Most Epic Main Scenario Run

[KittyKet]

So the Calamity happened again, right as I was in the middle of Castrum Meridianum for the Main Scenario roulette. By Hydaelyn's grace, I was able to log back into the dungeon despite a 1k queue. A healer and tank are there to greet me.

And so far, it's just the three of us.

But we're not in a hurry, and if I had popped in, maybe others will follow soon. So we have a little dance party and chat. After a while, it doesn't look like anyone is coming back in. We're kinda hesitant to look for new party members, because we don't want anyone getting kicked given the circumstances, but at the same time, the dungeon would eventually kick us anyway. So Healer, who is the leader, looks for new players.

We get another DPS. And that's it. For some reason, Healer can't look for more members. So we tackle the rest of Castrum as a light party.

It. Was. AWESOME.

It's been six years since I had to use actual mechanics on this run, and I had forgotten how much FUN this dungeon actually is. Having to sneak around so we don't aggro too many mobs, be strategic with how to handle the bosses, who was going to do what with the cannons, like, it makes having to watch all those cutscenes almost enjoyable because you are so engaged. At the end, I felt bad that I could only give one commendation and not more because my party deserved ALL the commendations. We never would've made it through if we hadn't had great synergy.

(And an insane ilvl, I just got to 400 last night but sshhhhhhh)

I think Castrum and Prae would be a lot more enjoyable for folks if SE made it a light party instead of a full party run. For roulette, I mean, not having to rely on making an undersized party. It's definitely still doable, and at this point in the game, I think most players would be high enough ilvl to make it possible for the newbies. But I know nothing when it comes to the complexities of dungeon making so my suggestion is just a thought experiment, really.

Anyway, I just wanted to share. All these weird server crashes are definitely frustrating, so it's nice when something positive can come out of it.

[Fyrebrand]

That sounds awesome, I'm almost jealous (ALMOST, lol). I really wish they would retune how level-scaling and item level restrictions work, because there are way too many early dungeons where mechanics can be blatantly ignored without consequence. You don't have to dodge AoEs, adds don't need to be downed, core boss features that make the fight interesting can be disregarded. It's a joke, and it gives a poor impression to newcomers that dungeons in this game are boring and nothing happens in them. People say they like to learn the boss fights organically by doing them, but I KNOW there are tons of newbies who still have no idea what was going on afterward and might never know.

I hate the last fight in Haukke Manor now, because it seems like half the people actually try and half don't, which creates this dangerous near-wipe middle-ground where incoming damage that could be prevented keeps coming in, while at the same time those who are tunnel-visioning the boss aren't killing it fast enough to withstand that assault for long. Every time I get in there, I honestly don't know what to do. Are we doing mechanics today? Are we not? It's anyone's guess!

[Vyrerus]

Reminds me of the time towards the start of Shadowbringers when the game got DDoS'd. Only me on Samurai and the Tank got back in during Ravana story mode. I say to the tank, "Hey, we might live long enough to get Echo, maybe we can win that way." He's like, "Screw it, why not!" And we start duo fighting Ravana. Well, just as Ravana's going into his first takes more damage phase, one of the healers got back in. Without hesitation he started patching us up, and we kept fighting.

We managed to live through Bloody Fuller, and what had started as a joke pull concluded with killing Ravana 17 minutes later lol.

[KittyKet]

That sounds awesome, I'm almost jealous (ALMOST, lol). I really wish they would retune how level-scaling and item level restrictions work, because there are way too many early dungeons where mechanics can be blatantly ignored without consequence. You don't have to dodge AoEs, adds don't need to be downed, core boss features that make the fight interesting can be disregarded. It's a joke, and it gives a poor impression to newcomers that dungeons in this game are boring and nothing happens in them. People say they like to learn the boss fights organically by doing them, but I KNOW there are tons of newbies who still have no idea what was going on afterward and might never know.

I agree with all of this. Hopefully, with EW and the stat crunch, maybe things will be revamped so that people have to actually pay attention to mechanics again. I think all of this lower-level facerolling is making players lose the spirit of cooperation. My husband started playing a few months ago, and he's had people not even tell him mechanics even when he asks for them. Last night, the DPS was pulling despite HIM being the tank here. Mind you, this is a level 60 dungeon. So mid-level. Still easy enough to do, but you would have to pay more attention, if that makes sense. I told the party that big pulls are fine and all, but if you're gonna pull at least run back to the tank, which they weren't doing???

