Hullbreaker HM is an example of how dungeons shouldn't be designed.

[Phireblast]

1. Bland layout and/or concept.

It's basically Halatali HM(which was also boring imo) but on Gilligan's island. Not only it doesn't really try to hide the fact it's a mere hallway, but it even mostly used the pathways of normal mode. You can still make a hard mode dungeon feel like it's something completely different. Examples of something that tried this was Lost City and Copperbell.


There's also the "show your power to these people!" tidbit except you're fighting the Maelstrom. That's cool and all, but didn't you guys already do this with Halatali?


2. The boss fights aren't engaging.

The first boss(if you even want to call that a boss...) is just straight up adds. Boss fights like these can be fine if executed in an interesting manner, but this dungeon failed to do that. They were just....adds. That's it. Nothing really dangerous outside of a few conal aoes that gave vuln stacks. They're just...adds.

Although I am annoyed that Ymir gives the middle finger to melee, that isn't where my gripes come from. To me, the mechanics only existed there as a "oh, just make the boss do this so the player thinks there's some type of difficulty" rather than "let's make these mechanics interesting like what we did with sohr khai!". Some examples are the shell switching that completely ruins openers and the ice skating rolling rink of death(except pretty much a good chunk of the place is death).

Mistbeard in concept is a cool boss fight. Everything else, not so. The fight is literally a striking dummy since most of the mechanics aren't dangerous. The main worrying mechanic, Dirty Venom isn't even always a threat. There were times where my party didn't even get the debuff at all for the entire fight.

This dungeon singlehandedly made me stop playing Expert. It's already extremely easy to cap lore tomes(seriously, have you tried aquapolis? It FEEDS you an unhealthy amount of lore tomes) as it is, and there are better sources for esoterics. It's just not worth it.

[Lone-wolfe-02]

To each their own but i enjoyed it, beats the original at least.

[MomomiMomi]

Vote Hullbreaker HM for worst dungeon!

[bass9020]

I like the training grounds type of idea but I will agree that its way too linear and doesn't really use any new parts of the island. It would have been cool if you needed to find 3 mini bosses on the island in order to fight the last boss. But you have to remember we can't have ANY type of content in dungeons that will waste peoples time or have any substance to the dungeon since its for tomes.

[Theodric]

Well, it's not my favourite dungeon but I don't dislike it to the point where I'd actively avoid it. I thought it was decent - mostly because it's pretty great for those familiar with Limsa's lore. I do wish the dungeon was a bit more challenging though. I never felt at risk of being at risk of dying. I also expected to explore more of the island or the interior of the ruined ship that exists in the original Hullbreaker Isle.

[Kaurie]

Vote Hullbreaker HM for worst dungeon!

Haha well I dislike it, but it's mostly that I find it boring - rather than actively hating it. So, I wouldn't say worst dungeon. Personally, I place the following below it: Aurum Vale, Stone Vigil, Qarn NM, Arboretum, Pharos HM, Stone Vigil HM, and Snowcloak.

[DarkmoonVael]

I prefere Hullbreaker hm over sohr kai (whatever its called) with the exception of the first boss, which is terrible and shouldnt have made it into the game. I also love the second boss of Hullbreaker HM, but like Titan, it makes me hate DF people quite a bit.

[bass9020]

Haha well I dislike it, but it's mostly that I find it boring - rather than actively hating it. So, I wouldn't say worst dungeon. Personally, I place the following below it: Aurum Vale, Stone Vigil, Qarn NM, Arboretum, Pharos HM, Stone Vigil HM, and Snowcloak.

Well get ready for Snowcloack HM because its the next dungeon in 3.4! Hopefully its a bit more interesting!

[Teryaani]

**Snip**Stone Vigil HM **Snip**

I didn't mind Snowcloak (the music helps I think, and it's pretty quick) but this one...Oh this one. It's one to two trash encounters too long at each boss and just feels tedious. At least with the original it didn't feel like it dragged as much and i knew that a possibly pretty glamour weapon waited for me at the end. Stone Vigil HM had none of that. The others you listed sucked as well, but SVHM would get my vote for worst.

[MagiusNecros]

Best dungeon mainly because fast clears and queue times as a tank since you can have no skill whatsoever and still do well. Which makes it ever more evident how lackluster it is.