Week 1 Day 1 thoughts

Did you enjoy this new dungeon?
Yes but it has some problems

How did the difficulty compare to existing dungeons on Normal and Veteran versions?
This dungeon honestly feels similar to castle thorn, where the first few bosses pose little threat and the last boss is where all the difficulty went. Taking the last boss into account the difficulty is probably just slightly above the last set of dungeons

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
First two bosses vet hm, last boss vet

Which was your favorite boss in this dungeon, and why?
The last boss is really cool, mechanics wise its fun and the walking underwater bubble thing to get to it was awesome, we wasted like 10 minutes just wandering the underwater section.

What level and build was the character you used?
CP160 magicka Nightblade
Depths/kinra/mora's whisper/1 pc slimecrawl

Did you happen to notice or find anything interesting? Just curious…
Yes we found all the secrets, the buffs in this dungeon unlike the other dont seem to be that helpful, things like one buff only giving +10% magicka instead of both, or 550 stamina regen instead of both make it where some arent really worth getting

Do you have any other general feedback?
the underwater second was AMAZING, well done seriously.

Second boss's hitbox as he grows doesnt grow with him, making the encounter a targeting NIGHTMARE. I'm sure thats a bug on the list to fix but its a big one.

Last boss I feel like is a bit overtuned, outgoing damage is too high with how many mechanics there are. Specifically things like the soul split, where you're chunked for half your health as your soul leaves your body then forced to run over and pick your soul back up. During this you're taking roughly ~95% reduced healing and the damage from the dot that is placed on you during this is unable to be shielded. This would be fine if your soul didnt land across the room from you or you didnt take that huge chunk of damage to start with. As it stands being prepared for the mechanic and using major expidition + celerity we were barely able to reach the soul in time.

Light attack damage from the split shades is also a bit silly. As i said in the other dungeon, you can get targeted out of existence in this encounter pretty easy. If multiple shades decide to light attack the same person they take ~10k each hit, on top of whatever damage theyre currently taking from whatever powers the boss stole from them.

Right now this boss fight feels like trying to pedal a unicycle while balancing a bunch of plates and trying to rub your belly at the same time. If some of the high damage pressure was taken off i believe it would feel much better to play.

AJTC5000 wrote: »

Initial thoughts while it was fresh - I ran in the same group as @code65536 and @Disturbed125

Build:
CP1670 Melee Magplar DD
False God's Devotion, Deadly Strike, 1pc Slimecraw, Mora's Whispers, Maelstrom Staff

This build was for the most part unchanged from Live, although I did swap back from a hybrid dual-wield/2H setup to a staff-staff setup, due to the nerfs to Merciless Charge and the need in this dungeon for ranged light attacks.


General Dungeon Info:
We ran this dungeon on Veteran HM, clearing the first two bosses on HM after a couple of wipes on each, and getting the last boss to 75%. We cleared the final boss on non-HM after a couple more wipes.

Overall the majority of this dungeon feels pretty decent. The first two bosses aren't overwhelmingly challenging like we've had in Shipwright's Regret, but the last boss feels way over-tuned at the moment (more below). Aesthetically, major, MAJOR props to the art team, this dungeon looks absolutely phenomenal. Loved the little walking on the ocean floor segment, though I was really expecting some sort of giant sea creature to come bearing down on us! Also really love how the Dwarven architecture was mixed in, very pleasing results.

The secrets were pretty easy to find, though as @code65536 mentioned, there's not a lot of information provided for how to solve the puzzles other than brute force. The first one was just spamming random cubes until we worked it out, and the third was just pulling random levers until we made a path - not incredibly intuitive or satisfying. Loved the laser parkour section for the second one though! All of the secret bosses themselves were fairly straightforward as well, no real mechanics other than a lot of jumping around. I think the secret buffs themselves were . . . okay? The intrinsic stat buffs are always useful, but we didn't use the second laser buff at all, simply because there was no real incentive to - you have to drag everything over to an out-of-the-way location just to stand in a beam which also does damage to you! Pretty weird IMO.


