be even harder in the past which is probably why you’d see some DF folks straight up bail out if they get this one via roulette.

HW - Dusk Vigil
HW has no real ‘hard’ dungeons but this one is where I’d see DF folks fails more than the rest. I also tend to get this one as a healer who still yet to learn some more of their useful tools at this level.

StB - Bardam’s Mettle or The Burn
Bardam’s difficulties mainly comes from wall pulls. It’s merely a shadow of its past glory at this point but it can still get spicy when one or two players are playing sloppily.

Mist Dragon in The Burn is a bane to a good number of DF folks. That boss alone accounts for most of the dungeon’s difficulty.

ShB - Holminster Switch or Mt.Gulg
Holminster has spicy first two pulls, but that’s it.

Mt.Gulg has slightly toned down wall pull difficulty compared to Holminster but all their bosses has one thing in common: quick, or straight up untelegraphed AoEs. This is also a bane to a good number of DF folks.

EW - Tower of Zot
Some spicy pulls, although not quite up there to Bardam’s or even Holminster’s degree. Punishing mechanics and rather abundant of quick AoEs to deal with, especially from last boss.

On release Pharos Sirius. First boss wiped so many parties and Siren wasn't a joke either. Then we got better gear (and a nerf) and it became so much easier.

Pharos Sirius on minimum item level runs is the hardest dungeon in the game. It is a country mile ahead of all SHB and EW dungeons easily but still isn’t perfect by any means, but I adore this level of thrill giving DPS the power over the party somthing we haven’t seen in years as EW treats you like a toddler thinking stack markers are still cool.

I say it isn’t perfect only due to the trash mobs having minimal impact, yea theirs Vunl stacks you need to watch out for and falling debris, and a few pseudo Dps checks with Banish III (which was only vital if your stuns and silences were on cooldown) which otherwise would get a standing ovation from me if this were 5.0-6.55 but sadly doesn’t flow right compared to the fine as hell bosses. Boring bosses go with boring trash pulls but Good bosses don’t mesh well with just “ok” trash pulls.

If your a adrenaline junkie I highly recommend running it on level sync and silence echo with all new players, rare catharsis for dungeons but not as demanding as say savage or EX. The perfect balance id say and it always makes me happy clearing it with new or old
Players with a smile on their face. Wipes or no wipes

Another one I remembered (I just realized I had already posted in here!) I remember back in ARR's early days Brayflox's Longstop quickly became a rite of passage for players as it was the first dungeon to really turn up the mechanics, requiring dodging, avoiding AoE's or get debuffed (the last boss's poison), dealing with adds and phase changes to get passed. That and how it was perfect for gearing up players at that level (with the extra goblin chests dealing out aetherial gear a plenty, the level 30ish 'infantry/cavalry/battlemage' set that had the best stats for that level from boss chests, and the class ring in the chest guarded by the courel near the end) meant it was a learning experience for players, not helped by many players entering it without their Job equipped.

Of course now things are different - the courel chest no longer drops the ring, and the extra goblin chests only drop the new 'Longstop' pallete-swapped vendor gear rather than aetherial gear, and due to natural progression and the huge amount of high level players cheesing it it's nothing like how it was in 2013, but it's still very much the point where players could no longer just skate through on a wing and a prayer, and actually had to learn how to play their role.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rein_eon_Osborne

StB - Bardam’s Mettle or The Burn
Bardam’s difficulties mainly comes from wall pulls. It’s merely a shadow of its past glory at this point but it can still get spicy when one or two players are playing sloppily.

---

I dunno what Stadowbringers is but yeah the last boss of The Burn still likes to give me trouble. I think it's just that many dungeon bosses have room for error while this one if you slip up at the wrong time will make it very difficult to recover from without a wipe.

A lot of the old ARR dungeons at end game were rough when they first came out. Old Amdepor keep originally had two bug adds with the wall and people frequently fell off the sides when the boss did the knock back. The final boss was pretty easy on that one though since you could cheese the center room aoe by parking yourself in the NW corner behind the gargoyle statue.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Colt47

A lot of the old ARR dungeons at end game were rough when they first came out. Old Amdepor keep originally had two bug adds with the wall and people frequently fell off the sides when the boss did the knock back.

---

When they silently removed those adds from Demon Wall, it was a sad day!

I still struggle with Pharos Sirius whenever I get it in Duty Roulette. Those first 2 bosses can be brutal if you don't do the mechanics properly.

ARR/ post-ARR:
definitely Pharos Sirius although Keeper of the Lake gave most parties a hard time as well. Especially the last boss... I've seen tons of wipes there.
Honorable mention to Cutter's Cry (mostly last boss), Stone Vigil and Aurum Vale. Seen more wipes in them than in all ShB and EW leveling dungeons combined.

HW/ post HW:
Hands-down "Sickness must be purged"-Vault.
The last boss is still interesting and I tend to see the occasional wipe there but when HW was current, it was on another level. Trash mobs had a habit of chewing on healers because there were often two casters standing too far apart to hit them both with aoes, the giants hit really hard and their conal aoes still one-shot any non-tank. First boss was generally okay but second boss slapped the tank pretty hard and with the longer fight duration from lower potencies, it was a struggle to find a safe spot between the orbs stacking vuln up. A struggle that usually resulted in failure and resetting stacks with Ress.

SB:
Bardam's Mettle, notorious for wiping both inexperienced and experienced parties. Trash hit like trucks on steroids and the last boss had a lot party damage in addition to frequent mechanics. Nowadays you often skip the add phase entirely but the first two wall to walls and the pull with the bird are still spicier than most wall to walls.

Holminster has a spicy wall to wall and the 2nd boss has fairly frequent party damage but I've seen far less wipes there than in Bardam's or Vault. Same for any EW dungeon. They got a lot more creative with mechanics and give people more to do while smashing their buttons but there is always enough breathing room to recover. On Vault endboss it was easy to fall so far behind that it resulted in a wipe. And you better respected mechanics in Pharos Sirius or you were all dead. Not just one person, everyone.

Aurum Vale will always be the hardest dungeon in my experience.

It's just the one dungeon that isn't friendly to new players and causes endless frustration to anyone unfortunate enough to be qued into that golden hellscape.