Greetings!

Cleared both Hard Modes with @code65536 @ninibini and @skinnycheeks - here once again to provide a Solo Normal perspective as well as a Vet HM DD perspective from the first day of running.

Some general initial thoughts:

• Atmosphere and setting was really cool and it was great to see Fa-Nuit-Hen and Tutor Riparius again after 8 years! (Disregard having just ran Maelstrom Arena about 30 times over this last event so they were already intimately re-familiar ...)
• Some of the portals seemed a little pointless, especially the first one in the Foundation Core area (why not teleport us across the map instead of like five feet below where we were just standing?
• The puzzles felt a little tacked on and straightforward compared to previous dungeons, and the buffs only being able to be used on the final encounter is a unique choice.

Boss 1- Shattered Champion

Not a lot to say on this one, pretty straightforward all around and a lot easier than some of the previous dungeon Boss 1s. The adds in the previous trash pulls do a decent enough job of explaining the Glazier immunity mechanic and the area denial in the room is relatively fair compared to other encounters that utilise it. Vet HM has the standard eat-this-or-enrage heavy attack with a heal absorb to keep the healer engaged. Normal and Vet HM are practically identical in terms of mechanics as . . . there isn't really a mechanic other than killing the adds and watching your feet.

Boss 2 - Darkshard

This is probably the most mechanical fight of the dungeon, which is good, but it's also kind of a letdown that it has to rely on 8-year-old mechanics to accomplish this. The boss itself has a couple of telegraphs you need to dodge but beyond that, everything is basically the same as Maelstrom Arenas 1, 6 and 7.

The only thing that became apparent to us is that the Stage 6 obelisks can be very delayed (especially the very first one, since the spiders come out quite quickly), and this causes a level of mechanical overlap which seems a little unfair. The spiders will basically one-shot you if they catch up to you on Vet HM, but you're also then having to watch your feet to avoid Stage 7 flowers whilst waiting for an obelisk to come up, along with substantially more tanky Venomcallers detonating those flowers, and the Minders that eventually Overcharge if they are not killed. On Normal, I managed to use the obelisk stun on the Argonian Behemoth and skip all of this. On Vet HM, we did the same and then just attacked the boss since the Venomcallers would continuously respawn. Whether this is the intended way of finishing this encounter, I'm not sure, but the obelisks at the very least could spawn a bit more frequently.

Boss 3 - The Blind

First off, amazing to see Morla Gorrondona voicing. Now we have Savathun and Eris Morn as scions of Ithelia!

On Normal this fight is fairly straightforward. You can use the green buff to clear a lane, the purple buff for a temporary immunity to the moving shards, and the orange buff to slam The Blind to the ground when she does her jump attack.

On Vet HM I feel this fight looks intimidating but really it's relatively simple as long as you're watching your feet. Hit the boss, kill the adds when she goes immune, roll dodge the Malediction, etc etc. One thing we did notice was that we didn't see the orange buff become available to use once, even though we'd done all three puzzles.

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I completed solo Normal before doing vet HM this time. On Normal I was able to complete all encounters solo just using a standard Ansuul/Deadly/Velothi build on my Arcanist - I felt I didn't really have to play defensively that much, and each encounter only took me a couple of tries to feel out the mechanics before I cleared. Definitely a lot easier than some of the previous dungeons on Normal.

Did you enjoy this new dungeon?

Not really. It had some nice views but otherwise I didn't really like it. I never really liked Maelstrom or the Infinite Archive so much of the stuff the content was drawing from really did not appeal either from a visual perspective, story perspective, or mechanical perspective.

How did the difficulty compare to existing dungeons on Normal and Veteran versions?

I'd say the difficulty was comparable to recent DLC entries.

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
Normal
Which was your favorite boss in this dungeon, and why?

Fight wise, I disliked Darkshard the least as it leaned less on the flashy visuals. Character wise, I felt that The Blind had some interesting dialogue.

What level and build was the character you used?

I did it with Mirri on a CP 1800+. I used Leeching and Crimson on a HP stacked Warden.

Did you happen to notice or find anything particularly interesting or different?

The puzzles in the dungeon felt a bit easier than other dungeons puzzles and they were closer to the path. I was concerned that the shift in approach was due to less resources but, after doing Oathsworn Pit it felt like it was more of a different style which isn't necessarily bad.

Do you have any other general feedback?

You may want to extend the time that players have in this dungeon before they get booted after the rest of the group leaves. The people that want to do the bonus content are going to be really annoyed if the group runs straight by it kills the boss and then exits and they get booted before they can solve them all by themselves.

[*] Did you enjoy this new dungeon?
Take this with several handfuls of salt as my opinions on things tend to shift drastically as I’m given more time to sit on it, and across different roles… but so far, not really.

[*] How did the difficulty compare to existing dungeons on Normal and Veteran versions?
It’s hard to say. I’ve run it with two different groups. With one group (vet, though we only had 1 DPS), it felt like the hardest dungeon ever. With the other (HM, full group), it felt very easy and mechanically lacking.

[*] Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
Veteran and HM.

[*] Which was your favorite boss in this dungeon, and why?
The second one. It is cool to see Maelstrom mechanics make a comeback in a group environment and the boss itself is pretty scary with how it suddenly attacks people.

[*] What level and build was the character you used?
CP 2k+ sorcerer tank. Yoln/turning tide/tremorscale/dragonstar arena sword and board.

[*] Did you happen to notice or find anything particularly interesting or different?
The branching areas into cliffs is interesting though it does make it feel like this dungeon is built for story mode. The puzzles are pretty cool.

[*] Do you have any other general feedback?
I’m a bit concerned the trash leading up to first boss might be an issue for PuG groups where DPS and/or healing is low.

As a tank, I felt pretty helpless. First boss I felt like I needed to just stand next to the boss in the center of the arena and do nothing else. Can’t heal myself, can’t go too far or it might enrage due to a missed HA… I can stack the adds and do crowd control if my resources aren’t eaten by the boss but it just didn’t feel engaging.
Second boss I also just… stood there basically. Move to pillar if theres spiders on me maybe and thats all.
Third boss I’m not sure where its best to stand but it also felt like a “stand and hold block” fight. Move left and right sometimes if you want to. Only chaotic time was execute really because there’s just so many waves.