Boss Info

Boss 1: Euphotic Gatekeeper
This guy seemed to be alright once we figured out exactly what to do with the Bristlebarb, and how you can shed it even if there isn't a vent to put it into. Main concerns here were that he jumps around a lot, which I know is now a key part of the boss design philosophy going forward, but this is in tandem with extended ground DoT durations, which would suggest you'd want to keep the boss in those as much as possible . . . just a thought.

Boss 2: Varzunon
We tried killing the Sacrificial Skeletons at first, but they had a lot of health and we could only maybe get two down per phase, so we just started to ignore them and just focus the boss. This worked, except when he grew past a certain size his hitbox started to go wonky, and it made it increasingly difficult to land both weapon attacks and abilities. My Radiant Destruction in particular had me standing about half-way across the room just to get a target lock. Besides this, the fight feels pretty decent.

Boss 3: Zelvraak the Unbreathing
Jesus, this boss is a handful. I don't think the phrase "mechanical overlap" has ever had more usage than here, lol. What's annoying is that some of the mechanics really do have some good groundwork and ideas, it's just that they're coupled with a lot of incoming damage for the DDs.
- Two, then four Sea Orbs throughout the fight that you just have to deal with
- Boss has a fear which is unbreakable if it lands on you, pretty much an instant RIP
- Cone on the tank which they must dodge or it's a one-shot
- The boss summons shades with each cone . . . what do they do aside from more cones?
- The boss' curse mechanic. This one feels the most overwhelming at the moment. Not just because it puts an insane defile and fast-ticking DoT on you, but also because your soul gets sent to the very outside edge of the room. We found that it was nigh impossible to reach it usually unless you had Major Expedition, which feels like a weird requirement. Not only that but the soul itself is running around on the spot, making actually colliding with it once you reach it's position difficult. I personally also had problems in non-HM about seeing the soul shoot out from my body - oftentimes it just wouldn't do anything before the soul spontaneously appears on the other side of the room.
- Boss splits at 75% and 25%, with one shade targeting each player and making it so if you attack the wrong shade, they near-immediately one-shot you (think I got hit with a 70k Crippling Grasp). This isn't so bad by itself, but the ranged light attacks on these things hit for like 10k, which can immediately kill DDs if they're being hit by 2 or more at the same time.
- The boss steals your abilities. We had two Templars and two Nightblades in our group, and Templar felt particularly punishing due to the amount of Nova spam. During the main fight this isn't too bad, as you can kite them out, but during the split they summon Novas much more frequently. At least to me this really goes against the melee-centric Templar design philosophy if they can just immediately deny all of the area around the shade. Maybe they could do Crescent Sweep instead, and just make it something that you have to roll out of, without permanently denying area?
- The boss goes into the Shadow Realm at 50%. Even on non-HM this still felt pretty confusing. You can stand on all of the ghostly people to prevent your health from being drained immediately, but what purpose do the Fractured Souls actually serve? Do they enrage the boss on HM or something?
- The boss summons a Flesh Abomination after the Shadow Realm phase. Personally feel this guy is not needed, or at the very least lower his health.
- Overall I do like the design of some of these mechanics, but some of them really need to be toned down in damage and frequency to make this encounter fun and engaging, without stressing over timers.

Update for Day 2.

We introduced both a DK and a Warden to the group, so we saw how those classes affect Zelvraak. The Warden ice AoE is just as bad, if not worse, than the Templar Nova spam - at least with the Nova spam you can have one person sort of control where it goes, whereas the Warden AoE is providing area denial to ALL members of the group. This looked particularly nasty for our tank when found he had no more room to move in his cone lane. And the Warden one drops a massive heal as well! The DK one, on the other hand, is trivial in comparison - simply pulsing damage, radiating from the boss, that is very much manageable.

Personally I feel like something along the following lines could work best:
- Templar: Drops 2 Novas instead of 4, and has the smaller heal from the Nightblade. Have a delayed Nova during the split phase.
- Nightblade: Keep Crippling Grasp as it is, and maybe have him do a Soul Tether occasionally to momentarily deny area around the boss (something to roll out of perhaps). Lose the heal.
- Warden: Drops ice on 2 people instead of 4, excluding the tank (like how curse excludes the tank when there are 4 people alive). Have the smaller heal from the Nightblade.
- DK: Pretty much fine as is

Please nerf the Warden and Templar. Don't really understand why the Nightblade has a heal in the first place, but I feel Soul Tether would work a lot better and be a bit more intrinsic to the class.

