Why Aurum Vale is Loathed

[HaelseMikiro]

I feel like a lot of people never got to enjoy the great 'Sac pulls' that could happen in AV, where the only trash mobs in the entire dungeon you killed were the two morbol rooms and the diremite pack right before the final boss (which you could have locked out of the boss room).
That place could get done pretty quick

[Theodric]

It's one of my favourite dungeons.

[BillyKaplan]

I remember the one time I ran the place with this BRD who had no idea how Foe Requiem worked. I told him as early on as the first room that it wasn't patrols, that he was pulling everything to us, but it didn't click until almost the end where he tried blaming someone, I think the healer, and I got in his face. "Oh that was _me_ pulling them?!"
Yes. As I have been saying, repeatedly, from THE START OF THE DUNGEON.

AV is similar to 24 player raids. Mechanics wise it might be annoying but it's really not that complicated. The problem is most likely the rest of your party. I had runs through the place that were amazing but it required everyone to get their acts together and work as a team, sadly not something this playerbase is overly famous for.

[Tempest222]

I’m assuming maybe it was just really hard when the game first came out, thus players who have been around for years still remember the struggle of the early days, and any time anything suboptimal happens in that dungeon today it sticks out in people’s minds more so than similar mess ups in other dungeons, because people hsve it set in their minds that this place is awful.

If not that, I don’t know what. Obviously all any single person has us anecdotal experience, but I’ve onky been around since well after stormblood release, and I’ve honestly never had a problem with that dungeon, aside from usual stuff that happens from time to time in any dungeon when you are playing with randoms. I certainly wouldn’t say my ventures through the vale have been any better or worse than anywhere else.

[Floortank]

I find it to be a kind of depressing dungeon. Green and gold is a very ugly color combination outside of say.. Christmas trees.

[Enkidoh]

News to me too, actually. Probably because it's normally replaced with something better long before durability becomes an issue.

I think he really meant 'unsellable' as opposed to 'unrepairable', as aetherial gear definetley is repairable. And although you cannot sell it on the Market Board, it can still be turned into your GC for seals either way.

As for a hard mode version, that was it's original form in version 1.0 which, although I never ran it then, I heard the horror stories. The place was literally hell (there was actually achievements in 1.0's version for not actually getting poisoned by the Goldbile, an almost impossible task and one which I think was never attained by anyone), so ARR's version is actually easier. So we should be thankful in ARR that we got the easy version, not the original hard one.

[MuseTraveller]

I love Aurum Vale. I only jokingly groan when I get it but it was great learning experience both as tank and as a healer when I was going through it. I'd take it any day over yet another Sastasha run in level roulette lol

[Theodric]

I find it to be a kind of depressing dungeon. Green and gold is a very ugly color combination outside of say.. Christmas trees.

It's likely nice and warm compared to the rest of Coerthas, though!

[Sylve]

The first room teaches Tanks to pull carefully.
The first boss teaches DPS that some mechanics must be handled personally, the Healer can't heal through everything.
The second trash rooms teach the Tank to be careful about patrol mobs, and dps to be wary of things they can target to prevent adds.
Second boss teaches everyone to be aware of what the boss is doing instead of simply reacting to markers.
Third trash rooms reinforce patrol mobs and spawning adds.
Final boss reinforces mechanics that have to be dealt with personally, reinforces spawnable adds that can be stopped and finally reinforces that you need to pay attention to what the boss is doing instead of relying totally upon markers and the enmity bar.

From start to finish, the dungeon introduces mechanics and such and reinforces them all the way through. Theoretically, by the end of it, that team of 4 players now has a better understanding of teamwork and general good play habits.
Sadly, people don't like anything that can't be brute forced with zero attention.
Demonwall is a prime example. RIP you glorious pug wiping bastard.
Pharos Sirius is another good example of a dungeon that was difficult if people didn't pay attention (First boss STILL wipes overzealous groups trying to burn the boss and ignoring adds) that got nerfed into the ground because paying attention and doing mechanics is "too hard".

The reality is that people in general don't want to put the effort into a challenging dungeon. They're ok with Savage Raids being as difficult as they are because they'll likely only do it once in a week, where 4man dungeons are something you do constantly and all they want is the tokens from finishing it.

I still want 'Savage/Ultimate' style difficulties for 4 man dungeons. I love small party play. Its why I loved the original Pharos and Demon Wall as they required the party to really work together to clear.

[Iscah]

I think he really meant 'unsellable' as opposed to 'unrepairable', as aetherial gear definetley is repairable. And although you cannot sell it on the Market Board, it can still be turned into your GC for seals either way.

Ah, that would make more sense - although that's no different to any other dungeon gear, and GC seals are more valuable than gil anyway. Plus you can still desynthesise it.

Aetherial gear was just ARR's cheap way of making special dungeon gear without actually having to design new gear every time.