Aurum Vale, is it really that bad?

[sciondar]

I was just curious what others think of Aurum Vale. I've tried a few times to DF it as I need to clear it to progress further with my GC but it seems that healers are avoiding it. I tried to do a search in the forums to get a better idea of what is involved with it and saw a lot of healer horror stories about AV.

I have a friend who just resubscribed and I'm helping him to get caught up to where I am at as far as story and everything and since he is focusing on a healer class I want to be able to help advise him if/when we get into the dungeon together.

[DoctorPepper]

For a while there was a glitch that caused people to lag when they clicked on the fruit required to remove the debuff during the first and last bosses. I think that really put a lot of people off on the dungeon.

In terms of difficulty, I personally don't find it hard but in comparison with other low level dungeons the difficulty is definitely ramped up a little bit.

I think part of the reason it feels like people avoid it is because a lot of people simply do their daily low level roulette rather than grinding dungeons. Since it's a lvl 47 dungeon there aren't a lot of people who would get it, besides lvl 50s who queue up and the few people between 47-50 who queue up who don't last long until they hit 50 and the dungeon becomes irrelevant aside from the animus books.

Also, at 47 you will probably be getting optimal exp doing the 4 quick leves available in Mor Dhona as well which is another reason people might not care for it. With AV there is always a chance that you'll get a bad party that can't clear it so a lot of people wouldn't want to risk wasting time when they are that close to 50.

[Viridiana]

Depends on what mistakes the party makes, if any. First boss used to be a nightmare for SCH because the fairy would get a stacking debuff that would eventually kill it; otherwise the first boss is about knowing when to eat the fruit to dispel the debuff. After the first boss is a room of morbol seedlings that can get really hairy easily if your party accidentally aggros too many. Second boss has attacks with no AOE indicator, one of which paralyzes and another of which kills outright, so healing through that is fun. Another morbol room and basic trash up to final boss, which combines the debuff/fruit mechanic of the first boss (tuned down a little) with seedling pods that you need to AOE down.

If everyone's playing reasonably well, it's no huge deal. People not understanding the fruit mechanic or standing in yellow or not dodging attacks can make it painful.

[Alukah]

I hate it, too easy to wipe if people don't know what they're doing, you can wipe in the very first pull if you don't pull back the mobs, first boss is a wipe if healer is incompetent or people tunnel vision and don't take off their poison, then more stacked mobs ahead that need to be separated, then second boss is a wipe if tank is incompetent and people eat every single piercing glower, no more stacked mobs but last boss is a wipe if people don't kill the eggs fast enough before they hatch and tunnel vision not taking off their stacks.

My second last run was a 60 minutes run with a healer incapable of keeping the party alive due to low reaction time, then spent the last path between second boss and last boss blaming us for being too squishy, we ended up vote abandoning, I only went in again to help a friend in my last run and it didn't end much better, run was going well but healer randomly left and we didn't get a replacement, ended up 3manning trash mobs without heals, then my friend left the dungeon to ask someone from his friends list to queue as a healer so we could finish.

I have a lot more bad stories about AV, and so far only one run where nothing bad happened.

[Luvbunny]

Yes, there are several dungeons that most players will avoid like plague, which you will notice this more if you are in the US servers or European ones (much less of a problem in Japanese servers). Lvl 32, 35, 41, 44 and 47 are all the dungeons that considered to be PITA, with 32, 35 and 47 take the top honor for the three most shitastic dungeons. Brayflox is easy enough till you hit the final boss and if you get a freshie scholar without leeches, it can turn messy, with solid players, this should ever become a problem. Sunken Temple is horrendous if your group have zero comprehension on what to do on the first boss. And finally Aurum Vale can be extremely frustrating if you get three freshie with gears lvl 30-38s, or those players who never bother to do any job quest and have no AF1 gears.

Technically Aurum Vale is not very hard, but groups who "try to speed run", have no idea how to pull in the first room after the entrance, do not bother reading in game message, severely under geared, those group will not going to clear this. Or you can also get good players (but new and under geared), you could clear it, probably close to 60-90 mnts mark after several wipes "for learning experiences".

Or just pay $18, move to japanese servers, watch youtube video so you know what to do. You'll probably clear it in your first try, around 40 mnts or much less.

[Yumi_umi]

Tell him to be wary of AV df
Duty finder runs can turn out really bad. Like really bad that it'll make u tear ur hair out even if u just felt like running it for fun.
The understanding of the morbal fruits ( what it does and how long it takes to respawn ) can determine the success of the run.
When the tank gets hit with bad breath, as a healer all u can do is stoneskin and cure him as trying to debuff all of tht is pointless.
Usually paralysis is buried under poison blind etc.
And if ur a whm u'll probs go oom due to no shroud of saints.

Really tough dungeon when everyone fights over who gets which fruit.

[Leadleaf]

Aurum Vale's mechanics are easily learned. Coincounter (2nd boss) will punish unattentive players however.
It's just that this is the last level sync dungeon and monsters will take a lengthy time to kill in relation to lower level dungeons and those level 50 dungeons where you could overgear everything.

[Luvbunny]

And if ur a whm u'll probs go oom due to no shroud of saints.

Whm should have Shroud of Saints at lvl 47, a few elixir could help a little, but I do agree with you, it does not matter much if the group are a bunch of freshie newbies. Wiping over and over and over and over is the norm in any US/Euro servers until people learn how to take advice, read in game message, and pay attention on what the Boss do.

[sciondar]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll make sure we're geared up well and try a PF with him when we feel we're ready to tackle it together.

[CGMidlander]

Aurum Vale is boring, just like all the pre-50 dungeons, IMO.
The reason is because you don't have your full complement of skills and traits available, so rotations feel restricted and unusual.

As far as difficulty is concerned, wiping a couple times may happen in Aurum Vale, since it's easy to pull more mobs than the group can handle, but it's not a real issue I don't think. Just shortcut back and carry on.