Did you enjoy this new dungeon?

Aesthetically, yes. This dungeon is definitely the most visually distinct dungeon so far and takes place in exotic locations we have never seen yet. The sea floor section is cool even though it's really just a walking section.

Gameplay wise, mixed. I found some boss mechanics obtuse and most fights to be a bit draggy. Although that might be partly due to the recent combat nerfs and the fact I was running solo.

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

Definitely seems harder than the standard norm DLC dungeon. This is partly due to the general combat nerfs and partly because the mechanics hints suck (this is generally a problem in ESO overall).

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?

Normal

Which was your favorite boss in this dungeon, and why?

Hard to say. The main bosses were mostly generic except the last boss which was more hectic and confusing than anything.

The hidden bosses were generally simpler mechanically but getting to the boss was the interesting part. It's been a while since there have been non-combat related challenges in dungeons, and as someone who likes puzzles this is nice.

Trash mobs

Generally fine, not too many trash fights. The hadolids with two handed swords hit pretty hard and the Bristlepatch mechanic isn't well explained at all. I get that it's a tutorial for the same mechanic with Euphotic Gatekeeper but I didn't learn anything from those earlier encounters. In general, there needs to be more time before the AOE explodes so people can reposition and drop it in favourable locations.

The copy and paste of Foreman Braddigan for the wraith enemies, the frost mages from Coral Aerie etc. later on in the ruins section is a bit lazy imo, but eh.

Euphotic Gatekeeper

This boss is extremely jumpy and there isn't much time to damage it either before he goes skating. This boss was more tedious than challenging. And even when he stands still, he tends to summon that explosive clone frequently which makes dpsing him annoying.

Suggest extending the clone explosion time so people can avoid it easier and make him skate around less often.

The synergy animation to drop Bristlepatch needs to be faster. There were times where I nearly got caught in a clone explosion trying to drop the Bristlepatch onto a Pangrit hole. And given how painful not dropping it is, there's really no other option here. If I drop it in a bad spot, there's now a poison AOE in the arena and the Pangrits keep spawning. And if I stand still to drop it onto the hole, I get caught in the clone explosion. And given how painful that explosion is on norm, I can only guess that it will be a one-shot on vet.

Secret Boss 1

Very straightforward fight. I have no idea if the cube puzzle has a solution somewhere. I just brute forced the answer which seems less than ideal.

Varzunon

Also relatively straightforward. Kill adds, kill empowering skeleton, avoid red. I did die once cos I wanted to see what the red grasping AOE did and was dismayed to find that it was an unbreakable stun, but that was my fault.

Secret Boss 2

The laser hallway was interesting, but I suggest removing the damage from the laser if the penalty for touching the laser is you getting teleported back out. The damage on this boss seems a bit overtuned compared to the other 2 secret bosses. I swear it's heavy attack was one-shotting me for 30k +, it's breath was hitting for 7-8k and it's light attacks were hitting for 4-7k. But mechanically it's just avoid red and dps so not too hard, just a bit annoying.

The ability to activate laser traps is also completely useless.

Secret Boss 3

Was fine as well. Flipping switches to clear a path was cool.

Zelvraak

This is an aesthetics thing but having a lich as the final boss of a dwemer dungeon is just weird. Given that there is no story reason for him to be here at all, much less on the bottom of the sea. Maybe add some lorebooks? Some crazed sailor from long ago? A maormer mage studying storm magic drawn here and eventually becoming a lich? Something? Anything? Also what's the connection between this dungeon and the "year-long story"?

Gameplay wise, I didn't like this boss much. This boss has lots of obtuse mechanics that aren't hinted or telegraphed well at all.

The flesh atro at the start hits way too hard and spams undodgeable 12k light attacks. I don't like this.

The sea orb. I guess the intended solution is to "juggle" it by attacking it occasionally before it hits the floor. Why is this not shown or explained before the last fight? Also, having to constantly keep track of 4 orbs is just mentally exhausting with all the other stuff going on. There was a comment about "attention economy" and "giving plates to players to spin". I think this mechanic demands too much attention given how lethal it is. It's also something that you can't get rid off at all. If I could change it, I would just make the orbs much slower. Maybe a 1 minute descent or more.

