Tanks in Castrum Meriduam...

[Feidam]

Castrum Meridianum was boring, and isn't far off from the real worst dungeon from 2.0, The Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak. I mean honestly, the first 3 boss fights are "This is a tank and spank boss that spawns adds, and the only real fight with any meat to it includes most of your party just standing around clicking a pile of missles, killing minor adds, until finally shooting the boss with a cannon. Of course then you get the last fight of yet another tank and spank boss that spawns "big" adds.

The only reason why cannons are there in the first place is to trivialize the dungeon inbetween bosses, they were never integral to the survival of the party, they were desired because it allowed players to wash their hands of this filth of a dungeon faster.

Honestly, I'm teaching a friend who's new to the game the basics and we're trying to go through all of the ARR patch dungeons/Crystal Tower so he can learn some of the more basic mechanics, but I went out of my way to tell him that neither of the two lv50 story dungeons do a good job of teaching anything to newer players.

Castrum was there to teach mechanics based fights in prep for fights like steps of faith.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

Castrum was there to teach mechanics based fights in prep for fights like steps of faith.

Stone Vigil (Hard) prepares you for Steps of Faith since the adds are very similar to the bosses of that dungeon. Not only does Castrum fail to feature any future mechanic besides dodge the AoE, but the only slight similarity I can find where you might think Castrum prepares players for Steps of Faith is the fact it has cannons. Unfortunately, these cannons from steps more closely mimic those found in the Cuca Fera fight that is once again found in Stone Vigil (Hard) and in fact have to be used in an exact manner to that boss fight when the turtle adds show up.

There's plenty of fun dungeons with great teaching moments, but it's time to face the facts that neither Castrum Meridianum nor Praetorium is one of 'em.

[Feidam]

Stone Vigil (Hard) prepares you for Steps of Faith since the adds are very similar to the bosses of that dungeon. Not only does Castrum fail to feature any future mechanic besides dodge the AoE, but the only slight similarity I can find where you might think Castrum prepares players for Steps of Faith is the fact it has cannons. Unfortunately, these cannons from steps more closely mimic those found in the Cuca Fera fight that is once again found in Stone Vigil (Hard) and in fact have to be used in an exact manner to that boss fight when the turtle adds show up.

There's plenty of fun dungeons with great teaching moments, but it's time to face the facts that neither Castrum Meridianum nor Praetorium is one of 'em.

I was speaking more to the fact that some fights have external mechanics to use not the mobs you fight themselves. So things like the cannons in CM, the dragon killers and cannons in steps of faith and the tethers in Bismarck, and yes the vigils work there too as they have extra external mechanics.

The main reason people hate MSQ dungeons so much is the cutscenes. While it was an interesting concept for making the story feel a bit more alive it’s replay ability for many is sorely lacking for many.