4 man dungeons: Are they fun?

[saeedaisspecial]

Just so you know...



I'm pretty sure that means dungeons are too easy by his standards and if it doesn't mean that, I'm not sure what else he means.

It means they're easily broken, not well designed in a way that prevents players from bypassing mechanics/using unintended strategies, etc.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

Keep in mind that you're expecting a dungeon to continue to be blisteringly hard to the point that people who are grossly over-geared are still challenged. Expert dungeons have an ilevel requirement of 70 where as most players are now in the 90-100 range due to the Hunt. The dungeon is easier because of this, and a lot of mechanics are either survivable or completely ignorable.

It's funny because in reality, no one actually wants a consistent challenge (it's why people were Mythology farming Brayflox Hard), a good example of this is Pharos Sirius. If anyone doesn't pay attention during the first boss, then the party will wipe consistently. The second boss could easily wipe the whole group because of a single dps too, which is why there are tanks who simply refuse to do the dungeon.


If Square Enix released a brutal 4-man dungeon that was completely unforgiving to anyone who didn't pay attention or didn't know the mechanics, then no one would want to do it more than once. Heck, try pugging The Sunken Temple of Qarn's first boss and you'll see why people loathe the dungeon despite it's inherent difficulty.

[Ignnis]

I'm pretty sure that means dungeons are too easy by his standards and if it doesn't mean that, I'm not sure what else he means.

Nope, all you need us one troll tank or healer and your screwed.

[Gramul]

Out of the 13 runs I have done, I prefer 4 man play the most. It just seems more organized and I feel there's more importance on me being the only tank. Out of what little I've played.

[AdamuKun322]

Well, for the most part the ilvl on the current dungeons is set really low and most people are overgeared for dungeons. I still have fun though in the expert roulette. Hopefully SE will add more dungeons like the last three, but add some more mechanics into the fights.

[Fendred]

From an MMO standpoint, except RPers, this is as dead as a cemetary, social-wise.

It really hurts at the end because the gear people need for raiding is only like 1/10th the necessary preparation for raids. The other 9/10ths is finding matching personalities and skill levels among other players, and we do not have any content that is really good for that. End game dungeons were traditionally the staging area, but the difficulty is set too low and duty finder ensures people do them mostly with people from other servers.

[Namasu]

After 1 year of playing ARR, 4 man dungeon just isn't challenging enough to keep me entertained throughout the run. Almost all of the boss fights were fun but the trash mobs have been incredibly bland. Trash mobs doesn't even drop anything worthwhile to justify their existence. They're nothing more than time waster to stretch the average dungeon to ~30 min. I wouldn't mind puzzles, time attack traps, or survival mode to break the monotony. Something like Diabolos' memory game (or even FF11's Diabolos tile drop fight) was pretty cool but we don't see anything like that anymore.

Also it's been over 1 and a half patch and they still didn't address the complaints about crafting mats diluting the gear drop pool in dungeons. I just don't feel motivated to rerun the new dungeons knowing that I don't even have a decent chance at getting what I'm after.

[Redemption]

Are 4 man dungeons fun? They can be. Personally I want content that is NOT instance dungeons.

Still, I will agree to some extent in that I think the 4 person party is too small and I actually would rather see the standard party makeup changed to allow more variety. Perhaps a 6 person party, 1 tank 1 healer 2 dedicated damage slots and 2 support slots (which would fill with more damage classes or with newly added support role jobs which would be given priority for these slots) or a 5 person party with the same makeup except only 1 dedicated damage slot and 2 support slots without the priority on support jobs.

[Fynlar]

Not a fan of Stone Vigil HM last boss. Completely invalidates the tank role, and although it sounds all great to say that it requires you to pay attention and watch enemy movements at all, there are plenty of people around who are terrible at dodging things even when they ARE marked on the ground + have a casting bar. I've had more "tedious" runs of this boss than I have of the other two expert dungeons simply because there are lots of people who can't seem to stay alive, and even if the other people in the party can, it of course just makes the fight take longer.

Diabolos in an ilevel 55 group would be a nightmare.

i c wut u did thar

Seriously though, I don't see what would be that bad. You might have to actually use all four pairs of the gates, but if you know how to do that mechanic to begin with, what would be the problem?

[MilesSaintboroguh]

The final boss of Stone Vigil HM is exactly what the game needed to change things up. People always whined how stale the game is with all the "dancing", now you got a boss who wants you to dance when he feels like it rather than going through the motions. Personally, I never had any issues in pugs with this boss, even when the dungeon was first launched. Maybe it's a data center thing.


Hell, we need more bosses like it so that tanks and healers can mix it up in the fight rather than doing the same dances like a 9-5 job. Least then people won't whine about the healer "sitting on their MP"