The soul-split mechanic. I don't like this mechanic at all. There is practically zero visual indication that this mechanic is occurring and I hate how your soul just flies way too far away to get there in a comfortable amount of time. Please just make the soul appear nearer to you, make it much brighter, reduce the damage and defile and maybe boost player speed while the mechanic is active, just like how speed is boosted while holding the water jug in Earthen Root. Secondly, why does the soul need to run around like a headless chicken itself? Catching the damn thing is just annoying.

I'm already trying to deal with the boss and orbs. I don't want to be forced to run laps around the freaking room while doing so just trying to touch a stupid NPC.

The fear mechanic. Again, this isn't hinted or taught well at all. A skull appears above your head and the boss releases an explosion. It turns out the intended counter is just to look away from the boss. What? I guess the boss's dialogue hints vaguely at "the sight of him" but this is just poorly designed overall.

The 50% shadow realm phase. I have no idea what this is for. Touch the ghosts to stay alive, kill the spirits as they come? Is this a Falgravn style mechanic where having lots of ghosts touch him spawn a bigger bone colossus? I have no idea but this phase was just a chore having to run around light attacking tiny black specks.

No idea about shades since they didn't appear on norm, but having the boss spawn clones that spam player skills just seems to add more chaos to an already tedious fight.

What level and build was the character you used?

Max level mag sorc.

Did you happen to notice or find anything interesting? Just curious…

Yes, found all the secret bosses. I am glad the secret boss design has moved away from needing multiple people to activate or access, which is nice. I hate the RPB crystals, ugh.

Do you have any other general feedback?

@ZOS_Finn I sincerely hope the dungeon team is coordinating with the combat team to adjust all dungeons and trials in general. Your colleagues have recently introduced sweeping and comprehensive nerfs across the board to damage and healing, and my biggest concern is how that can affect encounter difficulty. I've been playing since beta at a decently high level. The general trend of older content getting easier is due to a combination of direct nerfs from developers to the content itself and indirect power creep caused by new item sets getting added over the years. The devs have tried to respond to this via "content creep" where content is balanced around player power at time of release; the clearest example is vDLC dungeon boss health inflation comparing vHM Molag Kena to say vHM Lady Thorn.

I would argue that it is this power creep over the years which adds accessibility, players who can't coordinate or play mechanics well can simply choose to burn through them quickly in the future. I get that this is undesirable from a content designer perspective as they want players to engage with boss mechanics. But mechanics in ESO are often timer based and extremely punishing to those who fail, especially on vet mode. The countless one shot mechanics in this game are self evident. Groups with lower damage are often punished exponentially harder by having to endure more rounds of a mechanic, or more add spawns, or more AOEs appearing. All of which are chances to slip up and wipe. High end players are able to coordinate well, play mechanics well and optimize their builds to do more damage. Their reward is that they can clear content quickly on release day, often with relative ease, which gives them first in line access to new gear/titles/cosmetics.

Now, most of this power creep is undone which indirectly makes all content become harder. While I don't think it makes these encounters unwinnable (outside of specific hard DPS and HPS checks in trials), I personally have zero desire to see dungeons and trials I have cleared countless times (from norm to vet, base game to DLC) magically become harder or take longer overnight. This is especially considering the reward structure staying the same. Personally, running through the latest DLC dungeon was more of a slog than anything, which is a shame considering the stunning visuals.

Contraptions wrote: »

This is an aesthetics thing but having a lich as the final boss of a dwemer dungeon is just weird. Given that there is no story reason for him to be here at all, much less on the bottom of the sea. Maybe add some lorebooks? Some crazed sailor from long ago? A maormer mage studying storm magic drawn here and eventually becoming a lich? Something? Anything? Also what's the connection between this dungeon and the "year-long story"?

