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

[Kaurie]

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.

Yeah, to each their own kinda thing :P I personally hate the Snowcloak music and is one of the biggest reasons I hate going there. It makes me want to sleep

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

Haha yeah well definitely some dungeons change drastically from reg to HM (like I loved Hullbreaker nm for example, and Tam Tara HM was amazing vs the meh Tam Tara NM)

[Beckett]

Yep, really disappointed with Hullbreaker Hard, especially because this game is rife with examples on how rehashed dungeons should be done! In dungeons like Hauke Manor Hard or Tam-Tara Deepcroft Hard, you're revisiting an old location, but there's new lore, and you go down completely different paths than the original dungeons. The Dev team gets to rehash assets, but it doesn't feel like a rehash.

Hullbreaker Hard is almost a 1 to 1 retracing of our steps from the original dungeon, without even a compelling story reason to be there.

[Ashewalker]

1. Bland layout and/or concept. Snip

Lost City is basicly like this, Same area, normal mode you fight the devil and HM you fight an Angel, diference is you go into another area, last boss is completly boring.
Cooperbell normal, a mine dungeon, simple enough, Cooperbell HM... i can describe it in one sentence " I am a giant! You killed my son! You must die!"
Not to mention Cooperbell HM repeats one mechanic, just basicly making it a bit more chaotic, and that is the "Bomb-to-progress" mechanic!

2. The boss fights aren't engaging. Snip
...ice skating rolling rink of death(except pretty much a good chunk of the place is death).

I agree with the First boss which is just a Endurance-add fight.

Ymir... i facepalmed when i read your description of it... and it sums up in the sentence i placed in the quote... Unless you dont know what are markings and how to position yourself, you would know to go to the courners of the arena and move to the middle to avoid them, in a way, Ymir is best tanked in the middle for quickness as it lets Melee get to it better. Yes im taking what you said about giving a middle finger to melee and striking it back at you, and if you think that this fight is a middle finger to melee, go do Aetherchemical Research Facility as a Black Mage and you will see the meaning of having to not stand still for 2 seconds to cast your precious Fire IV and having Enochean end because you can't cast because of all of the AoEs in the last fight. And you slide much less in Ymir fight, like onethird of the norm.

The last boss, sure it could have had more but think of it... Its one single man uses a gun, You expect him to turn super saiyan?

Vote Hullbreaker HM for worst dungeon!

One word... Neverreap

[Dumbledoremd]

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

HELL NO the original was 100 X better

[Ashewalker]

HELL NO the original was 100 X better

Because you fight a.... tentacle monster?... Or because its the Kraken?... Eitherway... don't bring your kinks of tentacle porn here...

[Masekase_Hurricane]

It didn't help that it was hyped up by the devs and most players probably did Sohm Al and weeping city first. If hard mode was the original and vice versa I wouldn't of minded the place. But after having a cool dungeon to a copied version of Halatali (hard) it was just a wasted opportunity to wow us.

[FallenArisen0990]

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.

How is that any different than the other NM dungeons? All the HM dungeons take you down a shortcut or an alternate route but still end up around the same location.

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.

It's a nice fresh air from always tank and spanking. Idk about everyone else but I'm tired of standing there, moving 2 inches to dodge AoE. Getting annoyed at people who can't do a simple mechanic right. Doing the same Boring Rotation to a boss. Everything doesn't need to be a 1 boss fight....

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).

The ice skating is more of an annoyance than difficulty. There's just times I can't be asked to move and just take the hit. Sohr Khai is like piss easy at this point so idk how is it any different than any other Expert Dungeon we have ever had?

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.

See that's what happens when you're overgeared in any Dungeon, Trial or Raid. Idk about you, but Im fine with that Dungeon. It's not long or annoying or tedious. It's nice, quick, and easy 30 mins for my daily.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

The last boss, sure it could have had more but think of it... Its one single man uses a gun, You expect him to turn super saiyan?

Barrett say no more

[Zefiris]

I miss my hentai tentacles

[Ashewalker]

Barrett say no more

WHy compare a boss to Barrett, who is one of the main characters in a FF7 game, which where you can gear him up with so much materia that he is super powerfull? You can't compare a boss to a main character in a game!!!

And why compare at all? you want to have arguments for your ideals? Why not go into a dungeon with a open mind and without any expectations or even compare it to other dungeons? Its so much more enjoyable and you can actualy see the hard work they put into every content that costs more than what you pay monthly to play this game.