Why Aurum Vale is Loathed

[linay]

For me, Aurum Vale is one of those rare cases where I enjoyed running as a tank over running as a DPS. I had great times running it over and over again while leveling all three tank jobs there.

[Metalwrath]

This and DD are great dungeons to teach people to stop acting like idiots on runs.In all honestly they should be manditory and not optional like the currently are.
The whole concept of AV is ok you're lvl 47 you've been through various dungeons by now you should have gotten your act together.

Its by no means a really hard dungeon.Its just more punishing than most for deliberate bad play.
And this is what causes most of the wipes.
Dps trying to act smart and run ahead of the tank,The tank being overconfident and pulling more than they can handle and not bothering with mob positioning and being lazy about useing cooldowns or the healer who's gotten to used to semi afk healing and not paying attention to anything going on.

Its great because it doesnt just punish new players for not learning properly.It punishes all those crappy lvl 70 players who never learned how to play their role properly.

[Edax]

This and DD are great dungeons to teach people to stop acting like idiots on runs.In all honestly they should be manditory and not optional like the currently are.

No thanks. I don't like wasting my time with dungeons that look like their covered in sewage.

[Alexandre_Noireau]

Aurum Vale is Loathed because this game playerbase cannot be bothered with stuff like "paying attention" or having "positional awarness".
That aside, is probably one of the best dungeons of the game, at release, it had the perfect balance between level design (a nice dungeon that is not a flat boring corridor with actually well designed spaces) and meaningful enviromental hazards (the acid!).

If anything, this game should come back to that kind of design, implement it in a more sustancial way through the next expansion. Challenge IS interesting, and dungeons should be challenging.

The dungeon was just fine, just as Pharos Sirius was, or any really good dungeon for that matter. Which i count with a few fingers... Hmmm... AV, Cutter's Cry, Pharos Sirius... Amdapor at release maybe? Demon Wall was cool. Every dungeon since then just feels so boring, repetitive, unapealing
except for the thematically impresive ones, like bardam and gimlyth for example, but is just theming that make them stand out, gameplay wise they add absolutely nothing of value or interesting.

[Zeich]

I don't see it as punishing or a bad dungeon, tbh. Aurum Vale is actually probably my favorite ARR dungeon, because it actually has a little bite to it. The only point I really agree with is that capping at 49 is awkward - might as well just cap it at 50 and call it a day. Some jobs do lose skills that are useful, such as WAR's Storm's Eye or WHM's Medica II, but ultimately, it isn't game-breaking, just awkward.

As for challenge? That's what I truly love about it. I like grabbing 1-2 packs and positioning them in an area that reduces damage taken. You talk about ranged mobs that don't move? Guess what, you don't move to them, you move backwards. This gets them to follow you since they have a maximum shooting range, at which point they're pulled away from other trash and you reduce the risk of accidental aggro. And really, the messy parts are the first room and the Diremite room before the second boss, and only if you get out of control with how much you pull. I've done the Vale as all types of Roles, and I've only seen it ever be an issue if people aren't paying attention. You talk about people dodging AoEs to run headfirst into monsters - that's why you pull back and into a safe area. As a tank, the job is to hold hate on you and position mobs to the benefit of the party - a tank who just stands there in aggro range is failing in the second half.

Bad equipment? All ARR jobs have their level 45 AF by this point, aside from the body piece, so all you have to do is either marketboard, craft, or get some temporary gear from AV to last until that last level 50, where you can default to Ironworks gear or your level 50 AF. Either way leaves you in a good position, and you're in AV for such a short time that it's really not a big deal.

Mobs bouncing because of bad equipment? No, that's a bad tank. A good tank is carefully pulling, is NOT spamming their AoE combo (in your tank stance you should be holding just fine with 1-2 of your AoE grabs, then swapping targets as needed to maintain enmity). I've personally never had anything get loose unless I was paying inadequate attention, in which case the fault is with me, not the gear on the other jobs.

The mechanics are hard? Wut? The first boss and third boss are almost identical in their general execution - eat a fruit at 2-3 stacks, don't stand in the death water, and don't stand in AoEs. Third boss includes "kill the squishy adds fast." All really simple. Second boss is only dangerous if you're in close, and even then, all you have to do is move behind his model whenever he starts an attack that isn't Swing (two-handed club). You'll always avoid Glower, Eye of the Beholder, and Swipe as long as you move behind him when he turns. Where's the difficulty in any of these?

As a personal opinion, I love the Vale, and hope for more dungeons like it. I love the amount of attention you have to pay as opposed to "run in line, grab everything from wall to wall, AoE" that is current dungeons. But again, this is opinion; I can respect if someone doesn't enjoy the dungeon, much like I hate Toto-Rak for the sheer slog it is. But in the end, most of the "difficulty" stems down to paying attention and being aware of your surroundings.

[Hakuro89]

It's nowhere near as bad as it once was (if it ever really was in the first place). 90% of the hate on that place stems from the first room. There's a lot of patrols that DPS or healers can easily pull if they're standing in a bad spot. Those frogs are walking disasters waiting to happen, too. If they aggro on someone, they pull that player to them, which more often than not pulls them into the aggro range of even more mobs. Going in there via duty finder expecting a quick ride is normally met with disappointment too, as there's always at least one 47-49 that wants to kill the entire room. Some people are cool with it, others are not, I'll admit I'm usually in the latter category.

Aside from that first room though, the rest of the dungeon is fairly simple. At least to the degree that I can't understand it garnering more hate than any other pre-50 dungeon. Maybe it's because Morbols, and Morbols = Bad Breath? Just don't stand in bad and there's no problem. The mechanics in the final boss fight aren't rocket science either. In fact it's a decent warm up for actual endgame content, as it's pretty much only uphill from there.

There's also the small detail that it cucks 50+'s out of their level 50 skills, which is annoying given you have everything else for a functional endgame kit. So that's the rotten cherry on top, I suppose.

[Iscah]

The biggest challenge with Aurum Vale, as a tank, is learning where you can run in and where you have to stop and wait for particular enemies. There are places where you'll be fine if you proceed with caution and target the right group of enemies first (eg. roaming groups), or it can turn chaotic if you target a stationary group and then the roaming ones arrive mid-battle.

And the first room is deadly and should always be approached with extreme caution. Slowly and carefully. Watch the toads.

I don't enjoy it, but I can see it's something you need to learn to handle properly.

Nearly everything is "Aetherial", unrepairable trash.

Is aetherial gear unrepairable? I've never noticed it being a problem, and some pieces from earlier dungeons have lasted me a long time.

Aurum Vale gear is in an awkward spot generally. It comes after you've (hopefully) picked up your Lv45 relic gear and only has a few levels of use before it gets replaced at Lv50, so it wouldn't need to last that long anyway. It's only going to be really valuable for the Heavensward classes that don't get Lv45 gear.

[Hakuro89]

Is aetherial gear unrepairable? I've never noticed it being a problem, and some pieces from earlier dungeons have lasted me a long time.

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

[Vahlnir]

For me it isn't really the learning curve that other people sometimes can't handle, it's just the aesthetic of the place. It's just an awful place to be in. I've always hated morbols, and Aurum Vale is a nest of sorts. No thank you.

[Duskane]

Aurum vale is just a steep climb
Once you get pass that first part it's fine