Having run these two dungeons solo on normal for some lore-exposure, some of the conclusions I came up with:
- The overall story of this DLC between both dungeons focuses on various points of the journey of the Druid King from his voyage from High Rock to Yffelon, the volcano in the Systres. Dhulef explains that he's helping Laurel, the druid guide from Earthen Root Enclave, try to piece together the gaps in the story. Between them they have a logbook from the Druid King's voyage - Dhulef took the start, which was them discovering Graven Deep, and Laurel took a portion towards the end, much closer to the Systres.
- Zelvraak himself was a druid at some point - Dhulef tells you as much once he's defeated
- The Dwemer installation as far as I'm aware simply has the power to focus magicka into the surrounding area and generate storms, such as the one that allegedly caused you to wash up with Dhulef on to the island
- I guess Zelvraak was making use of this power for . . . some reason. Needs further examination, and I probably missed some lorebooks.

It does just kind of seem like ZOS had the following thought progression:
- "Okay, we've made a Chapter that revolves around islands and water and Maormer - we should do an underwater encounter at some point!"
- "Hmm, but how to make an underwater encounter that makes sense, both in purpose and for the story?"
- "Oh hey, the Dwemer were always doing crazy science, I bet we could have an underwater installation made by them!
And then just kinda threw Zelvraak into it, lol. It's a great aesthetic space and I really love how it came out, but perhaps the narrative links need to be solidified a bit more.

AJTC5000 wrote: »

show previous quotes

AJTC5000 wrote: »

Initial thoughts while it was fresh - I ran in the same group as @code65536 and @Disturbed125

Build:
CP1670 Melee Magplar DD
False God's Devotion, Deadly Strike, 1pc Slimecraw, Mora's Whispers, Maelstrom Staff

This build was for the most part unchanged from Live, although I did swap back from a hybrid dual-wield/2H setup to a staff-staff setup, due to the nerfs to Merciless Charge and the need in this dungeon for ranged light attacks.


General Dungeon Info:
We ran this dungeon on Veteran HM, clearing the first two bosses on HM after a couple of wipes on each, and getting the last boss to 75%. We cleared the final boss on non-HM after a couple more wipes.

Overall the majority of this dungeon feels pretty decent. The first two bosses aren't overwhelmingly challenging like we've had in Shipwright's Regret, but the last boss feels way over-tuned at the moment (more below). Aesthetically, major, MAJOR props to the art team, this dungeon looks absolutely phenomenal. Loved the little walking on the ocean floor segment, though I was really expecting some sort of giant sea creature to come bearing down on us! Also really love how the Dwarven architecture was mixed in, very pleasing results.

The secrets were pretty easy to find, though as @code65536 mentioned, there's not a lot of information provided for how to solve the puzzles other than brute force. The first one was just spamming random cubes until we worked it out, and the third was just pulling random levers until we made a path - not incredibly intuitive or satisfying. Loved the laser parkour section for the second one though! All of the secret bosses themselves were fairly straightforward as well, no real mechanics other than a lot of jumping around. I think the secret buffs themselves were . . . okay? The intrinsic stat buffs are always useful, but we didn't use the second laser buff at all, simply because there was no real incentive to - you have to drag everything over to an out-of-the-way location just to stand in a beam which also does damage to you! Pretty weird IMO.


Boss Info

Boss 1: Euphotic Gatekeeper
This guy seemed to be alright once we figured out exactly what to do with the Bristlebarb, and how you can shed it even if there isn't a vent to put it into. Main concerns here were that he jumps around a lot, which I know is now a key part of the boss design philosophy going forward, but this is in tandem with extended ground DoT durations, which would suggest you'd want to keep the boss in those as much as possible . . . just a thought.

Boss 2: Varzunon
We tried killing the Sacrificial Skeletons at first, but they had a lot of health and we could only maybe get two down per phase, so we just started to ignore them and just focus the boss. This worked, except when he grew past a certain size his hitbox started to go wonky, and it made it increasingly difficult to land both weapon attacks and abilities. My Radiant Destruction in particular had me standing about half-way across the room just to get a target lock. Besides this, the fight feels pretty decent.

