People that say dungeons are too easy...

[Gemina]

God I wish this were the case. You can get hit by sooooooooooo much and live through it. The punishment only feels real after you have a few vuln stacks and even then a healer can just top you off with like 1 tap. In expert dungeons it's ironically worse because after you see a mechanic once, it's so telegraphed and scripted that you'll know exactly where to be to never ever get hit by it again. And if you don't know where to be, odds are the other people in your party will, so you can just follow them and be fine.

This is mostly accurate. I can't think any mechanic in any dungeon that one-shots you, and mechanics that used to do this have had their fights adjusted so they don't anymore. What I have noticed with dungeons is that they try to combine unavoidable damage with mechanics to dodge so that one or the other will kill the player if they are hit by both of them without healer attention. This is referring to only the non-tank jobs. Tanks can soak a ton of damage in dungeons, especially against bosses. Only large pulls threaten them and force them to use their mitigation to survive. They can solo a lot of bosses, particularly those that break off their autos for long periods of time to perform their mechanics.

I suppose answering the question of "Are dungeons too easy" can be answered by could they be made to be more difficult? What I think is that the earlier example of telegraphed attack in combination with unavoidable damage is fine. Because the threat level is there. Even if you are well aware of it, you still have to respect it otherwise you die. What I strongly dislike are mechanics that do not need to be respected and can be ignored. Examples of this are dungeon boss TBs, knockbacks that don't kill you if you fail it, raidwides that make healers laugh because how much they tickle, spread AoEs that don't kill both players if they stack them, tanks being able to survive a stack marker solo, etc. Simply put, a mechanic is not a mechanic if it can be ignored.

Another issue, which I pointed out in my recent thread about ilv sync is making once relevant mechanics irrelevant through ilv bloat. This issue is most prevalent in alliance raids. Even the current ones. ARs still count as dungeons, they are just 24-man dungeons. They are most certainly too easy and should be synced without question.

The most recent expert dungeon sets a pretty good bar. All three bosses have respectable mechanics that cannot be ignored, even the tank has to respect the majority of them. However, I think a tank can still solo all three of them if he never takes unnecessary damage, and that's something I strongly dislike, which is why I say tanks should not be able to survive a stack marker solo, and at least one boss in each dungeon should have them. If not all of them.

[Lium]

This is mostly accurate. I can't think any mechanic in any dungeon that one-shots you, and mechanics that used to do this have had their fights adjusted so they don't anymore. What I have noticed with dungeons is that they try to combine unavoidable damage with mechanics to dodge so that one or the other will kill the player if they are hit by both of them without healer attention.

I think what I was referring to by one-shot mechanics can more accurately be described as mechanics that overlap.

Like in the final boss fight in the most recent dungeon. There are circle AOEs that appear all around the arena where if you do them incorrectly, they won't kill you but can take off a chunk of your life and give you a vuln stack. Later in the fight, the circle AOEs are accompanied by a spread marker, that you have to time with the circle AOEs. If you do this incorrectly, you will die. At least I did .

So, I think it's overlapping mechanics that can one-shot you, and not one single mechanic if done incorrectly. But taking a couple stacks of vuln means you'll likely die if you do something else wrong.

Also, completely off-topic, but I like your sig. It reminds me of this image of Artemis:

[Gemina]

I think what I was referring to by one-shot mechanics can more accurately be described as mechanics that overlap.

Like in the final boss fight in the most recent dungeon. There are circle AOEs that appear all around the arena where if you do them incorrectly, they won't kill you but can take off a chunk of your life and give you a vuln stack. Later in the fight, the circle AOEs are accompanied by a spread marker, that you have to time with the circle AOEs. If you do this incorrectly, you will die. At least I did .

So, I think it's overlapping mechanics that can one-shot you, and not one single mechanic if done incorrectly. But taking a couple stacks of vuln means you'll likely die if you do something else wrong.

I gotcha. Thanks for the clarification. I love the Antlion boss of this dungeon. He is what Scarmiglione should have been in terms of threat level and abilities. His main mechanic with the pathway memorization charges and falling pillars is on par with some EX trials, and the mechanic also puts the healer on an increased alert level. You will also deal with it at least once, if not twice each encounter.
In contrast, the Shark boss in the Aetherfont dungeon toughest mechanic is when he makes the small AoEs and the large AoEs go off in succession, which makes finding the correct spot to stand more difficult. The issue with this mechanic is he will die before this even has a chance to go off with a high DPS group, and the large AoEs should quite honestly one-shot you because the mechanic can essentially be ignored simply by standing somewhere that avoids getting double clipped by the large AoEs. But I have seen this mechanic even drop tanks who eat all the damage without mitigation.

Also, completely off-topic, but I like your sig. It reminds me of this image of Artemis:

Thank you! I am an absolutely enamored with Greek mythology and the sig is inspired by Persephone prior to her abduction by Hades, which lead to what we know as the four seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. The picture you linked is wonderful, and something I would love to display in my home!