Why Aurum Vale is Loathed

[RokkuEkkusu]

I was with you on some points until you said this:

• Mechanics
...the difficulty suddenly spikes with no warning. The bosses in Aurum Vale abruptly introduce three new mechanics: Stacking damage over time, no telegraphs and ignoring enmity.

Stacking DoT is especially insidious because it is not obvious, drains the healer's MP trying to keep oblivious members alive and kills assisting pets. Even seasoned players can forget and end up with extra damage.

No telegraphs is a hard departure from everything the game teaches new players. Avoiding telegraphs is so fundamental it is taught in the Hall of Novices; changing that mechanic should have been a dungeon all by itself. But what makes it so over the top is the penalty for error: A single Glower nearly kills non-tanks and the angle of attack is wider than belt sizes at a buffet.

There are 2 mandatory story dungeons that already have the specified qualities.

For stacking dots, the last boss of Brayflox's Longstop poison can stack up to 4 levels. It only occurs when people get hit by too much aoes and/or the fight drags too long to where the healer doesn't have enough MP to esuna the poison off.

For the telegraphs, the first boss of Stone Vigil has an attack called "Swinge". It has no aoe indicator either. It must be avoided by not being in front of the boss.