Boss 3: Zelvraak the Unbreathing
Jesus, this boss is a handful. I don't think the phrase "mechanical overlap" has ever had more usage than here, lol. What's annoying is that some of the mechanics really do have some good groundwork and ideas, it's just that they're coupled with a lot of incoming damage for the DDs.
- Two, then four Sea Orbs throughout the fight that you just have to deal with
- Boss has a fear which is unbreakable if it lands on you, pretty much an instant RIP
- Cone on the tank which they must dodge or it's a one-shot
- The boss summons shades with each cone . . . what do they do aside from more cones?
- The boss' curse mechanic. This one feels the most overwhelming at the moment. Not just because it puts an insane defile and fast-ticking DoT on you, but also because your soul gets sent to the very outside edge of the room. We found that it was nigh impossible to reach it usually unless you had Major Expedition, which feels like a weird requirement. Not only that but the soul itself is running around on the spot, making actually colliding with it once you reach it's position difficult. I personally also had problems in non-HM about seeing the soul shoot out from my body - oftentimes it just wouldn't do anything before the soul spontaneously appears on the other side of the room.
- Boss splits at 75% and 25%, with one shade targeting each player and making it so if you attack the wrong shade, they near-immediately one-shot you (think I got hit with a 70k Crippling Grasp). This isn't so bad by itself, but the ranged light attacks on these things hit for like 10k, which can immediately kill DDs if they're being hit by 2 or more at the same time.
- The boss steals your abilities. We had two Templars and two Nightblades in our group, and Templar felt particularly punishing due to the amount of Nova spam. During the main fight this isn't too bad, as you can kite them out, but during the split they summon Novas much more frequently. At least to me this really goes against the melee-centric Templar design philosophy if they can just immediately deny all of the area around the shade. Maybe they could do Crescent Sweep instead, and just make it something that you have to roll out of, without permanently denying area?
- The boss goes into the Shadow Realm at 50%. Even on non-HM this still felt pretty confusing. You can stand on all of the ghostly people to prevent your health from being drained immediately, but what purpose do the Fractured Souls actually serve? Do they enrage the boss on HM or something?
- The boss summons a Flesh Abomination after the Shadow Realm phase. Personally feel this guy is not needed, or at the very least lower his health.
- Overall I do like the design of some of these mechanics, but some of them really need to be toned down in damage and frequency to make this encounter fun and engaging, without stressing over timers.

Update for Day 2.

We introduced both a DK and a Warden to the group, so we saw how those classes affect Zelvraak. The Warden ice AoE is just as bad, if not worse, than the Templar Nova spam - at least with the Nova spam you can have one person sort of control where it goes, whereas the Warden AoE is providing area denial to ALL members of the group. This looked particularly nasty for our tank when found he had no more room to move in his cone lane. And the Warden one drops a massive heal as well! The DK one, on the other hand, is trivial in comparison - simply pulsing damage, radiating from the boss, that is very much manageable.

Personally I feel like something along the following lines could work best:
- Templar: Drops 2 Novas instead of 4, and has the smaller heal from the Nightblade. Have a delayed Nova during the split phase.
- Nightblade: Keep Crippling Grasp as it is, and maybe have him do a Soul Tether occasionally to momentarily deny area around the boss (something to roll out of perhaps). Lose the heal.
- Warden: Drops ice on 2 people instead of 4, excluding the tank (like how curse excludes the tank when there are 4 people alive). Have the smaller heal from the Nightblade.
- DK: Pretty much fine as is

Please nerf the Warden and Templar. Don't really understand why the Nightblade has a heal in the first place, but I feel Soul Tether would work a lot better and be a bit more intrinsic to the class.

Update for Day 3.

We cleared Zelvraak HM finally. We also added a Necro and a Sorc to the group to see what the stolen abilities from them would be like.

Necro: Summons targetting blastbones onto each player, which I think is fine - blockable or dodgeable as long as they're not stacked. My main gripe is that it spawns two 300k (!) health Spirit Guardians that put a particularly big heal on the boss. I feel like the health of these should be reduced, or have it just spawn one - the heal is way too strong presently.

Sorc: Summons targetting lightning pools onto each player. This one isn't too bad - the lightning doesn't last for too long and you can more easily deal with it.

Some notes on the HM itself:
- Having Zelvraak carry over some of his stolen abilities into split phase is extremely annoying, especially when it's the Templar - having even more Nova spam during that phase is not great at all. Please make it so that the main boss stops his stolen abilities when the split phase starts.
- The shadow realm mechanic is still weird. For comparison, I ran the last boss solo on Normal difficulty, and I was having major issues with my health - it was draining for about 2k/s, and the ghost pads didn't seem to do anything, with me dying before the Fractured Souls made it into the arena. By contrast, Vet HM was . . . fine? My health barely moved, and I was able to kill most of the Fractured Souls with ease while only needing to use two ghost pads. Either normal is incredibly overtuned and/or bugged, or something is wrong with Vet HM - I would really hope it's the former.

