What's your favorite first dungeon of all of FFXIV's eras?

A list of all first dungeons for your convenience on the topic:

A Realm Reborn: Sastasha
Heavensward: Dusk Vigil
Stormblood: Sirensong Sea
Shadowbringers: Holminster Switch
Endwalker: The Tower of Zot

I'll be honest, I think my favorite is probably Holminster Switch. That dungeon really had to make me think about my skills. Never have I had such a tough first dungeon in any of the expansions. I think it made me a better player.

Close second would be Sirensong. Sirens are interesting in XIV, and I love when we have to hunt them down, and dispatch them. It was a cool concept to deal with another Siren, thus opening a new naval trade route between Eorzea, The Near East, and the Far East again. I wish we had more boat/ocean combat in this game. It feels very unique whenever we take a boat anywhere.

Third choice would be Dusk Vigil. I still can never get the theme out of my head, or the feeling of complete loneliness, and isolation after the events that went down in Uldah. It was just interesting, and felt like my first real adventure outside of the the Eorzea we knew, forever making the scope even bigger. Ishgards addition to the alliance is a beloved and memorable one.

Tower of Zot could have easily been a first, or even a second, heck I admire the grand stakes that it took. For a first dungeon it just felt.. better. Probably more interesting than Sirensong, but again, I had a lot of emotional attachment to my past in this game during Stormblood, and Heavensward, so that's why it probably didn't rank for me. That might change in two to four years when I'm nostalgic for Endwalker.

Sastasha.. so many memories of being a new player. It feels like a completely different world than the game is now. I know I lament getting it whenever I do level roulette, but there is a charm in helping a new crop of players get through their first dungeon.

Hominster certainly has the edge as far as difficulty goes, but I'd put it in 1 just for the story attached to it. Having to fight the Sin Eater that turned Tesleen as well as Tesleen herself made it feel very tragic. Also the cutscene following its completion is just epic. The only thing Sirensong has that make it memorable to me is the boat. It feels a lot like the obligatory fight during travel as opposed to the introduction to the story.

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Originally Posted by Xirean

Hominster certainly has the edge as far as difficulty goes, but I'd put it in 1 just for the story attached to it. Having to fight the Sin Eater that turned Tesleen as well as Tesleen herself made it feel very tragic. Also the cutscene following its completion is just epic. The only thing Sirensong has that make it memorable to me is the boat. It feels a lot like the obligatory fight during travel as opposed to the introduction to the story.

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Definitely in agreement that the boat/travel dungeons could be done a bit better. Wish they felt focused on the journey at hand, and not just the destination.

Sirensong Sea is my number one for sure. I love the aesthetic of it. It's dark and creepy. The bosses look awesome and sirens are really cool and very rarely ever explored in mmo's.

Holminster Switch is second. Mostly for the reason that you brought up. It's rather difficult for a first dungeon. It makes you think and be on your toes. It's also fun and the bosses have a lot of health so you get to whack on them for a while. They don't feel like paper.

On top of that it did a fantastic job setting the stage for the expansion. From a story perspective it was like "oh, so this is what we're in for". And it didn't disappoint.

1. Holminster Switch
2. Sirensong Sea
3. Dusk Vigil
4. Sastasha
5. The Tower of Zot

I'm going to ignore all those answers and drop a complete curveball.

Brayflox's longstop from closed beta 2 if I remember correctly? It was the first proper dungeon test that I remember and dungeons played out in a radically different manner back then compared to how they are now.

The trend was to CC and if a BLM wasn't in the party, it was my job as WHM. Neatly lining up and managing mobs ready to be killed in a smooth and safe manner was highly satisfying and scratched an itch left over from my Everquest days. Brayflox having an abundance of wandering adds and several open areas rife for a butt pull made it even more dynamic and enjoyable too.

I'd absolutely love to see a dungeon like this again++

If that's not an acceptable answer, then it's Holminster Switch for me, it told a good story and visually it was rather unique reminding me of Westfall from WoW.

Sirensong for its era, Zot overall.

I'm gonna be the weird one and say Aurum Vale is one of my favorite ARR dungeons. It takes the kid gloves off and I can appreciate that.

I will say Stormblood dungeons are definitely the best for me and each MSQ dungeon was just top notch for me.

But i know this is about first dungen of each expansion so from most favorite to least:
-Holminster's Switch
-Sirensong
-Zot
-Dusk Vigil
-Sastasha

Holminster starts very strong and it helps the music immediately sets that up, it kinda feels... it was supposed to be a solo duty instance, doesn't it? And yet it works so well.

Tower of Zot was a blast in it's unexpected difficulty and the loads of mechanics the bosses used, best overall dungeon bosses I think we have had. Still have fun with those fights now. I think the aesthetics of Sirensong Sea make it a close second for favorite dungeon though.

I hate ALL of the "Dungeons" from FFXIV, because they arent Dungeons at all and should be renamed into Story Events instead.

Palace of the Dead and Heaven on High however, are both great Dungeons.

Definitely Holminster not only because of the music, but the bosses were pretty cool (particularly the last one), and because of story reasons.

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Originally Posted by Sebazy

I'm going to ignore all those answers and drop a complete curveball.

Brayflox's longstop from closed beta 2 if I remember correctly? It was the first proper dungeon test that I remember and dungeons played out in a radically different manner back then compared to how they are now.

The trend was to CC and if a BLM wasn't in the party, it was my job as WHM. Neatly lining up and managing mobs ready to be killed in a smooth and safe manner was highly satisfying and scratched an itch left over from my Everquest days. Brayflox having an abundance of wandering adds and several open areas rife for a butt pull made it even more dynamic and enjoyable too.

I'd absolutely love to see a dungeon like this again++

If that's not an acceptable answer, then it's Holminster Switch for me, it told a good story and visually it was rather unique reminding me of Westfall from WoW.

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Not gonna call it an acceptable answer, but it is a unique take, and I really liked reading what you had to say.

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Originally Posted by Renalt

I'm gonna be the weird one and say Aurum Vale is one of my favorite ARR dungeons. It takes the kid gloves off and I can appreciate that.

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We are talking about FIRST dungeons. The starting point for each section of the stories adventure. We aren't talking about middle or last dungeons, but hoooo that is a hot take.

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Originally Posted by DamianFatale

We are talking about FIRST dungeons. The starting point for each section of the stories adventure. We aren't talking about middle or last dungeons, but hoooo that is a hot take.

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Oh...only the first couple of each expansion then? The sadly none of them are super gripping to me.

Sastasha will always be special because it's everyone's first dungeon experience. I can still vividly remember the friends I was with and what classes they were playing, even their glams they had all these thousands of hours later.

As far as raw "cool" factor, I gotta say Holminster. Although Tower of Zot is memorable for having one of the more difficult boss lineups.