This all being said, I see bad players as just statistics. There is always that ONE (1) guy. And I can give the benefit of a doubt because EW is closing in on us soon, and I'm sure many people feel rushed to be ready for launch.

At the same time, I can't help but wonder if all the facerolling is spoiling newer players a bit, players who don't remember the nightmare that was Steps of Faith, don't have war flashbacks from World of Darkness when Crystal Tower was actually a RAID. And then some these players get to the higher level content, and they might start doing stupid stuff because they didn't learn their class properly because it was all a tank-and-spank to them until that point, because they haven't developed the habits of dodging AOE, of priortizing adds, when to use certain moves in their rotation or types of heals or what not, things like that.

And I say all this as a casual player. I'm the least hardcore person out there, and I definitely don't want us going back to the days where we were all crying after a day-old Steps of Faith after wiping eight times, that's just no fun for anyone. Maybe the new stat crunch will give us a middle ground where we're not in mechanic hell but we still have to be actively engaged.

[van_arn]

I straight up don't understand why these dungeons require 8 people as they are. Dropping down to 4 people is probably the most straightforward way to bring them from "free" to "easy" difficulty. Even in the launch era there was no need for a second tank for praetorium, so justifying 8 people there was a stretch. Castrum with current ilvl might be solo-tankable, but that at least has add phases where a second tank might be justified. Praetorium has no gameplay justification for a second tank.

I'm sure some people would complain they can't just afk through the whole thing, but I don't really see the point in encouraging not playing the game. These dungeons are a blast to play through your first time when you actually get to do mechanics, and it's an absolute shame they've been ruined by ilvl sync and ability changes over the years.

All of that aside, though, they really need to work on retuning ilvl sync for 1-50. There's way more stuff than just MSQ roulette that is "free" non-difficulty, and it can get very dull going through leveling roulette when you know you can just autoattack your way to victory through so much of the game. I'd keep the tutorial dungeons "free," but everything from Manor up needs to start teaching party play.

[MistakeNot]

Running Castrum Meridanium and Praetorium at minimum ilvl also makes for a quite fun run. Still not terribly difficult, but far from trivial.

[Thatusernameistaken]

Min ilvl would be slightly more interesting, but ultimately wouldn't change much. You might get to see Teminus Est on Gaius, but even back in ARR people were tanking the floor AoE like it was nothing and just dotting bits on UW and tunneling. Stuff just needs to hit a LOT harder for it to be threatening in these two dungeons even at min ilvl.

[KittyKet]

I straight up don't understand why these dungeons require 8 people as they are. Dropping down to 4 people is probably the most straightforward way to bring them from "free" to "easy" difficulty. Even in the launch era there was no need for a second tank for praetorium, so justifying 8 people there was a stretch. Castrum with current ilvl might be solo-tankable, but that at least has add phases where a second tank might be justified. Praetorium has no gameplay justification for a second tank.

I'm sure some people would complain they can't just afk through the whole thing, but I don't really see the point in encouraging not playing the game. These dungeons are a blast to play through your first time when you actually get to do mechanics, and it's an absolute shame they've been ruined by ilvl sync and ability changes over the years.

All of that aside, though, they really need to work on retuning ilvl sync for 1-50. There's way more stuff than just MSQ roulette that is "free" non-difficulty, and it can get very dull going through leveling roulette when you know you can just autoattack your way to victory through so much of the game. I'd keep the tutorial dungeons "free," but everything from Manor up needs to start teaching party play.

I imagine they didn't feel the need to change it from the original because they thought it wouldn't matter that much? But yeah, if the stat crunch doesn't change things too drastically, Castrum and Prae should be light party dungeons. People might complain, sure, but tbh I think more players would be willing to farm them outside of roulette. Yeah, the cutscenes are long, but the gameplay will be much more engaging and more personal.

Early dungeons are a critical time to start developing good habits. They were designed to hone those skills, and practicing live goes much further than a practice dummy or even the Novice tutorials. And veteran players can take the time to teach mechanics again.

[Saraide]

If you want to take a similar approach but not go through very long unskippable cutscenes I can recommend doing cape westwind on min ilvl.