We found it was best during the split phase to simply dodge roll all of the barrages - bashing them only made it so they started casting out of sync. When the barrage deals 10k per hit, you ideally want to be dodging all of them at the same time. Both DPS focused the same shade (my earlier assumption that hitting the shade of the wrong colour did stupid damage was incorrect), while our healer handled the Sea Orbs on either side of us, and our tank handled the two orbs on the other side. We then simply rotated around the room.

Did you enjoy this new dungeon?
This was such a great dungeon! Really well designed, as always the design team kicked a$$! Its like ZOS heard players were creating fish tanks and they said, hold my beer!

How did the difficulty compare to existing dungeons on Normal and Veteran versions?
I always duo dungeons with a friend and the first boss we found it very hard, it was so chaotic because the area is small and there is so much going on at one time. This first boss will be a pug killer for sure. I had to switch to a more tanky build so we could get through it, took longer but did it. All the other bosses including the secret ones were about right.

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)?
Only Normal, if playerbase was larger on PTS or Companions actually helped we could have tried Veteran for a duo.

Which was your favourite boss in this dungeon, and why?
Probably the secret bosses because they had interesting mechanics to get to them, second one reminded me of that Resident Evil scene with the lasers I like how you need to interact with the game, adds a different layer of content.

What level and build was the character you used?
I used my exact Templar brawler build from the Live server which other then first boss handled everything ok. I did notice my stamina sustain was completely shot compared to Live. I think it might be the 2 second tick of the dots, I use more ground AOE DOTs and with most of the fights the boss is moving around so you need to keep laying AOE spending more stam/mag. Personally I think the 2 second tick rule is fine for DOTs on the target but turn it back to 1 second for ground AOEs.

Did you happen to notice or find anything interesting? Just curious…
Yeah I noticed that Pale Order doesnt work on the final boss because the NPC cant heal you in that shadow phase, took us awhile to work out why we were dieing so quick haha I think not using Pale makes it harder for say Duo or Solo runners especially now that Oaken has been nerfed hard for PvE.

Do you have any other general feedback?
Overall really great dungeon, hats off to the design team, some new interesting mechanics as well. We need to run it again as some story elements were hard to hear or understand but this time we will adjust our live build as they definitely dont work no where near as good in this patch. The only thing I'm concerned about in next patch is that its expensive to be changing builds

The bug I reported on July 15th is still occuring on Graven Deep Normal mode. It was working as intended for the first pull, but all subsequent pulls have had this bug. This will be a major roadblock to the majority of people running Normal mode, and needs to be fixed immediately before the launch next week.

This is the official feedback thread for Graven Deep. Specific feedback that the team is looking for includes the following:
Did you enjoy this new dungeon? Not in the least. It's too long, the bosses are just slog fests and are boring to fight. I've ended up with it in random with 4 of my 8 characters and I have to be honest, by the 3rd time, I wanted to just quit and wait the 10 minutes for abandoning. I didn't, but it was not remotely fun.

How did the difficulty compare to existing dungeons on Normal and Veteran versions? I've only done it on Normal. I have zero intention of visiting this on Veteran. It was on par with some of the other DLC dungeons. But again, it's way too long.

Did you complete Normal or Veteran (or both)? Normal. I will NOT do Veteran.

Which was your favorite boss in this dungeon, and why? The bone golem one because it's the quickest one to get through.

What level and build was the character you used? CP 745 Mag Necro, Stam Night Blade, Stam Tank DK, and Mag Sorc

Did you happen to notice or find anything interesting? Just curious… I'm sure the lore was fun, but the dungeon itself was so frustratingly long, I just wanted it to be over.

Do you have any other general feedback? If you weighed this heavier than other dungeons in the rotation, then I both understand why and am disappointed. I get that you want people to do the new content. And some people are probably gagging for new dungeons. Considering that there are some which don't seem to be on the rotation that are actually easier than this one, I'd think they'd show up.