Why Aurum Vale is Loathed

[Metalwrath]

They are mandatory if you want to reach the max rank with your grand company. There's a quest to complete DD for one of the lieutenant ranks, and a quest to complete AV for another.

I actually really like DD, ran it quite a few times with my squadron back in the day for easy exp, but AV is just annoying and can get quite frustrating if you've got a bad group. I agree with most of what the OP wrote. I think it's not very intuitive, which can cause some confusion and hold ups. Once you know what you're doing, it's not particularly hard. Just irritating.

So yes like i have stated they are not mandatory.You can complete story without them.A lot of newer players dont bother trying to max things like Grand company because they have so much content to get through to get to level 70.

[Metalwrath]

Aurum Vale isn't too bad for the most part, it's just that the first room is awful in comparison to the rest of it, I blame the frogs specifically as their pulling move can be quite obnoxious even at the best of times.

Best ive seen so far was the healer standing at the edge of the boss room.Frog pulled him out of room just as the room locked.This was before you could auto teleport inside boss room after lock.
It was hillarious.

[Metalwrath]

Also about the eye boss.If you're ranged there you can attack corner at the back of the room to the left and hide behind the rock if he targets you.You wont be in line of sight so his focus ranged attacks cant hit you.Most reason tanks die is because even though there is a cast bar that shows for the 360 swing they dont bother moving.Its the mentality of if there's no red aoe so i dont need to move.

[Alexandre_Noireau]

Also about the eye boss.If you're ranged there you can attack corner at the back of the room to the left and hide behind the rock if he targets you.You wont be in line of sight so his focus ranged attacks cant hit you.Most reason tanks die is because even though there is a cast bar that shows for the 360 swing they dont bother moving.Its the mentality of if there's no red aoe so i dont need to move.

And that's some deeper mechanics that the game has not teached properly, yet implements soon after the next difficulty step, thus, making the playerbase "what it is" instead of what i could be.

For example, the lack of more of this dungeon design shows why bosses like Cidolfus are so harsh on the first days, for many of us, harsher than they should be. One or two tries should be enough, but many many people struggle tries on end.
The game simply has not teach them to think outside a rule that reinforces so much, so so so so much, like with 60 different tutorials through class quests, novice network, the basic tutorials, almost every dungeon and overworld enemy displays it. It's a rule so fundamental, that when inverted suddenly, people get's staggered instead of being more prepared or more easily acquire or a adapt to situations, the battle design has been for a while moving onto a more reactive dynamic system than merely a "patterned dance", we know mechanics are coming, but in many fights that order or the patterns have been going blurry... So has the fundamental principle that enemies telegraphs their attacks through the orange indicator - When an enemy doesn't use it, well, it's way too rougher than it should.

And on the contrary, at harder level difficulties, telegraphs should be most inverted/disappeared, that's the direction in a way.
Well, dungeons and 8/24 normal raids are too steep in many cases for most players, the only gap it could be filled is if the game throws more curveballs at you with difficulty, just a bit.

This even benefits the overall gaming experience, i honestly think one of the reasons why zenos is so liked by many characters (his trial during launch was kinda steep), and in general many of the really liked characters of this game at some point have been truly difficult content, the difficulty itself gives them some extra. After all, this is a video game before it is a story or a "relaxed experience"

I would legit, put a fight like the level of mustadio/agrias at least in the level 75 dungeon, and the last trial of the expansion should be like Cidoulfus. Honestly Orbonne has a very nice difficulty curve. At the end though, just a bit more. A bit more.

[TalithaSolarien]

Oh, is that what that message means? I thought he just did it before using one of his eye-beam attacks.





The chimera doesn't display floor AoE marks, but it has the "[creature]'s eyes glow [colour]" messages on-screen every time it happens. So it's not really comparable for learning how to respond.

Having those messages is really not helpful later on if you only rely/learn by the messages instead of reacting to the actual cast (like I did). All other Chimeras in the game (like the ones in the Canals) are using the cast without this message. They should remove this crutch.

[Metalwrath]

And that's some deeper mechanics that the game has not teached properly, yet implements soon after the next difficulty step, thus, making the playerbase "what it is" instead of what i could be.

For example, the lack of more of this dungeon design shows why bosses like Cidolfus are so harsh on the first days, for many of us, harsher than they should be. One or two tries should be enough, but many many people struggle tries on end.
The game simply has not teach them to think outside a rule that reinforces so much, so so so so much,

And on the contrary, at harder level difficulties, telegraphs should be most inverted/disappeared, that's the direction in a way.
Well, dungeons and 8/24 normal raids are too steep in many cases for most players, the only gap it could be filled is if the game throws more curveballs at you with difficulty, just a bit.

This even benefits the overall gaming experience, i honestly think one of the reasons why zenos is so liked by many characters (his trial during launch was kinda steep), and in general many of the really liked characters of this game at some point have been truly difficult content, the difficulty itself gives them some extra. After all, this is a video game before it is a story or a "relaxed experience"

I would legit, put a fight like the level of mustadio/agrias at least in the level 75 dungeon, and the last trial of the expansion should be like Cidoulfus. Honestly Orbonne has a very nice difficulty curve. At the end though, just a bit more. A bit more.

The difficulty progression is actually there.The issue is that level syncing and gigantic maximum ilvl allowances ruin it.
Look at the CT raids for example.People used to struggle on every boss in those until they learned the mechanics.Now they are oversynced even in duty finder where they entered meaning they dont have to do a lot of mechanics.
Heavensward dungeons.People struggled a lot more on those dungeons until they got things right.Now its same thing.They enter oversynced.
You can even do turn 9 in coil now and use scholar shield to ignore mechanics if you run it unsynced.
The reason people are struggling now in the new 24 man raid and new 8 man raid is because the game has created a meta of focusing on max dps because it's more important to ignore mechanics than learn them apaprently.

[whiteblade89]

Im actually longing for that <3

Same. WTB Aurm Vale Hard Mode.

[Duskane]

i will take Aurum vale over The Aetherochemical Research Facility any day.

[Aylis]

I wouldn't say I have good memories, Most of my memories can be summed up in the word "meh", as others have said its only really bad if you're grouped with people that don't like to pay attention. It feels more or less like a boring experience otherwise. My only true bad memories of the place stem during the 1.0 era and AF collecting parties, its pretty much in the same boat as DD for me in that area.

The only thing that does trigger my inner "dfldnkfkndklfnmfkd;lfm...no...NO!! I DON'T WANNA DO THIS!!!" in the ARR version is just how....well....the zone looks like visual vomit. Stone and puke green everywhere. I can work through that and suffer as long as the aforementioned people are paying attention thing is there. Not paying attention mixed with a zone that's very hard on the eyes to look at. That's a leave and eat the penalty for me.

[BiggsBeoulve]

I always hear the hate for AV, but it's actually one of my favorite dungeons because it's not just a faceroll / pull to the end and spam AoE type of dungeon akin to just about everything else these days.