ESO BEST *BASE* DUNGEON COMPETITION: HEMIDEMISEMIFINALS ROUND 2 - VOTE'S CLOSED

Saucy_Jack

In our second round of the base dungeon competition it's daed vs. dead as ELDEN HOLLOW battles BLACKHEART HAVEN! Will Bogdan get bogged down? Will Captain Blackheart get his timbers shivered? Will Canonreeve Onareth suffer from a case of harpies? YOU DECIDE!

A list of the overall action for BOTH the base and DLC competitions can be found HERE, so people can get a quick glance at the overall action.

All fights will go for TWO DAYS and end at 8PM CST (or your timezone equivalent; figure it out) so this one will end on Wednesday, March 18th.

May the best dungeon win...FIIIIIIIIGHT!!!

Hapexamendios

Blackheart Haven

Blackheart Haven easily. Who doesn't like skeleton pirates? Or is it pirate skeletons?

Reverb

Elden Hollow II

Some of the more interesting base game mechanics in EH2. Funny, I don’t remember anything at all about the story though.

almightyalfo

Elden Hollow II

Blackheart Haven is long and boring.

peacenote

Blackheart Haven

Love pirates and skeletons. I really like the story in this dungeon. So easy choice for me!

However if EH had been against a different dungeon, it is also up there as I like the Chokethorn monster helmet and the matching monster boss.

ssewallb14_ESO

Elden Hollow II

Bogdan's Realm is still one of the coolest looking in the game.

newtinmpls

Elden Hollow I

Blackhart Haven is just annoying as heck.

MartiniDaniels

Blackheart Haven

I simply love it, bright and funny adventure. I wish we had more dungeons like that - i.e. - open spaces, natural colors, light-hearted story. Who said that fantasy genre should always be grim atmosphere and tragedy about some extreme suffering? Best games mix both bright and grim tones.

thorwyn

Blackheart Haven

I don't really like any of them. Blackheart is at least stylish, if a little boring and WAY too long.

Raisin

Elden Hollow II

I'm never sure whether to love or hate Blackheart Haven. Running the dungeon overall feels very meh, but I agree that the setting is gorgeous. The open-ness and slightly non-linear setup at the bottom is really nice, and swimming is always a plus. I'd probably love it if the fights were more interesting.
I absolutely adore the brown-stone-with-white-fire aesthetic in Elden Hollow 2, Murklight fight especially. It's so damn pretty. Other than that the bosses in EH2 also aren't very interesting, honestly, but somehow I still enjoy it okay.

Cirantille

Blackheart Haven

Because of last boss

Mancombe_Nosehair

Elden Hollow I

I like seeing how many enemies I can knock off the ledge with my how it spear. I think my record is 5...

DreadDaedroth

Blackheart Haven

What is this? Who disturbs Captain Blackhart at his rest?

daemonios

Blackheart Haven

Blackheart Haven, definitely. I love the big brawls before the first boss, especially if you pull everyone at the same time. Several bosses have "gotcha"-like mechanics, such as Iron Heel being able to kick distracted players down from the platform, Wavecutter one-shotting people with his projectile if uninterrupted, or Captain Blackheart cursing a random player into a skeleton. The map is also more varied and interesting than Elden Hollow.

Also, I think the battle levelling that came with One Tamriel did a disservice to Elden Hollow, namely Bogdan's fight in Elden Hollow 2, while on the contrary it breathed some life into the veteran version of Blackheart Haven. Bogdan was such an epic fight when the dungeon came out, I admit I had to run it a few times until I cleared it. Nowadays, I don't remember the last time I even cared about his summons, it's just burn the boss and be done with it. In Blackheart Haven, on the other hand, the introduction of the vet version with increased incoming damage made it so that the things that would once wipe a group can now do so again if people aren't paying attention.

Lastly, I'd like to pay tribute to some of the biggest victims of ZOS' switch in monetization strategy: RIP Arx Corinium 2, Blackheart Haven 2, Blessed Crucible 2, Direfrost Keep 2, Selene's Web 2, Tempest Island 2, Vaults of Madness 2 and Volenfell 2. You held such great promise.

Grianasteri

Blackheart Haven

Its actually quite close. But Blackheart Haven wins.

It has an engaging story, good characters and acting and the massed ranks of adds make for an enjoyable experience, I always like it when the numbers are against you like this and the dungeon does not disappoint.

Saucy_Jack

Less than a day to get your votes in!

Starlock

Elden Hollow II

ssewallb14_ESO wrote: »

Bogdan's Realm is still one of the coolest looking in the game.

Yup. Definitely a big reason I went with this one myself.

Saucy_Jack

And Blackheart Haven finds safe haven in the next round!

FrancisCrawford

Blackheart Haven

daemonios wrote: »

Lastly, I'd like to pay tribute to some of the biggest victims of ZOS' switch in monetization strategy: RIP Arx Corinium 2, Blackheart Haven 2, Blessed Crucible 2, Direfrost Keep 2, Selene's Web 2, Tempest Island 2, Vaults of Madness 2 and Volenfell 2. You held such great promise.

I have mixed feelings about those.

• I love that the sequel to Selene's Web is in a different location than the original, and I think they wrapped up that story very wel.
• I think it was wrong to move the sequel of Volenfell out of the original location, given how direct a cliffhanger there was ... but I like what they did with the characters sequel-wise.
• VoM 2 cries out for an in-place sequel -- great characters, great art, and an obvious cliffhanger.
• If Arx Corinium never gets a sequel, I'm fine with that.
• Ditto Tempest Island.
• Blessed Crucible could have fun sequels. If they're saving such for an eventual new arena, I'm fine with that.
• Direfrost Keep obviously has more sequel coming than just Icereach. I don't much care about the locale; one snow-covered castle with open-air portions is a lot like another one in this game (and they all lookpretty good).

Raisin

Elden Hollow II

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

daemonios wrote: »

Lastly, I'd like to pay tribute to some of the biggest victims of ZOS' switch in monetization strategy: RIP Arx Corinium 2, Blackheart Haven 2, Blessed Crucible 2, Direfrost Keep 2, Selene's Web 2, Tempest Island 2, Vaults of Madness 2 and Volenfell 2. You held such great promise.

I have mixed feelings about those.

• I love that the sequel to Selene's Web is in a different location than the original, and I think they wrapped up that story very wel.
• I think it was wrong to move the sequel of Volenfell out of the original location, given how direct a cliffhanger there was ... but I like what they did with the characters sequel-wise.
• VoM 2 cries out for an in-place sequel -- great characters, great art, and an obvious cliffhanger.
• If Arx Corinium never gets a sequel, I'm fine with that.
• Ditto Tempest Island.
• Blessed Crucible could have fun sequels. If they're saving such for an eventual new arena, I'm fine with that.
• Direfrost Keep obviously has more sequel coming than just Icereach. I don't much care about the locale; one snow-covered castle with open-air portions is a lot like another one in this game (and they all lookpretty good).

The fact that they brought back Selene's story in LoM was great and they did it well, but it's not a base game dungeon. I absolutely adore Selene coming back and us getting some info on her, but it's not the same. And Selene's web as a dungeon would definitely have lent itself to a sequel -- similar to others like CoA they could've made you do a short version of the path to the final boss first, then elaborate after. I imagine a tunnel at the bottom of that pit, and bringing some more verticality into the dungeon design as you go deeper... A lot could be done with that sitting.
Same goes for bringing back Tharayya, bringing back the Icereach covens... it's good that they are elaborating on those bits of lore, it's much better than having dungeon stories exist in isolation with no connections to them. But those aren't truly II dungeons like the previous ones. It's not the same. And honestly all the base game dungeons still missing II versions are ripe with possibilities.

Cathexis

Elden Hollow II

Still remember doing elden hollow 2 for the first time, mechanics and dungeon elements were very thorough and lots of fun.